Good Cop/Bad Cop

Two days before Christmas in 1989, Tony Harris, his wife, Dodie, and their children, Shelby and Marc, were murdered in their home in Ithaca, N.Y. This upper-middle-class family was killed by Michael Kinge, a black ex-convict who used and then had his mother use credit cards stolen from the Harris house. McElligott of the state police largely supervised the police work, although he was suspicious of fingerprint evidence adduced by investigator David Harding to prove that Kinge's mother was present during the slayings. Kinge was later killed in a gun battle with arresting officers and his mother was jailed as an accessory. Cofer ( The Straight Story ) carefully documents the unraveling of Harding's career as he confessed to falsifying evidence to win a number of prosecutions, including that of Mrs. Kinge, and advance his career. A fine true-crime study. Photos not seen by PW. (June)