Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America by J. Anthony Lukas

In Big Trouble, Pulitzer Prize-winner J. Anthony Lukas weaves what may be his most brilliant narrative, dramatizing the class struggle of turn-of-the-century America. Featuring an extraordinary cast of characters that include President Theodore Roosevelt, celebrated Pinkerton detective James McParland, actress Ethel Barrymore, and defense attorney Clarence Darrow, in a kind of non-fiction Ragtime, Lukas's Big Trouble paints a vivid portrait of a fascinating, sensational, and all-but-forgotten 1905 murder case.