Mini Review: Blood & Ink

“Comps” is a bit of publishing jargon you soon learn when you start pitching your first book. It is shorthand for Competitive and Comparative Titles, the section of your book proposal where you list several recent books that are similar to yours.

Our forthcoming book, tentatively titled Madeline Gets Life; Pals to Die, centers on a sensational 1942 murder in New York City. One of the most fascinating “comps” we found focuses on a twin slaying in 1922 just outside New York: Blood & Ink: The Scandalous Jazz Age Double Murder that Hooked America on True Crime, by Joe Pompeo.

The victims in Pompeo’s book are a married pastor and his lover. Their bodies are found posed beneath a tree in a park in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is the dawn of New York City’s tabloid era, and feverish newspaper coverage features prominently.

Suspicion falls on the reverend’s wealthy widow and her two brothers, but their trial ends in acquittals. The crime remains unsolved more than a century later. Pompeo points a persuasive finger at the person (or persons) he considers responsible.

The author is a correspondent for Vanity Fair, and his journalistic skills are on full display in this well-written and researched book.