A chilling investigation into the unsolved “boy in the woods” murder; journalist Jim Cosgrove chronicles his decades-long quest to uncover the truth of a family friend’s disappearance and death — perfect for fans of I’ll be Gone in the Dark and Memorial Drive.
RIPPLE: A Long Strange Search for A Killer
by Jim Cosgrove
Steerforth, April 2022
For nine years, South Carolina officials struggled to identify “the boy in the woods,” whose body had been discovered just south of Myrtle Beach in a fishing village called Murrells Inlet. Meanwhile,1,200 miles away in Kansas City, Missouri, Frank McGonigle’s family searched for him at Grateful Dead concerts and in the face of every long-haired hitchhiker they passed. Consumed by guilt for how they’d treated him, Frank’s eight siblings slowly came to understand that — like Jerry Garcia sang — he’s gone and nothin’s gonna bring him back. Frank McGonigle was finally found — and identified as “the boy in the woods.”
Four years later, the case still unsolved, Jim Cosgrove, a McGonigle family friend and investigative journalist, picked up the trail of Frank’s cold case and began uncovering connections to a ruthless local crime boss and blunders by the threadbare sheriff’s department. When his research began to stall, a chance meeting with the soft-hearted, straight-talking “energy reader” Carol Williams provided a metaphysical spark that reignited Jim’s resolve. Although his work as a journalist trained him to be skeptical, Cosgrove found himself starting to become a believer when Carol provided details about Frank’s murder that turned out to be freakishly accurate. In 2019, Cosgrove returned to Murrells Inlet with one of Frank’s brothers to dredge up some old leads and settle Frank’s case once and for all…
Award-winning entertainer, author, and speaker Jim Cosgrove is a former feature writer for the Albuquerque Journal and staff writer for Hallmark Cards, Inc. Young music fans may be more familiar with Cosgrove’s persona as beloved kid-rocker “Mr. Stinky Feet.” Over the past 23 years, he has performed more than 4,500 high-energy shows throughout North America and Europe and twice at The White House Easter Egg Roll. His nine family albums have earned an impressive collection of national parenting awards. His YouTube channel has more than 2.5 million views. In 2020, his music was streamed more than one million times on Spotify alone. Cosgrove lives in Kansas City with his wife and two daughters.
Americans of good will on both the left and the right are secretly asking themselves the same question: how has the conversation on race in America gone so crazy? We’re told to read books and listen to music by people of color but that wearing certain clothes is “appropriation.” We hear that being white automatically gives you privilege and that being Black makes you a victim. We want to speak up but fear we’ll be seen as unwoke, or worse, labeled a racist. According to John McWhorter, the problem is that a well-meaning but pernicious form of antiracism has become, not a progressive ideology, but a religion—and one that’s illogical, unreachable, and unintentionally neoracist.
Publié en janvier 2020 chez Grove Atlantic, le livre de David Zucchino intitulé WILMINGTON’S LIE: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy vient de remporter le prestigieux prix Pulitzer dans la catégorie « General Nonfiction ».
Soos is coming of age in a household with a lot of rules. No bikinis, despite the Queensland heat. No boys, unless he’s Muslim. And no life insurance, not even when her father gets cancer. Soos is trying to balance her parents’ strict decrees with having friendships, crushes and the freedom to develop her own values. With each rule Soos comes up against, she is forced to choose between doing what her parents say is right and following her instincts. When her family falls apart, she comes to see her parents as flawed, their morals based on a muddy logic. But she will also learn that they are her strongest defenders. 
July 2014, a lonely road at twilight outside Croppa Creek, New South Wales: 80-year-old farmer Ian Turnbull takes out a .22 and shoots environmental officer Glen Turner in the back. On one side, a farmer hoping to secure his family’s wealth on the richest agricultural soil in the country. On the other, his obsession: the government man trying to apply environmental laws. The brutal killing of Glen Turner splits open the story of our place on this land. Is our time on this soil a tale of tragedy or triumph – are we reaping what we’ve sown? Do we owe protection to the land, or does it owe us a living? And what happens when, in pursuit of a legacy, a man creates terrible consequences? Kate Holden brings her discerning eye to a gripping tale of law, land and inheritance. It is the story of Australia.