Proof of Heaven - A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife

Part epic of Texas, part classic coming-of-age story, part unflinching portrait of the bloody price of power, The Son is an utterly transporting novel that maps the legacy of violence in the American West through the lives of the McCulloughs, an ambitious family as resilient and dangerous as the land they claim

Spring, 1849. The first male child born in the newly established Republic of Texas, Eli McCullough is thirteen years old when a marauding band of Comanches storms his homestead and brutally murders his mother and sister, taking him captive. Brave and clever, Eli quickly adapts to life among the Comanches, learning their ways and language, answering to a new name, becoming the chief's adopted son, and waging war against their enemies, including white men—which complicates his sense of loyalty and understanding of who he is. But when disease, starvation, and overwhelming numbers of armed Americans decimate the tribe, Eli finds himself alone. Neither white nor Indian, civilized nor fully wild, he must carve a place for himself in a world in which he does not fully belong—a journey of adventure, tragedy, hardship, grit, and luck that reverberates in the lives of his progeny.

Intertwined with Eli's story are those of his son, Peter, a man who bears the emotional cost of his father's drive for power, and Jeannie, Eli's great-granddaughter, a woman who must fight hardened rivals to succeed in a man's world.

Philipp Meyer deftly explores how Eli's ruthlessness and steely pragmatism transform subsequent generations of McCulloughs. Love, honor, even children are sacrificed in the name of ambition as the family becomes one of the richest powers in Texas, a ranching-and-oil dynasty of unsurpassed wealth and privilege. Yet, like all empires, the McCulloughs must eventually face the consequences of their choices. Harrowing, panoramic, and vividly drawn, The Son is a masterful achievement from a sublime young talent.

It was a muggy summer day in New York when Janice Wylie and Emily Hoffert were raped and murdered in their apartment on Manhattan's fashionable Upper East Side. Months passed as their families grieved the unthinkable and a shaken city awaited answers. Finally, Brooklyn police arrested George Whitmore, Jr., a nineteen-year-old with an I.Q. of less than 70. But his incarceration would ultimately entail a host of shocking law enforcement missteps and cover-ups.

Whitmore had confessed. Yet Mel Glass, a young Manhattan Assistant D.A. not even assigned to the Homicide Bureau, was troubled by the investigation. With the blessing of legendary D.A. Frank Hogan, Glass tirelessly immersed himself in the case. So began an epic quest for justice, culminating in a courtroom showdown in which the Brooklyn arresting cops refused to admit their flagrant errors, providing a complete defense to a vicious predator. The outcome would reach far beyond the individuals involved.

Including trial transcripts and never before published crime scene photos, here is a captivating depiction of one of the most intense manhunts of our time. Echoes of My Soul is also a testament to the power of individuals like Glass and Hogan, without whom the real killer would never have been convicted and an unjustly accused man would have been jailed for life. And we may never have gained the legal safeguards that protect us today.

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