Table of Contents
Author's Note ix
Prologue 1
Part 1 Friends
1 Meeting My "Friend," the Psychopath 11
2 A Murder of Crows 19
3 A Dark Mind 28
4 Some Sickness 35
5 The Impatient Maniac 41
6 Rootless Tree 48
7 The Space Between 55
8 Death Becomes Him 61
9 Killer Instinct 67
10 "Noodles" 75
11 The "Reality" of True Crime 83
12 Wounded Bird 90
13 High Horses 93
14 Long, Long Way 105
15 Transformation 111
16 Spectator 120
17 Trusty and True 128
18 The World According to Raven 130
Part 2 Family
19 Selective Madness 139
20 Death-as a Performance 143
21 I Remember 150
22 Feels Like Fire 159
23 Strange Condition 169
24 Nightmares 177
25 Satan's Whisper 184
26 The Terror of Damnation 189
27 Ghost Stories 194
28 Ten of Hearts 199
29 Smoked 204
30 Nostalgia as Camouflage 211
31 Oh, Brother … 218
32 Risky Uncertainty 228
33 When Grace Abandons 236
34 You Can See With Those Eyes 243
Part 3 Faith
35 A New Purpose 249
36 True Blue 258
37 Baby Doll 267
38 Case Closed 276
39 Question 280
40 As Much as I Ever Could 285
41 The Girl with the Familiar Last Name 288
42 Jane Doe, Florida 296
43 All In 305
44 The Mighty Mississippi 311
45 The Big Sleazy 317
46 Brain Scam 325
47 Victim Number Six 329
48 Grand Optimist 334
49 Blank Canvas 337
50 Same Old Suffering 344
51 The Past as Ransom for the Future 348
Acknowledgments 351