"Redrum, The Innocent" by Kirk Makin. This is a true crime book about a nine year old girl who is murdered and left in a field to be found. The setting is a Canadian village. The police question everyone and, with volunteers, do a thorough investigation of the fields and woods surrounding the village but are no nearer to finding the killer. Over a period of time, the police see the girl's next-door neighbor, Guy Paul Morin, as the most likely to have killed her and with scant evidence, they arrest him. His and his familys' eccentricities seem to be cause enough for the police to think of him as the murderer. Unfortunately for Morin, the police are so intent on getting the case resolved, they hone in on Morin and stop looking for any other more viable suspects. Everything Morin ever said, every movement he ever made, stand the scrutiny of a state-driven examination. Evidence that points away from Morin is disgarded while Morin's whole life is made to fit as evidence for the crime. It's as if the whole judicial system is more interested in "resolving" the case than in seeing justice done. The incompetency of the police and state attorneys, the murder and Morin's life are all told in detail but with detail that counts. This book is over 800 pages; there's a lot of material to digest. But the author, Kirk Makin, is an investigative reporter who knows how to write. The participants in this tragic drama all come to life. By the end of the book I felt that this too could happen to me or anyone I know when you have a judicial system out of control.

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