The Reading Warehouse

On a foggy afternoon in September of 1982 the Investor, a salmon fishing vessel, was engulfed in flames near the tiny village of Craig, Alaska. All efforts to stop the blaze were repulsed by the heat and fury of fire--until the blaze until it had run its course. Eight people, including a pregnant woman and two small children, were missing.

On the charred wreck of the Investor, troopers hoped to find evidence that the fire was accidental, and that the crew and family were away from the scene. Instead, they found bullet-ridden bodies. The investigation of the case and arrest of a former crewmember of the Investor became a nationwide sensation, with headlines appearing in the New York Times and People Magazine. John Kenneth Peel, a Bellingham fisherman was the center of the investigation and eventual trials for murder and arson. Convoluted motivations, family secrets, a lawyer bent on protecting his client, family members of the victims seeking answers swirl into a story only one person can know--and he isn't telling.

Leland Hale, author of Butcher, Baker: The True Account of an Alaskan Serial Killer, meticulously researched the events of the Investor tragedy, and when alibis don't line up and witnesses doubt their own memory, Hale's narrative pulls the unraveling story together into a book that will keep your attention long after you turn the final page.

Born in Seattle, Washington, Leland E. Hale started as an avid reader and slowly, but surely, became an avid writer. Blame it on the rain and the persistently gray skies of the Pacific Northwest. His most notable work is Butcher, Baker, the true crime story of serial-killer Robert Hansen. His work on that book turned him into a permanent fan of all things Alaska. That book also served as the inspiration for the film, The Frozen Ground, starring Nicolas Cage and John Cusack. Mr. Hale has written one novel, titled Huck Finn is Dead. His work on that book convinced him that his true love is nonfiction.