Moonlight & Murder Book Club

Join the Moonlight & Murder Book Club for mystery and suspense book discussions, socializing, food and drinks!  Meetings are every other month, alternating with the Romance on the Rocks Book Club, at the Black Pig.

Library copies of the books may be obtained at the second floor Help Desk or by using the EasiCat catalog, or participants may purchase their own copies. No registration is necessary. Food and drink purchases are at your discretion. Persons with disabilities who need accommodations to attend should contact the library. Seven days are required for a sign language interpreter request. Mead discussion groups are free, funded by the Friends of the Library.
 

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

The stunning story of an Alabama serial killer and the true-crime book that Harper Lee worked on obsessively in the years after To Kill a Mockingbird.

Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money in the 1970s. With the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell’s murderer was acquitted–thanks to the same attorney who had previously defended the Reverend.

Sitting in the audience during the vigilante’s trial was Harper Lee, who had traveled from New York City to her native Alabama with the idea of writing her own In Cold Blood, the true-crime classic she had helped her friend Truman Capote research seventeen years earlier. Lee spent a year in town reporting, and many more working on her own version of the case.

Now Casey Cep brings this story to life, from the shocking murders to the courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South. At the same time, she offers a deeply moving portrait of one of the country’s most beloved writers and her struggle with fame, success, and the mystery of artistic creativity.