I bought this book because one of my family members was involved in this story. I knew that it was a fictionalized account of what happened back in Birmingham, but I bought it because I was hoping to find further information about my family history.

My problem with this book is that the author gives no specifics as to his references (for instance, he says only "the Birmingham Age-Herald" or "The Birmingham Post" but gives no dates. In addition, because the book is fictionalized, there's no way of distinguishing which parts are fiction and which parts are facts. I found this to be disconcerting, because I'm looking for facts.

In the preface, the author states, "Except for a few fictionalized characters, places, and facts introduced here and there for story-telling purposes, this story is real." But he doesn't state which are the fictionalized parts, and I found this to be frustrating.

Mr Schrantz says, on Page 377, that Ida M. Campbell had been murdered. I think this is fact, yet I've been unable to find anything about it after searching for a long time.

That said, because this is a fictionalized account of a true story, it's not necessary to have zillions of footnotes. It's apparent that Mr Schrantz has done his homework in researching this story and has spent a lot of time digging out the facts. He has provided court transcripts which was very helpful. I just wish I knew which accounts were true and which were not. To me, a book is either fictionalized or not; so to me the book feels kind of schizoid: fictionalized but full of facts as well. ( )