“We are bound by a common anguish”

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep

This hefty tome doesn’t look like a page turner. Sadly, it’s been sitting on my nightstand for almost four months. But contrary to appearances, when I finally opened its pages, I discovered that it’s got everything: true crime, mystery, history and literary goddesses.

Cep opens the book with a brief description of a murder trial in an Alabama courtroom.  A man is on trial for the murder of Reverend Willie Maxwell. Defending him is Maxwell’s own lawyer, Tom Radney. Covering the trial for a book she plans to write is one Harper Lee.

Before enlightening us more on these curious circumstances, Cep dives into the backstory of each character sitting in the courtroom, beginning with the murder victim. Rounding out these character sketches (if several chapters on each can be called a “sketch”) are fascinating interludes explaining  everything from hydroelectric power to voodoo, from the life insurance industry to Alabama politics.

Although Lee herself doesn’t appear until Chapter 15 of this book, fans won’t be disappointed. Cep’s description of the drama – both inside and outside the courtroom – will more than appease fans of To Kill a Mockingbird. And when she does bring Nelle into the story, the reader has a better understanding of the time and place that shaped her sensibilities. From her childhood with Truman Capote to her later years struggling with writer’s block (and perhaps alcoholism), Lee’s story is more gripping than the ones she, sadly, wasn’t able to write herself.