Longtime Crooks and Liars readers are already familiar with the tragic case of Brisenia Flores and her killer, the Minuteman movement figure Shawna Forde. Soon they will be able to read the full account of the story.
The book represents several years' worth of work. Beyond covering the exploits of Forde -- including her trial and those of her cohorts -- the book also covers the entire story of the Minuteman movement, which I have been writing about continuously since 2005, including an earlier investigation of its fundraising activities.
You can read some of the results of my most recent investigative work on the Minutemen and Shawna Forde's role in the movement in the AlterNet article I wrote last year, which in many ways is a condensed version of much of the material in And Hell Followed. However, as you'll see, there is a great deal more in the book, including much more detail, as well as the full story of what occurred in Arivaca that terrible night in 2009.
The book opens with a recounting of how that night ended, with a 911 call to dispatchers in Tucson. You can hear that call here:
Of course, I have many people to thank for this book. But it is above all a project of the the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute.
It's really an amazing, weird, twisted, and deeply disturbing story, one worthy of the Coen Brothers (and in fact, we are currently working on selling the film rights to the book). I hope you are as moved reading it as I was writing it.
Note from Susie: I read a whole lot, more than 50 books per year, and you couldn't pay me enough to make me recommend a book I don't like. Dave's new book is mesmerizing, in the same true-crime style as "Under The Banner of Heaven." Beautifully written and compelling. You really will want to read this --and then you'll want to see the movie.
