Bozeman Magazine

Delve into real life mysteries with the Wonderlust Mystery Series and true crime! We will read some classics of the genre, as well as recent stories that use modern forensic techniques like DNA to catch actual killers. True crime gives us insight into the psychology of killers and investigators, as well as letting us examine good versus evil in our own world. 

Registration: Free and open to all OLLI at MSU members; registration is required in order to receive link to the online discussion.
Zoom link will be provided by the group facilitator.
Participants must acquire their own books. They are available through Country Bookshelf.

This month we'll discuss Furious Hours by Casey Cep. 

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.