Books: Those Bones Are Not My Child

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Atlanta's progressive image was severely tested in the early '80s by the murder of dozens of black children. White police suspected parents; African Americans saw the hand of the Ku Klux Klan; others believed that a child pornography ring was responsible. The killings abated after the arrest and conviction of Wayne Williams, a black photojournalist. But suspicions and suppositions continued. Bambara's posthumous docu-novel conveys the period's fear and conflict with a powerful blend of fact, fiction and indignation.

--By R.Z. Sheppard