HANDS THROUGH STONE

James A. Ardaiz is the former presiding justice of the Fifth District Court of Appeals in California. Before that he served as a deputy district attorney in Fresno County, California. He was a key figure in both the investigation and prosecution of the notorious Clarence Ray Allen, the last man to be executed in the state of California. He lives in Fresno, California.

This fascinating and gripping portrayal is the only book-length account ever written about the illicit career of Clarence Ray Allen, one of the most sinister criminal masterminds and mass murderers in American history. Even hardened detectives were shaken by the scene at Fran's Market in rural Fresno County that night in 1980: four young people lay on the market's concrete floor, bloodily murdered by a killer without mercy or remorse. Then a grim investigation became even grimmer when the evidence led to the prime suspect -- a convicted murderer already behind the stone walls of Folsom. A true crime story that reads like an intricately woven mystery, the book depicts the chilling scenes of murder, a dogged investigation, and the true story behind the Fran's Market murders and their psychopathic mastermind. Written by former prosecutor James Ardaiz, who was one of the first investigators on the scene at Fran's Market, "Hands Through Stone" provides an insider's view of the tortuous, multiyear investigation that brought a killer to justice.