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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Why dont more people talk about this book!?
dark
informative
medium-paced
dark
informative
medium-paced
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
Clearly a lot of time and research was put into this book, however I don't think the execution of it was all that it could have been.
Basically this book started out talking about the Reverand Maxwell, his early life and eventually all the suspicious deaths linked to him, mainly due to life insurance policies. (There was a fairly long tangent on the history of life insurance, which, while I found immensely interesting, could have been a lot shorter.)
The middle of the book focused on the lawyer who represented Maxwell in the trials regarding the insurance policies he tried to cash in for the aforementioned dead and then went on to represent the man who then murdered Maxwell.
The last 3rd of the book tied in Harper Lee and her efforts to write a true crime "novel" based on Maxwell, his involvement in the suspicious deaths, and his own murder.
I found the first part to be very interesting, especially how he kept getting away with so much while maintaining his innocence. The middle of the book is where it started to drag on, have more seemingly random tangents. and name drop so many people that the storyline became muddled.
The final bit of the book focusing on Harper Lee felt like altogether it's own book. Starting from her childhood and touching on the deaths of her mother & brother, her pursuit of a law degree, moving to New York, writing "Go Set a Watchman" which eventually turned into "To Kill a Mockingbird" and her long-lasting friendship with Truman Capote, there were several times I forgot this was the same book as I started. I understand mentioning Capote's "In Cold Blood" since Lee involved in the research of it and it ultimately got her to think of writing her own true crime novel, but I do not think so much detail of Capote's life and full synopsis of their research and the book was needed.
In the end, Harper Lee's unpublished and mostly forgotten book "The Reverend" was tied back to the story it was based on, but I don't think it made enough of a full-circle back to the beginning chapters of this book.
I thoroughly enjoyed most of this book, but I think it would have been stronger as two books or edited down to a more concise narrative with more overlap in the telling of the case and Harper Lee's interest in it and her aspirations to tell the story in her own true crime novel.
Basically this book started out talking about the Reverand Maxwell, his early life and eventually all the suspicious deaths linked to him, mainly due to life insurance policies. (There was a fairly long tangent on the history of life insurance, which, while I found immensely interesting, could have been a lot shorter.)
The middle of the book focused on the lawyer who represented Maxwell in the trials regarding the insurance policies he tried to cash in for the aforementioned dead and then went on to represent the man who then murdered Maxwell.
The last 3rd of the book tied in Harper Lee and her efforts to write a true crime "novel" based on Maxwell, his involvement in the suspicious deaths, and his own murder.
I found the first part to be very interesting, especially how he kept getting away with so much while maintaining his innocence. The middle of the book is where it started to drag on, have more seemingly random tangents. and name drop so many people that the storyline became muddled.
The final bit of the book focusing on Harper Lee felt like altogether it's own book. Starting from her childhood and touching on the deaths of her mother & brother, her pursuit of a law degree, moving to New York, writing "Go Set a Watchman" which eventually turned into "To Kill a Mockingbird" and her long-lasting friendship with Truman Capote, there were several times I forgot this was the same book as I started. I understand mentioning Capote's "In Cold Blood" since Lee involved in the research of it and it ultimately got her to think of writing her own true crime novel, but I do not think so much detail of Capote's life and full synopsis of their research and the book was needed.
In the end, Harper Lee's unpublished and mostly forgotten book "The Reverend" was tied back to the story it was based on, but I don't think it made enough of a full-circle back to the beginning chapters of this book.
I thoroughly enjoyed most of this book, but I think it would have been stronger as two books or edited down to a more concise narrative with more overlap in the telling of the case and Harper Lee's interest in it and her aspirations to tell the story in her own true crime novel.
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Reverend Willie Maxwell was a suspected murderer and life insurance scammer in small-town Alabama in the 1970s. Two wives, wife #2's first husband, a brother, a nephew, and an adopted daughter all wound up dead, sometimes of strange but seemingly non-murderous causes, when he held their life insurance policies. Four were found dead in cars abandoned on the highway. One had been murdered (his first wife), but the jury acquitted Maxwell. Two were posed as car accidents. The final one had been seemingly crushed by her car when changing a tire on the side of the road. Maxwell's teenage ward was the final straw for the community, and he was shot at her funeral in plain view of the whole assembled party.
The book spirals outward in three parts: from 1) what is known of the assumed murders to 2) the trial of the man who killed the Reverend to 3) the novelist inspired to write about it. I found the first two parts of the book pretty engrossing. The first section is classic true crime fare, which isn't to say it's not intriguing or shaped in unique ways by its context. The relevant history of life insurance was particularly fascinating to me. In the 1970s, Maxwell could exploit the system in a way we could never dream of today. Race also can't help but play a role since both Maxwell and his murderer were Black in the rural South, dealing with the American justice system.
Maxwell's lawyer was Tom Radney, a politician of some repute for his liberal politics in a state where that was deeply unwelcome. We get a lot more of him in part two when he shifts from suing insurance companies on behalf of Maxwell so that he could get his payouts to defending the man who shot him on an insanity plea. Radney's life as a politician was interesting to read about, especially since he fought many uphill battles at the state level. The way he manipulated the courtroom is also interesting. My complaint about part two is that as the trial unfolds, it revisits many of the points from part one without adding anything new.
Where things fell apart for me is in part three. We're taken on a retrospective of the life and times of Harper Lee. After the fame and fortune of To Kill a Mockingbird, she faced years of writer's block, self-doubt, etc. that prevented her from penning a new novel. One of her biggest projects that was possibly never completed but certainly never saw the light of day was her book on Willie Maxwell. She attended the trial, interviewed locals, and cast Radney as her protagonist. Apparently, it's been a big mystery for her fans whatever happened to the book, and some speculate or hope that it will still someday be found/revealed. I didn't know that going in, and I'm not a particular fan of the author, though I was forced to read her novel in school. I think that contributed to my lesser interest in this section. But also, a story about writer's block and the woes of making too much money and, therefore, needing to pay a lot of taxes just doesn't do it for me. I don't tend to care much if someone is a literary genius or whatever, to begin with, so I didn't feel the need to elevate her experiences or burnish them to ensure I felt any awe.
I appreciate the idea of the book, which tries to connect a messy and compelling true crime story with a great literary mystery. The author takes the route that Lee herself favored by digging into the major players' histories and personalities to bring the work of non-fiction to life. All of those things were positive for me, I just lost interest in the third part due to the nature of the narrative.
The book spirals outward in three parts: from 1) what is known of the assumed murders to 2) the trial of the man who killed the Reverend to 3) the novelist inspired to write about it. I found the first two parts of the book pretty engrossing. The first section is classic true crime fare, which isn't to say it's not intriguing or shaped in unique ways by its context. The relevant history of life insurance was particularly fascinating to me. In the 1970s, Maxwell could exploit the system in a way we could never dream of today. Race also can't help but play a role since both Maxwell and his murderer were Black in the rural South, dealing with the American justice system.
Maxwell's lawyer was Tom Radney, a politician of some repute for his liberal politics in a state where that was deeply unwelcome. We get a lot more of him in part two when he shifts from suing insurance companies on behalf of Maxwell so that he could get his payouts to defending the man who shot him on an insanity plea. Radney's life as a politician was interesting to read about, especially since he fought many uphill battles at the state level. The way he manipulated the courtroom is also interesting. My complaint about part two is that as the trial unfolds, it revisits many of the points from part one without adding anything new.
Where things fell apart for me is in part three. We're taken on a retrospective of the life and times of Harper Lee. After the fame and fortune of To Kill a Mockingbird, she faced years of writer's block, self-doubt, etc. that prevented her from penning a new novel. One of her biggest projects that was possibly never completed but certainly never saw the light of day was her book on Willie Maxwell. She attended the trial, interviewed locals, and cast Radney as her protagonist. Apparently, it's been a big mystery for her fans whatever happened to the book, and some speculate or hope that it will still someday be found/revealed. I didn't know that going in, and I'm not a particular fan of the author, though I was forced to read her novel in school. I think that contributed to my lesser interest in this section. But also, a story about writer's block and the woes of making too much money and, therefore, needing to pay a lot of taxes just doesn't do it for me. I don't tend to care much if someone is a literary genius or whatever, to begin with, so I didn't feel the need to elevate her experiences or burnish them to ensure I felt any awe.
I appreciate the idea of the book, which tries to connect a messy and compelling true crime story with a great literary mystery. The author takes the route that Lee herself favored by digging into the major players' histories and personalities to bring the work of non-fiction to life. All of those things were positive for me, I just lost interest in the third part due to the nature of the narrative.
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Reverend Willie Maxwell is the Southern Black version of serial murder Robert Durst, where all his wives and friends end up dead but nobody can pin the murders on him until someone gets tired of Rev Maxwell and pops a cap into him. It's an interesting story, but it goes on too long. All I got through was the murder and the fraud, and lost interest in the trial.
This was excellent. Part mystery, part Southern politics, part biography. Hard to put down.