Sunset Park

Sunset Park

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by Ace Atkins

true crime story

published July 2025

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n 1999, long before Ace Atkins became a celebrated crime novelist, he worked as a crime beat reporter for The Tampa Tribune. One of his most fascinating stories was a deep dive into the unsolved, mysterious death of Tampa socialite Edy Parkhill in 1956. The case led Atkins to retired detectives, old mob contacts, and friends of the victim who never forgot her — and believed the true story of her death had never been told. The Edy Parkhill story brought Atkins, already a novelist with his first two books under his belt, into the intricate power structure of the Tampa Bay area in the 1950s, where the old Southern aristocracy colluded with mob bosses to control the city.

Atkins wrote a seven-part series, reworked and updated here, that was nominated for both the Livingston Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Sunset Park is not only a fascinating true crime investigation by a storied writer, but a living, breathing piece of time travel back to mid 1950s America and a town populated by old Florida elites, Cuban immigrants and one of the most powerful crime families in America.

Unavailable online or anywhere for nearly two decades, Atkins is thrilled this updated and annotated version is finally available to his fans.