{"product_id":"val-k-and-the-murder-gerald-r-schmidt-9798233837722","title":"Val K. and the Murder Castle","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChicago, 1891-1896\u003c\/strong\u003e-a city expanding fast. Steam whistles, tenement stoups, the smell of coal, the clang of horsecars. \u003cstrong\u003ePolish immigrants\u003c\/strong\u003e crowd the Near-west Side, carrying their language, saints, griefs, and hopes. In the midst of this restless, muscular city rises the most extraordinary and terrible building of the decade: the three-story labyrinth known as the \u003cstrong\u003eMurder Castle\u003c\/strong\u003e. This novel steps away from sensationalized crime narratives and enters the world of the ordinary people who brushed against that darkness without knowing it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe story follows the Karnowski family, Polish Catholics struggling to gain a foothold in \u003cstrong\u003eChicago Polonia\u003c\/strong\u003e. Valentine Karnowski, a skilled joiner, works long hours and scrapes together additional income wherever he can-including jobs subcontracted to the strange hotel rising at 63rd and Wallace. He sees only the work before him: tight deadlines, shifting instructions, sealed spaces he is told not to question. In a city where \u003cstrong\u003eunemployment\u003c\/strong\u003e can rise without warning and manhood is judged by whether a man can provide bread and a home, Val cannot afford to walk away. Yet guilt begins to root itself in him, even as he tries to believe the Castle is merely an eccentric businessman's whim.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt home, Marcyanna holds the family together with prayer, determination, and the stubborn pride of a woman who will not let hardship win. Their children-Vincent, Frank, Felix, Joanna, Luke, and Marianna-grow into the city's rhythms: shrill factory whistles, friendly parish festivals, the hunger of lean months, and the frightening \u003cstrong\u003etyphoid \u003c\/strong\u003ethat sweeps the city. Thru their eyes, readers enter the real texture of \u003cstrong\u003eimmigrant life\u003c\/strong\u003e: bad drinking water, child labor, crowded wooden houses, and the upright moral world of \u003cstrong\u003eFr. Barzyński, \u003c\/strong\u003e who guides, rebukes, and consoles his flock.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChicago itself is a character. \u003cstrong\u003eThe World's Columbian Exposition\u003c\/strong\u003e dazzles the public while masking the poverty lingering only blocks away. \u003cstrong\u003ePolitical machines\u003c\/strong\u003e tighten their grip on the wards, and whispers of \u003cstrong\u003epolice corruption\u003c\/strong\u003e drift thru saloons and alleys. Meanwhile, \u003cstrong\u003estrange disappearances \u003c\/strong\u003eorbit the handsome, persuasive figure known as \u003cstrong\u003eH. H. Holmes\u003c\/strong\u003e, tho few suspect anything amiss until it is too late.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the Murder Castle fills with rumors and dread, Val feels the pressure of complicity without knowledge. He struggles to confess what he cannot name, fearing both the loss of his livelihood and the judgment of God. Neighbors, shopkeepers, parishioners, and even policemen appear in glimpses-each carrying a piece of the truth, none able to see the whole.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1896, when the Castle's secrets finally surface, the Karnowskis must confront the question that lies at the heart of the novel: \u003cstrong\u003eWhat responsibility does an ordinary person bear for evil he did not intend, but helped make possible?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRich in \u003cstrong\u003ehistorical detail\u003c\/strong\u003e, steeped in the reality of Chicago Polonia, this novel offers an intimate lens on \u003cstrong\u003eone of America's most infamous crimes\u003c\/strong\u003e, and the people who unwittingly enabled him to act-and the cost of surviving in a world where conscience, poverty, faith, and fear collide.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Gerald R. Schmidt\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798233837722\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Gerald R. Schmidt\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/21\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 322\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.95lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.67d","brand":"Gerald R. Schmidt","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":50546393055487,"sku":"9798233837722","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/val-k-and-the-murder-gerald-r-schmidt-9798233837722","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}