This book was an informative and expansive look at crime investigation in los Angeles in the 1990s. I had never heard of this case (or the detective) so this was a fascinating read.

I admit it. I am a fan of the true crime genre, and really enjoy when authors really, really KNOW their subject. And I generally check out the author’s (or authors’) biography, especially when I set out to read an author’s work for the first time. Another thing about me: I lived in Southern California in the last century, and hate it when authors (of either nonfiction or fiction) go off the rails writing about that time and place (partly why I am a huge fan of T. Jefferson Parker, Robert Crais, and Michael Connelly: they KNOW their stuff!

So a new book entitled Black Tunnel White Magic (subtitle:A Murder, a Detective’s Obsession, and ’90s Los Angeles at the Brink) caught my eye, and I had to check out the authors, Rick Jackson and Matthew McGough. Jackson was with the LAPD until his retirement in 2013, and his legendary expertise in homicide 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 (so much that he has been a consultant for Michael Connelly), OK, so he sounds like he’d have a lot to contribute! Matthew McGough never worked in law enforcement, but as a former attorney and the author of The Lazarus Files, which is a riveting story of a cold case involving a long-time LAPD police officer who was convicted of murdering her ex-boyfriend’s wife and was convicted TWENTY-SIX YEARS later. (If you’re a true crime fan, check it out!

Thanks to Mulholland Books and NetGalley, I received a copy of Black Tunnel White Magic, which tells the story of Ron Baker, a straight-A student at UCLA who was found stabbed to death in a tunnel (the “Manson Tunnel,” filled “satanic graffiti) wearing a pentagram pendant around his neck. The tunnel was very near the infamous Spahn Ranch, former home of Charles Manson and his “family.”

Ron Baker’s case was truly a mystery, but it was solved and the murderers were convicted. Following his retirement, Rick Jackson decided to tell the story of the murder, the investigation, and the subsequent trial. The book is very well written and recommended for both true crime fans, and fans of police procedurals (as well as anyone curious about LA around the time of the Rodney King incident and the “Satanic Panic.” Four stars.

3 stars for this true crime recounting.

Detective Rick Jackson of the LAPD (said to be one of the inspirations for Michael Connelly’s detective Harry Bosch and Connelly makes an appearance here as a newspaper reporter) focuses in the real life death of Ronald Baker in June 1990. Baker was a straight A student at UCLA when he was stabbed to death in a park near the ranch that Charles Manson and his followers used. He had a pentagram pendant on. He was known to participate in Wiccan activities on campus. Was his murder related to that? To Manson? Who killed Baker and why?

Ultimately there’s not a ton of mystery about the “who” here and the occult and Manson stuff and mainly draws for newspaper headlines and, now, to draw people into the book, I suspect, but this is an interesting look at how difficult it can be to make a murder case stick and, perhaps, injustices when it comes to race in how criminals are treated (you’ll have to decide.).

The book reads as if Jackson actually had input in it; it’s written in short, choppy sentences, just how I would expect a police officer to talk. At 400 pages it felt a bit long, perhaps it could have used a bit more editing. Overall decent work.

A nostalgic jump back in time to a true crime case unfolding with two detectives at the helm. This was informative and entertaining. The atmosphere was well established.

This was a strong true crime nonfiction book, it had that overall respect and research that I was looking for and was engaged with the read. It worked well as a way to tell the story and thought Rick Jackson and Matthew McGough wrote this well.

Black Tunnel White Magic by Rick Jackson and Matthew McGough was an interesting and informative read as to policing and the investigative process in the 90’s. How far we have come! Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read this book.