cover image The Past Is Never Dead

The Past Is Never Dead

David Schulman. John F. Blair Publisher, $22.95 (271pp) ISBN 978-0-89587-290-6

In journalist David Schulman's uneven but promising first mystery, The Past Is Never Dead (a title derived from Faulkner's famous comment about the South), David ""Gritz"" Goldberg, a disillusioned doctor marking time at a psychiatric hospital in Asheville, N.C., gets involved in reexamining a miscarriage of justice-the execution of an innocent black man for the murder of white girl in 1939. Lively characters (including ambitious politicians, Nazi sympathizers and Jewish businessmen), a judicious use of historical background and a healthy helping of humor make this a memorable debut. Agent, Evan Marshall.