In the early years of the 20th century across a wide swath of the United States, people were brutally murdered by a man wielding an axe.

This book by baseball statistician Bill James and his daughter Rachel McCarthy James is an attempt to link a large number of these crimes to one killer and identify him. Initially, James linked the murderer to a series of similar crimes that took place between 1909 and 1912. Rachel's research takes the story back to 1898 and a first murder that possibly reveals the killer's name.

It was the murder of eight people inside a locked house in Villisca, Iowa, in June 1912 that first stirred the interest of James and led him to believe it wasn't the killer's first. As he and his daughter began looking at old newspapers and other resources, they were shocked by the sheer number of crimes showing similarities that linked them to one perpetrator.

Fundamental aspects of the similarities included an isolated dwelling in a rural setting near railroad tracks, the victims generally slain with the blunt side of the axe, the faces of the victims covered by a cloth, window shades and blinds closed, doors locked or jammed shut, and, often, the house set afire as the killer exited the scene of his crimes. Usually, no valuables were taken from the scene. And, in many cases, a prepubescent female was among the victims.

The James team sorted through multiple crimes in the period in question and show why they don't suit the pattern of their suspect. The comment on some of these other crimes is an interesting side issue but doesn't distract from their primary premise.

So, if they could recognize the work of a single killer, why didn't the contemporary investigators arrive at the same conclusion? Policing in that period was often the work of untrained amateurs. Private detectives more interested in rewards than solutions were often called in to do the investigating. Fact-checking in newspapers was spotty and sharing of stories by wire services was in its infancy. And, the scientific advantage of forensics which is a great help to today's investigators didn't yet exist.

Are the Jameses right in their assumptions? That's for the reader to decide. For this one, I believe they've made a good case.