The Blackbird Papers - by Ian Smith (Paperback)

About the Book

Local authorities classify the murder of a Dartmouth professor as a racial hate crime, but the victim's brother, FBI agent Sterling Bledsoe, isn't ready to buy into this pat solution.

Book Synopsis

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Ancient Nine and The Clean 20

A rainy night . . . A stranded motorist . . . A Good Samaritan passerby ... a Nobel Prize-winning professor . . . The setup for a shocking murder designed to cover up an even more sinister crime . . .

The Blackbird Papers marks the debut of Ian Smith, a major new talent in crime fiction, and of Sterling Bledsoe, his smart and occasionally combative sleuth.

World-renowned Dartmouth professor Wilson Bledsoe is returning from a party celebrating his latest honor when he encounters a broken-down pickup on the secluded country road to his home. The next day, the discovery of his body with a vicious racist epithet carved into his chest leads to the quick arrest of two loathsome white supremacists. The local authorities seem ready to accept the case at face value as a racial hate crime. But the murdered professor's brother, FBI agent Sterling Bledsoe, has inserted himself into the investigation and isn't ready to buy into this pat solution. A look around his brother's lab and brief interviews with his students and colleagues pique Sterling's curiosity about Wilson's pet project: a nearly completed paper on the mysterious deaths of hundreds of local blackbirds.

Fast-paced and cleverly constructed, The Blackbird Papers introduces a major new voice in mystery and crime fiction.

Review Quotes

"Ian Smith's debut novel, The Blackbird Papers, is exceptional on all levels: the characters and setting are fresh, the plot is riveting, and you feel like you are in totally new territory. Take note of a career about to soar."--Harlan Coben, author of No Second Chance

About the Author

Ian Smith, M.D., is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Ancient Nine, Blast the Sugar Out, SHRED, SUPER SHRED, The SHRED Power Cleanse, and other top-selling titles. He has been an award-winning medical correspondent for NBC News and a contributor to the Today show. He is also a medical columnist for Men's Health magazine and a commentator for NPR's Tavis Smiley show and for the nationally syndicated TV talk show The View. He lives in New York City.