Shadow Men

Chicago Review of Books, A Best Historical True Crime Book

“The criminal probe at the center of Shadow Men is absorbing.” —The Wall Street Journal, Barbara Spindel

“Polchin knows the era, and brings to his account a wealth of colorful supporting detail … With its layers of taboos and public spectacle, the case feels, a century later, as relevant as ever.” —Marisa Meltzer, The New York Times Book Review

“Polchin’s engrossing account of this forgotten cause célèbre exposes how easily wealth, power, and privilege can tip the scales of justice.” —Dean Jobb, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

“Shadow Men cements his place in the new true crime canon.” —Molly Odintz, CrimeReads

“Polchin combines a novelist’s gift for narrative and a journalist’s eye for detail in this riveting work of true crime … It’s an entertaining account of an obscure yet fascinating crime.” —Publishers Weekly

“This true crime book slowly reveals the underworlds of the 1920s, including what being queer in the Jazz Age was like.” —Danika Ellis, Book Riot

“Readers today will—as were readers in the 1920s—be confounded by the crime’s lack of resolution, which presages modern-day issues of money, political power, gambling, homophobia, media coverage, and accountability—or lack thereof—in America.” —Booklist

“A sensational crime provokes thought about class privilege and injustice in the American legal system.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Shadow Men unwinds a complex murder investigation about the moral decadence of the Jazz Age, the façade of privileged class mores, and the power of William Randolph Hearst’s empire of yellow journalism to shape public perception. Polchin brilliantly balances historical detail and forward momentum in a true crime tale that exposes the great inequities in our justice system, the shadows of which still loom today.” —John Copenhaver, award-winning author of Hall of Mirrors

“James Polchin’s triumphant Shadow Men weaves a Jazz Age whodunit out of Hitchcock, a richly laden escapade of gentlemen’s intrigue and the roughest of rough trade blackmail. This devilishly plotted potboiler exposes a champagne underworld of confidence men, blowoffs and suckers in a 1920s America that only gets queerer and queerer.” ––Robert W. Fieseler, Author of the Edgar Award Winner Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation

James Polchin, Ph.D.

James Polchin is a writer, professor, and cultural historian. His book, Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall, was an Edgar Award finalist, Macavity Award nominee, and named one of the Best True Crime Books of the Year by CrimeReads.

His writing has appeared in publications such as Slate, TIME, Huffington Post UK, CrimeReads, Paris Review, Rolling Stone, NewNextNow, and the Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide.

Polchin is a Clinical Professor at New York University. He has previously taught at the Princeton Writing Program, the Parsons School of Design, the New School, and the Creative Nonfiction Foundation.

He lives in New York with his husband, the photographer Greg Salvatori, and their Labrador, Albert.

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