My Book Review Via Dorothy

   Yes, my summer reading consists of a single book, non-fiction at that.I started to read it almost 20 years ago when Dorothy handed it to me, but I lost interest at the time; it struck me as rather boring in its presentation.
  The title is  To Spend Eternity Alone. The author is Dr. Hollis A. Palmer, and the book was published by Deep Roots Publications, Saratoga Springs, N.Y. a vanity press edition, I assume.
   The subject is the 1878 Trial of the Century, where all the major newspapers in the country sent their reporters to cover what was to become the longest and most expensive trial in the history of the United States: the "Billings Tragedy."
Wealthy Jesse Billings was tried for the murder of his wife by shooting her in the head through the window of her  living room one evening.
    So it is a mystery. The author claims to have been inspired to write the book by reading a single sentence in a book on local history. How it ends is still a mystery to me because I haven't finished reading it yet.
   The other mystery is how this book came to be in my house. I know Dorothy gave it to me, with kind of  quixotic expression and explanation. She didn't want it anymore, but also didn't want to throw it away.
    The book was given to her by the author, and signed by him. I never heard the story.