Mr. Martin Puntney

The Semblance of Truth Mr. Martin Puntney

"The Semblance of Truth," tells the story of a small town newspaper editor thrust into an investigation of the rape and murder of a young school teacher and a black youth burned alive for the crime 30 years before. The title comes from De La Rochefoucauld?s maxim that says ?The semblance of truth does more evil in the world than the truth does good.? Set in a small town in a part of Missouri still known as Little Dixie, the story plays against a backdrop of the Vietnam War and the racial tensions that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The story unfolds in first person accounts that begin with the murdered girl, the rapist, and the black youth framed for the crime, and concludes with a confrontation with the real murderer in a burning newspaper building. In between there?s a love triangle, a portrait of the newspaper business near the height of its importance in American public life, a shady land deal, an epidemic of arsons, and the seduction of a white female student by a black professor.