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A Death in the Islands: The Unwritten Law and the Last Trial of Clarence Darrow
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About A Death In The Islands: The Unwritten Law And The
Product Description Lies, murder, and a legendary courtroom battle threaten to tear apart the Territory of Hawaii. In September of 1931, Thalia Massie, a young naval lieutenant’s wife, claims to have been raped by five Hawaiian men in Honolulu. Following a hung jury in the rape trial, Thalia’s mother, socialite Grace Fortescue, and husband, along with two sailors, kidnap one of the accused in an attempt to coerce a confession. When they are caught after killing him and trying to dump his body in the ocean, Mrs. Fortescue’s society friends raise enough money to hire seventy-four-year-old Clarence Darrow out of retirement to defend the vigilante killers. The result is an epic courtroom battle between Darrow and the Territory of Hawaii’s top prosecutor, John C. Kelley, in a case that threatens to touch off a race war in Hawaii and results in one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American history. Written in the style of a novel, but meticulously following the historical record, A Death in the Islands weaves a story of lies, deception, mental illness, racism, revenge, and murdera series of events in the Territory of Hawaii that nearly tore apart the peaceful islands, reverberating from the tenements of Honolulu to the hallowed halls of Congress, and right into the Oval Office itself, and left a stain on the legacy of one of the greatest legal minds of all time. Review The best part about this very engaging book is its riveting portrait of Clarence Darrow. He is of course one of history’s most famous lawyers, but I didn’t feel that I really knew him until now.” S.C. Gwynne, New York Times bestselling author of Empire of the Summer Moon, and Rebel Yell The Hawaiian sun is the only thing that shines bright in this compelling narrative. I couldn’t put the book down.” Laurence Leamer, author of The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan An enthralling tale of rape, murder, and injustice in 1930s Hawaii that starts out as a police procedural and evolves into a courtroom drama starring one of the greatest lawyers who ever livedand he’s not even the best one in the courtroom. Irresistible.” James Donovan, bestselling author of A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn, the Last Great Battle of the American West This spellbinding book reads like a novel but has been meticulously researched to reveal the truth about one of Hawaii's and Clarence Darrow's most controversial cases. Mike Farris opens the lid on this real-life legal thriller with a brilliant command of the facts and a captivating writing style.” William Bernhardt, author Challengers of the Dust What a cast of characters: heavyweight trial attorneys, headstrong military leaders, grandstanding politicians, a scheming socialite, and five young men falsely accused of rape. And it’s all set in paradise: Hawaii in the 1930’s. It's hard to find a story with such narrative drama and courtroom excitement, but Mike Farris has done it.” Skip Hollandsworth, author of The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal and the Hunt for America's First Serial Killer Take an exotic setting, a hidden mystery, courtroom theatrics and an engrossing cast of characters, and you have all the elements for a terrific yarn. Mike Farris combines a lawyer’s knack for meticulous research with a novelist’s gift of dramatic storytelling. The result is a fascinatingand outrageoustale that was lost until now. Farris brings it all to life wonderfully.” Doug J. Swanson, author of Blood Aces: The Wild Ride of Benny Binion, the Texas Gangster Who Created Vegas Poker Mike Farris has written an absolutely riveting book about a 1931 Hawaiian case that is remarkably analogous in many ways to the far better-known Scottsboro Boys. It, too, featured dramatic false charges of gang rape that played on the racial divisions. Most surprising is that one of the villains was Clarence Darrow; equally surprising, at least for some readers, will be the courage not only of a
