Candlemoth

By RJ Ellory

Published Jan 2010

So begins the final chapter of Daniel Ford’s life. Accused and convicted of the murder of his closest friend, Nathan Verney, he has exhausted all appeals and, at last, faces the long lonely walk to the electric chair. It’ 1982 and Daniel is thirty-six years old.

One person will walk that final month with him. Father John Rousseau has been entrusted with Ford’s soul by the US government and together they will rake over the ashes of his past and try to gain some sense of understanding of how a life could come to such a tragic and unnecessary end.

As the best ones sometimes are, it’s a long story. And one that not only encompasses the loves, betrayals and friendships of one man but also the tumultuous events of whole society on the verge of war with itself. 50’s, 60’s and 70’s America saw the Vietnam War and Watergate, the death of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King. It also saw the brutal murder of Nathan Verney and the guilt of the one man who loved him…