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THE BOOK OF MATT

National True Crime Bestseller

What role did crystal meth and other previously underreported factors play in the brutal murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard? Why was the personal relationship between Shepard and his killer Aaron McKinney deliberately concealed? The Book of Matt  is a page-turning cautionary tale that humanizes and de-mythologizes Matthew while following the evidence where it leads, without regard to the politics that have long attended this American tragedy

"On the night of the attack, there was a regular shipment of meth coming into Laramie that Matthew was involved with. Matthew was slated to be one of the two people making the run to Denver that night."
Stephen Jimenez

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The Author

Stephen Jimenez

Award-Winning Journalist, Writer, and Producer

He was a 2012 Norman Mailer Nonfiction Fellow and has written and produced programs for ABC News 20/20, Dan Rather Reports, Nova, Fox, Court TV and others.

His accolades include the Writers Guild of America Award, the Mongerson Award for Investigative Reporting (Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism), an Emmy, and several fellowships at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming.

A graduate of Georgetown University, he has taught screenwriting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and other colleges.

Stephen lives in Brooklyn, New York and Santa Fe, New Mexico

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Stephen Jimenez
Photo: William Coupon

THE BOOK OF MATT QUOTES

Sohrah Ahmari@SohrahAhmari
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"The Book of Matt shows that “the Shepard tragedy — like all human tragedies — is more complicated than many would like to believe."
Lynne Maxwell Library Journal (★ Starred Review)
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"Be prepared to encounter a radically revised version of the life and death of Matthew Shepard . . . This riveting true crime narrative will appeal to readers of books such as Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song."
Yasmin Nair, In These TimesWriter, activist, academic. Co-founder, Against Equality, Editor at large, Current Affairs.
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"Jimenez takes pains to note throughout the book that no matter what led up to the murder, the event was still horrific. And the end result of his retelling is not to demonize Matthew Shepard—Jimenez is himself gay—but to point out that he was human."
Andrea PeyserNew York Post
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“Jimenez unearthed a story that… calls into question everything you think you know about the life and death of one of the leading icons of our age.”
Reed Eckhardt Wyoming Tribune Eagle
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The Matthew Shepard murder “has been framed as perhaps the most notorious gay hate crime in this nation’s history. But that is looking at things through the eyes of a child: wishing for easy answers among the interaction of complex human lives. Perhaps, as Mr. Jimenez suggests, it is time to grow up… The underlying truth — particularly about the ties to the sale and abuse of meth — was lost, covered up or both as the national story about a gay bashing took on a life or its own."
Kevin BakerAmerican novelist, political commentator, and journalist.
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“The Book of Matt provides us for the first time with the real story of an American tragedy.”
Jeff WalshFormer editor, Oasis, an online magazine for LGBT youth
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“Jimenez does a masterful job of unspooling this haunted narrative like a puzzle… Anyone interested in the Matthew Shepard case needs to read this book.”
Kyle SmitFormerly at New York Post, currently Critic-at-large, National Review
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“Matthew Shepard’s death was horrific, but the myths surrounding it are pure politics.”
John StoltenbergDC Metro Theater Arts, Washington, DC
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“Ignoring the tragedies that preceded Matthew’s murder will only serve to ensure that other youth who are sexually violated, ensnared by drugs, and sold for sex will remain invisible and lost… Really reckoning with Matthew’s life story, including its dark sides, could open society’s eyes to see the similarly broken lives of other young people. And maybe help save them. And that would be Matthew’s honest legacy.”
JoAnn WypijewskiContributor, The Nation
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“The [Shepard] murder was so vicious, the aftermath so sensational, that the story first told to explain it became gospel truth before anyone could measure it against reality. That story was born, in part, of shock and grief… [and] it was also born of straight culture and secrets."
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The Book Of Matt

The Real Story of the Murder of Mathew Shepard

On the night of October 6, 1998, twenty-one-year-old Matthew Shepard left a bar with two alleged “strangers,” Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. Eighteen hours later, he was found tied to a log fence, unconscious and barely alive. Overnight, a politically expedient myth took the place of important facts. By the time Matthew died a few days later, his name was synonymous with anti-gay hate. The Book of Matt, first published in 2013, demonstrates that the truth is far more complicated.

Available at: Amazon buy book button  barnes and noble buy button  indiebound buy book button bookshop buy book button

Available at: amazon icon   barnes and noble icon   indebound icon  bookshop buy book icon

The Book Of Matt New Cover