CHASING KING'S KILLER

In Chasing King's Killer, the final, moving installment in James L. Swanson's hugely popular trilogy on the lives, last days and assassinations of three American heroes, readers are taken on a heart-in-throat exploration of the events leading up to and following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination.

Chasing King's Killer takes an intense look at King's 13-year rise to national prominence. Using photos, diagrams and quotations, Swanson gives readers an in-depth, year-by-year account of the civil rights activist. As Swanson's report moves into King's final day of life--tragically cut short by an assassin's bullet--the text breaks the full 24 hours into minute-by-minute sections, slowing the events but quickening the pace of the narrative. Paralleling King's story is that of James Earl Ray, his life in and out of jail and his eventual capture after killing King. Swanson conveys (and obviously shares) the bewilderment of the world about what made Ray decide, seemingly out of the blue, to hunt King down and murder him. Featuring an exquisitely written foreword by Congressman John Lewis and extensive endnotes, this riveting book about the heartbreaking "collision course" of two lives should be required reading for all American teens.