Black Tunnel, White Magic

Matthew McGough, Rick Jackson

$36.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Seven Dials
10 June 2025

Biography; True stories; True crime; Prose: non-fiction; Social discrimination; Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies

'This is a book that is surely about killers, but they don't take the spotlight. That belongs to the detectives who work the case, whose eyes are not jaundiced and who steadily, methodically close in. In them you find humanity and hope in a city where killers are often kings' Michael Connelly

'A great true-crime story and a great cop memoir-about how they do it and, above all, why they do it' Lee Child
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A TRUE STORY OF MURDER AND BETRAYAL IN LOS ANGELES FROM

LAPD DETECTIVE RICK JACKSON, A KEY INSPIRATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF HARRY BOSCH, WITH AN INTRODUCTION FROM MICHAEL CONNELLY
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Lifelong LAPD Homicide Detective Rick Jackson takes us behind the scenes of the murder case he could never let go.

In June 1990, Ronald Baker was found repeatedly stabbed to death in a tunnel near Spahn Ranch, where the Manson Family once lived. Jackson and his partner, Frank Garcia, were assigned the case.

But who would have motive to kill a straight-A UCLA student? What about the proximity to the Manson ranch? Or the pentagram pendant around Ron's neck? Suspicions soon fall on Baker's two roommates, one Black,

and one white.

As the case unfolds over the years it becomes a sprawling tale of betrayal, grief and redemption - as well as a portrait of Los Angeles on the brink, and America's reckoning with racial injustice in the wake of Rodney King.

Black Tunnel White Magic is a true-crime odyssey into the dark, beating heart of a murder investigation, and shows the true cost of justice for the detectives themselves.

By: Matthew McGough, Rick Jackson
Imprint: Seven Dials
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 232mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 40mm
Weight: 622g
ISBN: 9781399601610
ISBN 10: 139960161X
Pages: 528
Publication Date: 10 June 2025
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Rick Jackson had a 34-year career with the Los Angeles Police Department, before retiring in 2013. He is a known homicide expert, as well as a highly-regarded detective with extensive expertise and success in the field of ""cold case"" homicides. Rick has been a consultant and technical advisor for New York Times and Sunday Times #1 bestselling crime fiction author Michael Connelly. This ongoing 16-year relationship has included all of Connelly's novels, the ""Bosch"" television series, and numerous other film and TV scripts. Matthew McGough is an investigative journalist, former lawyer, and the author of two books- The Lazarus Files: A Cold Case Investigation (Henry Holt, 2019), which Anonymous Content optioned for development as a limited TV series, and Bat Boy: Coming of Age with the New York Yankees (Doubleday, 2005), which served as the basis for the CBS series ""Clubhouse."" He has also written for television and was a writer and legal consultant for NBC's ""Law & Order. ""