Sky Blue and Black explores the mysterious connection between seemingly unrelated events while examining everyday life in the United States in the months before September 11, 2001. Author Robert B. Murdoch weaves strands of historical and fictional events to create a vivid tapestry of American life that depicts issues of chance versus fate, life and death, hope and sorrow, and love and loss.
Told chronologically, Sky Blue and Black portrays the prosaic lives of several families in New Jersey and northeastern Ohio. It traces Al Qaeda terrorist Mohammed Atta’s final months in the U.S. as he prepares for the attacks on the World Trade Center, while simultaneously following a serial killer in northeastern Ohio, who stalks and kills one person a month, taking a memento from each body to include in his gruesome scrapbook of death. Among the killer’s victims is Chandra Levy, the missing intern whose disappearance is the story of the summer until the horrific attacks on 9/11. Meanwhile, the families live typical suburban American lives, unaware of how the ordinary events of the passing months will connect them in a most extraordinary manner to the tragedy about to unfold on a crisp, blue autumn morning.
A detailed and compelling story of American life, Sky Blue and Black captures the humor, tedium, and hope that make up our everyday existence. As the dramatic events of September 11th unfold, the lives of the various characters finally intersect on that fateful morning—and none of them knows who will live or die.
