The murderer and the novelist: What happened to Harper Lee’s unpublished true crime book? | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

The murderer and the novelist: What happened to Harper Lee’s unpublished true crime book? | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

By New York Times |New York |Published: May 5, 2019 3:07:07 pm

The murderer and the novelist: What happened to Harper Lee’s unpublished true crime book?

Harper Lee was fascinated by the Maxwell murders and worked on a true crime book about the case that she titled The Reverend. To this day, it remains unclear how much she wrote, why she stopped writing or whether she finished the book.

Casey Cep, author of Furious Hours, about an Alabama preacher accused of multiple murders, and Harper Lee, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who tried and failed to tell his story, in Ridgely, Md., April 25, 2019. (Lexey Swall/The New York Times)

There are two intertwined mysteries at the heart of “Furious Hours,” Casey Cep’s meticulously researched narrative about an Alabama preacher accused of multiple murders, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who tried and failed to tell his story.