While I enjoy true crime with the best of them, I tend to avoid the True Crime Podcast Industrial Complex, which has turned a bunch of amateur know nothings into wannabe Hercule Poirots with cameras. The field is currently saturated with amateurism, leading people to consider and conclude the most ridiculous things. It also turns the crimes they cover — most often homicide — into a carnival and ignores the fact that these are real people with real tragedies and our justice system is ill-equipped to deal with them.
So yeah, leave it to the professionals, like Valerie Bauerlein. Because this is how its done.
When I saw this book promoted, I confess I didn’t know much about the Muradughs. Googling them to see if the book was good revealed a nexus of amateur sleuths dissecting the family’s various alleged crimes. It’s clear there’s a lot here to unpack.
Bauerlein covers past transgressions but makes the double homicide of Paul and Margaret Murdaugh the center of the book and we’re all the better for it. The various unsolved homicides deserve fuller attention and not lurid speculation. The financial deeds that led to the moment build to the explosive trial and conclusion.
In other words: Valerie Bauerlein knows what the f she is doing. She doesn’t lose focus or get pulled down rabbit holes. She sticks to the plan and it works. This is one of the best true crime novels I’ve read in the last few years; as good of a modern day In Cold Blood as we’re likely to get. Amateurs take note.