Freedomland — Richard Price

Dazed and bleeding, Brenda Martin stumbles into a city hospital and tells an astonishing story: first about the black man who hijacked her car. Then about her young son, who was asleep in the back seat. As the nation watches spellbound, frantic police descend on the housing projects, searching for a stolen child, tearing apart a neighborhood that doesn't need an excuse to explode. An edgy young reporter hustles her way into the eye of the storm. A good cop stands at an impossible spot. And soon all the pain, hope, and madness of a heat-soaked city will come pouring out into the streets--because of a story that may be true, or may be the most horrifying lie of all... .