Duke Russell is not guilty of the unspeakable crimes for which he was convicted; nonetheless, he is scheduled to be executed for them in one hour and forty-four minutes. As always during these dreadful nights, the clock seems to tick faster as the final hour approaches. I’ve suffered through two of these countdowns in other Read more
Although the darkness was too thick to even see his hands in front of his face, he knew the two bodies were with him in the room. A mother and daughter, killed within minutes of one another, each death an escalation in rage and fury, then desperation and futility. The lights had been on then. Read more
The two girls skipped down the narrow side street, hand in hand. The council houses all looked the same around here, boxy and grey. Only the doors were painted different colours. ‘B. O. R. I. N. G,’ they chanted in time with each springing step. The afternoon sun warmed the backs of their necks and Read more
In August 2018, I commenced work on a novel about a crusading young Arab prince who wanted to modernize his religiously intolerant country and bring sweeping change to the Middle East and the broader Islamic world. I set aside that manuscript two months later, however, when the model for that character, Mohammed bin Salman of Read more
n a cold morning in early October of 1946, Pete Banning awoke before sunrise and had no thoughts of going back to sleep. For a long time he lay in the center of his bed, stared at the dark ceiling, and asked himself for the thousandth time if he had the courage. Finally, as the Read more
King Saul Boulevard, Tel Aviv For something so unprecedented, so fraught with institutional risk, it was all handled with a minimum of fuss. And quietly, too. That was the remarkable thing about it, the operational silence with which it was carried out. Yes, there had been the dramatic announcement broadcast live to the nation, and Read more
Thursday, noon Bea Abbot, sixtyish and widowed but coping pretty well with life, answered the phone by saying, ‘Abbot Agency. How may I help you?’ The voice at the other end quacked away. Bea recoiled. ‘We are not that kind of agency. We do not supply girls for … no, certainly not!’ She put the Read more
Joe and I were in the back seat of a black sedan, cruising along a motorway from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The sky was gray, but shafts of light pierced the clouds, lighting up brilliant swaths of tulips in fields along A44. I had never been to the Read more
Sometimes I think this part is harder than writing the whole rest of the book. But there are so many people to whom I am deeply indebted for the existence of this book. To Mom and Deb, for answering disturbing and bizarre medical questions for research, and thus saving me from getting put on Lists Read more
THEY TELL ME I will die here. This place I do not know, this dark, dank, rancid dungeon, where nobody wishes me well and most speak languages I don’t understand—this is the place I will call home for the rest of my life. That’s what they tell me. It’s getting harder to disbelieve them. There Read more
