Just finished this one, so it wasn't on my top ten list for the summer, but it certainly would have been if I'd made that list a week later. Hampton Sides is one of my favorite narrative non-fiction writers (Ghost Soldiers is a tremendous book) but his latest, Hellhound on His Trail is his best yet, an extraordinary account of James Earl Ray's stalking and assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. I'm in awe of the way Sides can take so much information in and then weave a tight, compelling narrative that both informs and entrances. This one is a writing clinic, and a truly important read.
