Past Is Present

“The boy, still too young to understand it all, felt it in his blood. Unexplained and expectant.”

One sweltering Indiana night in August 1964, a gruesome discovery shatters everything a curious young boy believes about his heritage, his life, and his father. Now an adult, haunted by the physical and emotional scars of a violent rage unleashed long ago on that fateful night, Joe Camel has an iconic new name and the confidence of a federal agent’s badge as he infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan in Fort Wayne, Indiana. When a peaceful downtown equal rights rally explodes into savage chaos, Joe is accused of murder, forcing him to face a justice system he once worked within but that now marks him a dangerous man.

Not only for what he has done, but also for what he knows.

Joe wrestles with reconciling the present with his past while those around him struggle to separate deception from perception, and the secrets of the Klan cloud the civic leadership meant to protect the city. The trial in State of Indiana versus Joe Camel forces Joe, the city, and its residents to confront the deep shadows of the past that threaten today’s sense of truth and justice, racial tolerance, and LGBTQ rights. And triggers the struggle between life and death.

Robert Gevers wields his expansive criminal justice experience, along with skillful prose, to conjure a thrilling tale that strikes fear in—and empathy for—friends and foes caught up in fate as they try desperately to change their destinies.