A CASE FOR SOLOMON: BOBBY DUNBAR AND THE KIDNAPPING THAT HAUNTED A NATION chronicles one of the most celebrated—and most misunderstood—kidnapping cases in American history. In 1912, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar, the son of an upper-middle-class Louisiana family, went missing in the swamps. After an eight-month search that electrified the country and destroyed Bobby’s parents, the boy was found, filthy and hardly recognizable, in the pinewoods of southern Mississippi. A wandering piano tuner who had been shuttling the child throughout the region by wagon for months was arrested and charged with kidnapping—a crime that was punishable by death at the time. But when a destitute single mother came forward from North Carolina to claim the boy as her son, not Bobby Dunbar, the case became a high-pitched battle over custody—and identity—that divided the South.Amid an ever-thickening tangle of suspicion and doubt, two mothers and a father struggled to assert their rightful parenthood over the child, both to the public and to themselves. For two years, lawyers dissected and newspapers sensationalized every aspect of the story. Psychiatrists, physicians, criminologists, and private detectives debated the piano tuner’s guilt and the boy’s identity. And all the while the boy himself remained peculiarly guarded on the question of who he was. It took nearly a century, a curiosity that had been passed down through generations, and the science of DNA to discover the truth.A Case for Solomon is a gripping historical mystery, distilled from a trove of personal and archival research. The story of Bobby Dunbar, fought over by competing New Orleans tabloids, the courts, and the citizenry of two states, offers a case study in yellow journalism, emergent forensic science, and criminal justice in the turn-of-the-century American South. It is a drama of raw poverty and power and an exposÉ of how that era defined and defended motherhood, childhood, and community. First told in a stunning episode of National Public Radio’s This American Life, A Case for Solomon chronicles the epic struggle to determine one child’s identity, along the way probing unsettling questions about the formation of memory, family, and self.Review:I received this book to read and review by Simon & Schuster.  I felt like a reporter reading this book, because at times it read like a report or case study.  I had to actually remind myself that it read that way because it is a real story that happened in America!!  I was amazed at how many people were willing to lie to themselves because the alternative was too painful. As a family therapist, I was mesmerized and would have loved to have met the family.  There were so many family patterns and issues that weren’t dealt with, but with anything, a lie will slowly rip apart the seams of a very intact family.  It was a great book that I enjoyed reading.

*This book was provided for by Simon & Schuster for an honest review.  To purchase the book for your Kindle, please click on the picture and to be directed to the book.

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  Synopsis:

When Christine Blacksworth’s larger-than-life father is killed on an icy road in Magdalena, New York, a hundred miles from the ‘getaway’ cabin he visited every month, she discovers a secret that threatens everything she’s always held to be true. Her father has another family which includes a mistress and a daughter. Determined to uncover the truth behind her father’s secret life, Christine heads to Magdalena, prepared to hate the people who have caused her to question everything she thought she knew about her father. But what she finds is a woman who understands her, a half sister who cherishes her, and a man who could love her if she’ll let him. The longer she’s around them, the more she questions which family is the real one. . .

Included in the Kindle edition are 2 Chapters of PULLING HOME – She’ll risk anything to save her child…even the truth.

Review:

This was a great book!  This is the first book I’ve read from the author, and I love her writing. The characters are developed very well and it was interesting to read how Mary balances the characters with the plot, without making the book too bogged down with details.  While there are moments where the storyline is unrealistic, the issues of family secrets, alliances, and expectations, readers will certainly understand those family dynamics.  The story is about 500+ pages, but it sure does go fast!