LITERARY EXECUTIVE REVIEW: Wes Skillings, “MOSAIC Pieces: Surviving the Dark Side of American Justice”

by ReadersMagnet | October 23, 2025 | Literary Executive Review | 0 Comments

In MOSAIC Pieces: Surviving the Dark Side of American Justice, veteran journalist Wes Skillings turns a local tragedy into a timeless reflection on truth, integrity, and the price of flawed justice.

Through decades of investigation, Skillings reexamines the 1973 murder of twelve-year-old Jennifer Hill in a quiet Pennsylvania town – a case that should have ended in clarity but instead unraveled into a chilling example of how fear, bias, and authority can distort the pursuit of truth.

The wrongful conviction of Kim Hubbard becomes the tragic center of a broader narrative: one man’s stolen life amid a community’s desperate need for closure.

What makes MOSAIC Pieces so powerfully resonate is not so much the story as such but how Skillings reconstructs it – with patience, accuracy, and deep empathy. A veteran newspaper editor and investigative reporter, he draws upon years of experience in making testimony, documents, and memory blend into a seamless tapestry of fact and emotion. Each piece – such as the fragments of a mosaic – discloses something bigger about the American legal system and the individuals caught in it.

A Cover That Mirrors the Story’s Soul

Even before one picks up the book, the reader is greeted with a cover that invites introspection in stillness. The cover is literally and metaphorically a broken surface that gives way to something coherent. It symbolizes the reconstruction process – how truth needs to be built from pieces that time, prejudice, and loss have left behind. The subdued colors of blue, grey, and black convey introspection over spectacle and remind the reader that this is not a sensational whodunit novel, but rather a contemplation on justice itself.

The placement of the title – bold yet balanced – is what anchors the design, and the subtitle, Surviving the Dark Side of American Justice, gives warning and promise. The composition has an investigative journalism-like aesthetic: restrained, ethical, and factual. No embellishments, no over-the-top drama—there is instead a visual honesty that is parallel to Skillings’ prose. It’s a cover that honors the intelligence of the reader, asking them to think instead of react.

A Journalist’s Voice, a Storyteller’s Craft

Wes Skillings’ prose is both journalism and revelation. His sentences are spare, intentional, and unflinching – signs of a reporter schooled to separate truth from rumor. But beneath that measured rigor is the compassion of a writer who has spent decades hearing human suffering.

The narrative unfolds with the steady rhythm of an investigation, but Skillings’ emotional insight elevates it into literature.

Each chapter reads like a case file illuminated by conscience. He brings readers into the courtroom and the interrogation room, where every decision reverberates with consequence. His attention to detail – the subtle expressions, the inconsistencies in testimony, the quiet persistence of those who refused to stop asking questions – turns what could have been a cold procedural into a deeply human experience.

Through careful pacing, Skillings recreates not just what happened but how it felt to live through it – the mounting pressure, the community’s unease, the haunting silence that follows injustice. His tone never strays into sensationalism. Instead, he trusts the reader to engage intellectually and emotionally, to wrestle with ambiguity as he does.

This narrative integrity sets MOSAIC Pieces apart from much of contemporary true crime. Where others might dramatize or exploit, Skillings bears witness. His focus remains on truth and understanding, even when the facts are uncomfortable or incomplete. The writing is driven by moral purpose rather than spectacle, reminding us that the best investigative literature illuminates the systems that fail us – not just the crimes that shock us.

Themes of Justice, Humanity, and Redemption

At its heart, MOSAIC Pieces is more than an account of a single wrongful conviction. It is a mirror held up to American justice itself – a reflection of how personal prejudice, institutional pressure, and emotional fatigue can lead even well-meaning people astray. Skillings uses the Hubbard case as a lens through which readers can examine their own assumptions about guilt, authority, and fairness.

The book underscores a painful truth: that justice is not self-correcting. It requires courage, vigilance, and moral clarity to withstand the weight of human error. Skillings portrays Joe Hubbard’s lifelong crusade for his son’s exoneration not as an obsession, but as devotion – a father’s unwillingness to surrender to institutional failure. Through his perseverance, Skillings highlights the transformative power of faith and love in the face of overwhelming adversity.

There is also an undercurrent of redemption running through the book – not the redemption of institutions, but of individuals who refuse to let injustice define them. By writing MOSAIC Pieces, Skillings redeems not only the memory of those wronged but also the profession of journalism itself. In an age of fleeting headlines, he reminds us of the enduring value of truth pursued with patience and empathy.

An Enduring Work of Investigative Humanity

Comparisons to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood or Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark are inevitable – but Skillings’ work distinguishes itself through its ethical rigor. It is less about the spectacle of crime and more about the quiet, grinding devastation of its aftermath. His storytelling is grounded, his perspective local yet universal, his conclusions unsettling yet necessary.

MOSAIC Pieces challenges readers to question what they think they know about justice. It invites reflection on how easily facts can be twisted and how deeply communities can wound themselves in the name of certainty. By the final page, one feels both grief and gratitude: grief for what was lost, and gratitude for a writer willing to bring light to where silence once prevailed.

In the end, Wes Skillings has crafted something remarkable – a book that is both investigative and restorative, journalistic and compassionate. MOSAIC Pieces is not merely a chronicle of the past but a living document of conscience, reminding readers that truth, like justice, is fragile but always worth pursuing.

Buy the book on Amazon or on Barnes & Noble. Learn more about the author by visiting www.wyalusing-wes.com.