Between 1898 and 1912, families across America were slaughtered in their sleep. The blunt side of an axe was always the weapon. Valuables were left untouched, faces were covered, and the homes all shared one haunting detail—they sat near train tracks.
At the time, no one connected the dots. Newspapers sensationalized the killings, detectives bungled investigations, and the Villisca Axe Murders became infamous while dozens of others faded into obscurity.
In The Man from the Train, statistician Bill James and his daughter Rachel McCarthy James dig into thousands of old records and uncover a chilling truth: one man committed these murders, traveling by rail from town to town.
Part investigation, part cultural history, this Edgar Award finalist exposes a forgotten American serial killer.
