Invisible Palace

One August night in 1996, on a rural highway in Java, an investigative journalist was beaten to death by unknown assailants. Two months later, police arrested a high-school drop-out and put him on trial for the reporter’s murder. One problem: the accused killer had never met his alleged victim.

Entwined in local rivalries, media intrigues, and the long-held beliefs of many Javanese in fate, myth and magic, the killing of Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin spawned an unprecedented criminal investigation, a gripping courtroom drama and a nationwide controversy that signaled the iron rule of Indonesia’s longtime president, Suharto, was ending.

Researched and written over two years from confidential documents, court records and exclusive interviews with police, investigators, lawyers, witnesses and survivors, this unique account reconstructs the legal and political drama surrounding one of Indonesia’s most famous unsolved murders. Combining journalism, travel writing and true crime, The Invisible Palace is an engrossing and deeply described study of media, politics and justice in the contemporary developing world.