Goldman gives us the anatomy of a crime while opening a window to a misunderstood neighboring country that is flirting with anarchy. More, he offers an overdue indictment of brutal war criminals who were not just behind the one killing, but also contributed to a generation of atrocities.

Goldman’s book is described on its jacket as belonging to the genre of ‘true crime’. But that somewhat demeaning classification can’t begin to encompass its scope. He provides not only a measured and compelling account of the murder, its investigation and aftermath, but also a rich and detailed portrait of the country where it happened.

Faced with this extraordinary melange of ingredients, Goldman could have been forgiven for slipping into the narrative liberties of magical realism. Instead, he has produced a piece of well-researched non-fiction that explores the political conspiracy to murder Gerardi in detail that seems irrefutable.

The product of seven years' research, The Art of Political Murder develops into a multi-layered real-life whodunnit and quest for justice. Forensic and chilling, with an eye for the absurd, it suggests with sombre hope that courage and decency can prevail against the darkest forces, albeit at terrible cost.

This meticulously researched investigation into the 1998 assassination of the Guatemalan bishop Juan Gerardi pits the unspeakably evil Guatemalan military against impoverished Mayan Indians and their outgunned legal and religious defenders.

While the premise of the book is that of a thriller—a murder was committed and a writer sets out to find the perpetrator—the facts that Goldman is a novelist, that it takes place in post-Cold War Guatemala, and that it is a work of nonfiction makes for a thriller that crashes through barriers of genre.

The Art of Political Murder is an account of the battle to bring the bishop's murderers to justice. It is told from the inside, working with those in the archdiocesan human rights office who have made it their business to nail the culprits. It reads (and is categorised by its publishers) as 'true crime,' but in the hands of a subtle and fired-up author, this is a book that exposes the corrupt, brutal and ruthless political climate that the US has spent so many decades and so many millions of dollars maintaining in Central America.

Utilizing his skills as a novelist, Goldman recounts the unfolding investigation like a good detective story, as layers of deception are peeled away.

Thorough, engrossing summary and analysis of Guatemalan Bishop Juan Gerardi’s death in 1998.

The large cast and myriad details can be overwhelming, but overall Goldman manages a clear narrative.