A BARACK OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEARWINNER OF THE 2020 CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION ALCS GOLD DAGGER
FOR NON-FICTIONSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONA SUNDAY TIMES
ECONOMIST AND SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR'A triumph on every level. One of the losses to
literature is that Harper Lee never found a way to tell a gothic true-crime story she'd spent
years researching. Casey Cep has excavated this mesmerizing story and tells it with grace and
insight and a fierce fidelity to the truth.'DAVID GRANN author of Killers of the Flower
Moon_____________________________The stunning story of an Alabama serial killer and the
true-crime book that Harper Lee worked on obsessively in the years after To Kill a
MockingbirdReverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family
members for insurance money in the 1970s. With the help of a savvy lawyer he escaped justice
for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of
witnesses Maxwell's murderer was acquitted - thanks to the same attorney who had previously
defended the Reverend.As Alabama is consumed by these gripping events it's not long until news
of the case reaches Alabama's - and America's - most famous writer. Intrigued by the story
Harper Lee makes a journey back to her home state to witness the Reverend's killer face trial.
Harper had the idea of writing her own In Cold Blood the true-crime classic she had helped her
friend Truman Capote research. Lee spent a year in town reporting on the Maxwell case and many
more years trying to finish the book she called The Reverend.Now Casey Cep brings this story to
life from the shocking murders to the courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep
South. At the same time she offers a deeply moving portrait of one of the country's most
beloved writers and her struggle with fame success and the mystery of artistic
creativity.This is the story Harper Lee wanted to write. This is the story of why she
couldn't._____________________________'Fascinating ... Cep has spliced together a
Southern-gothic tale of multiple murder and the unhappy story of Lee's literary career to
produce a tale that is engrossing in its detail and deeply poignant... [Cep] spends the first
third of Furious Hours following the jaw-dropping trail of murders ... Engrossing ... Cep
writes about all this with great skill sensitivity and attention to detail.'SUNDAY TIMES'It's
been a long time since I picked up a book so impossible to put down. Furious Hours made me
forget dinner ignore incoming calls and stay up reading into the small hours. It's a work of
literary and legal detection as gripping as a thriller. But it's also a meditation on motive
and mystery the curious workings of history hope and ambition justice and the darkest
matters of life and death. Casey Cep's investigation into an infamous Southern murder trial and
Harper Lee's quest to write about it is a beautiful sobering and sometimes chilling
triumph.'HELEN MACDONALD author of H is for Hawk'This story is just too good ... Fu
