Murder in Palm Beach

Book excerpt: Just back from a dinner affair on a winter night in 1976, Rodger Kriger answers the doorbell in his Palm Beach home and is greeted with a fatal shotgun blast. He was a prominent citizen, and police, under pressure to find the killer, accuse tough guy Mitt Hecher, but soon exonerate him. Nonetheless, criminal prosecutor John Scraponia formally charges the karate expert with murder, and gets a jury to convict him. He is sentenced to a minimum 25 years in prison. While at the Wild West-like penitentiary at Raiford, an often-fatal disease attacks his loving wife, who has reformed him. Doubts about Hecher's guilt have persisted, and the doubters pursue a number of scenarios pointing to other possible perpetrators. Attorneys working without fees fail repeatedly in appeals for a new trial despite a lack of evidence pointing to Hecher and an abysmal performance by his attorney. Was Hecher innocent, and if so, who did it? Those are the questions seeking answers in this mystery tale of redemption, one steeped in violence as it explores issues of justice and power. Bob Brink is a freelance writer and blogger who worked at the Palm Beach Post, Associated Press in Chicago, Milwaukee Journal, Tampa Tribune, Joliet Herald-News, and Palm Beach Media Group, the flagship magazine of which was Palm Beach Illustrated. PBI was named Best Written Magazine in Florida after he became copy chief and feature writer. He learned to play the clarinet and tenor saxophone, and performed many years with a 65-piece symphonic band, tossing in a few professional big band gigs along the way. Brink was born in Michigan and grew up mainly in Iowa. He has a bachelor's in English and German, and studied journalism in graduate school at the University of Iowa.