Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Harper Lee's crucial work with Truman Capote on In Cold Blood (1966) has been much scrutinized as part of the ongoing mystery regarding her struggle to write after the runaway success of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), but Cep is the first to reveal in full Lee's efforts to write her own true-crime chronicle, one that, unlike Capote's, would stick to the facts. Lee, who quit law school just weeks before graduation, chose a scandalous case involving the much-feared African American reverend Willie Maxwell, who profited from life-insurance policies on five family members who died under extremely suspicious circumstances; Robert Burns, a relative who shot Maxwell dead at the funeral of his last alleged victim; and attorney Tom Radney, a rare white Alabama liberal who represented Maxwell, then defended his killer. With zeal for research and a gift for linguistic precision, Cep delves into Alabama's history, tells the striking stories of all involved in this macabre saga, and chronicles Lee's extensive investigation, including attending Burns' trial and speaking with Radney and others touched by the killings. Yet Lee could never bring her book to fruition. Cep has vividly and insightfully retrieved a grimly fascinating true-crime story and done Lee justice in a fresh and compelling portrait of this essential American writer. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.
BookPage Reviews
Furious Hours
While Harper Lee fans were almost unanimously disenchanted with the 2015 publication of her eons-awaited second novel, Go Set a Watchman, they'll likely be intrigued by Casey Cep's account of the true crime book that Lee attempted but ultimately failed to write.
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee tells the strange saga of Reverend Willie Maxwell, a black Alabama preacher accused of murdering five members of his family for insurance money in the 1970s. Law enforcement officers and insurance officials suspected something was up but had no hard evidence, while Maxwell's followers whispered rumors of voodoo after his relatives kept turning up dead by the side of the road.
At the funeral of Maxwell's last victim, his 16-year-old stepdaughter, he was shot dead by one of the girl's relatives, Robert Burns, who until that moment had been a hardworking, law-abiding family man. Amazingly, despite the fact that hundreds of mourners witnessed the shooting, Burns was ultimately acquitted of his crime.
Attending the trial was Lee, who wrote that Maxwell "might not have believed in what he preached, he might not have believed in voodoo, but he had a profound and abiding belief in insurance." After studying law at the University of Alabama, Lee was naturally intrigued by the Maxwell story—although she realized "all too well that the story of a black serial killer wasn't what readers would expect from the author of To Kill a Mockingbird." She spent nearly a decade working on a manuscript she called "The Reverend" but ultimately abandoned the project, much to the disappointment of many of the citizens of Alexander City, where Maxwell's murder took place.
Cep, a thorough researcher and polished writer, divides this sprawling tale into three parts: first telling Maxwell's story, then chronicling the lawyer who once had Maxwell as a client and ultimately represented Maxwell's killer, and finally explaining the famous novelist's fascination with and involvement in the case.
Harper Lee fans may find themselves impatient to read about her, as she doesn't appear until more than halfway through the book, but they'll be rewarded for the wait. While the myriad mysteries about Lee's life seem unlikely to ever be resolved, Furious Hours offers an absorbing glimpse into the gifted but guarded life of this enigmatic literary hero.
Copyright 2019 BookPage Reviews.Choice Reviews
Furious Hours comprises three distinct and interrelated stories. The first involves five suspicious deaths and insurance fraud seemingly committed by Willie Maxwell in Alabama in the early 1970s and Maxwell's subsequent murder, in front of a chapel full of witnesses, while at the funeral of his last victim. The second story involves the attorney—Tom Radney—who not only defended and exonerated Maxwell in numerous trials, but also defended his murderer. Cep analyzes Radney within the politics in Alabama during the 1960s and 1970s. The third story, and the real focus of the book, is that of Harper Lee—whom Cep follows from Monroeville, Alabama, to Manhattan—and her struggles to write To Kill a Mockingbird, her work and friendship with Truman Capote, and her retreat from literature. The three stories come together as Lee travels back home to cover the trial of Maxwell's killer in the hope of jump-starting her writing with a book like In Cold Blood, a book she failed to complete. This is a well-written and entertaining read, and Cep does what Lee did not—she writes the story. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and general readers.
--K. J. Bindas, Kent State University
Kenneth james Bindas
Kent State University
Kenneth james Bindas Choice Reviews 57:02 October 2019 Copyright 2019 American Library Association.Kirkus Reviews
Cep's debut recounts how a series of rural Alabama murders inspired Harper Lee to write again, years after the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird.Death surrounded the Rev. Willie Maxwell. Following his wife's mysterious murder in 1970, four more of Maxwell's family members were inexplicably found dead within seven years. Locals blamed voodoo, but a deeper investigation pointed to fraud: Maxwell, said Lee, "had a profound and abiding belief in insurance," and he collected thousands in death benefits. He was a suspect in his wife's case (charged and curiously acquitted), but years later, before the police could make another arrest, he was killed in a public fit of vigilante justice. In a further twist, the same lawyer who helped clear Maxwell's name decided to represent his killer. Lee, still uncomfortable over the embellishments of her friend Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, wondered "whether she could write the kind of old-fashioned, straitlaced journalism she admired, and wh ether it could be as successful as the far-bending accounts of her contemporaries." In this effortlessly immersive narrative, Cep engagingly traces how Lee found the case and began—and ultimately abandoned—a project she called The Reverend. Cep writes with the accessible erudition of podcast-style journalism; she breathes not only life, but style into her exhaustive, impressively researched narrative. She relies heavily on the backstories of each of her narrative threads, which transforms her book into a collection of connected preambles. Short histories of fraud, Southern politics, and urban development take shape alongside a condensed biography of Lee. This kind of storytelling may feel disjointed, but there's a reason for it: By fully detailing the crimes before Lee even appears, Cep allows readers to see the case through Lee's eyes and recognize its nascent literary potential. Above all, this is a book about inspiration and how a passion for the mysteries of h umanity can cause an undeniable creative spark. A well-tempered blend of true crime and literary lore. Copyright Kirkus 2019 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Reviews
In the late 1970s, while still struggling to write a follow-up to
PW Annex Reviews
Journalist Cep makes her debut with a brilliant account of Harper Lee's failed attempt to write a true crime book. Part one follows the career of Alabama preacher Willie Maxwell as five family members over several years die under mysterious circumstances, all with large life insurance policies held by the reverend, rumored also to be a voodoo priest. On June 18, 1977, Maxwell was shot dead in front of 300 people at his stepdaughter's funeral in Alexander City, Ala. Part two focuses on his killer's trial later that year, which Harper Lee attended. Along the way, Cep relates the history of courthouses, voodoo, Alabama politics, and everything one needs to know about the insanity defense. Part three charts the