Those Bones Are Not My Child

By R.Z. Sheppard

Atlanta's progressive image was severely tested in the early '80s by the murder of dozens of black children. White police suspected parents; African Americans saw the hand of the Ku Klux Klan; others believed that a child pornography ring was responsible. The killings abated after the arrest and conviction of Wayne Williams, a black photojournalist. But suspicions and suppositions continued. Bambara's posthumous docu-novel conveys the period's fear and conflict with a powerful blend of fact, fiction and indignation.

--By R.Z. Sheppard