Life imitates art. After writing Secondhand Sight, I worried about the extreme nature of the violence in the plot of my second novel. I wondered if some of the most gruesome passages in the book might alienate fans of Coastal Empire. It never occurred to me that the evening news might actually suppress a far more sinister story than I could ever imagine being able to tell. Of course, the media could tell this disturbing story if they only reported the truth, the sordid details in the trial of abortion specialist Dr. Kermit Gosnell. The details are so bad that I'm tempted to suggest if you're squeamish to stop reading, but I think this is important information that everyone should know. The benefit mitigates the cost. But let me get right to the point. If these charges are true, Hannibal Lecter had nothing on this guy. The contents of Dr. Gosnell’s Philadelphia abortion clinic make Jaime Gumb’s torture chamber in Silence of the Lambs sound relatively tame, almost pleasant in comparison. Kirsten Powers wrote horrific tales in USA Today, of barbarous beheadings and baby feet kept in jars, like macabre souvenirs collected by a deranged serial killer. Most troubling is the fact that her story isn’t fiction. This butcher called a doctor apparently did all these things, and much, much worse. According to reports of court testimony, this was a man who casually joked that one baby he’d just murdered was so big he could “walk me to the bus stop.” Words can’t begin to describe the nausea and revulsion I felt after reading what this miserable excuse for … [Read more...]