Michael Finkel was a top New York Times Magazine journalist publicly fired and disgraced for making up a composite character for a big investigative news piece about Africa. This book is about how this brilliant, high achieving journalist found himself at that point in his life. But in parallel it's also about Christian Longo, a man accused of the multiple murder of his own wife and three children.

After the deaths, Longo fled to Mexico, where he passed himself off as Michael Finkel, New York Times journalist. These two weird stories come together as Finkel in turn becomes fascinated (perhaps obsessed) with Longo the accused murderer, who while in prison and during his trial would talk only to Finkel. Who is using whom...?

Its a gripping tale, plainly told but artfully constructed, and the twists continue right up to and beyond the climax of the trial -- Blake Morrison * Guardian *
A thrilling, unforgettable book... Wonderful * Spectator *
An absorbing examination of human frailty, the nature of truth and the power of pride... It is also a stonking good read... Extraordinary and terrifying journalism * The Times *
A fine, beautifully choreographed addition to the macabre three-legged race linking murderers with writers... Horribly readable * Mail on Sunday *
'Utterly compelling' * Irish Times *
Finkel is a storyteller * New Statesman *
The two stories are well told. Finkel has learned his trade, organising his material with immense care and writing in the kind of stripped, unadorned prose beloved by American editors -- Brian Appleyard * Sunday Times *
Strange, bizarre adn grimly compelling * Scotland on Sunday *
Riveting * London Review of Books *

A young journalist in his mid-thirties who raises chickens and grows hay at his home in Montana, Michael Finkel had a prestigious job on the New York Times Magazine until he was publicly fired in February 2002. Before that he wrote adventure-travel pieces for several publications, including National Geographic Adventure, The Atlantic Monthly, Skiiing and Rolling Stone. He was married in 2004.