The Ghost: How a California Golden Boy Became America's Most Unlikely-and Elusive- Fugitive

by Paige Williams

Jason Derek Brown has been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list since December 2007. He's the prime suspect in the 2004 murder of Keith Palomares, a 25-year-old armored truck guard. Despite the FBI's active investigation, Brown remains at large living among us without a trace. And yet, a faint pulse of his identity surfaces from time to time, haunting the detectives tasked to find him. In the Kindle Single The Ghost, crime writer Paige Williams chronicles the case and draws a portrait of a killer who is as slippery and elusive as he is enigmatic. Jason Derek Brown was raised by a Mormon father who held a high position in the church despite being a known con man. Jason himself was a devout Mormon for years, and maintained his generosity and Southern California charm even as he slid into a life of excessive materialism fueled by theft. Aside from the murder, he has no history of violence. His case is downright perplexing, and Williams captures it from multiple viewpoints in pitch-perfect prose. --Paul Diamond

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

79 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 4, 2012

About the author

Paige Williams is a staff writer at The New Yorker. At the magazine, her subjects have included suburban politics in Detroit, the death penalty in Alabama, paleoanthropology in South Africa, the misappropriated cultural patrimony of the Tlingit peoples of Alaska, and the White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She won the National Magazine Award for feature writing, in 2008, and was a finalist, in another category, in 2011. Her work has appeared in multiple anthologies of “The Best American Magazine Writing” and “The Best American Crime Writing.” Williams is the Laventhol/Newsday Visiting Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and she has taught at universities including Ole Miss, N.Y.U., and M.I.T., in the Knight Science Journalism program. She has been a fellow of the MacDowell Colony and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard. The Dinosaur Artist, her first book, grew out of a 2013 magazine piece, "Bones of Contention."

Reviews

[G.W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paige Williams is a wonderful narrative journalist. But I sometimes see reporters overuse government documents in the course of telling the story. In many states, autopsies are a public record, and investigative reporters know they can be loaded with compelling details. Not all of those details need to be included in the story, however, unless they meaningfully contribute. And Williams insists on more-or-less copying the entire contents of an autopsy report as a section lead for part of her story. Some of the language from the report will make sense to forensic pathologists, but not to everyday readers, let alone meaningfully contribute to the story. Journalists call it a "notebook dump": pouring everything you've managed to gather into the story, rather than being selective about what matters.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a fast,light and amazing read. I haven't be-friend-ed a good true crime book in a while, but was eager to sit with this one. The author did her homework and then some. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of true crime.

[William Wilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bought this to gain insight into the personality of Jason Brown, as written by his sister. Very little content about him. Mostly her, a serial under-achiever in a family of, and I'm sorry to say this, losers. It always strikes me as odd as to how these types of individuals tend to see themselves... oblivious to their own mediocrity, telling themselves that they're gifted, interesting, and highly intelligent. I suppose it's fitting, as surely NO ONE besides themselves would ever describe them as such. I have a high tolerance for boring, believing that there simply MUST be a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm nearly 2/3rds through, and I find myself skipping large sections of this mindless exercise of the verbose.
If this book were a horse, I'd take it out and shoot it.
Don't waste your time, of money on this.
In the future, Paige, seek other's opinions before committing so much time on such a poor subject. You, quite obviously, cannot discern interesting subject manner from subjects such as the study of buyers of pet rocks.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an offering from the Kindle Single series. It is a relatively short but interesting read in the true crime genre. The author gives us some background on Jason Brown, the subject and accused, but still leaves us wondering at the motivation.

[Kurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author has the knack for relating interesting facts in a narrative style. A wonderful non-fiction writer, she offers a compelling story of a boy-gone-bad who's still on the loose. (He recently made the FBI's infamous Top 10 Most Wanted list.)

[Shelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. Good writing style and although the facts were there I wish author/reporter had delved a little more into the essence of the story. Not any resolved ending of course because he is still "out there".

[MATTHEW · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good Kindle Single, the ending is pretty anticlimactic but the reporting is good. There were a few holes like what happened to the father? Why wasn't the brother more stringently questioned? Etc. missing a satisfying conclusion.

[Shirlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not sure how I felt about this knowing Jason as a relative myself. But just sad that it turned out this way for everyone.

[andrew y · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like crime, nonfiction, longreads, and (to be honest) most everything from Byliner.

So let me try and be kind.

This was not good.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

lackluster.

[Linda Ethier · Rating 2 out of 5]

WSJ July 14/15. About the 2004 Phoenix armored-car murder.