One of the Best Books of the Year
The New York Times * The Washington Post * Time * Dallas Morning News * The Economist "Captivating. . . . A spellbinding true crime story." --The New York Times Book Review
"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
"An enthralling work of narrative nonfiction. . . . Cep delivers edge-of-your-seat courtroom drama while brilliantly reinventing Southern Gothic." --O, The Oprah Magazine
"The sort of story that even Lee would have been proud to write." --Michael Lewis, The New York Times
"A marvel." --Time
"Impossible to put down." --Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Hawk
"Remarkable, thoroughly researched. . . . Cep manages the feat that all great nonfiction aspires to: combining the clean precision of fact with the urgency of gossip." --The New York Review of Books
Fascinating. . . . Lyrically composed. --Minneapolis Star Tribune
Stunning. --Financial Times
"A rich, ambitious, beautifully written book." --The Washington Post
"[A] well-told, ingeniously structured double mystery." --The Economist
"A gripping, incredibly well-written portrait of not only Harper Lee, but of mid-20th century Alabama. . . . What I didn't see coming was the emotional response I'd have as I blazed through the last 20 pages of the book--yet there I was, weeping." --Ilana Masad, NPR
"A brilliant take on the mystery of inspiration and the even darker mysteries of the human heart." --People
"A compelling hybrid of a novel, at once a true-crime thriller, courtroom drama, and miniature biography of Harper Lee." --Southern Living
"There's a stirring poetry to Furious Hours that eludes most contemporary nonfiction. . . . [The book] fills in the gap of Lee's post-Mockingbird career with insatiable curiosity and impressive research. It reveals not just her intellectual interests, but within them, her personal relationships and motivations." --Entertainment Weekly
"Gripping and meticulous, Cep's work doesn't make us choose between fidelity and style." --Vulture
"This riveting account of both the murders and Lee's reporting, writing, and editing process is fascinating for its behind-the-scenes look at one of the South's cherished creative minds." --Garden & Gun
"Essential reading." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Cep paints a vivid picture of the political and social makeup of a small Southern town, where family trees and the organizational charts of local institutions intersect often; where memories are long; and where the collective conscience of a community sometimes carries more weight than the law." --The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"A riveting true crime story, and a dazzling biography of one of America's most beloved writers." --Bustle
