New York Times Editor’s Choice
“A haunting memoir, which also unfolds as a gripping true-crime narrative….This is a powerful, unsettling story, told with bracing honesty and skill.”
– The Washington Post
Witness to the Execution: Publisher’s Weekly Talks with Ellen McGarrahan
★ Starred Reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews
NPR’s Fresh Air:
“What sets Ellen McGarrahan’s just-published true crime book, Two Truths and a Lie, above so many others I’ve read is the moral gravity of her presence on the page and the hollow-voiced lyricism of her writing style….The experience of inhabiting [the] investigation with McGarrahan is so intense, readers should experience it for themselves.”
—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air
“McGarrahan’s obsession with rooting out the truth in the case leads her (and her unfailingly loyal husband) to Florida, Ireland and Australia, where she tracks down any detail that might potentially help her know what happened….’Two Truths and a Lie’ is often extremely entertaining, but there’s a deep pain in its core.”
—The New York Times Book Review, Kate Tuttle
“McGarrahan’s blend of detective work and insights into the criminal justice system make this must reading for fans of Errol Morris’s The Thin Blue Line.”
–Publisher’s Weekly, starred review
“Dark, foreboding, and emotional, this title is as gripping as a thriller and laced with cogent insights…. Fans of Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark will be spellbound.”
–Library Journal, starred review
“An accomplished, unsettling look at a confounding crime and larger issues of memory, culpability, and punishment.”
–Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“A brilliant new book… among the truest of true crime stories ever written… McGarrahan’s story renders the tawdriness and banality of crime, the frustrating limits of witnesses and evidence, the hazy frontier between truth and lies, the slipperiness of culpability. This is capital punishment as it looks and feels on the inside — a tattered, dirty curtain over the inexpressibly sad and stupid fact of violence.”
–Opinion page, The Washington Post, David Von Drehle
“This book gave me the distinct impression of being on a roller coaster in the dark—in a very good way… McGarrahan’s book is stunningly human… a gripping, fast-paced book with a thoughtful and insightful premise. McGarrahan’s journey through this case is a shocking one, and it will leave you guessing until the very last chapter.”
–True Crime Index
“[A] slow-build evisceration of the American justice system’s classism….In this gut-wrenchingly good deep dive, a private investigator examines the 1976 crime that may have led to the wrongful execution of a man she watched die in the electric chair.”
–Shelf Awareness