title: A Soul on Trial: A Marine Corps Mystery at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
author:  Robin R. Cutler 
description: During 1907, Marine lieutenant James N. Sutton, a native of Oregon, died suddenly on the campus of the U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis. In short order, a formal navy inquiry ruled Sutton's death a suicide. The Marine's mothera devout Catholic but also a spiritualistsaid she received visits from her dead son in which he challenged the navy's verdict and asked his mother to get him justice. Rosa Sutton's subsequent battle with military authorities gained headlines nationwide and sparked a formal 1909 inquiry presenting evidence that Sutton had been the victim of foul play. Author Cutler, who holds a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University, is James Sutton's great-niece and Rosa Sutton's great-granddaughter. Thus, she had complete access to a family treasure trove of documents relating to the case. However, Cutler is out of her depth in trying to narrate the complex tale. She takes her eye off the ball with long-winded tangents on the politics, media and culture of the Progressive era. The result is a captivating story delivered a deathblow by its artless telling. Photos. <i>(Oct.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  This is a work of fiction in the historical setting of World War II. It
  contains errors of fact. Times and places of specific circumstances in actual
  military operations, names and missions of ships, and naval communication
  procedures have been distorted either to suit the story or to avoid
  inadvertent recounting of still classified information. All the persons and
  events aboard the Caine are imaginary. Any resemblance to actual persons or
  events is coincidental. No ship named U.S.S. Caine exists or existed. The
  records of thirty years show no instance of a court-martial resulting from the
  relief of a captain at sea under Article 184, 185, and 186 of the Naval
  Regulations. The fictitious figure of the deposed captain was contrived from a
  study of psychoneurotic case histories to motivate the central situation and
  is not a portrait of a real military person or a type. This statement is made
  in view of an existing tendency to seek lampoons of living