Ripple

“Riveting… a personal and highly original work of true-crime storytelling.” (John Douglas, former FBI criminal profiling pioneer and co-author of the number one New York Times best seller Mindhunter)

A chilling investigation into the unsolved “boy in the woods” murder; journalist Jim Cosgrove chronicles his decades-long quest to uncover the truth of a family friend’s disappearance and death – perfect for fans of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and Memorial Drive.

For nine years, South Carolina officials struggled to identify “the boy in the woods”, whose body had been discovered just south of Myrtle Beach in a fishing village called Murrells Inlet.

Meanwhile, 1,200 miles away in Kansas City, Missouri, Frank McGonigle’s family searched for him at Grateful Dead concerts and in the face of every long-haired hitchhiker they passed. Consumed by guilt for how they’d treated him, Frank’s eight siblings slowly came to understand that – like Jerry Garcia sang – he’s gone and nothin’s gonna bring him back.

Frank McGonigle was finally found – and identified as “the boy in the woods”.

Four years later, the case still unsolved, Jim Cosgrove, a McGonigle family friend and investigative journalist, picked up the trail of Frank’s cold case and began uncovering connections to a ruthless local crime boss and blunders by the threadbare sheriff’s department.