Murder. Voodoo. Revenge. Furious Hours tells the story of a killer, his murder, and a series of trials almost too bizarre to believe.
The Reverend Willie Maxwell had a reputation in Alexander City, Alabama. An African American preacher who also worked as a wood pulper, he was known for always wearing a suit, his elegant way of speaking, and for his charming manners. Throughout the 1970s, he also acquired a darker reputation among the locals. When the police found his wife's body in a car on a country road and discovered that he had taken out a number of life insurance policies on her, they began to investigate. Defended at the trial by wily attorney Tom Radney, the jury declared him innocent due to a lack of evidence. Maxwell remarried and continued to take out life insurance policies on his family members. A year later, his second wife turned up dead in a car on a country road. Suspicious and superstitious neighbors began to whisper that the reverend practiced voodoo and those whispers grew louder as more people died and Maxwell walked free each time. Finally, justice—of a sort—found the Reverend Maxwell. At the funeral of his teenaged stepdaughter, the girl's grief-stricken uncle stood up and shot him before hundreds of witnesses. Attorney Tom Radney stepped up to defend Maxwell's murderer this time, and in the trial room, taking careful notes and interviewing witnesses, sat Harper Lee, who hoped to follow up her wildly successful novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, with a true crime book: The Reverend.
Author Casey Cep takes on this dramatic true story, telling it in three parts that cover the lives of Willie Maxwell, Tom Radney, and Harper Lee, and the events that culminate in the trial of Maxwell's murderer. Read the book to find out what happens and to get a peek into the life of the notoriously private Harper Lee.
Once you've read the book, join the overBOOKed book club to discuss Furious Hours on Thursday, February 17, at 10:00 a.m. at the Cumming Library. OverBOOKed meets every third Thursday of the month.
We carry this book at FCPL in print, large print, and CD book. The eBook and eAudiobook versions of Furious Hours are also listed in our catalog and can be enjoyed on your devices through the Libby app. Sign up for a free card today and start enjoying FCPL's digital catalog from wherever you are!
Melissa
Information Specialist
Cumming Library
#WeKnowBooks
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