Format Read: Paperback
Source: From PR firm for an honest review
Release Date: June 2, 2014
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Blurb from goodreads:
A gripping psychological thriller from one of America's leading psychopathy experts that explores race, the criminal mind, and the changing cultural landscape of Vietnam Era America.
It's 1973. America is in the throes of Watergate, Vietnam, and increasingly heated racial tensions. A small college town in Southern Illinois is terrorized by a spree of sadistic sexual assaults against young Asian women, purportedly by a black man seeking payback for America's betrayal in Vietnam.
Acting more on suspicion than evidence, the all-white police force arrests a black theater instructor and Vietnam vet. His only African American colleague, philosophy professor Nathan "Ribs" Rivers, finds himself in the unlikely position of leading a coalition of student and faculty groups advocating for a fair trial, despite his own doubts about the suspect's innocence.
As the case intensifies, Professor Rivers uncovers a shocking web of conspiracy, underground activity, and psychopathy. He embarks on a vision quest for the truth about the crimes and his own character that threatens to topple his family and career, ignites in him a spiritual crisis, and plunges him headlong toward lethal unknowns.
Silhouette of Virtue is more than just a gripping psychological thriller. Through the complex story, which is based on true events from the author's own life, Jay Richards provides a penetrating look at some of the most complex and challenging issues facing American society, then and now. As a forensic psychologist with more than three decades of experience diagnosing and studying psychopaths and sex offenders, Richards offers an authentic portrayal of the complex characters and weaves together the culture and politics of the era with racial tension, mystery, and suspense.