In the prologue to his well-crafted historical whodunit, author Skip Hollandsworth asks a simple question: “Why is it that certain sensational events in history are remembered and others, just as dramatic, are completely forgotten?” The sensational events Hollandsworth is considering are crimes. One explanation for such spotty treatment is that criminal activity is a fairly common occurrence in society. Just read a newspaper or watch the news. It is almost impossible that some criminal activity will not be reported on the front page of your paper or as a lead item on your news broadcast.

As a nation, we are fans of crime, whether fictional or factual. True crime has been an important subject for some of America’s great writers. Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Erik Larson and even baseball guru Bill James have written on the subject. THE MIDNIGHT ASSASSIN is Hollandsworth’s contribution, and readers will find it a compelling, detailed and well-written account of a crime and the culture in which it occurred.

"The accomplishments of this historical narration are solid and as readable as a page-turning mystery."

Hollandsworth is an award-winning journalist and executive editor of Texas Monthly magazine. If you have never read the magazine, do not be scared off by its title. Inside you will find some of the best writing in America. The title of this book comes from the name given by a local newspaper reporter to a killer menacing Austin, Texas, starting in December 1884. News of his actions would be reported on newspaper front pages across America. For a year, the killer struck on moonlit nights, attacking women of every race and class, ripping their bodies apart with axes and knives.

In post-Civil War America, Austin’s residents numbered 17,000. As he describes the tragic murders that gripped the city, Hollandsworth also captures the culture of Austin and many of the characters who inhabited it. Eventually the town would grow from a western outpost into a truly cosmopolitan community. THE MIDNIGHT ASSASSIN captures elements of that transition while recounting the sordid details of a crime that an Austin newspaper reported under the headline “Blood! Blood! Blood!”

In the course of his writing about these murders, Hollandsworth truly became obsessed with the case. He acknowledges that amateur historians who he calls Austinologists have long been enamored with the details of the murders. He believed he could solve the crimes. He looked for that piece of evidence that others had overlooked and focused on numerous theories and possible suspects, occasionally tossing out a suspect in exchange for a new potential murderer.

In the end, Hollandsworth failed in his attempt. In his epilogue, he acknowledges failure but tells readers, “I continue to beg anyone who has any information about the killings --- any theory at all --- to contact me.” It seems unlikely, but THE MIDNIGHT ASSASSIN is an extraordinary study of a still-unsolved crime as well as a thorough, well-researched portrayal of a long-ago era in American history. The accomplishments of this historical narration are solid and as readable as a page-turning mystery.