Ripple: A Long Strange Search for a Killer

Strange is an apt description of Cosgrove’s debut, a puzzling and disappointing account of an unsolved murder case. Cosgrove, a former Albuquerque Journal feature writer, tosses in unidentified speculative scenes, assistance from a psychic, and his own supernatural encounter in this mishmash that fails to find the truth about the 1982 killing of Kansan Frank McGonigle. Following a family spat, McGonigle took off in his car without a word to anyone. A week later, a man’s body, with bullet wounds in the back of its head, was found in South Carolina, but it wasn’t identified as McGonigle’s until 1991. Cosgrove, whose parents were friends with McGonigle’s parents, decided to use the homicide as the topic for his master’s thesis and as part of his oral storytelling repertoire. He spoke with McGonigle family members, law enforcement, and even someone he suspected of being involved, but gives the most weight to psychic Carol Williams. Her paranormal “evidence” fell on receptive ears, as Cosgrove describes a conversation he had with the dead McGonigle. At one point, Cosgrove throws out the possibility that McGonigle was the victim of an accidental misfire, without reconciling that theory with the location of the two bullet wounds. This is an unsatisfying look at a crime that warrants serious reexamination. Agent: Delia Berrigan, Martin Literary & Media Management. (Apr.)