In May, 1972, T.V. LoCicero finished a book-length, non-fiction tale of deceit and criminality involving a major American publisher. It was also a memoir that covered the most intense and frustrating period in LoCicero's life. Soon thereafter, he gave his only copy of the manuscript to a University of Michigan professor who had encouraged him to write it. And when LoCicero eventually lost touch with his friend the professor, the manuscript was lost for more than 30 years. Why give away his last copy of a story so important to him, and why make no concerted effort to recover it for such a long time? The answers are offered in Squelched, which includes LoCicero's original manuscript, plus a new Author's Note and Epilogue. The book tells the story of his experience in researching and writing Murder in the Synagogue, a true crime account of the shocking assassination of Rabbi Morris Adler on Lincoln's Birthday, 1966. It describes the strange publication of Murder by Prentice-Hall, Inc., that guaranteed the book would fail, and it recounts the information the author received from a remarkable young woman who came forward to tell him that a wealthy and powerful businessman, and major supporter of Richard Nixon, had arranged with the publisher to "squelch" his book. Squelched is a fascinating account of a betrayed young writer's sudden plunge into the wiles of publishing and his unexpected lessons in how the world works. The epilogue explains how the original manuscript finally came back to LoCicero after more than three decades and brings the story up to date. Many will note that its look at corporate manipulation and the power and influence of wealth and political connection remains deeply relevant in our world today.
"...reads with the speed of a best-selling fiction novel."-Israel Drazin, Amazon Top 1000 Reviewer
"...so absorbing that I could do nothing else until I finished it."-Jack Riemer, "President Clinton's rabbi"
"Misconduct by a major publishing house? A chain of lies and dodgy maneuvers keep the author's first nonfiction work from ever getting off the ground, despite being well-received by almost everyone who (against the odds) manages to read it? And there is nothing unlikely, bizarre or farfetched about any of it. This conspiracy is as pedestrian as pork and beans, and that in itself makes the story utterly believable."-Eileen McHenry, Shelfari
T.V. LoCicero has been writing both fiction and non-fiction across five decades. In addition to Murder in the Synagogue and Squelched, he is the author of the novels The Obsession and The Disappearance, the first two volumes of The Truth Beauty Trilogy, and the soon-to-appear Sicilian Quilt. Seven of his shorter works are now available as ebooks. These are among the stories and essays he has published in various periodicals, including Commentary, Ms. and The University Review, and in the hard-cover collections Best Magazine Articles, The Norton Reader and The Third Coast.
