DEVIL'S GARDEN by Ace Atkins - SIGNED FIRST EDITION BOOK

Critics called Ace AtkinsÕs Wicked City Ògripping, superbÓ (Library Journal), ÒstunningÓ (The Tampa Tribune), ÒterrificÓ (Associated Press), ÒrivetingÓ (Kirkus Reviews), Òwicked goodÓ (Fort Worth Star-Telegram), and ÒAtkinsÕ best novelÓ (The Washington Post). But DevilÕs Garden is something else again.

San Francisco, September 1921: Silent-screen comedy star Roscoe ÒFattyÓ Arbuckle is throwing a wild party in his suite at the St. Francis Hotel: girls, jazz, bootleg hooch . . . and a dead actress named Virginia Rappe. The D.A. says it was Arbuckle who killed herÑcrushing her under his weightÑand brings him up on manslaughter charges. William Randolph HearstÕs newspapers stir up the public and demand a guilty verdict. But what really happened? Why do so many people at the party seem to have stories that conflict? Why is the prosecution hiding witnesses? Why are there body parts missing from the autopsied corpse? Why is Hearst so determined to see Fatty Arbuckle convicted?

In desperation, ArbuckleÕs defense team hires a Pinkerton agent to do an investigation of his own and, they hope, discover the truth. The agentÕs name is Dashiell Hammett, and heÕs the bookÕs narrator. What he discovers will change American legal historyÑand his own lifeÑforever.