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Welcome to the WBZ Book Club.
This is Jordan Rich here to talk about

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a book called Chopped, a novel
by Dale Pollock, and no, it's

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not a cookbook. The author transports
us to Boston in a different time,

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the mid eighteen hundreds, and the
scene of what many called at the time

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the crime of the century, the
disappearance, murder, and mutilation of one

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of Boston's richest residents, doctor George
Parkman, whose human remains were discovered in

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a privy vault under the laboratory of
a Harvard professor, John Webster. Turns

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out, Webster owed Parkman money,
as many did during that time, and

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after a short investigation, is accused
of murder. Webster was indeed convicted and

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executed for the murder. But in
the book Chopped a Novel, Dale Pollack

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puts a slightly different spin on the
case, one involving the earliest incarnation of

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forensic investigation and the introduction of an
original method for capturing the trial's transcripts called

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phonography, colorful characters, and a
magnificent look at what Boston was like in

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eighteen fifty Chopped a novel by Dale
M. Pollock. It's a riveting true

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crime story The Book Club WBZ,
Boston's news radio