Half the Terrible Things

by Paul Legler

A true crime story involving the murder of a young man in Dixie County, Florida in 1922. Half the Terrible Things is an intimate and sometimes violent novel portraying three interconnected lives. Based on true events, the life of Martin Tabert is short and tragic. Tabert is a young farm boy from Munich, North Dakota. While traveling around the country in 1922, he is pulled off a train near Tallahassee, Florida, charged with vagrancy, sentenced to a convict work camp, and whipped to death by the camp Whipping Boss. His body is buried in an unknown location in wild swamp country.
Eighty years later, his girlfriend, Edna, nearing her end in a nursing home in Devils Lakes, ND, asks her granddaughter, Nicole, to find his grave. Nicole, a young attorney with the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C., searches the Florida swamps while struggling with her own guilt stemming from her work at the Justice Department post 9/11. The Tabert case resulted in prison reform in Florida after North Dakotans intervened following Tabert's death.

Genres: Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

Published November 15, 2020

About the author

Paul Legler is a former-lawyer-turned-writer. He grew up on a small farm in North Dakota and was educated at the University of North Dakota, University of Minnesota, and Harvard University. He worked as a poverty and civil rights attorney, Senior Policy Analyst at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at Harvard University, and policy adviser in President Clinton's Administration. He currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he works as a writer and public policy consultant.

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark themes and honest, but it will make you feel hopeful about life. I loved the history interwoven with compelling characters that come alive across generations. Hard to put down. I read it in one day but I will always remember this superb book. Anyone interested in history, North Dakota, the legacy of labor camps in Florida, law or simply human resilience will have a gem in their hands.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Half the Terrible Things" has just been named as a Forward Best Indie Book of the year finalist!

[Tricia Velure · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you, Paul Legler, for bringing the true story of Martin Tabert to light with modern audiences. You’ve crafted a beautiful narrative around Martin that pulls us in and makes him distinctly and relatably human. I highly recommend this book to North Dakotans, Minnesotans, Floridians, and any lifelong students of history.

[Becky Loader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on an actual event of the murder of a young North Dakota man on a Florida chain gang in the 1920's. Excellent research and writing.

[Roberta Gammon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a very tough subject matter but written very well. Paul Legler wrote about a horrible, true event adding fictional characters for a very interesting story. It reads quickly just like a thriller. I had no idea this actually happened in our country in the 1920’s. So awful!! Paul Legler, the author, is speaking at our Book Club in January. I am really looking forward to hearing him talk about his writing process.

[Subir · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable story about the development of Florida, set in the early 20th century. Having lived in Miami for many years, I was unaware of the bonded labor system used by the lumber barons who provided material for the railroad.

The book tracks the twin life stories of a young man and the woman he loves. They met in a small North Dakota town, but got separated when the Great Depression forced him to seek work in the South. He endured unbearable hardships as a prisoner in a railroad lumber camp in central Florida for the crime of having ‘ridden the rails’ and he never made it back to his sweetheart. She, in turn, was a prisoner of circumstance, stuck in a marriage of convenience in the rural Midwest, and endured the hardships of isolation and limited opportunities for women.

The author, Paul Legler, does a great job of capturing the factual history of the protagonists in his fictional story about the events that unfolded over the decades, culminating in a denouement of our criminal Justice system. The book reads like a fast-paced thriller, with well-developed characters and a storyline that encompasses almost a century of evolving views on injustice.

I heartily recommend this book, both for its description of historical events and its engaging story.

[Luisa Gutiérrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t know that the author was active on goodreads.
Just wanna say that I stole your book from Verana’s library. Why? Because I couldn’t find it anywhere in Mexico.

I was truly amazed by Paul’s writing because you don’t come up with a lot of stories like this. Crude. Brutal. But with glimpses of hope scattered throughout the pages.
Martin Tabert’s story is just one of the many stories that are still waiting to be told.

Thank you, Paul, for giving Martin a chance to be remembered and a chance to be grieved. And thank you, for bringing his story to us.

I’ve confessed my crime.
I can rest in peace as well. 🤞🏼

One of my favorite books of the year.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This compelling , well - researched historical fiction work draws the reader into the depths of the souls of each character . I highly recommend this absorbing tale of cruelty , love , and morality .

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the hopeful story woven into the harsh historical facts. I really had never heard of forced labor camps in Florida that were part of the building of this country and not so very long ago. A well researched book and interesting read.

[Gail Anderson Kubik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compelling characters written with historical facts. The brutality, harshness, love and hopefulness allowed you the reader to experience it all.

[Melissa Selders-ortez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Treat yourself and read this wonderful book. It melds three stories and does justice to all of them.

[Kellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly tremendous. If I have a criticism, the dialogue can be cheesy, but the storyline is so well done within the true historical context, readers won't mind. If you're from or you know and love northeast North Dakota, this is a must read.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely and thought provoking. A page turner.

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well. I admit to being seduced by the "Midwest Writing Awards" (or something like that) sticker on the book. The first chapter was gripping (and appalling) . . . and then I started to think this was poorly written. Some things sounded like they were there simply to show the author had done his research--such as how many jars of this and that were canned, what typical chores were on a farm in the 1930s, etc.

It's not great writing. Lots of telling, very few scenes, and I'm not sure that making the bulk of this story fiction was the best choice. At the same time, it interests me that the author used fiction to tell the part of the story he couldn't otherwise uncover.

I almost quit, but kept going, and by the end of the book I felt I'd learned about a (horrible) segment of American history that I never knew before. And apparently the person for whom one of our state parks is named was complicit if not totally responsible for a lot of it. Not a fun read, but the topic is something we should know. So I went up to a 3.

[Jahan Hayes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Half the Terrible Things really feels like two books smashed together. First is the true (but heavily dramatised) story of Martin Tabert travelling to Florida, his arrest, and subsequent murder in a convict labor camp in Florida in the 1920s. Second is the entirely fictional journey of Martin Tabert's fictional girlfriend attempting to move on after his death and HER fictional granddaughter journeying back to Florida 80 years later (in 2003) to find where he was buried.

The whole thing is exactly as convoluted as it sounds. The Martin Tabert pieces are exciting and appropriately grisly, but unfortunately don't fill out enough of the pages in this text to keep you from getting bored in the middle. I did feel the ending picked up quite a bit and was able to tie up the story in a surprisingly satisfying conclusion, but not before really dragging the reader through some unforgivable filler content for too long.

[Diane Greenwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting approach to create a fictional story that is based on actual events. I knew the story about this young man and the Icelandic Lawyer from North Dakota who took his case to court so initially was disappointed that the story was fiction. But it worked. What happened in the Florida work camps was one part of the story, but the depiction of life in North Dakota at different times was very perceptive. Life on the farms, the hard work, the sense of community, but also how that same community stifled the lives of many women in different ways. Appreciated the follow-up as to what happened to some of the actual historical characters.

[Thom Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The mind of man at one and the same time is both the glory and the shame of the universe.” Pascal

The depth of cruelty and kindness found within these pages leaves you simultaneously revulsed and transfixed.

It was particularly fascinating reading this having recently watched “I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang”. I felt like Legler’s account provided layered historical context while also surfacing the relevance to the current day.

His story unveils our common humanity just when you think it is lost.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rounded up because the real events it is based on are interesting. The writing is pretty basic and the plot fares a little better.