04.25.22 —Professor Michael Meltsner’s new novel, Mosaic: Who Paid For The Bullet? (Quid Pro Books, 2022), tells the story of a 1960s murder of a charismatic woman doctor who courted danger trying to dismantle a racially segregated healthcare system in a large Southern city. The search for who ordered the killing takes civil rights lawyer Christopher North to the centers of power, where a government intervention goes deadly wrong.
Among the many accolades for this new book, Professor Randall Kennedy of Harvard Law School has this to say: “Michael Meltsner’s hot exploration of a cold murder case is a gripping who-done-it, accompanied by brilliant insights into racial neuroses of all varieties. His nonfiction expertly describes race in the law; here, his fiction deftly probes mysteries of race in the mind and heart. I found Mosaic a fascinating read.”
The book is inspired by actual events — the struggle to end hospital segregation and denial of care — which Meltsner participated in during the 1960s as the primary lawyer who handled healthcare cases at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. A few years ago, a prominent medical researcher asked Meltsner to investigate the murder. He found official records had gone missing, potential witnesses all dead and the trail cold, but was convinced that the crime that occurred at the intersection of law, hate, greed and government intervention had to be brought to life. Hence this “true crime” novel.
Meltsner is a prolific author. His most recent book, With Passion: An Activist Lawyer’s Life, has been widely praised; his memoir, The Making of a Civil Rights Lawyer, was published in 2006. Among his other writings are: Cruel and Unusual: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment; Public Interest Advocacy; Reflections on Clinical Legal Education; and a novel, Short Takes. His 2011 play, “In Our Name: A Play of the Torture Years,” has been performed in New York and Boston to great acclaim.
Recent and Upcoming Author Events
Cambridge Public Library
November 17, 2022
The Cambridge Public Library will host a book talk with Professor Michael Meltsner and Professor Daniel Medwed, author of Barred: Why the Innocent Can’t Get Out of Prison.
Porter Square Books Author Event in Celebration of Mosaic
May 26, 2022
Porter Square Books will host an author event in celebration of Professor Michael Meltsner's new novel, Mosaic: Who Paid for the Bullet?, on Thursday, May 26. Professor Meltsner will be joined in conversation by Professor Daniel Medwed.
Praise for Mosaic: Who Paid for the Bullet?
“Michael Meltsner’s hot exploration of a cold murder case is a gripping who-done- it, accompanied by brilliant insights into racial neuroses of all variety. His non-fiction expertly describes race in the law; here, his fiction deftly probes mysteries of race in the mind and heart. I found Mosaic: Who Paid for the Bullet? a fascinating read.”
Randall Kennedy
Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
“I couldn’t put this book down, caught by a riveting plot and the echoes of a far-off news story I had been curious about. A brave woman physician is brutally murdered in the South. Meltsner has beautifully captured the mood of lonely melancholy necessary to tell this story.”
Jacqueline Olds
Author of The Lonely American; Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
“Meltsner, one of the most important civil rights lawyers in American history, masterfully blends fact and fiction in this page-turning account of a doctor's courageous quest to expose racism at an Alabama hospital.”
Evan Mandery
Emmy and Peabody Award winning author of the novel Q
“A richly woven tapestry of plot and personality, historical reality and rich imagination, hard-boiled crime story and scathing cultural critique. Its painting of the landscape of the mid-60’s South, North, civil-rights activists and their legal supporters is flawlessly authentic. Its characters true to life but drawn as only the best of fiction can – iconic in their stature yet complex and idiosyncratic to the core. As Meltsner’s murdered heroine declares: “All lives are jagged.” But nothing else is jagged in this fast-paced, seamless, exhilarating read.”
Anthony Amsterdam
New York University School of Law
“Michael Meltsner, master of fiction, litigation, and memoir, tells a fascinating, disturbing story that takes us deep inside the federal civil rights bureaucracy – not your usual murder scene. Set in a southern city in the 1960s, the murky, haunting tale reaches beyond the customary tropes about race, class, and crime to illuminate an America few of us know about. Compellingly written, it’s instructive, searing, complex, and exceptionally relevant to our ongoing encounters with our recent racial past.”
Margaret Burnham
Civil Rights Scholar and curator of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Archive
About Northeastern University School of Law
The nation’s leader in experiential legal education since 1968, Northeastern University School of Law offers the longest-running, most extensive experience-based legal education program in the country. Northeastern guarantees its students unparalleled practical legal work experiences through its signature Cooperative Legal Education Program. More than 1,000 employers worldwide in a wide range of legal, government, nonprofit and business organizations participate in the program. With a focus on social justice and innovation, Northeastern University School of Law blends theory and practice, providing students with a unique set of skills and experiences to successfully practice law.
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