Flagler hosts author of definitive Adam Walsh story

Brian Thompson has invited Historic City News readers to attend a reading from noted author Les Standiford in the Flagler College Auditorium located at 14 Granada Street in St. Augustine as part of the college’s Writers in Residence program.

This free event will be held on April 13th at 7:00 p.m. Fees for metered on-street parking and parking lots are not collected after 5:00 p.m., or, on Sunday.

Standiford is the author of the newly-released book, “Bringing Adam Home: The Abduction That Changed America,” a definitive account of the 1981 kidnapping and murder of six-year-old Adam Walsh in Hollywood, Florida – son of John Walsh, host of the Fox TV series America’s Most Wanted.

This crime went unsolved for a quarter of a century. The book is also a compelling portrait of Miami Beach Homicide Detective Joe Matthews, whose unwavering dedication brought the Walsh case to its resolution.

Standiford’s new book has received critical acclaim from many sources including author Dennis Lehane, who said, “Les Standiford’s account of the decades-long attempt to solve the murder of Adam Walsh is chilling, heartbreaking, hopeful, and as relentlessly suspenseful as anything I’ve ever read. [It is] a triumph in every way.”

Both historian and novelist, Standiford is the author of the critically acclaimed “Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Building of the Overseas Railroad to Key West,” “Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Transformed America,” and “Washington Burning: How a Frenchman’s Vision for Our Nation’s Capital Survived Congress, the Founding Fathers, and the Invading British Army,” as well as 10 novels, including the John Deal mystery series.

Standiford is a past recipient of the Frank O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, a Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Fiction, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction. He is currently Professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University in Miami.