In 1969, Jane Mixer, a student at the University of Michigan Law School, was heading to her hometown for spring break and posted an ad looking for travel companions. She never made it home: the next day her body was found several miles from campus. “Red Parts: The Autobiography of a Trial” is a book by Maggie Nelson about the murder of her Aunt Jane and the trial that took place thirty-five years later. After a DNA match pointed to a new suspect, a case that had remained unsolved for decades was reopened. Nelson, who took part in the trial, addresses the theme of human obsession with violence. Recording not only the chronicle of the trial, but also what is happening inside it - horror, grief, skepticism, confusion - with reporter, Didion-like thoroughness, she creates an original literary text of merciless moral precision.