Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee

What is the source of the title of Furious Hours? Why do you think Cep chose this title?

Furious Hours includes elements of both true crime and literary nonfiction. What are the central elements of these genres? Does Furious Hours lean more toward true crime or literary nonfiction? Support your response with textual evidence.

Cep notes that Lee struggled to organize The Reverend into a coherent narrative. For her part, Cep organizes her work into three sections based on the three central characters: Willie Maxwell, Tom Radney, and Harper Lee. How does this approach help Cep overcome the difficulties Lee faced in telling the story?

Compare the careers of Truman Capote and Harper Lee as Cep represents them. What do these contrasts reveal about the role of gender in the lives of writers?

Cep contrasts the myths about Harper Lee with the reality of Harper Lee’s life. Contrast these realities and myths. What do these differences teach us about the realities of the writing life?

Discuss the role of race and racism in the justice system in the South. What impact did racism have on Willie Maxwell’s ability to escape prosecution and the trial of Robert Burns?

Describe the book’s central settings. How does setting shape the narrative? How, for example, do Southern culture and Alabama’s history shape the events described? Could these events have occurred in any other setting?

Locate contemporaneous accounts of the murders recounted in the book. How closely does Cep’s account and tone stick to these sources? How does Cep’s approach to the issue of representing African Americans differ from or coincide with the accounts you located?