Includes bibliographical references and index.

"This is the story of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the hunt for his killer. On the evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., stepped onto the balcony of Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. What happened next -- a man in a window, a rifle, and a single shot -- was one of the most horrific and tragic events of the twentieth century. But this book is about more than a murder. It is the story of two men set against the backdrop of the turbulent 1960s -- a decade of assassinations, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the counterculture, and the race to the moon. It is the story of King's heroic life, his tumultuous last year, and his fateful trip to Memphis. But is also the story of a mysterious, lifelong criminal -- James Earl Ray -- whose 1967 escape from prison sent him on a strange, year-long journey that unexpectedly climaxed with King's murder and one of the biggest manhunts in American history. In an action-packed, minute-by-minute, ticking-clock narrative, James L. Swanson, award-winning New York Times bestselling author of Manhunt, Chasing Lincoln's Killer, and "The President has been shot!": The Assassination of John F. Kennedy, weaves together the riveting stories of the assassin and the civil rights leader as he transports readers back to one of the most shocking, sad, and frightening days in American history." -- Publisher's description

Grades 9-12.

Age 12 and up.

Accelerated Reader Level 7.6.