One of my wife's close college friends sent me a belated birthday book, "Hellhound On His Trail," by Hampton Sides, a national best seller from 2010. This is a brilliantly researched and written account of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his assassin James Earl Ray who appears in the book under various of his aliases. The text is about 400 pages and I knocked it out in a day and a half, couldn't put it down. It's entirely respectful of MLK, yet it paints him as the human being he was, and it patiently but ardently follows the criminally cursed life of Ray who was living under assumed names having escaped the Missouri state penitentiary in Jefferson City Missouri, and escaping from another max security prison after he was convicted of the murder.
I've read a lot of authors trying to show multiple points of view woven together, but this is by far the most artful and effective. It's biography, history, true-crime, and if not exactly a who-done-it, certainly an exploration of why-he-done-it.
My only quibble is the title, "Hellhound On His Trail," which refers both the to two female bloodhounds who track Ray after his second successful escape from a maximum security prison, and to Ray himself, who tracked his victim endlessly. I just find the title lacks the resonance of the book, its expansiveness. But it sold well, and I can't argue with that. The cover blurbs from national publications describe it as compulsively readable, truly.
The two actual bloodhounds were trained to track silently, which seems like an advanced level of either canine training or hound breeding. You don't know they're coming until they are in sight. It also points out that hounds track better after a soaking rain, to settle down the dust and varying smells. Probably like most people, I would have guessed exactly the opposite, that rain would wash away the scents.
I've read a lot of authors trying to show multiple points of view woven together, but this is by far the most artful and effective. It's biography, history, true-crime, and if not exactly a who-done-it, certainly an exploration of why-he-done-it.
My only quibble is the title, "Hellhound On His Trail," which refers both the to two female bloodhounds who track Ray after his second successful escape from a maximum security prison, and to Ray himself, who tracked his victim endlessly. I just find the title lacks the resonance of the book, its expansiveness. But it sold well, and I can't argue with that. The cover blurbs from national publications describe it as compulsively readable, truly.
The two actual bloodhounds were trained to track silently, which seems like an advanced level of either canine training or hound breeding. You don't know they're coming until they are in sight. It also points out that hounds track better after a soaking rain, to settle down the dust and varying smells. Probably like most people, I would have guessed exactly the opposite, that rain would wash away the scents.
