Rail of Shadows

In the winter of his life, Elias Croft emerges from a fifty-year prison term, exonerated by DNA evidence that didn't exist at his trial. He was a young surveyor for the Seven Valleys Rail Coalition when a bridge collapse killed thirteen people—a disaster he was convicted of sabotaging for insurance money. Now, with failing health and a private investigator's diary, Elias retraces the mundane deceptions, minor bribes, and casual indifference that built a mountain of lies. The real crime was not a conspiracy of villains, but a committee of ordinary men who chose convenience over truth, and let a scapegoat carry their guilt into the grave.