The Book
The book is a mystery based on a sensational murder that happened in 1976 in the posh town. A prominent Palm Beach man is shotgunned to death through a window of his home, and a hoodlum/karate expert is convicted of the crime. While he is in prison awaiting many appeals for a new trial, his loving wife contracts a usually fatal disease. In the guise of fiction, the book contains shocking new information about the murderer and the man of great national importance behind it. This information, which I discovered during my long career as a newspaper and magazine writer and editor, never has been made public.
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The Author
Bob (Robert) Brink was born in Muskegon, Mich., and relocated with his parents at age 6 to their home state of Iowa, growing up in and around Des Moines and moving to a small farm at age 14. After a torturous coming-of-age, he embarked on a newspaper career that took him to Joliet, Ill., Chicago, Milwaukee, Tampa and West Palm Beach, in which vicinity he has lived for a number of years. He garnered several writing awards, and the magazine where he was copy chief won an award for Best Written Magazine in Florida. In early middle age, Brink learned to play clarinet and tenor saxophone and performed many years in a symphonic winds band while also doing a few big band gigs. He learned ballroom dancing and is a health enthusiast, blogging on alternative health care along with grammar and sociopolitics. While doing freelance writing and editing, he became an author, ghost-writing a book and completing two novels. MURDER IN PALM BEACH: THE HOMICIDE THAT NEVER DIED, published by Pegasus Books, was released Dec. 9. He is at work on another mystery novel.
More about Bob
Career Highlights
OUT OF THE CORNFIELDS . . .
If Billy Joel had grown up in Iowa instead of the Bronx, it’s doubtful he’d have composed Iowa State of Mind. Somehow, undulating cornfields and somnolent little towns don’t inspire in the same way that majestic skyscrapers and frenetic lifestyles gave rise to New York State of Mind. That fast-paced way of living was what lured Bob Brink away from Iowa and into journalism, which would take him to major cities. But please, dear reader, do not think he is disparaging Iowa, which ranks among the highest in the nation in literacy rate. (That happened after his departure, which he prefers to think was unrelated.)
INTO THE BIG CITY . . .
His first newspaper job was at The Herald-News in Joliet, Ill., where he won an award from the Northern Illinois Editor’s and Publisher’s Association for an investigation of fire hazards in seedy hotels. It was a short hop to Chicago, where he cavorted weekends before joining The Associated Press, covering airplane and train disasters, and nearly getting himself killed in reporting on race riots.
MURDER IN MILWAUKEE . . .
Though in love with Chicago, Brink left for the promise of greater writing opportunity with the Milwaukee Journal (now Journal Sentinel). He’d done a lot of police reporting in Joliet, and was a full-time police reporter in Milwaukee for more than a year, burnishing his résumé with a story about a murder that resulted in a coroner’s inquest.
TROPICAL TAMPA . . .
Hearkening the call of the mild – weather, that is – he departed the lackluster, frigid Milwaukee for tropical Florida and the Tampa Tribune, where his reporting on appliance dealers forced them to abandon their shady sales tactics.
WINDING UP IN WEST PALM BEACH . . .
He was fond of Tampa and the paper, but after excelling in a one-night substitution for the education reporter, editors insisted he fill that slot permanently. Bidding farewell to its rich Hispanic traditions, Brink settled in for a nearly 15-year stint at the Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach. He spent most of that time writing fascinating features, and covering enriching culture and entertainment, while exposing an embezzler at a local theater.
MAGAZINE MILIEU . . .
Leaving journalism for a period, he tried his hand at a business venture, but realized that wasn’t his forte and returned to the world of words with Palm Beach Media Group. For its flagship magazine, Palm Beach Illustrated (PBI), he won an award from the Florida Magazine Association for a story on astronaut Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin and the future of space travel, and penned a potpourri of celebrity profiles, including one on Winston Churchill’s grandson. As copy chief for the group, he edited Naples Illustrated in its first year and won for PBI the Best Written Magazine award from the state association. He also won an award from the American Heart Association for a story on the benefits of walking.
NOUVEAU NOVELIST . . .
As a freelance writer and editor, Brink now is authoring books, with the roman à clef Murder in Palm Beach: The Homicide That Never Died, which has been published by PegasusBooks.net. Bob is presently writing his next novel.
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