Met Her on the Mountain: A Forty-Year Quest to Solve the Appalachian Cold-Case Murder of Nancy Morgan

This compulsively page-turning true crime narrative has it all: smart prose, a now-obscure unsolved murder that was notorious at the time, and an investigative journalist trying to pick up the trail. In 1970, the nude and hog-tied body of Nancy Morgan was found in a car in a Madison County, N.C., forest after she%E2%80%99d gone missing. Morgan had been working for Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) in the area for under a year, in an idealistic attempt to help people in the impoverished area. The initial police investigation was %E2%80%9Ca study in confusion and barely controlled jurisdictional chaos,%E2%80%9D and local corruption (the county%E2%80%99s Democratic boss was said to have made Chicago%E2%80%99s Mayor Richard Daley look like Bambi) only made matters worse. Fourteen years passed before an arrest was made, but the prime evidence came from a career criminal and notorious liar. Regarding the victim as a kindred spirit, former Los Angeles Times staff writer Pinsky followed the story from the start (he was a college student in the area at the time of the murder), and many readers will be convinced that his dogged investigation has at last uncovered the truth. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents. (Oct.)