Summary

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace begins with a brief note from the author, Jeff Hobbs. In it, Hobbs details how he logged more than 300 hours of interviews with people who knew Rob, and some people who were just interviewed to give advice about certain topics of which he was not aware. Although his book is nonfiction, some of the dialogue is imagined, he writes. The book is as accurate as he can make it, given the subjective nature of people.

The first chapter opens as Rob's mother, Jackie, brought Robert DeShaun Peace home a day and a half after he was born. The house was full of people, her brothers and sisters, but the boy's father was not there. He had left the hospital abruptly, saying only that he had “things to take care of.”

They lived in East...