robert p staadecker

A mystery, a scam, a prison escape, a love story, a philosophical debate ...

Meet Pango Brown, loving husband, father of two, and as decent a person as you could wish to meet. He's also a convict, sentenced for manslaughter. He freely admits his guilt and remorse. The mystery is "what did he do?" Pango won't talk about it.

Inmates and prison staff in Pango's story include Zabriski, the guard who spits in the inmates' soup; Jeb, a thug with a hair-trigger temper; Low Dog, who starts a race riot in a prison remedial high school class; Hiero, the innocent, convicted as a terrorist; Mrs. Haverman, who runs the prison library; her daughter, Julia; and Cory, convict master forger and confidence trickster. It's Cory who manipulates both guards, inmates and the warden into forming a twelve man prison choir - for reasons that have nothing to do with music. When Pango is released, he hitch-hikes out of the Deep South, bound for home in Maine. The Good Samaritan who gives Pango a ride uncovers layer after layer to Pango's story: justice, injustice, prison, escape, love. Most of all he is gripped by the growing mystery: what is it that Pango did?

Inspired by actual events that made legal history.