Town Without Pity

Book excerpt: Don Hale's fight to clear Stephen Downing of murder, and the trail of clues the authorities want to hide. In 1973, a woman was brutally murdered in a graveyard in a picturesque market town. Stephen Downing, aged seventeen but with the mental age of eleven, was working as a gardener in the graveyard. He was charged with the crime and served 27 years in prison. Six years ago, Don Hale, the editor of the local newspaper, began his own investigation into the murder. This is the story of one man trapped in a web of evil, and of another's courageous fight to free him.