A Black Detective, an 1870 Trial and a What If - NYTimes.com

"Ross has unearthed an important story,” Mr. Brophy said. “Historians are going to argue about its broader significance for a long time.”

Beyond academia, Mr. Ross said he hoped his whodunit would add complexity to the public understanding of Reconstruction, restoring a sense of contingency to a period that is too often read as leading inexorably to Jim Crow."