Book Description

" A] Sensational story of sin and violence . . . Fascinating . . . brilliantly organized, thoroughly reported and sharply written . . . Evidence of Love stands among the very best." --Los Angeles Times Book Review Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore had a lot in common: They sang together in the Methodist church choir, their daughters were best friends, and their husbands had good jobs working for technology companies in the north Dallas suburbs known as Silicon Prairie. But beneath the placid surface of their seemingly perfect lives, both women simmered with unspoken frustrations and unanswered desires. On a hot summer day in 1980, the secret passions and jealousies that linked Candy and Betty exploded into murderous rage. What happened next is usually the stuff of fiction. But the bizarre and terrible act of violence that occurred in Betty's utility room that morning was all too real. Based on exclusive interviews with the Montgomery and Gore families, Evidence of Love is the riveting account of a gruesome tragedy and the trial that made national headlines when the defendant entered the most unexpected of pleas: not guilty by reason of self-defense. Adapted into the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning television movie A Killing in a Small Town, this chilling tale of sin and savagery will "fascinate true crime aficionados" (Kirkus Reviews). "A bizarre story well-researched and superbly written and told with just enough suspense to keep the reader turning pages." --Fort Worth Star-Telegram "An extraordinary book . . . As compelling as the best fiction and as thorough as the best history." --Dallas Times Herald "Gripping as true crime drama, the book is also distinguished by its social and psychological insights." --Library Journal "Carefully researched . . . this middle-American tragedy should fascinate true-crime aficionados." --Kirkus Reviews John Bloom is an investigative journalist and the author of nine books. A Pulitzer Prize nominee and three-time finalist for the National Magazine Award, he has written for Rolling Stone, Playboy, Newsweek, and the Village Voice, among other publications. In addition to coauthoring, with Jim Atkinson, true crime classic Evidence of Love (1983), he penned, most recently, Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story (2016), an Amazon Best Book of the Year So Far heralded by the Wall Street Journal as "a panoramic narrative . . . big, gutsy, exciting." Bloom has also written several books of humor and film criticism and hosted television shows as his alter ego, Joe Bob Briggs. He lives in New York City. Jim Atkinson is an award-winning reporter, television correspondent, and crime writer. The founding editor of D, the magazine of Dallas, he has contributed to Esquire, Gourmet, GQ, Texas Monthly, and the New York Times, among other publications. He is the coauthor, with John Bloom, of true crime classic Evidence of Love (1983), and author of The View from Nowhere (1987), a guide to "the best serious drinking bars in America." Atkinson lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.