Hi, everyone!
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for ZENITH MAN: Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom by McCracken Poston, Jr. on this AME Bog Tour.
Below you will find an author Q&A, a book synopsis, my book review, an excerpt from the book, and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Author Q&A
How did you do research for your book?
Since my book is about a murder trial in which I was the defendant’s lawyer, the research was first done for the trial. Beyond my case file, I did other research in the media archives and other places to piece together the strange story of Alvin and Virginia Ridley.
Which was the hardest character to write? The easiest?
Unplanned, my book also became the true story about the relationship between me and my father. I wrote it truthfully, but any time you are writing about a loved one, it can be hard. The easiest character to write about was my client, Alvin Ridley, although he was a tough client!
What made you write a book about the Zenith Man?
This was the most incredible story to live through. After the trial ended, I immediately felt that this would be a good book.
Where do you get inspiration for your stories?
So far, I have written nonfiction.
There are many books out there about true crime. What makes yours different?
My story is the inside account of being the criminal defense lawyer for a most unusual defendant.
What advice would you give budding writers?
Write the bones of your story down quickly. You can add the other stuff later. Save the stories!
In your book you state….”The voters would get their change, but mostly the faces would stay the same.” Why is that?
The rash of partisan party-switching that took place in Georgia after my last political race (and first defeat).
Do you have another profession besides writing?
I am a full-time criminal defense lawyer, thanks to the second act that Alvin Ridley gave me, and for 28 years I have been a part-time juvenile court judge.
How long have you been writing?
I have been writing down experiences and stories all of my adult life. Social media allowed me to share vignettes and short tales, all true stories.
Do you ever get writer’s block? What helps you overcome it?
Maya Angelou once said “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Until recently, I understood this agony. She was speaking to me.
What is your next project?
I have been blessed with many interesting legal cases, but I am also drawn to trying my hand at fiction – perhaps based on true stories.
What genre do you write and why?
Nonfiction. The story I had to tell is a true story.
What is the last great book you’ve read?
I recently reread The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy
What is a favorite compliment you have received on your writing?
Someone I know told me that they could hear my voice in the writing of my book.
If your book were made into a movie, who would star in the leading roles?
I refuse to jinx it, but the Alvin Ridley role is Oscar bait!
If your book were made into a movie, what songs would be on the soundtrack?
I would love classic 1980s Athens, Georgia music, to wit: Pylon, B52s, R.E.M.
What were the biggest rewards and challenges with writing your book?
I was frustrated in the telling of the story in other ways over the years.
In one sentence, what was the road to publishing like?
For years like the tortoise, then at once like the hare!
What is one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring author?
Keep at it.
Which authors inspired you to write?
Grisham, Turow, King
What is something you had to cut from your book that you wish you could have kept?
My first draft was 177,000 words. Obviously, lots had to go. But I think it came out about right.
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Book Synopsis
Was this small-town TV repair man “a harmless eccentric or a bizarre killer” (Atlanta Journal Constitution). For the first time, Alvin Ridley’s own defense attorney reveals the inside story of his case and trial in an extraordinary tale of friendship and an idealistic young attorney’s quest to clear his client’s name—and, in the process, rebuild his own life.
In October 1997, the town of Ringgold in northwest Georgia was shaken by reports of a murder in its midst. A dead woman was found in Alvin Ridley’s house—and even more shockingly, she was the wife no one knew he had.
McCracken Poston had been a state representative before he lost his bid for U.S. Congress and returned to his law career. Alvin Ridley was a local character who once sold and serviced Zenith televisions. Though reclusive and an outsider, the “Zenith Man,” as Poston knew him, hardly seemed capable of murder.
Alvin was a difficult client, storing evidence in a cockroach-infested suitcase, unwilling to reveal key facts to his defender. Gradually, Poston pieced together the full story behind Virginia and Alvin’s curious marriage and her cause of death—which was completely overlooked by law enforcement. Calling on medical experts, testimony from Alvin himself, and a wealth of surprising evidence gleaned from Alvin’s junk-strewn house, Poston presented a groundbreaking defense that allowed Alvin to return to his peculiar lifestyle, a free man.
Years after his trial, Alvin was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, a revelation that sheds light on much of his lifelong personal battle—and shows how easily those who don’t fit societal norms can be castigated and misunderstood. Part true crime, part courtroom drama, and full of local color, Zenith Man is also the moving story of an unexpected friendship between two very different men that changed—and perhaps saved—the lives of both.
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/157995299-zenith-man?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=AH1gVat6bE&rank=2
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
ZENITH MAN: Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom by McCracken Poston, Jr. is a captivating debut true crime/court room novel told by the small-town Southern attorney of a man accused of murdering his wife no one knew he had. This is the first time I have heard of this case. Court room dramas can sometimes be very boring or dry, but this case is fascinating, and I could not put the book down.
Alvin Ridley had been considered “different” his entire life in Ringgold, Georgia. One day in October 1997 Alvin called 911 to report the death of his wife. No one knew he was married or that anyone was even living with him. Alvin tried to tell the authorities he found his wife dead in her bed with her face in her pillow after an epileptic seizure, but the coroner believes it is a murder, and he is arrested.
McCracken Poston, Jr. returned to his law career after a failed Congressional election and failed marriage. Alvin was known to Poston as a local character who used to sell and repair Zenith televisions. Alvin asks Poston to represent him after his arrest and he agrees because he just cannot believe Alvin is capable of murder.
Alvin is a difficult client, but Poston learns how to bargain and deal with his idiosyncrasies. As evidence is disclosed, Alvin and his wife’s lives are examined, and Poston spends more time with Alvin, he is determined to prove Alvin innocent.
This is a story that pulled me in from start to finish. Mr. Poston’s storytelling brought Alvin to life on the printed page. He is honest about his personal failings and his misunderstanding of Alvin, who was years later diagnosed to be on the Autism spectrum, even as he grows to care about his client personally. As the story progressed, I felt more and more compassion and empathy for Alvin. His care of his mother before she died, his love of his wife, his care of his cats, and his love and pride in his TV repair shop all showed how he tried to always do what was right, but because of his paranoia and autism, many others in his small-town ostracized him. What we do not understand, we fear. His chosen inscription on his tombstone made me cry. With Alvin not being diagnosed at the time of his trial, you wonder how many other “different” people have been wrongly accused and imprisoned over the years.
I highly recommend this debut true crime novel with a defendant I will not soon forget.
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Excerpt
Prologue
October 4, 1997
Emerging from his late parents’ run-down house on Inman Street, itself for years the target of local innuendo, Alvin Ridley, failed television repairman and the town bogeyman, abruptly turns to lock the door. Glancing around to see if his perceived tormentors are watching him, he pulls open the formidable homemade gate and then slowly drives a thirty-two-year-old Chevrolet pickup truck through it. Then he jumps back out and quickly closes and locks the gate with chains and a padlock.
Two-tenths of a mile down Evitt Street, he carefully drives the 25 mph speed limit right past the local volunteer fire department, visibly staffed with an ambulance and professional EMTs always on the ready, and turns south on U.S. Highway 41, away from town. Thinking better of it less than half a mile later, he pulls into the roadside monument for the 1863 Battle of Ringgold Gap and turns around.
Continuing to drive slowly, as if it were a usual lazy Saturday morning, he pulls into the ShopRite parking lot and tries the pay phone on the exterior wall. Unsuccessful with this attempt, he gets back into the truck and drives through two parking lots to a pay phone located along LaFayette Street, behind the Catoosa County Courthouse Annex and Jail. He puts coins in the phone and calls, if you believe the later speculation, a funeral home to retrieve a dead body from his house. He most certainly calls Erlanger Hospital in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, but is instructed that this is a matter for the Catoosa County authorities.
Reluctantly he dials 911. The Catoosa County 911 office is just across the street. The operators could look out the single window facing LaFayette Street and see the stooped figure making the call.
“Catoosa 911. Where is your emergency?”
A pause, and then he answers flatly, giving his home address.
“What’s the problem?”
Again, lacking emotion, he says, “I think my wife’s passed out.”
The operator confirmed the address.
“Yeah.”
“Is she breathing?”
“I don’t think so—it’s behind the steel plant there.” He adds matter-of-factly, “I’m calling from a pay phone booth.”
“You don’t have a phone at your house?”
“There’s no phone there.”
This is the portion of the 911 call, in the detached voice of the caller, that is instantly spread around the world upon the revelation that a dead body was found in the ramshackle house on Inman Street. The immediate problem for investigators is, who was this soul? Certainly not the alleged spouse of the infamously solitary Alvin Ridley. Ridley said it was his wife, but can produce no identification for her. The body of the woman he calls his wife—Virginia—is declared dead by the coroner Vanita Hullander, who plans to take it to the hospital across the county in Fort Oglethorpe, and the next morning,deliver it to the state crime lab in Atlanta.
The portions of the 911 call not shared with the public or played on the news stations were the parts where the caller shared that his wife was, in his words, “epi-letic”, or that he ended the call with a request: “Please hurry.”
Later that morning, five miles to the south, an extremely hungover failed politician, failed husband, and marginally failing lawyer, rises. Too down and broken to even drive to Athens to see his beloved University of Georgia Bulldogs play, and seeking something for his blinding headache, he drives slowly into town.
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Author Bio
McCracken King Poston Jr, is a criminal defense attorney and former state legislator in the Georgia House of Representatives. He gained national attention for his handling of several notable cases that were featured on CNN Presents, Dateline NBC, A&E’s American Justice and Forensic Files.
Social Media Links
Website: https://www.mccrackenpostonjr.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/McCrackenPostonJr
Twitter: https://x.com/RealZenithMan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mccrackenpostonjr/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mccracken_poston_jr
Purchase Links
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3MR4iaL
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/157995299-zenith-man
Author Marketing Experts tags for social media:
Twitter: @Bookgal
Instagram: @therealbookgal
