Redbone: Malice and Murder Inside Atlanta's Black

By Ron Stodghill

Lance Herndon was at the top of his game in 1996. At age forty-one he was a self-made millionaire, the owner of Access, Inc., a successful information-systems consulting company. As a prominent member of Atlanta's young, wealthy, and powerful set, he was surrounded by black Atlanta's "beautiful people." But when he failed to show up for work one day, friends and family started to worry. Their worry soon turned to horror when he was found murdered in his own home, his head smashed in—in what appeared to be either an act of jealousy-fueled rage or a seedier sex crime. With a laundry list of ex-wives and lovers, competitors, critics, and admirers in hand, detectives had to break through the city's upper crust to discover his killer. Journalist Ron Stodghill tells the riveting, true story of this investigation.

Part investigative thriller, part sociological commentary, Redbone offers a truly intriguing story that channels insight into one of America's great metropolises.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Mar 17, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061752025

Ron Stodghill

Award-winning journalist Ron Stodghill has worked for the New York Times, Time, Business Week, and Savoy, for which he was editor in chief. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Stodghill is the author of Redbone, and his work has been anthologized in Brotherman and has appeared in Slate, Essence, Black Enterprise, and Ebony. He is also a professor at Johnson C. Smith University, an HBCU in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife and three sons.