Journal of the Dead Book

It's a thirst for existential knowledge and adventure that unexpectedly pushes two friends beyond the brink of disaster in Journal of the Dead--and ultimately calls into question the very meaning of their friendship. Jason Kersten's riveting account reconstructs the true-crime story of a baffling murder that took place one desperate morning in 1999 in New Mexico's Rattlesnake Cavern. Raffi Kodikian and David Coughlin, having lost their way after embarking on a casual, short-term hike in the desert, found themselves out of hope, on the verge of death from dehydration. According to a journal kept by Kodikian, they decided on a mutual suicide pact to spare each other excruciating pain before an inevitable death. Yet Kodikian survived after stabbing his friend. Soon afterward, he was rescued by rangers and subsequently charged with the murder of his best friend. Kersten's source material has a disturbingly fascinating quality from the start, but his accomplishment in shaping it into a multi-layered narrative is admirable and artful. Kersten pulls out all the stops in depicting not just the back story of these two friends and their circle, but also the deeper focus of the history of the desert, its allure and attendant attractions--in particular the Carlsbad Caverns--along with intriguing excursions on such topics as the biology of dehydration, the mechanics of topographical maps and the legal niceties of the "intoxication defense." His choice of background details enhances our sense of the extreme situation in which these unfortunate individuals are trapped and helps retard our easy judgment of Kodikian’s choice. Kersten is especially good at restoring an element of suspense--the outcome of the desert tragedy unfolds earlier in his book--in the way he allows the ensuing courtroom drama to unfold. Yet however much he attempts to maintain an aura of ambiguity around Kodikian's motives, Kersten can't quite efface a sense of exculpatory compassion. --Thomas May, Amazon.comRead More