Sins of Omission

When journalist Alan Rudberg investigates his father’s suspicious death, he encounters a conspiracy of silence. Law officers in the rural North Florida community treat his passing as an accident. When Rudberg learns that his father was investigating a six-decade-old civil rights slaying, the conspiracy deepens, for that probe was also shuttered, and the man responsible is on the president’s short list for the US Supreme Court. Rudberg’s quest to learn the truth uncovers a family secret his father was hiding—a secret that dramatically alters his life. Someone is following his every move, and he suspects a spy is undermining his work. As the community closes ranks to halt his investigation, Rudberg’s marriage, career, even his life are at risk.

While a work of fiction, this book is set against a background of actual events in the history of North Florida, including twin scandals that led to the consolidation of city and county government in Jacksonville in 1968.