And the Sea Will Tell by Vincent Bugliosi, Bruce B. Henderson (With)

From the Publisher

ALONE WITH HER NEW HUSBAND on a tiny Pacific atoll, a young woman, combing the beach, finds an odd aluminum container washed up out of the lagoon, and beside it on the sand something glitters: a gold tooth in a scorched human skull. The investigation that follows uncovers an extraordinarily complex and puzzling true-crime story. Only Vincent Bugliosi, who recounted his successful prosecution of mass murderer Charles Manson in the bestseller Helter Skelter, was able to draw together the hundreds of conflicting details of the mystery and reconstruct what really happened when four people found hell in a tropical paradise. And the Sea Will Tell reconstructs the events and subsequent trial of a riveting true murder mystery, and probes into the dark heart of a serpentine scenario of death.

Publishers Weekly

In 1974, wealthy Californians Mac and Muff Graham sailed to Palmyra Island, 1000 miles south of Hawaii, in their boat the Sea Wind . Buck Walker and Jennifer Jenkins arrived soon after on the same atoll, fleeing drug charges in Hawaii. Several months later, Walker and Jenkins returned to Hawaii in the Sea Wind , claiming that the Grahams were presumed dead when the dinghy in which they had gone fishing was washed ashore unmanned. However, in 1980, vacationers on Palmyra found bones soon identified as those of Muff Graham, who was determined to have been shot. Walker and Jenkins were charged with murder: in separate San Francisco trials, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and she was acquitted. Writing with Henderson ( Empire of Deceit) , Bugliosi ( Helter Skelter ), who served as Jenkins's attorney, offers a case history which could have been a true-crime classic if not for the 250 tedious pages devoted to his client's 23-day trial. Photos not seen by PW. Literary Guild main selection. (Jan.)

Library Journal

As he did in Helter Skelter ( LJ 11/1/74), Bugliosi draws readers into the psyches of the criminally inclined in this minutely detailed chronicle of two couples on a remote Pacific island. To Mac and Muff Graham, Palmyra is Paradise; for Jennifer Jenkins and Buck Walker, it is a good deal less. Tension builds between the couples, and when the Grahams are reported missing, everyone except Bugliosi believes Jenkins and Walker are responsible. Convinced of their innocence, he takes on the unfamiliar role of defense lawyer, using his knowledge of the law and keen insight into human behavior to reveal what really happened to the Grahams. Not as grisly as Helter Skelter , this tale is just as riveting--proving once again that the best stories come right out of newspaper headlines. Recommended for true crime collections. Literary Guild main selection; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/90.-- Belinda Pugh, Naval Subma rine Base Lib., Kings Bay, Ga.

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