This is a piece of investigative journalism. Mr. Hersey has told the story of a police riot, which was a subset of the Detroit riots of 1967. It is a very illuminating study of the genesis of the "Black Lives Matter" Movement of today. those people have a very good reason for organizing in that fashion. It is not so recent but still (2017) very readable. ( )

The Algiers Motel Incident took place during the Detroit race riots in July of 1967. After several days of trying unsuccessfully to contain the riots, the Detroit police, state police, and National Guard were obviously stressed out, overworked, tired, and on edge. When police were called to the Algiers Motel due to the possibility of snipers there, things got out of hand. A dozen young black men and two white women who were in the motel at the time (none of whom were snipers) were brutally beaten by the police and three of the men were killed. In this book Hersey attempts to sort through all of the lies that were told by people on both sides following the incident. He presents as many of the facts as he was able to uncover and points out which stories may or may not be true.

I picked up this book at a used book sale because I recognized the author, but since it had no dust jacket, I had no idea what it was about or even that it was nonfiction. Even though it ended up being something completely different than I expected, I found it to be an interesting read. Hersey tells us in the beginning that no one really knows what happened that night because the witnesses are so unreliable. The purpose of the book was to list all of the facts in order to bring attention to an incident that never should have happened, not to solve the mystery. I think the book did a good job of doing that. ( )

John Hersey's factual style of writing can really capture the sensibility of a specific time. This story is a tragedy for everyone that was touched by it. It is a very powerfully emotional work. This writer was a young teenager living in a Detroit suburb at the time. It felt really close to home. ( )