Bad Blood

Freedom and Death in the White Mountains

Casey Sherman

In the shadow of the fallen Old Man of the Mountain, on a lonely stretch of mountain road, two men lay dead. A spasm of violence that took only a few minutes to play out leaves a community divided and searching for answers. From the author of newly released Boston Strong: A City’s Triumph Over Tragedy, about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, Bad Blood is the riveting account of the long-standing feud between Franconia, New Hampshire, police officer Bruce McKay, 48, and Liko Kenney, 24. In May 2007, Kenney shot and killed Officer McKay, following a dramatic chase that began with a routine traffic stop. Kenney, cousin of ski legend Bode Miller, was then shot and killed by a shadowy passerby. Almost immediately, the tragic incident revealed deep tensions within this otherwise quiet community in the White Mountains with charges that Kenney was a hell-raiser and mentally unstable and counter-charges that Officer McKay was a rogue cop who dispensed justice as a way to settle personal scores. Striving to get at the truth of the story, the author uncovers a complicated mix of personalities and motivations. Local and statewide interests clash while regional and national media— and even YouTube viewers— supply ready stereotypes to fit their agendas. Amid larger questions of the meaning of individual freedom we are, ultimately, helpless witnesses to an inevitable clash of characters.

Paper: $19.95 | E-book: $16.99

ISBN-13: 9781611683738

Pages: 244 | Size: 5.75 in. x 8.75 in.

Date Published: December 15, 2009

Imprint:

University Press of New England

“A first-rate story that simply demands to be read.”

Lorenzo Carcaterra

Reviews

In this riveting true crime tale …Characters are not just colorful but complete…As daunting facts come to light, the townspeople form two opposing camps-those for Floyd and those against-making it all but impossible for them to discern anything important from the shooting. Focusing the testimony of witnesses, loved ones and officials, Sherman provides that missing sense of perspective with skill.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Bad Blood is a story about the different worlds coexisting in that isolated piece of the New Hampshire mountains, and how easily that coexistence can twist into conflict or disaster. It also reminds us that there’s more to every story than meets the eye.

Foster’s Daily Democrat
Sherman’s telling of the McKay-Kenney story is fluid, crisp and accurate.

Nashua Telegraph
A first-rate story that simply demands to be read, the pacing is turbo-charged, the plot is an emotional roller-coaster ride, the writing is page-turning crisp, ranking up there with the best of Joseph Wambaugh. Bad Blood is that good a book.

Lorenzo Carcaterra
author of Sleepers and Chasers
Bad Blood unflinchingly dares to take readers inside the seething heart of a divided community. Author Casey Sherman is the perfect guide for this story, as he presents a devastating account by deftly revealing the truth as he peels away layer after layer of assumption and presumption. Shocking, disturbing, but ultimately enlightening.

Gregg Olsen
New York Times bestselling author

About the Author

Casey Sherman

Casey Sherman is considered one of America’s preeminent true-crime authors and investigative journalists. His books include The Finest Hours (now in production as a major motion picture for Walt Disney Pictures), Animal: The Bloody Rise and Fall of the Mob’s Most Feared Assassin, Search for the Strangler (in development at FOX Television), and Bad Blood. A finalist for the Massachusetts Book of the Year honors and the prestigious New Hampshire Literary …

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