LINE OF BLOOD
Uncovering a Secret Legacy of Mobsters, Money, and Murder
By Jana Marcus
When a Newspaper article about a murdered mobster from the 1940s is discovered in her grandmother's secret drawer, award-winning photographer and author Jana Marcus is launched into a decades-long quest to uncover her family's hidden history and solve a 75-year-old cold-case. But the search is a mere prologue to a far greater puzzle that takes her deep into the origins of her Jewish immigrant roots, corruption at the highest levels of New York's justice system, and a dark underworld of racketeers, gamblers, and self-made millionaires – all leading to one of the greatest unsolved murders in mob history.
From lies and sealed records to mysterious phone calls and revelations, her labyrinthine journey examines the complexity of family, eerie messages from beyond the grave, and the greed that drives men to murder. Accompanied by a retired NYPD detective, a crime scene psychic, and a revolving door of characters, Marcus' search culminates in an explosive on-the-ground investigation, as she uncovers the shocking secrets of her father's family and threads together a history, not only of her clan, but of New York itself.
5.5"x8.5" Trade Paperback
336 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9833434-3-1
Ebook: ISBN 978-0-9833434-5-5
AVAILABLE 7/1/20
Line of Blood is an intriguing, true-life family saga, a story of secrets and crimes hushed up for generations, leading back to the greatest unsolved mob murder in our history. It is both poignant memoir and intriguing murder mystery that you won't be able to pull away from.
– Kevin Baker, New York Times bestselling author of Paradise Alley
Jana Marcus is a genius storyteller. I am not even particularly interested in the mob and their past, but one page into Line of Blood and I was instantly enthralled by this dark treasure hunt of history and family. Like that, I found myself intensely and passionately interested in these people, in Jana, and everyone else she brings to living-breathing-dying life. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to learn what she had discovered.
– Stacy Horn, Author of The Restless Sleep and Damnation Island
This is powerful stuff! Transfigurations is deeply moving. Marcus captures the dignity of people with clarity and honesty, calling forth the hope that many closed minds may be opened and many faint hearts be mended.
Dennis J. Dunleavy, Ph.D., Department of Communication, Southern Oregon University
A bold, gutsy visual feast—not just for the eyes, but for the heart and soul. In her courageous endeavor to explore gender, Jana Marcus takes us along a hypnotic ride that invites us to question everything we think we might know about ‘man,’ ‘woman’ and the typically uncharted waters in between. Stunning!
Greg Archer, San Francicso Chronicle
Only 5 left in stock!
The perfect gift. All proceeds go to the Arts Council of Santa Cruz County!
Available for purchase here and at Bookshop Santa Cruz.
The Creatives Among Us:
Celebrating 20 years of the Gail Rich Awards & the Artists of Santa Cruz County.
Photos by Shmuel Thaler
Text by Wallace Baine
11 x 8.75 inches
172 pages
Softback Limited Edition
ISBN: 978-0-9833434-2-4-4
Maybe it’s the weather. Maybe it’s the coastal views. Maybe it’s the seismic energy seeping out of the ground. There are plenty of theories, but clearly something is attracting creative, artistic people to Santa Cruz County, California.
The photographs in this collection represent a 20-year effort to acknowledge the creative souls of Santa Cruz, a community that can best be understood as a tapestry of surprisingly rich subcultures—from the visual arts to music, from the literary arts to theater, from food and design to philanthropy and even surfing.
Photographer Shmuel Thaler and writer Wallace Baine of the Santa Cruz Sentinel provide a compelling portrait of a community that can be favorably compared with cities many times its size in artistic ferment and ambition. Still, however broad this cross-section may appear, it’s not even close to the full picture. Like beautiful beaches and good surf days, Santa Cruz offers a seemingly endless bounty in the arts.
Wallace Baine, The Creatives Among Us