By Erin Wood
True crime readers and those who recall the 2016 murder of Susan Cooper in Malvern have a new perspective on the case from central Arkansas author Jerry Spurger, the FBI agent who worked the case from start to finish.
Murder at Midnight: The FBI’s battle with violence and drugs in a small Southern town (independently published by Spurgers) was released this summer, with a launch event in Conway at the end of September.
For two years, silence shrouded the vanishing of Susan (aka Suzen) Cooper of Malvern. Now, the mysterious disappearance and suppression of the truth are cracked open by Spurgers, who worked this case of drug conspiracy, witness intimidation, and murder.
Murder at Midnight is the true story of how Spurgers and a team of local officers, sheriff deputies, and a federal analyst combined traditional police work with new technologies to unravel the circumstances of Susan Cooper’s fate. Beyond sharing facts from the case file, it offers insight into the thought processes of the victim and those responsible for her disappearance from a veteran investigator, giving readers a better understanding of how law enforcement officers uncovered the truth.
Author Jerry Spurgers served nearly 24 years as an FBI agent whose specialty was violent crime. He spent most of his career serving on the Little Rock Field Office’s forensic team as a collateral duty. In this capacity, he oversaw the processing of numerous crime scenes, ranging from bank burglaries to death investigations. Spurgers has taught crime scene classes in Arkansas and El Salvador and is an Air Force veteran.
Request the book to be ordered through your favorite local bookstore or find it online.
Hot Springs native Erin Wood is a writer, editor, and publisher in Little Rock. She owns and runs etaliapress.com.
Wood is the author of “Women Make Arkansas: Conversations With 50 Creatives” (2019) and editor of and a contributor to “Scars: An Anthology” (2015).
