What do you think?
Rate this book
The Rope: A True Story of Murder, Heroism, and the Dawn of the NAACP
From New York Times bestselling author Alex Tresniowski comes a “compelling” (The Guardian) and “riveting” (The New York Times Book Review) true-crime thriller recounting the 1910 murder of ten-year-old Marie Smith, the dawn of modern criminal detection, and the launch of the NAACP.
In the tranquil seaside town of Asbury Park, New Jersey, ten-year-old schoolgirl Marie Smith is brutally murdered. Small town officials, unable to find the culprit, call upon the young manager of a New York detective agency for help. It is the detective’s first murder case, and now, the specifics of the investigation and daring sting operation that caught the killer is captured in all its rich detail for the first time.
Occurring exactly halfway between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the formal beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in 1954, the brutal murder and its highly-covered investigation sits at the historic intersection of sweeping national forces—religious extremism, class struggle, the infancy of criminal forensics, and America’s Jim Crow racial violence.
History and true crime collide in this “compelling and timely” (Vanity Fair) murder mystery featuring characters as complex and colorful as those found in the best psychological thrillers—the unconventional truth-seeking detective Ray Schindler; the sinister pedophile Frank Heidemann; the ambitious Asbury Park Sheriff Clarence Hetrick; the mysterious “sting artist,” Carl Neumeister; the indomitable crusader Ida Wells; and the victim, Marie Smith, who represented all the innocent and vulnerable children living in turn-of-the-century America.
“Brisk and cinematic” (The Wall Street Journal), The Rope is an important piece of history that gives a voice to the voiceless and resurrects a long-forgotten true crime story that speaks to the very divisions tearing at the nation’s fabric today.
In the tranquil seaside town of Asbury Park, New Jersey, ten-year-old schoolgirl Marie Smith is brutally murdered. Small town officials, unable to find the culprit, call upon the young manager of a New York detective agency for help. It is the detective’s first murder case, and now, the specifics of the investigation and daring sting operation that caught the killer is captured in all its rich detail for the first time.
Occurring exactly halfway between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the formal beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in 1954, the brutal murder and its highly-covered investigation sits at the historic intersection of sweeping national forces—religious extremism, class struggle, the infancy of criminal forensics, and America’s Jim Crow racial violence.
History and true crime collide in this “compelling and timely” (Vanity Fair) murder mystery featuring characters as complex and colorful as those found in the best psychological thrillers—the unconventional truth-seeking detective Ray Schindler; the sinister pedophile Frank Heidemann; the ambitious Asbury Park Sheriff Clarence Hetrick; the mysterious “sting artist,” Carl Neumeister; the indomitable crusader Ida Wells; and the victim, Marie Smith, who represented all the innocent and vulnerable children living in turn-of-the-century America.
“Brisk and cinematic” (The Wall Street Journal), The Rope is an important piece of history that gives a voice to the voiceless and resurrects a long-forgotten true crime story that speaks to the very divisions tearing at the nation’s fabric today.
336 pages, Paperback
First published February 9, 2021
95 people are currently reading
5267 people want to read
About the author
Alex Tresniowski
30 books61 followersAlex Tresniowski is a writer living and working in New York City. He has been a senior writer for PEOPLE magazine since 1998, writing dozens of cover stories and focusing on human interest, crime and sports. He is also the author of six books, including 2005’s THE VENDETTA, a true crime story that was purchased by Universal Pictures and used as a basis for the 2009 Johnny Depp movie Public Enemies.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 136 reviews
February 17, 2025
I had difficulty putting this book down.
Even as a historical narrative, it still told a mystery like a fiction novel. I was eager to pick up where I left off and always reluctant to stop reading.
The stories told, which formed the foundation of the NAACP, are graphic and uncomfortable and difficult to read, especially as we grapple with systemic racism.
Still, as the author shares...
“We are never better than when we give our voice to the voiceless, our strength to the weak, our lives to the battle between the darkness and the light.”
As we end Black History Month, I strongly recommend we not end our commitment to educate ourselves with reading more. Books like this help us.
Even as a historical narrative, it still told a mystery like a fiction novel. I was eager to pick up where I left off and always reluctant to stop reading.
The stories told, which formed the foundation of the NAACP, are graphic and uncomfortable and difficult to read, especially as we grapple with systemic racism.
Still, as the author shares...
“We are never better than when we give our voice to the voiceless, our strength to the weak, our lives to the battle between the darkness and the light.”
As we end Black History Month, I strongly recommend we not end our commitment to educate ourselves with reading more. Books like this help us.
February 23, 2021
In Asbury Park, New Jersey 10 year old Marie Smith was murdered and sexually assaulted by a pedophile in November 1910. Thomas Williams, a 40 year old black man, was arrested for the crime because he knew Marie and didn’t have an alibi. Not everyone believed in his guilt and a private detective was brought in from New York to investigate further. The detective, Raymond Schindler, suspected Frank Heidemann of the crime and arranged an elaborate scheme to get Heidemann to confess. Heidemann did confess, Williams was released and Heidemann was convicted and executed in May 1911.
That is really all there is to this true crime story. It’s not enough material for a book so the author has padded it out with a biography of Schindler and a history of Asbury Park. However, most of the padding comes from the story of civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, who campaigned against lynching and was instrumental in the creation of the NAACP. The book contains a good deal of her biography, which was interesting but had absolutely nothing to do with the crime. Williams wasn’t lynched, Wells may never have even heard of him and NAACP lawyers made one very brief appearance in court on behalf of Williams.
There are no footnotes to this book, which I would have expected to see in a history book. It probably shouldn’t even have been a book. The crime story should have been a magazine article and I am sure there are other, more detailed biographies of Wells. This was a disappointing attempt to tie a tawdry crime into the issue of lynching, and I am surprised the publisher let the author get away with that.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
That is really all there is to this true crime story. It’s not enough material for a book so the author has padded it out with a biography of Schindler and a history of Asbury Park. However, most of the padding comes from the story of civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, who campaigned against lynching and was instrumental in the creation of the NAACP. The book contains a good deal of her biography, which was interesting but had absolutely nothing to do with the crime. Williams wasn’t lynched, Wells may never have even heard of him and NAACP lawyers made one very brief appearance in court on behalf of Williams.
There are no footnotes to this book, which I would have expected to see in a history book. It probably shouldn’t even have been a book. The crime story should have been a magazine article and I am sure there are other, more detailed biographies of Wells. This was a disappointing attempt to tie a tawdry crime into the issue of lynching, and I am surprised the publisher let the author get away with that.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
March 8, 2025
3.5 rounded up
Well researched. Enjoyed the writing style.
Well researched. Enjoyed the writing style.
January 12, 2021
The Rope’s style is vivid and dramatic—it’s rare that a historical nonfiction book can be called page-turner but Tresniowski’s description of events is consistently engaging. My real issue with the book is that it’s composed of two totally disparate halves.
Tresniowski tries to unite a child murder case with the life and work of Ida B. Wells-Barnett—he tries, and ultimately he fails. Because, here’s the thing, Wells had nothing to do with the case. There’s no evidence she even knew anything about it. And so all the pages we spend learning about her life feel kind of meaningless when in the end she doesn’t actually tie into the central story. Now, that’s not to say that Wells’ life and the founding of the NAACP aren’t interesting stories—they most certainly are—they just don’t really connect to the Marie Smith case that contains the book’s most thrilling moments, and so they wind up feeling like useless interjections or, worse, padding. Was there supposed to be a thematic connection drawn between these two halves? Probably. But there’s just no attempt at making one.
Additionally, Tresniowski has a tendency to overload with names. It can be difficult to keep all of the bit characters straight, simply because he feels compelled to name every person in every situation, no matter how tenuous a part they played in it.
I don’t want to seem like I’m dumping on this book, because I did enjoy it. I just think its structure is fundamentally flawed.
________________________
PRE-REVIEW:
Hey, I won this in a Goodreads giveaway! It just came today. I’m in the middle of two books at the moment but when I finish them I’ll crack this one open—I hope to have a review up before it hits shelves on February 9th.
Tresniowski tries to unite a child murder case with the life and work of Ida B. Wells-Barnett—he tries, and ultimately he fails. Because, here’s the thing, Wells had nothing to do with the case. There’s no evidence she even knew anything about it. And so all the pages we spend learning about her life feel kind of meaningless when in the end she doesn’t actually tie into the central story. Now, that’s not to say that Wells’ life and the founding of the NAACP aren’t interesting stories—they most certainly are—they just don’t really connect to the Marie Smith case that contains the book’s most thrilling moments, and so they wind up feeling like useless interjections or, worse, padding. Was there supposed to be a thematic connection drawn between these two halves? Probably. But there’s just no attempt at making one.
Additionally, Tresniowski has a tendency to overload with names. It can be difficult to keep all of the bit characters straight, simply because he feels compelled to name every person in every situation, no matter how tenuous a part they played in it.
I don’t want to seem like I’m dumping on this book, because I did enjoy it. I just think its structure is fundamentally flawed.
________________________
PRE-REVIEW:
Hey, I won this in a Goodreads giveaway! It just came today. I’m in the middle of two books at the moment but when I finish them I’ll crack this one open—I hope to have a review up before it hits shelves on February 9th.
June 10, 2021
There are several stories within the story of "The Rope", by Alex Tresniowski. The first story is the true-crime story of the murder of 10 year-old Marie Smith in Asbury Park, NJ in 1910. No suspects were identified, and it appeared that the murder would be blamed on a convenient African-American laborer, Thomas "Black Diamond" Williams. While not connected to the brutal murder in any way, Williams became a convenient suspect, and likely would have been convicted of the crime, and possibly lynched, if not for the town fathers. In an unexpected twist, Asbury Park didn't take the easy road and simply accuse and convict the first available black suspect already in custody. Instead, low on manpower and without any leads in the case, the town put up money to hire an outside investigation team to attempt to solve the crime.
This led to a second story within the story, that of novice detective Ray Schindler and "sting artist" Carl Neumeister. Together, the team tracked down German immigrant and sinister pedophile Frank Heidemann, gained his trust, befriended him, and using an elaborate sting, got him to confess to the crime. The fact that Schindler and Neumeister were permitted to continue to work the case with no result for months, while far exceeding their budget, was most surprising to me. My expectation was that during this Jim Crow era, when thousands of black men were lynched by white mobs with little or no provication and typically no justification, that mob justice would prevail once again. But Monmouth County Sheriff Clarence Hetrick and the local prosecutor allowed the outside investigation to continue, even though costs far exceeded the budget and prospects of finding the murderer seemed rediculously slim. It's a tribute to the town that patience prevailed, and eventually the correct murderer was arrested, tried, and convicted.
Meanwhile, a third story within the story was introduced with the entry of civil rights activist Ida B. Wells. Her story is an interesting one, and her fights against racial injustice played a role in the beginnings of the NAACP, which itself becomes what I'd call the fourth story within this story.
All these pieces are only loosly tied together, but each add something which otherwise would have been a very short book. While I liked reading more about the life of Ida B. Wells, most of which I wasn't aware of, and of the beginnings of the NAACP, I was especially intrigued with the story of the Burns Detective Agency and their work in trying to solve the murder of young Marie Smith. The 24 hours a day, 7 days a week involvement, and to actually have an investigator integrate his life so tightly with the murder suspect that the two men ended up sharing a room in a boarding house amazed me. Thankfully, clever (and probably illegal by today's standards) techniques ultimately led to solving the case.
This led to a second story within the story, that of novice detective Ray Schindler and "sting artist" Carl Neumeister. Together, the team tracked down German immigrant and sinister pedophile Frank Heidemann, gained his trust, befriended him, and using an elaborate sting, got him to confess to the crime. The fact that Schindler and Neumeister were permitted to continue to work the case with no result for months, while far exceeding their budget, was most surprising to me. My expectation was that during this Jim Crow era, when thousands of black men were lynched by white mobs with little or no provication and typically no justification, that mob justice would prevail once again. But Monmouth County Sheriff Clarence Hetrick and the local prosecutor allowed the outside investigation to continue, even though costs far exceeded the budget and prospects of finding the murderer seemed rediculously slim. It's a tribute to the town that patience prevailed, and eventually the correct murderer was arrested, tried, and convicted.
Meanwhile, a third story within the story was introduced with the entry of civil rights activist Ida B. Wells. Her story is an interesting one, and her fights against racial injustice played a role in the beginnings of the NAACP, which itself becomes what I'd call the fourth story within this story.
All these pieces are only loosly tied together, but each add something which otherwise would have been a very short book. While I liked reading more about the life of Ida B. Wells, most of which I wasn't aware of, and of the beginnings of the NAACP, I was especially intrigued with the story of the Burns Detective Agency and their work in trying to solve the murder of young Marie Smith. The 24 hours a day, 7 days a week involvement, and to actually have an investigator integrate his life so tightly with the murder suspect that the two men ended up sharing a room in a boarding house amazed me. Thankfully, clever (and probably illegal by today's standards) techniques ultimately led to solving the case.
January 25, 2021
CW: murder, rape, racism, police brutality, severe assaults and explicit crimes
Wow there is so much I want to say about this book. I wish I could quote ARCs because there’s so many quotes I want to pull from this book.
I thought I knew what lynching was but I’m embarrassed to say I did not! I thought it was just another term for hanging but the actual definition is ‘lynching, a form of violence in which a mob, under the pretext of administering justice without trial, executes a presumed offender, often after inflicting torture and corporal mutilation. The term lynch law refers to a self-constituted court that imposes sentence on a person without due process of law.’ There were thousands of racial driven lynchings in the States in the late 1800s to 1900s.
This book was something I think everyone should read and I will absolutely be reading the book about Ida B Wells, who was a black woman and racial justice pioneer. She was a magnificent woman. She balanced her activism and taking a break to have children and enjoy both aspects of her life. One of the biggest things that will stick out in mind mind among her achievements was an article she wrote about the stark reality of lynching in America - an article in which she only consulted white people for descriptions of the crimes so no white person could tell her that the lynchings were exaggerated or simply false.
For me especially who wants to go into the area of criminal law this book was so interesting. Different investigative techniques were just being founded (albeit some severely morally wrong ones) but very interesting in the historical context nonetheless.
I think Alex did a phenomenal job setting the historical scene (you won’t believe the back story of the Ferris wheel!) and I learned a lot about the historical events that led to the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured Peoples. I didn’t feel like I reading a textbook or any formal document but instead it read like an exciting thriller. There are VERY brutal descriptions of lynching and the circumstances surrounding the murder of a young child so be prepared, but I think it added very richly to the understanding of the racial interactions of the time.
I thought this book was incredible, it was horrifying (although not surprising) to read the circumstances surrounding lynching and what innocent people would do to avoid the mobs. One man swallowed glass in an attempt to end his life in fear of a white mob lynching him.
The two main story lines, the murder of Marie Smith and the life of Ida Wells never actually intersect the way the book makes it seem like they will however I was super intrigued and interested in both storylines regardless.
All in all, read this book. Go into it knowing there are horrific scenes, racism and murder but read it if you are able.
Wow there is so much I want to say about this book. I wish I could quote ARCs because there’s so many quotes I want to pull from this book.
I thought I knew what lynching was but I’m embarrassed to say I did not! I thought it was just another term for hanging but the actual definition is ‘lynching, a form of violence in which a mob, under the pretext of administering justice without trial, executes a presumed offender, often after inflicting torture and corporal mutilation. The term lynch law refers to a self-constituted court that imposes sentence on a person without due process of law.’ There were thousands of racial driven lynchings in the States in the late 1800s to 1900s.
This book was something I think everyone should read and I will absolutely be reading the book about Ida B Wells, who was a black woman and racial justice pioneer. She was a magnificent woman. She balanced her activism and taking a break to have children and enjoy both aspects of her life. One of the biggest things that will stick out in mind mind among her achievements was an article she wrote about the stark reality of lynching in America - an article in which she only consulted white people for descriptions of the crimes so no white person could tell her that the lynchings were exaggerated or simply false.
For me especially who wants to go into the area of criminal law this book was so interesting. Different investigative techniques were just being founded (albeit some severely morally wrong ones) but very interesting in the historical context nonetheless.
I think Alex did a phenomenal job setting the historical scene (you won’t believe the back story of the Ferris wheel!) and I learned a lot about the historical events that led to the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured Peoples. I didn’t feel like I reading a textbook or any formal document but instead it read like an exciting thriller. There are VERY brutal descriptions of lynching and the circumstances surrounding the murder of a young child so be prepared, but I think it added very richly to the understanding of the racial interactions of the time.
I thought this book was incredible, it was horrifying (although not surprising) to read the circumstances surrounding lynching and what innocent people would do to avoid the mobs. One man swallowed glass in an attempt to end his life in fear of a white mob lynching him.
The two main story lines, the murder of Marie Smith and the life of Ida Wells never actually intersect the way the book makes it seem like they will however I was super intrigued and interested in both storylines regardless.
All in all, read this book. Go into it knowing there are horrific scenes, racism and murder but read it if you are able.
April 14, 2021
Alex Tresniowski's The Rope: A True Story of Murder, Heroism, and the Dawn of the NAACP is a kinetic recounting of history. It tells two and half stories. Unfortunately, I picked it up for the story that is only brushed over - "the dawn of the NAACP." The main story is recounting of an assualt and murder in Ashbury Park, New Jersey of a young girl in 1910 where a black man, Thomas Williams, is wrongfully accused and nearly lynched, but through the diligent work of noob detective Ray Schindler and the burgeoning craft of criminal forensics the true paedophile and murderer - the young girl's white neighbour - is identified and prosecuted. (Please note, there are very vivid descriptions of the crime and lynchings throughout the book.)
The only direct connection to the NAACP are when some NAACP lawyers make a brief appearance in the court case against Williams. Tresniowski then ties this to a biography of the great civil rights activist, Ida B. Wells which is extensive and the best part of the book, but is not related to the true crime at all, other than Wells was very instrumental in beginning the NAACP.
The unfortunate part of this book is all the padding. An extensive description and history of the boat the white murderer emigrated to the States on prior to murdering a young girl is not relevant and is so ridiculously superflous it took me right out of the book. There are a lot of superflous facts about Ashbury Park, Ray Schindler, ferris wheels, etc. I also think this book should have had footnotes to show where Tresniowski did his research.
In the end, there are really great aspects of The Rope, but I wish Tresniowski had written a book focusing on just Ida B. Wells and the start of the NAACP and maybe adding some details of some of the early cases, like this one, that made them the champions of justice they became.
The only direct connection to the NAACP are when some NAACP lawyers make a brief appearance in the court case against Williams. Tresniowski then ties this to a biography of the great civil rights activist, Ida B. Wells which is extensive and the best part of the book, but is not related to the true crime at all, other than Wells was very instrumental in beginning the NAACP.
The unfortunate part of this book is all the padding. An extensive description and history of the boat the white murderer emigrated to the States on prior to murdering a young girl is not relevant and is so ridiculously superflous it took me right out of the book. There are a lot of superflous facts about Ashbury Park, Ray Schindler, ferris wheels, etc. I also think this book should have had footnotes to show where Tresniowski did his research.
In the end, there are really great aspects of The Rope, but I wish Tresniowski had written a book focusing on just Ida B. Wells and the start of the NAACP and maybe adding some details of some of the early cases, like this one, that made them the champions of justice they became.
December 29, 2020
I truly had difficulty putting this book down. As it toggled back and forth between the two both mysterious and informative historical narratives, I was eager to pick up where it left off and alway reluctant to stop reading. The stories told, which formed the foundation of the NAACP, center around the all too common subject of the era, lynching. Please be mindful when you read this book that the subject matter is handled frankly and the details of the cases, including the abuse and murder of a young child are graphic and you should be prepared.
February 11, 2021
I just read the review in the Calgary Herald last week and, before the end of the next week, I've already bought it and finished it. The review was quite motivating, let's say.
Anyway, this is a sort of a mashup of true crime and social justice, a close look at a town that could be described as the capital city of the state of white privilege--Asbury Park, New Jersey (yes, the same place Bruce Springsteen sent greetings from on his first album, although he wasn't technically from there)--in which a terrible crime happened and a terrible injustice almost followed. Marie Smith's murder is truly awful, but it would have been even harder to handle if Tom "Black Diamond" Williams had been lynched for it, and he very nearly was. He would almost certainly have been unjustly convicted of the crime had it not been for the dogged and creative detective work of Ray Schindler, whose pursuit of the real murderer is absolutely captivating. Surely no gumshoe today could get away with the sorts of dramatic interventions that Schindler employed to finally get his man.
Because Williams was almost subjected to lynch mob "justice," Tresniowski adds the parallel story--really not parallel, actually--of Ida B. Wells, the firebrand campaigner for racial justice who was tireless in her advocacy against lynching (which killed 4000 African-Americans in the fifty years around 1900). The connection between the stories is tenuous, although it is there, but it creates an oddly discontinuous, rather patchwork impression for the whole text. The back and forth from Schindler's pursuit of the murderer to Wells' heroic one-woman stand against white injustice is, at times, jarring.
Add to that the occasional sense that Tresniowski is appealing to religious rather than moral values--and I can't even put my finger on exactly where this happens, but it is there, I promise--and the text loses something of its strength by becoming a little bit tremulous and sententious.
One last quibble: I find sloppy editing to be very irritating, and there are several points where I felt obliged to take a pen to the book and make an obvious correction. (less)
Anyway, this is a sort of a mashup of true crime and social justice, a close look at a town that could be described as the capital city of the state of white privilege--Asbury Park, New Jersey (yes, the same place Bruce Springsteen sent greetings from on his first album, although he wasn't technically from there)--in which a terrible crime happened and a terrible injustice almost followed. Marie Smith's murder is truly awful, but it would have been even harder to handle if Tom "Black Diamond" Williams had been lynched for it, and he very nearly was. He would almost certainly have been unjustly convicted of the crime had it not been for the dogged and creative detective work of Ray Schindler, whose pursuit of the real murderer is absolutely captivating. Surely no gumshoe today could get away with the sorts of dramatic interventions that Schindler employed to finally get his man.
Because Williams was almost subjected to lynch mob "justice," Tresniowski adds the parallel story--really not parallel, actually--of Ida B. Wells, the firebrand campaigner for racial justice who was tireless in her advocacy against lynching (which killed 4000 African-Americans in the fifty years around 1900). The connection between the stories is tenuous, although it is there, but it creates an oddly discontinuous, rather patchwork impression for the whole text. The back and forth from Schindler's pursuit of the murderer to Wells' heroic one-woman stand against white injustice is, at times, jarring.
Add to that the occasional sense that Tresniowski is appealing to religious rather than moral values--and I can't even put my finger on exactly where this happens, but it is there, I promise--and the text loses something of its strength by becoming a little bit tremulous and sententious.
One last quibble: I find sloppy editing to be very irritating, and there are several points where I felt obliged to take a pen to the book and make an obvious correction. (less)
February 7, 2021
A biography of Ida B Wells and a history of the beginning of the NAACP. The primary topic was lynching, of which Wells was a major opponent. I only gave this three stars because the writing was good, the topics were each fascinating, but the connections among the various threads of the story were tenuous, at best. I enjoyed the book, but came away feeling I had just read parts of two or three good books.
February 4, 2021
There's just a little bit too much going on for this book to be as good as it should be. I loved the parts about lynching and Ida B. Wells, but it really didn't have much to do with the murder of the title. The murder is a sad, sordid story that takes up way too much of the book, in my opinion. Almost everyone will have some kind of disappointment because the two narratives don't really fit together. Interesting, though flawed.
I received an eARC through NetGalley.
I received an eARC through NetGalley.
February 12, 2021
I absolutely loved this book and was not familiar with Marie Smith's case. I love that there was a little bit of everything ranging from the history of Asbury Park itself to the murder, to the life of Ida. B. Wells. The reason I'm giving this a 4 versus 5 stars is it felt like the Wells story didn't tie as neatly as the other stories. It seemed totally separate story that was interesting and well-written, but the connection wasn't as obvious as the other stories.
November 26, 2020
This book hits all the hottest topics: true- crime, American history, social justice, BLM (in the 19th Century way) and the remarkable Ida B. Wells in a completely compelling page-turner.
"We are never better than when we give our voice to the voiceless, our strength to the weak, our lives to the battle between the darkness and the light."
"We are never better than when we give our voice to the voiceless, our strength to the weak, our lives to the battle between the darkness and the light."
January 5, 2021
Thoroughly enjoyed - it has intensity, history and mystery. It stays with you and you want to learn more from our past.
August 1, 2021
This was such an interesting read. It felt like a true crime podcast. I learned so many things. Especially that Ida B. Wells was a freaking badass.
It was embarrassing to hear how things were handled in 1910 versus how things were handled in 2020.
It was embarrassing to hear how things were handled in 1910 versus how things were handled in 2020.
September 9, 2021
Two stories, both concerned with a quest for justice, are intertwined. In one, The Rope refers to racial terrorism in the time of Jim Crow during the years following Reconstruction. Ida Wells, a petite black woman, a journalist, fearlessly spoke out against lynching. Her voice was loud and steady. She was an early proponent and a founder of the NAACP.
The second tale involved the murder of a child in the seaside town of Asbury Park, New Jersey. A black man was unjustly accused. Detective Ray Schindler tirelessly pursued the actual killer, using a ploy referred to as The Rope.
I have a personal connection to the history of Asbury Park. In 1970 as a member of an underground newspaper collective, I travelled to Asbury Park in the days following a riot. Our purpose was to interview residents who still suffered from racial injustice sixty years after the events depicted in this book.
The second tale involved the murder of a child in the seaside town of Asbury Park, New Jersey. A black man was unjustly accused. Detective Ray Schindler tirelessly pursued the actual killer, using a ploy referred to as The Rope.
I have a personal connection to the history of Asbury Park. In 1970 as a member of an underground newspaper collective, I travelled to Asbury Park in the days following a riot. Our purpose was to interview residents who still suffered from racial injustice sixty years after the events depicted in this book.
October 6, 2021
I quite enjoyed reading about the methodology that Ray Schnider used to capture the murderer of Marie Smith in 1910, Asbury Park, New Jersey, saving the life of Tom Williams. Tying in Ida Wells, a woman I had not heard of before, was creative.
January 21, 2021
This book is excellent from the beginning to the end.
March 6, 2021
What a ride ... this book reads like fiction, but covers every base within the true crime genre. There's the street-wise private detective who's inspired by Sherlock Holmes, the serial pedophile, the justice-obsessed journalist and a host of side characters suitable for any mystery novel.
But these people were real, and, particularly in the case of Ida B. Wells, iconic.
The Rope, which despite the topic isn't about a lynching, takes place in Ashbury Park N.J. halfway between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the formal beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in 1954.
It opens with the brutal murder of a little girl and the black man who is quickly jailed as it's prim suspect. To linger on the details is to run the risk of giving away too much.
Suffice it to say that The Rope covers the investigation that sits at the historic intersection of sweeping national forces—religious extremism, class struggle, the infancy of criminal forensics, and America’s Jim Crow racial violence.
This is the perfect true crime book.
But these people were real, and, particularly in the case of Ida B. Wells, iconic.
The Rope, which despite the topic isn't about a lynching, takes place in Ashbury Park N.J. halfway between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the formal beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in 1954.
It opens with the brutal murder of a little girl and the black man who is quickly jailed as it's prim suspect. To linger on the details is to run the risk of giving away too much.
Suffice it to say that The Rope covers the investigation that sits at the historic intersection of sweeping national forces—religious extremism, class struggle, the infancy of criminal forensics, and America’s Jim Crow racial violence.
This is the perfect true crime book.
December 31, 2020
This is a good read with extremely interesting history interwoven with a murder story that is heart-breaking but ultimately solved. As a true crime buff, I enjoyed the descriptions of detective tactics as well as learning the background of technology that is still used today. Good book!
December 23, 2020
I really love the way the author takes one specific case, and uses this case as the starting and ending point for a history of the NAACP, Ida B. Wells, Lynching & the emergence of the private detective.
The narrative begins with the murder of ten-year-old Marie Smith, and the railroading of an innocent black man for this heinous crime. It then interweaves complex and enraging historical narratives and facts into the timeline of the case. As it progresses another suspect emerges and the reader begins to wonder if justice will be done, or if prejudice will get in the way.
Thank you to Netgally and Simon & Shuster for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The narrative begins with the murder of ten-year-old Marie Smith, and the railroading of an innocent black man for this heinous crime. It then interweaves complex and enraging historical narratives and facts into the timeline of the case. As it progresses another suspect emerges and the reader begins to wonder if justice will be done, or if prejudice will get in the way.
Thank you to Netgally and Simon & Shuster for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
December 5, 2023
Ida B.Wells is the real heroine of this book. The former schoolteacher turned journalist became enraged when a good friend was lynched in Memphis for running a successful business which was seen as a threat to white shopkeepers. She was forced to leave the city after death threats and landed in Brooklyn, NY where she wrote and lectured, beginning in 1892. She would be the force behind the formation of the NAACP.
James Bradley, a Catholic convert to the Methodist Church, founded Asbury Park in New Jersey in 1874. A bishop of the church gave the five hundred acre piece of land the name. The intended nature retreat instead became the beginning of a seaside resort with the first Ferris wheel in America.
Bradley needed workers to build and sustain the resort and the majority of them were black. They were kept separated from the white people and were not allowed on the same beaches.
In 1886, a Black stable hand was dragged from his cell and hanged for the alleged rape of a white woman. Years after his death two other men confessed to the crime. It would be the first lynching in New Jersey.
In 1910, ten-year-old girl, Marie Smith was raped and murdered and suspicion fell upon Thomas Williams, a Black man who lived nearby. With no evidence against the man, a German immigrant was investigated and through the dogged determination of a of a private detective named Ray Schindler, Williams was spared a possible lynching by a racist and bloodthirsty public. The twists and turns make for one of the best true crime books that I have ever read. I finished it in one four hour sitting this morning. A ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ read.
James Bradley, a Catholic convert to the Methodist Church, founded Asbury Park in New Jersey in 1874. A bishop of the church gave the five hundred acre piece of land the name. The intended nature retreat instead became the beginning of a seaside resort with the first Ferris wheel in America.
Bradley needed workers to build and sustain the resort and the majority of them were black. They were kept separated from the white people and were not allowed on the same beaches.
In 1886, a Black stable hand was dragged from his cell and hanged for the alleged rape of a white woman. Years after his death two other men confessed to the crime. It would be the first lynching in New Jersey.
In 1910, ten-year-old girl, Marie Smith was raped and murdered and suspicion fell upon Thomas Williams, a Black man who lived nearby. With no evidence against the man, a German immigrant was investigated and through the dogged determination of a of a private detective named Ray Schindler, Williams was spared a possible lynching by a racist and bloodthirsty public. The twists and turns make for one of the best true crime books that I have ever read. I finished it in one four hour sitting this morning. A ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ read.
October 19, 2021
The Rope is a “true crime” account of the murder of a ten-year old white girl Marie Smith in Asbury Park in 1910 by her accused killer, Tom Williams, an Itinerant black man. This pursuit of the real killer, Frank Heidemann by a young detective, Raymond Schiller and getting him to confess by “roping” him in makes the story a true suspense story that rivals any fictional private eye procedural, especially given the crude methods of the time.
More than half of this book, (the truly powerful half) however, is devoted to a biography of Ida Wells, born a slave in 1862 and who rose as a black activist, beginning in 1883, to focus on the horrendous lynchings of young black men throughout the country. As a writer and speaker she was an absolute dynamo, raising the awareness of both black and white people to those horrors in her pursuit of changes in laws and getting politicians to support her cause. She became a founder of the precursor of the NAACP under W.E. DuBois and joined their board.
The two parts of the book are loosely connected when the story of one of the men she saved from lynching impressed Joel Springarn, a young man of Jewish ancestry. He donated money to the NAACP which was used to help defend Tom Williams. Spingarn later became Chairman of the NAACP.
Between these two expertly written accounts, one just can’t put this book down. There’s even a history of the founding of Asbury Park!
More than half of this book, (the truly powerful half) however, is devoted to a biography of Ida Wells, born a slave in 1862 and who rose as a black activist, beginning in 1883, to focus on the horrendous lynchings of young black men throughout the country. As a writer and speaker she was an absolute dynamo, raising the awareness of both black and white people to those horrors in her pursuit of changes in laws and getting politicians to support her cause. She became a founder of the precursor of the NAACP under W.E. DuBois and joined their board.
The two parts of the book are loosely connected when the story of one of the men she saved from lynching impressed Joel Springarn, a young man of Jewish ancestry. He donated money to the NAACP which was used to help defend Tom Williams. Spingarn later became Chairman of the NAACP.
Between these two expertly written accounts, one just can’t put this book down. There’s even a history of the founding of Asbury Park!
April 6, 2022
The author weaves together two seemingly disparate paths. There is a murder of a small child in New Jersey in 1910. An innocent African American is charged, jailed, and in danger of being lynched. A novice white detective isn't convinced he is the culprit and develops an elaborate undercover program to elicit a confession from the canny actual perpetrator. On a separate track, the author traces the remarkable life of Ida B. Wells, who experiences white discrimination on public transit and successfully challenges it in court. She begins a social justice campaign and starts by documenting and publishing all known instances of lynchings in the country. She uses her journalistic skill to raise public awareness of injustice, rising in prominence to become associated with the establishment of the NAACP. Tresniowski links the two and makes it a satisfying and informative read.
March 16, 2021
Two books superimposed over one another are represented in this volume. A history of Ida B. Wells and the inception of the NAACP is one; the other is the story of the kidnap, rape, and murder of a child by a white immigrant, where the crime was initially blamed on an itinerant black man whose defense was the 3rd case involving the NAACP. The stories have little to do with one another but are well told; the common ground being the titular ‘rope’ — used for lynching as described by Wells and used to condemn the true killer by one of the first detectives in the sense of ‘give him enough rope to hang himself.’ His methods would never stand up today but make for an interesting view of turn of the 20th century detecting. All in all it is a riveting account of justice and its lack.
June 2, 2021
Today’s post is on The Rope: A True Story of Murder, Heroism, and the Dawn of the NAACP by Alex Tresniowski. It is 322 pages long and is published by 37 Ink. The cover has the sky on it. The intended reader is someone who is interested in true crime history. There is foul language, discussion of sexuality and rape, and violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the dust jacket- From New York Times bestselling author Alex Tresniowski comes a page-turning, remarkable true-crime thriller recounting the 1910 murder of ten-year-old Marie Smith, the dawn of modern criminal detection, and the launch of the NAACP.
In the tranquil seaside town of Asbury Park, New Jersey, ten-year-old schoolgirl Marie Smith is brutally murdered. Small town officials, unable to find the culprit, call upon the young manager of a New York detective agency for help. It is the detective’s first murder case, and now, the specifics of the investigation and daring sting operation that caught the killer is captured in all its rich detail for the first time.
Occurring exactly halfway between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the formal beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in 1954, the brutal murder and its highly-covered investigation sits at the historic intersection of sweeping national forces—religious extremism, class struggle, the infancy of criminal forensics, and America’s Jim Crow racial violence.
History and true crime collide in this sensational murder mystery featuring characters as complex and colorful as those found in the best psychological thrillers—the unconventional truth-seeking detective Ray Schindler; the sinister pedophile Frank Heidemann; the ambitious Asbury Park Sheriff Clarence Hetrick; the mysterious “sting artist,” Carl Neumeister; the indomitable crusader Ida Wells; and the victim, Marie Smith, who represented all the innocent and vulnerable children living in turn-of-the-century America.
Gripping and powerful, The Rope is an important piece of history that gives a voice to the voiceless and resurrects a long-forgotten true crime story that speaks to the very divisions tearing at the nation’s fabric today.
Review- An interesting true crime nonfiction book. Tresniowski has done some wonderful research into this almost forgotten crime and creation of the NAACP leading into the civil rights era. Basically a young girl is stalked, kidnapped, raped, then murdered. The small town she is from panics and because of the time they picked a person who was easy to blame, who was a black man named Tom Williams. But Williams was innocent and it becomes a race against time to save him and get justice for the child. This was a fast paced read that made me very nervous at times with Williams being hunted by angry white members of his own community. I had to flip to the back to make sure that Williams was not lynched before I could continue reading. If you are a fun of true crime and history I would recommend it.
I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for this review and I borrowed this book from my local library.
From the dust jacket- From New York Times bestselling author Alex Tresniowski comes a page-turning, remarkable true-crime thriller recounting the 1910 murder of ten-year-old Marie Smith, the dawn of modern criminal detection, and the launch of the NAACP.
In the tranquil seaside town of Asbury Park, New Jersey, ten-year-old schoolgirl Marie Smith is brutally murdered. Small town officials, unable to find the culprit, call upon the young manager of a New York detective agency for help. It is the detective’s first murder case, and now, the specifics of the investigation and daring sting operation that caught the killer is captured in all its rich detail for the first time.
Occurring exactly halfway between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the formal beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in 1954, the brutal murder and its highly-covered investigation sits at the historic intersection of sweeping national forces—religious extremism, class struggle, the infancy of criminal forensics, and America’s Jim Crow racial violence.
History and true crime collide in this sensational murder mystery featuring characters as complex and colorful as those found in the best psychological thrillers—the unconventional truth-seeking detective Ray Schindler; the sinister pedophile Frank Heidemann; the ambitious Asbury Park Sheriff Clarence Hetrick; the mysterious “sting artist,” Carl Neumeister; the indomitable crusader Ida Wells; and the victim, Marie Smith, who represented all the innocent and vulnerable children living in turn-of-the-century America.
Gripping and powerful, The Rope is an important piece of history that gives a voice to the voiceless and resurrects a long-forgotten true crime story that speaks to the very divisions tearing at the nation’s fabric today.
Review- An interesting true crime nonfiction book. Tresniowski has done some wonderful research into this almost forgotten crime and creation of the NAACP leading into the civil rights era. Basically a young girl is stalked, kidnapped, raped, then murdered. The small town she is from panics and because of the time they picked a person who was easy to blame, who was a black man named Tom Williams. But Williams was innocent and it becomes a race against time to save him and get justice for the child. This was a fast paced read that made me very nervous at times with Williams being hunted by angry white members of his own community. I had to flip to the back to make sure that Williams was not lynched before I could continue reading. If you are a fun of true crime and history I would recommend it.
I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for this review and I borrowed this book from my local library.
July 6, 2021
The Rope by Alex Tresniowski is the story of...multiple stories.
From the title you would guess that this book would be about murder, heroism, and the dawn of the NAACP. In the end, it becomes a book primarily about Raymond Schindler, P.I., the murder of Marie Smith, and the life of Ida Wells extrapolated on in tidbits.
The beginning of the book shares the original story of Asbury Park and the vision of the man who founded it. Not super intriguing, but okay, let's see where it goes. Eventually it peels back the layers to demonstrate the classism and racism that Asbury Park was beset with, beginning with its founding father - some old white man whose name I have actually forgotten.
The book then skips over to the birth of Ida Wells, a woman who we are assured is an important black female who deeply affects the course of history.
Going off of that, we are then reading about lynchings and some individual cases of lynchings along with general statistics.
Back to Schindler. He's determined to figure out who killed Marie Smith. The town has blamed a black man without evidence - Tom Williams. He's tucked away in a prison cell to avoid being lynched.
The book then focuses almost solely on Schindler and his extreme work to uncover the true murderer of Marie Smith.
Here are my complaints.
>There is A LOT going on in this book and due to that each person feels vaguely explained, but mostly glossed over.
>I'm not opposed to books that span different time periods and skip back and forth, but the placement of this happening was poorly edited .
>For a book on the supposed "dawn of the NAACP", very little is actually said on it.
>The book implied that all of these characters were tied together, which is tenuous at best. Williams was unfairly incarcerated. Schindler was the private detective hired to help work the case. Ida Wells was campaigning against lynching in other parts of the country. Truthfully, very little tied Ida Wells to Williams or Schindler. Even though the association that sought to free Williams from prison eventually became NAACP, they actually did...basically nothing to free Williams as it had essentially already been decided that he was innocent.
In summation:
>Ida Wells is amazing and I will likely look for a book dedicated solely to her work and life.
>Raymond Schindler helped pioneer amazing physiological and psychological techniques for police work that continue to be used to this day.
>Lynching were horrifying and I am glad they are being brought to light in new literature.
This book was chaotic, but interesting. I think it had so much potential, but was bogged down with drawing tenuous lines between people and events.
Finally, towards the end of this book there was an extremely graphic description of the death. I think it was unnecessarily added and definitely not needed.
3/5
From the title you would guess that this book would be about murder, heroism, and the dawn of the NAACP. In the end, it becomes a book primarily about Raymond Schindler, P.I., the murder of Marie Smith, and the life of Ida Wells extrapolated on in tidbits.
The beginning of the book shares the original story of Asbury Park and the vision of the man who founded it. Not super intriguing, but okay, let's see where it goes. Eventually it peels back the layers to demonstrate the classism and racism that Asbury Park was beset with, beginning with its founding father - some old white man whose name I have actually forgotten.
The book then skips over to the birth of Ida Wells, a woman who we are assured is an important black female who deeply affects the course of history.
Going off of that, we are then reading about lynchings and some individual cases of lynchings along with general statistics.
Back to Schindler. He's determined to figure out who killed Marie Smith. The town has blamed a black man without evidence - Tom Williams. He's tucked away in a prison cell to avoid being lynched.
The book then focuses almost solely on Schindler and his extreme work to uncover the true murderer of Marie Smith.
Here are my complaints.
>There is A LOT going on in this book and due to that each person feels vaguely explained, but mostly glossed over.
>I'm not opposed to books that span different time periods and skip back and forth, but the placement of this happening was poorly edited .
>For a book on the supposed "dawn of the NAACP", very little is actually said on it.
>The book implied that all of these characters were tied together, which is tenuous at best. Williams was unfairly incarcerated. Schindler was the private detective hired to help work the case. Ida Wells was campaigning against lynching in other parts of the country. Truthfully, very little tied Ida Wells to Williams or Schindler. Even though the association that sought to free Williams from prison eventually became NAACP, they actually did...basically nothing to free Williams as it had essentially already been decided that he was innocent.
In summation:
>Ida Wells is amazing and I will likely look for a book dedicated solely to her work and life.
>Raymond Schindler helped pioneer amazing physiological and psychological techniques for police work that continue to be used to this day.
>Lynching were horrifying and I am glad they are being brought to light in new literature.
This book was chaotic, but interesting. I think it had so much potential, but was bogged down with drawing tenuous lines between people and events.
Finally, towards the end of this book there was an extremely graphic description of the death. I think it was unnecessarily added and definitely not needed.
3/5
January 20, 2024
I read this book for an upcoming book discussion. It was a little dry to start, but got more interesting as the book progressed. You have to get past the "backstory" of things like the development of Asbury Park, NJ, etc. to get to the meat of this book, but once you do, things start to take shape and will make sense.
In this book, "The Rope" has two different meanings, and both are thoroughly explored through two different paths.
In the first, we see examples of "crimes" & the lynching of black men that took place after the Civil War going up through 1910. During this time, readers are introduced to Ida B. Wells, and her quest to see that the lynchings were stopped. As this story develops, we see the beginnings of the NAACP, and while Wells is often credited with being instrumental in its start, this really could not be further from the truth, but you'll have to read the book to learn more.
The other "Rope" was an old investigative trick where an "undercover" detective would buddy up to a suspect to learn all about them, gain their trust, and hopefully the suspect would share their knowledge, culpability, or innocence in a crime. This was the case in the Marie Smith murder.
The year is 1910. In Asbury Park, NJ (which we learn all about this developed resort type area early in the book), a child by the name of Marie Smith was murdered and sexually assaulted. Thomas Williams, a black man, was arrested for the crime because he knew Marie and didn’t have an alibi. It looked like he was heading for a lynching, but not everyone believed in his guilt and a private detective from the Burns Agency was brought in from New York to investigate further. The detective, Raymond Schindler, suspected Frank Heidemann of the crime. It was his trick (learned from Walter Burns during a different investigation) and the undercover detective, Carl Neumeister, that solved this murder.
The sort of side story about the origins of the NAACP was most interesting. I love reading about how we got some of the organizations (FBI, OSHA, NAACP, etc.) that we have today, and this was well worth my time.
At the end of the book, we learn about what happened to the main historical figures in this book, some stats, and more!
An intriguing read.
In this book, "The Rope" has two different meanings, and both are thoroughly explored through two different paths.
In the first, we see examples of "crimes" & the lynching of black men that took place after the Civil War going up through 1910. During this time, readers are introduced to Ida B. Wells, and her quest to see that the lynchings were stopped. As this story develops, we see the beginnings of the NAACP, and while Wells is often credited with being instrumental in its start, this really could not be further from the truth, but you'll have to read the book to learn more.
The other "Rope" was an old investigative trick where an "undercover" detective would buddy up to a suspect to learn all about them, gain their trust, and hopefully the suspect would share their knowledge, culpability, or innocence in a crime. This was the case in the Marie Smith murder.
The year is 1910. In Asbury Park, NJ (which we learn all about this developed resort type area early in the book), a child by the name of Marie Smith was murdered and sexually assaulted. Thomas Williams, a black man, was arrested for the crime because he knew Marie and didn’t have an alibi. It looked like he was heading for a lynching, but not everyone believed in his guilt and a private detective from the Burns Agency was brought in from New York to investigate further. The detective, Raymond Schindler, suspected Frank Heidemann of the crime. It was his trick (learned from Walter Burns during a different investigation) and the undercover detective, Carl Neumeister, that solved this murder.
The sort of side story about the origins of the NAACP was most interesting. I love reading about how we got some of the organizations (FBI, OSHA, NAACP, etc.) that we have today, and this was well worth my time.
At the end of the book, we learn about what happened to the main historical figures in this book, some stats, and more!
An intriguing read.
July 18, 2021
Nonfiction about the murder of a ten year old girl in 1910 in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I mostly picked this up because I spend a week or two most summers in Asbury Park (I even went on a ghost tour once that I'm pretty sure recounted this murder, though unsurprisingly the ghost tour version was so distorted that I'm not entirely sure it was the same case), and reading about the founding and early version of the town I know so well was probably my favorite part of the book. The founder of the town was an obsessive religious dude of the anti-alcohol, anti-sex sort, which is sort of ironic now that the town which has become a gay party scene.
However, the main theme of the book isn't so much the murder as the investigation afterwards. It was led by Ray Schindler, a private detective who would later become significant in the invention of the lie detector. Here, he's working on his very first murder case, mostly relying on a technique nicknamed 'the rope': to trick a suspect into confessing by pretending to be a friend or fellow criminal. I'm pretty sure it would be considered illegal today, if perhaps not at the time, but it does make for entertaining reading, as various detectives pretend to be the main suspect's new friend, a scary gangster, a willing lawyer, and a cellmate.
The other half of the book consists of a biography of Ida B Wells focused on her anti-lynching work, which has only the most tenuous of connections to the murder plot, but is well-written enough to stand as its own thing. (The theoretical link is that Wells was sort of involved in the founding of the NAACP, and one of the NAACP's early cases involved providing defense lawyers for a Black suspect in Asbury Park.) If you've read a biography of Wells before, you probably won't be interested in this mini version, but if you haven't, she's absolutely a fascinating enough historical figure to make her half of the book engaging.
Overall, The Rope isn't a good enough book to recommend to people who aren't already fans of historical true crime, but if you're into that genre, it's worth picking up.
However, the main theme of the book isn't so much the murder as the investigation afterwards. It was led by Ray Schindler, a private detective who would later become significant in the invention of the lie detector. Here, he's working on his very first murder case, mostly relying on a technique nicknamed 'the rope': to trick a suspect into confessing by pretending to be a friend or fellow criminal. I'm pretty sure it would be considered illegal today, if perhaps not at the time, but it does make for entertaining reading, as various detectives pretend to be the main suspect's new friend, a scary gangster, a willing lawyer, and a cellmate.
The other half of the book consists of a biography of Ida B Wells focused on her anti-lynching work, which has only the most tenuous of connections to the murder plot, but is well-written enough to stand as its own thing. (The theoretical link is that Wells was sort of involved in the founding of the NAACP, and one of the NAACP's early cases involved providing defense lawyers for a Black suspect in Asbury Park.) If you've read a biography of Wells before, you probably won't be interested in this mini version, but if you haven't, she's absolutely a fascinating enough historical figure to make her half of the book engaging.
Overall, The Rope isn't a good enough book to recommend to people who aren't already fans of historical true crime, but if you're into that genre, it's worth picking up.
February 22, 2024
The good: there are at least 4 good and important stories here, and the author did thorough research on all of them. The settings and the characters were as detailed and complete as could be.
The bad: it was awfully cumbersome to read.
(Where was the editor? I seem to wonder this a lot…)
The murder of a young girl in Asbury Park NJ in 1910 seems to be the primary story, but Ida Wells - nowhere near New Jersey - is brought into the narrative often. Unfortunately, while the narrative fails to tie Wells’ (heroic) life to the events, and most of the characters, in the Asbury Park storyline.*
And still, I’m not clear about whose heroism the title refers to. Detective Schindler is creative and committed in pursuing the actual murderer to justice, in spite of the town, other criminal investigators, and pretty much the whole world preferring to just convict the (wrongfully imprisoned) black man for the girl’s murder.
As the investigation drags on - and yet, heroically, Schindler keeps it going - we are sent to meet Ida Wells. Her life is also heroic, and yet, not at all critical to the murder of the girl, states away.
After reading this I feel glad to have learned a lot more about life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - but I also feel like I read parts of different books… all under one cover, but not really tied together.
Complaints aside - I recommend it. Just hang in there; the writing doesn’t make the learning easy.
*I think “storyline” is the right word, but want to underscore that The Rope is completely nonfiction.
The bad: it was awfully cumbersome to read.
(Where was the editor? I seem to wonder this a lot…)
The murder of a young girl in Asbury Park NJ in 1910 seems to be the primary story, but Ida Wells - nowhere near New Jersey - is brought into the narrative often. Unfortunately, while the narrative fails to tie Wells’ (heroic) life to the events, and most of the characters, in the Asbury Park storyline.*
And still, I’m not clear about whose heroism the title refers to. Detective Schindler is creative and committed in pursuing the actual murderer to justice, in spite of the town, other criminal investigators, and pretty much the whole world preferring to just convict the (wrongfully imprisoned) black man for the girl’s murder.
As the investigation drags on - and yet, heroically, Schindler keeps it going - we are sent to meet Ida Wells. Her life is also heroic, and yet, not at all critical to the murder of the girl, states away.
After reading this I feel glad to have learned a lot more about life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - but I also feel like I read parts of different books… all under one cover, but not really tied together.
Complaints aside - I recommend it. Just hang in there; the writing doesn’t make the learning easy.
*I think “storyline” is the right word, but want to underscore that The Rope is completely nonfiction.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 136 reviews