A chimpanzee is stolen from Cameroon and rocketed to space as the test flight for John Glenn's historic orbit; a former child star struggles to stay sober; a prehistoric mammal imagines a better version of itself; a trio of ragpickers strip Union and Confederate dead of their clothes; a couple sees the woods move; the former commissaire of the French Congo investigates atrocities. Eclectic in its breadth and startling in its power, The Commission of Inquiry investigates life, death, and other matters, as Patrick Nevins delivers twenty stories built to surprise, challenge, and even change us.