Tangled Vines: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders

by John Glatt

Overview

2024 EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST FACT CRIME NOVEL

New York Times bestselling author John Glatt’s unputdownable account of the rise and fall of the prestigious Murdaugh family.

In South Carolina, the Murdaugh name means power. But when attorney Alex Murdaugh discovered the bodies of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, on June 7th, 2021, the family was thrust into the national spotlight. The mystery deepened months later when Alex himself was discovered shot in the head on a roadside.

But as authorities scrambled for clues, dark secrets about this Southern legal dynasty came to light. The Murdaughs wouldn’t hesitate to wield their influence to protect one of their own. As bombshells of financial fraud were revealed and more suspicious deaths were linked to the Murdaughs, a new portrait of Alex Murdaugh emerged: a desperate man on the brink of ruin who would do anything, even murder his wife and son, to save his family’s reputation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250861122
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/25/2024
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	318,161
Product dimensions:	4.12(w) x 6.75(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

English-born JOHN GLATT is the Edgar-award nominated author of more than thirty books including The Lost Girls and My Sweet Angel, and has over thirty years of experience as an investigative journalist in England and America. He has appeared on television and radio programs all over the world, including Dateline NBC, Fox News, ABC’s 20/20, BBC World News, and A&E Biography.

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/26/2023

Bestseller Glatt (The Doomsday Mother) tells the stranger-than-fiction saga of South Carolina’s Murdaugh family in this exemplary work of true crime. While many readers will be familiar with the allegations that attorney Alex Murdaugh killed his wife, Maggie, and 22-year-old son, Paul, in 2021—resulting in his 2023 conviction and double life sentence—Glatt deepens the story by placing those murders in the context of the family’s history. The Murdaughs “dominated a huge swath of South Carolina’s luscious Lowcountry, epitomizing power, justice, and big, big money” by serving as the equivalent of district attorneys at a time when state laws also permitted them to maintain a lucrative civil practice; they were well-known locally as both prosecutors and personal injury lawyers. Leading up to the murders, Maggie was beginning to consider filing for divorce, and Paul had been indicted for homicide after drunkenly crashing a boat and killing one of its passengers. All of this, Glatt explains, motivated Alex to act in desperate defense of the family legacy and their accumulated fortune, supporting this thesis by digging into the scope of both their influence and their wealth. Through his judicious use of police records, interviews with sources including local historians, and Alex’s own jailhouse phone calls (including one where he laughs off his crimes, saying “it is what it is”), Glatt has produced the equivalent of a juicy John Grisham novel, featuring a lead more “dark and totally devoid of conscience” than anyone he’s ever researched. This real-life Southern noir lingers. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Tangled Vines:

"Readers will be swept up in this account." —Booklist, starred review

“Glatt has produced the equivalent of a juicy John Grisham novel, featuring a lead more 'dark and totally devoid of conscience' than anyone he’s ever researched. This real-life Southern noir lingers.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"John Glatt pulls aside the South Carolina Low Country’s curtain of Spanish moss and steps smoothly into its swamp of corruption, embezzlement, and murder, delivering a Baedeker of the family’s steady rise and spectacular fall." —Air Mail

"Excellent. " —Montecito Journal

Praise for The Doomsday Mother:

"A white-knuckle page-turner...This definitive look at a case Glatt considers the most 'terrifying' of his decades of experience as a journalist is must reading for true crime fans." —Publishers Weekly (starred)

“In bestselling author John Glatt’s capable hands, this tragic tale avoids hyperbole and emotionally provocative prose … fascinating, gruesome and harrowing.”—Bookreporter.com

Praise for Golden Boy:

“Glatt is a balanced narrator of this story….A tragic character study at the intersection of wealth, privilege, and mental illness, told with empathy.” — Library Journal

"Glatt shares alarming revelations about the state of the mental health system...This is must reading for true crime enthusiasts who prize depth over salaciousness." —Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Perfect Father:

“Glatt’s expert coverage of the investigation is riveting…police procedural fans will enjoy.” —Publishers Weekly

“[A] gripping read.” —Library Journal

From the Publisher

"Glatt pulls aside the South Carolina Low Country’s curtain of Spanish moss and steps smoothly into its swamp of corruption, embezzlement, and murder, delivering a Baedeker of the family’s steady rise and spectacular fall.”

Air Mail

Readers will be swept up in this account.”

Booklist (starred review)

"Excellent.”

Montecito Journal

2023-05-02
A comprehensive entry into the mountain of media surrounding a prominent recent murder trial.

In his latest true-crime book, veteran writer Glatt turns his attention to Richard Alexander Murdaugh, the scion of a powerful South Carolina legal family. The author traces the storied dynasty back to Murdaugh’s great-great-great-grandfather, who was born in Islandton, South Carolina, in 1793. It was that ancestor’s son who became the first lawyer in the family, opening a one-man law practice in Hampton County in 1910. Glatt ably brings us through the next century, during which the Murdaugh name became synonymous with the local judicial system. He explains how “three generations of Murdaughs had served as [the region’s] solicitors (called district attorneys in all other states), turning it into a family business,” while simultaneously operating their own highly lucrative private law firm. By the time Murdaugh graduated from law school in 1994, new state laws made it illegal for solicitors to also practice civil law. Consequently, he joined the family law firm, then called PMPED, which specialized in “personal injury cases for the little man.” Murdaugh enjoyed great success and social standing until 2019, when his teenage son, Paul, drunkenly drove a boat into a bridge, killing Mallory Beach, his 19-year-old friend. In June 2021, Murdaugh found his wife and Paul shot to death at his massive hunting estate, the double murder for which he would later be convicted (though that trial is beyond the scope of this book). Later that year, Murdaugh was fired from PMPED for stealing millions of dollars of funds from his own clients. The so-called “Murdaugh Murders” have spawned a virtual cottage industry of content, from podcasts to a Netflix docuseries, and it’s hard to see what Glatt, though he capably catalogs all the relevant events, offers that’s unique. Ultimately, the narrative feels like a book-length Wikipedia article.

An exhaustive, uninspired work of true crime.

Kirkus Reviews