‘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 Mockingbird
Reverend 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.
_____________________________
‘A brilliant account of Harper Lee's failed attempt to write a true crime
book … Along the way, Cep relates the history of courthouses, voodoo, and
everything one needs to know about the insanity defence … Meticulously
researched, this is essential reading for anyone interested in Harper Lee and
American literary history.’
Publishers Weekly
‘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
Author Biography
Casey Cep is a writer from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. After graduating from
Harvard with a degree in English, she earned an M.Phil in theology at Oxford as
a Rhodes Scholar. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times
and The New Republic, among other publications. This is her first book.