Murder on the Mississippi: Frank Dodge Explores Identity and Deception on the River

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In 1964, four members of the Ku Klux Klan killed two African American men in Mississippi. The story of their murder and the following decades of stops and starts in the prosecution of their killers inspired my latest Frank Dodge mystery: Murder on the Mississippi. In this episode, I give some background on the murder of Dee and Moore and how their murder influenced my latest book. Murder on the Mississippi takes place on a Mississippi River cruise from New Orleans to Memphis. The story centers around the story of three African American sisters whose father was killed in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the 1970s by a gang of white men. They got a tip that the killers would be on the riverboat, so they booked a cruise to find them and hold them accountable. Their father’s murder, though, impacted each sister differently, which is one of the main themes of the novel. And while trying to find the killers, Dodge and his friends learn that some people on the boat aren’t who they claim to be. The book is already available for pre-order and officially releases on April 8, 2005.