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Title details for The Devil at His Elbow by Valerie Bauerlein - Wait list

The Devil at His Elbow

Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty

by Valerie Bauerlein
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INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The definitive account of the Murdaugh murders. Forget the podcasts, the TV specials, and the documentaries—this is the version of the story you’ll want to read. And once you pick it up, you won’t be able to put it down.”—John Carreyrou, Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of Bad Blood
Power, privilege, and blood—this is the true story of Alex Murdaugh’s violent downfall, from a veteran Wall Street Journal reporter who has become an authority on the case.
 
Alex Murdaugh was a benevolent dictator—the president of the South Carolina trial lawyers’ association, a political boss, a part-time prosecutor, and a partner in his family’s law firm. He was always ready with a favor, a drink, and an invitation to Moselle, his family’s 1,700-acre hunting estate. The Murdaugh name ignited respect—and fear—for a hundred miles.
When he murdered his wife, Maggie, and son Paul at Moselle on a dark summer night, the fragile façade of Alex’s world could no longer hold. His forefathers had covered up a midnight suicide at a remote railroad crossing, a bootlegging ring run from a courthouse, and the attempted murder of a pregnant lover. Alex, too, almost walked away from his unspeakable crimes with his reputation intact, but his downfall was secured by a twist of fate, some stray mistakes, and a fateful decision by an old friend who’d finally seen enough.
Why would a man who had everything kill his wife and grown son? To unwind the roots of Alex’s ruin, award-winning journalist Valerie Bauerlein reported not just from the courthouse every day but also along the backroads and through the tidal marshes of South Carolina’s Lowcountry. When the jurors made their pilgrimage to the crime scene, trying to envision Maggie and Paul’s last moments, she walked right behind them, sensing the ghosts that haunt the Murdaughs’ now-shattered legacy.
Through masterful research and cinematic writing, The Devil at His Elbow is a transporting journey through Alex’s life, the night of the murders, and the investigation that culminated in a trial that held tens of millions spellbound. With her stunning insights and fearless instinct for the truth, Bauerlein uncovers layers of the Murdaugh murder case that have not been told.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 20, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780593500590

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780593500590
      • File size: 27209 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      Starred review from July 15, 2024
      A fly-on-the-wall study of the infamous South Carolina attorney and murderer. Alex Murdaugh--which he pronounced "Ellick Murdick," in the local Scots-influenced dialect--was a bundle of complexities, writesWall Street Journal reporter Bauerlein, who also worked forThe State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina. "He was fundamentally unreadable," she writes, "a walking mirage, always performing one role or another: devoted husband and father, connected friend, grantor of favors, defender of the downtrodden." He was also an addict who stole millions from his clients, funneling the money into drugs and alcohol as well as misguided investments. Murdaugh was an equal-opportunity grifter, and so powerful in the Lowcountry where he lived that everyone looked the other way until the fateful night on which he shot his wife and son to death. So it had been for generations of Murdaugh power in Hampton County, where, one lawyer quipped, "A jury trial is the mechanism for the redistribution of wealth." In his own jury trial, as Bauerlein reports after giving a blow-by-blow account of the grisly murders, Murdaugh sighed, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave." And weave he continues to do: Sentenced to two life terms, Murdaugh has established a new fiefdom behind bars: "He had left behind the ruins of one empire. Now he was building another." The cautionary lesson for readers is not that crime doesn't pay--in Murdaugh's case it did, and richly--but that eventually, even those who have gotten away with it for years receive their comeuppance. Though a latecomer in the Murdaugh sweepstakes--the first of at least three other books, John Glatt'sTangled Vines, appeared a year ago--Bauerlein's gracefully written, thoughtful treatment is by far the best. A memorable--and often chilling--account of tangled webs, addled minds, and the evil that men do.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      August 1, 2024
      In 2019, a tragic boat accident in the South Carolina low country killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. The ensuing fight for justice for Mallory would unearth a world of secrets, unleash a string of horrific violence, and tear down a generations-old tradition of abusing power. The crimes of fourth-generation South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh are now infamous. This book is a comprehensive journalistic account, nearly 500 pages of what happened and when throughout Murdaugh's convoluted downfall. Readers are given a sweeping account of the early Murdaugh lore and the family's staggering power within the justice system. Bauerlein's reporting is meticulously detailed and easy to follow, which is especially important as Murdaugh's story grows more and more complex, from the mysterious deaths of Stephen Smith and Gloria Satterfield to the boat crash to the 2021 murders of Alex's wife Maggie and their son Paul, all the way to the sensational trial that held a Murdaugh man accountable for the first time. With care and fortitude, Bauerlein's account continues to shine light on deception.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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