Furious Hours

This “superbly written true-crime story” (Michael Lewis, The New York Times Book Review) masterfully brings together the tales of a serial killer in 1970s Alabama and of Harper Lee, the beloved author of To Kill a Mockingbird, who tried to write his story.
Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members, but with the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative assassinated him 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 himself. Sitting in the audience during the vigilante’s trial was Harper Lee, who spent a year in town reporting on the Maxwell case and many more trying to finish the book she called The Reverend.
Cep brings this remarkable story to life, from the horrifying murders to the courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South, while offering a deeply moving portrait of one of our most revered writers.

This discussion guide and recommended reading was shared and sponsored in partnership with Penguin Random House.

Book club questions for Furious Hours by Casey Cep

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

How did the book change the way you think about Harper Lee and her literary legacy? What were you most surprised to learn?

One of the most disturbing aspects of Reverend Maxwell’s murder spree was the connection between him and his victims. How does Cep bring to life the horror of crimes committed within a family and a small Southern community?

Discuss how race played into the case of the Reverend Willie Maxwell.

What were your first impressions of Tom Radney? How did your perception of him change as you read the book?

What do you think about the morality of Robert Burns’s decision to murder the Reverend Willie Maxwell?

Did you know anything about the Maxwell murders before reading the book? Why do you think it took so long for them to get this kind of public attention?

What does Cep’s portrait convey about Truman Capote? Which traits stand out?

How did Harper Lee and Truman Capote’s relationship play into the larger story? How do you think Lee’s experience with In Cold Blood shaped her approach to writing her own true crime tale?

Furious Hours combines the horror and mystery of a true crime tale with the in-depth history and detail of a biography. How does Cep integrate the two different pieces of the book?

Furious Hours Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the Furious Hours discussion questions

“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

“The sort of story that even Lee would have been proud to write.” —Michael Lewis, The New York Times

“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 Book

“Gripping and meticulous, Cep’s work doesn’t make us choose between fidelity and style.” —Vulture