Margins
First Born book cover
First Born
The Death of Arnold Zeleznik, Age Nine : Murder, Madness, and What Came After
1984
First Published
4.06
Average Rating
294
Number of Pages
Recounts the horrifying true story of the murder of nine-year-old Arnold Zeleznik by Vernal Walford, a former mental patient, and the Zelezniks quest for justice
Avg Rating
4.06
Number of Ratings
36
5 STARS
42%
4 STARS
31%
3 STARS
19%
2 STARS
8%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads

Author

John Katzenbach
John Katzenbach
Author · 24 books

John Katzenbach is a U.S. author of popular fiction. Son of Nicholas Katzenbach, former United States Attorney General, John worked as a criminal court reporter for the Miami Herald and Miami News, and a featured writer for the Herald’s Tropic magazine. He is married to Madeleine Blais and they live in western Massachusetts. He left the newspaper grind to write books, racking up 12 novels so far, psychological thrillers that have made him an international success. His first, 1982's bestselling *In the Heat of the Summer, became the movie *The Mean Season, filmed partially in The Herald's newsroom ans starring Kurt Russell and MAriel Hemingway. Two more of his books were made into films in the United States, 1995's *Just Cause and 2002's *Hart's War. A fourth book, *The Wrong Man was recently made into the soon-to-be-released French film Faux Coupable.

548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2026 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved