I had not paid much attention to the Murdaugh saga, including the trial, and therefore had only limited knowledge, mostly related to him murdering his wife and son, before reading the book. The full extent of Murdaugh’s crimes is astounding. It is also disturbing and disappointing, though not surprising, how much Alex, Paul, and other members of the family were able to get away with over the years, in some cases decades, and how many people and institutions were willing to look the other way until circumstances made it impossible to continue doing so. The book amply demonstrates the corrosive effect that wealth and power can have, especially when people feel entitled to the perks and privileges that wealth and power provide.

“The scope of Murdaugh’s depravity is without precedent.”

“But it didn’t take long for Little Paul to get a reputation for being arrogant with a sense of entitlement. ‘I just remember him [proclaiming],’ said Taylor Dobson, who knew him growing up. ‘My last name’s Murdaugh [and] I can do whatever I like.’” 🙄😒🤦🏼‍♀️

Oomph these are some twisted and shady people, man.

The story of this family is insane and almost too crazy to believe…but not quite. I can see how this could happen as it seems to be almost a formula with extreme generational wealth. One man starts it, works hard, and makes a ton of money. And then each subsequent generation is a little more entitled until one asshole spends it all and ruins the family name. That’s the Murdaugh’s in a nutshell.

This book was very well researched and informative and I went on to watch the documentary as soon as I finished the book.

Thank you to Netgalley, St, Martin’s Press, and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tangled Vines tackles the true crime of the Murdaugh murders. I found the book to be interesting and am giving it four stars.

This is the story that leads up to the Murdaugh Trial. From the deep dive into the family history and how they have helped shape and form the areas way of life, from the Murdaugh family's influence over lawsuits to jury trials to even the political scene with lots of hunting parties to celebration bashes, to the family history and and how they have started out and even evolved to today's generation. You learn of the formation of the family law firm and how they rose in power, to where Alex enters the scene and takes over the Solicitor's position. If you have followed the trial, this is the backstory that helps you get up to speed for the trial itself. Personally, I would love to see what the psychological examination found. Overall, greatly done, deeply investigated, and really ties the whole backstory together to make even more sense of today's events. Tragic story but well done.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

if you’re like me, you’ve been enamored with the Murdaugh case since it first started getting attention a few years back.

This is a twisted & tangled mess of family, drugs, money, murder, and secrets that were attempted to be hidden that never would be.

I really appreciated this deep dive, this case is COMPLICATED but the author does a great job breaking down the complexities so you’re able to see them in alignment with the big picture.

It’s probably not a stretch to say that the Murdaughs have been one of the biggest news stories of the last couple years. With specials on 20/20, Dateline, a Netflix docuseries, and untold podcasts, news articles, blogs….etc, Murdaugh became a household name and one of the most googled topics of 2022.

John Glatt’s book was a fascinating deep dive into the near century of corruption, crime and privilege this family enjoyed. With ties to bootlegging, drug dealing and money laundering (never mind the murders!) I was left just absolutely astonished at how long this family was allowed to go on. It seemed to me just a matter of time until their world would crash down around them. And crash it did.

Published before the murder trial, some facts in the book contradict what came out during the trial. And, although there aren’t many new details about the murders of Maggie and Paul in this book, it was still a captivating read. The sheer volume of people who were defrauded out of nearly $10 million by Alex Murdaugh alone is just mind blowing.

True crime can sometimes get a little dry, but I found this book moved along swiftly and always kept me needing to know more.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martins Pressand John Glatt for this free eARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

This is my first true crime book by John Glatt and it will not be my last. I went into the book pretty familiar with the Murdaugh case. This book revealed some facts that I was not familiar with. It was a quick and easy read with short chapters that kept the pace moving. If you like true crime this one is for you. Since I have read it I have already ordered two more books by this author.

I've been super interested in the Murdaugh family fiasco since the beginning, so when I saw this title, I knew immediately that I had to read it.

If you're unfamiliar with what's going on, Well...
The family has a crap ton of secrets and mysteries involving murders that are currently coming to light.

This book was so informative. I've had people ask me before how I can read/re-watch different documentaries and true crime books on the same cases, and here's the answer...

They all give completely different information.

This one was all the basic information that I already knew about the case, and then some. The research that must have gone in to this book must have been insane, because I don't feel like I missed one thing. I left this book feeling like an absolute pro on the events, and I can't wait to see how this case progresses.

This book was about the Murdaugh family, starting from around the turn of the century (around 1900). It was a long and dignified family that worked hard in the field of the law. Most of them were lawyers were quite dedicated to it. They were all in their own law firm that grew bigger over time. Then Alex Murdaugh came along. He was a good lawyer for a long time, but that changed. This book was Murdaugh pretty detailed and well written. The only thing is that it ends before the trial. But it does give so much information that it would help to understand things that help down the line. I do recommend this book!

I really enjoy John Glatt's books. I throughly appreciate the amount if research that goes into his books, as there was some info in the book that I had not heard about this case before. Highly recommend for true crime fans.

I literally couldn’t put this book down from the moment I picked it up. This whole Murdaugh situation is just a disaster and there was so much more that I wasn’t even aware of. What a crazy series of twists and turns. Highly recommend. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

3.5
this was pretty solid! I think that if you're on a murdaugh binge, this isn't going to present much information that you don't already know. however, it's been quite a while since I listened to the podcasts and watched the doc, so this was a nice refresher on the wild story and provided a lot more courtroom details.

this was a good true crime book, I really enjoyed reading about this case and it kept me hooked and engaged.

I have been following the Murdaugh saga closely for a long time now and was excited to see a book about it. I really enjoyed this book. The main thing I learned a little bit more about was the relationships throughout time with the Murdaughs. Otherwise it was a nice recap of things I knew already. It did seem a little rushed at the end and perhaps would have been better if the author waiting until the trial was over. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

In "Tangled Vines", John Glatt does an excellent job of delving into the Murdaugh family dynamic, giving us behind-the-scene details of this Southern Gothic "crime family." It begins with a history of the past 110 years or so of the Murdaugh family; it's a bit hard to follow, given that almost every male of the past several generations had been named either Randolph or Buster. But once we finally get to the current generation, we have a good understanding of the tight network of judges, lawyers, and law enforcement that enabled the Murdaugh family's stranglehold on the judicial system in their part of the South Carolina Lowcountry.


It's all a heady mix of murder, white-collar fraud, misappropriation of funds (almost $9 million dollars from personal injury clients), money laundering, forgery, drug manufacture and trafficking and more. It's hard to feel any kind of sympathy for the truly deplorable Murdaugh family. As one of Alex Murdaugh's victim said "I know Mr. Murdaugh as my attorney ... A very nice man and very cordial. I never had any issues and would communicate with him on a regular basis. Now here's the problem. He treated me that nice and he stole every dime I had from the injury I incurred."


Perhaps because the scope of all the crimes is so huge, it's hard to get a sense of wife Maggie's personality, and sons Paul and Buster - other than spoiled sons of parents who encouraged and abetted their violent fits of anger, underage drinking, vehicular manslaughter (Paul's drunken boat accident that killed Mallory Beach), the mysterious death of Steven Smith, and the mysterious death of Gloria Satterfield.

"At four years old they cussed like sailors [...] and Maggie thought it was funny. [She] instilled in them from a very young age that they were better than anyone else because they were Mardaughts. The same rules didn't apply to you that apply to these other people. 'You're a Murdaugh! You're a Murdaugh.' "


As the book was, for the most part completed in late 2022 and early 2023, the advance-reading copy did not include trial updates and developments. It is my understanding that the final version does contain trial information.


If you are looking for a great over-all examination of the Murdaugh family and their numerous crimes in the context of the Southern Lowcountry where they "ruled" for over a hundred years, you won't do better than Glatt's account. The book is a bit light on specific details on the actual murders of Paul and Maggie, and Paul's drunken boat accident is skimmed over, but then again there is so much crime, murder, corruption, fraud and the like that a true accounting could be almost endless. 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader copy of John Glatt's newest true crime book. My favorite, so far, of John Glatt's true crime mysteries. As always, the story is incredibly interesting and will not disappoint true crime readers. 4 stars

If you followed the trial as I did, you will find this book just a good recap of what occurred. However, there are some definite inaccuracies, and not of somewhat small events. These can be difficult to read through and keep going. One thing the book did for me was to put it all in perspective as well as to help me put it all in a nice chronological and logical order. Before this all happened, I was unaware of the political intriguers that were occurring in this area of the state and had been for years. That was very interesting to learn. The book, as I said, provides no additional information, except perhaps for outsiders the history of the family and their interface with the Low Country before Alex and his actions came on the scene and became an issue. One thing I noticed from almost the get-go was that the whole story reads like a popular author’s intriguing plot, which may be why so many people were interested in it. The book is fairly well done, explaining what was going on in readily understandable language. It also was interesting, even to someone who religiously followed the story of Alex from the start to end, though there was not that much new information and despite the inaccuracies it contains. As far as these are concerned, I think the author should have paid more attention to the true story and the facts, though I realize a suspense date for publication can provide some stress. If you are interested in the story and if you may have missed some of it, this book will give you a lot of information. As others expressed, however, I wish there were less inaccuracies. I received this to read and review from NetGalley.

Tangled Vines tells the long, tangled story of the Murdaugh murders in South Carolina. The Murdaugh family was well known in the Lowcountry for several generations as a powerful, and sometimes wicked, family. This book begins by telling the story of how the Murdaugh family became the powerhouse that it is today. That was where the book took a nosedive for me. It took waaaaay too long to tell the backstory of the family. I was 60% through the book before any mention was made of the criminal activity of the Murdaughs. Once it reached the meat of the story, the book went quickly. However, that first 60% almost made me DNF it. After reading the book, I did watch the Netflix documentary and the two worked together very well to flush out the entire story. I would have rated the book higher had it not taken so long to reach the pinnacle of the story. To its credit, the book was very well researched and paid a high attention to detail. If you want to know the full story of the Murdaugh family, definitely give it a read. However, if you're just looking for the details of the criminal cases, maybe skip the book and go straight to the documentary.

Who hasn’t been following the Murdaugh case right? It’s crazy.

Big true crime lover here so of course I thought I knew everything about this case already. Nope wrong-o!

This author is my fave true crime author these days and if you enjoy true crime he’s one to watch.

I enjoyed this read and I did know a lot but learned even more. Who does this stuff?

The backstory of the family was interesting but a bit drawn out for me.

Overall I’m glad to have read this one and get more insight to this crazy case and family.

John Glatt lays bare the law and lawlessness of the alpha men of a legendary South Carolina dynasty whose comeuppance came late in the day but was breathtakingly swift. In giving a clinical account of more than a hundred years of Murdaugh family’s prosecutors and personal injury lawyers, their influence and connections (from judges, politicians, bankers to potential jury members within the community), a trajectory of their wealth, real estate and business deals (lands, houses, smuggling operations and kickbacks from defendants),and the personal scandals and professional corruption each new generation tried to get away with, Glatt wants readers to understand how ironical the downfall of this family is considering the level of impunity and privilege they harbored.

Most glaringly of all is the fact that while their predecessors were at least great lawyers, hustling showmen, and public relations masterminds, Alex Murdaugh and his sons Paul and Buster, seemed destined to court controversy, incompetence and lack of accountability. The book ends as Alex Murdaugh’s trial for killing his wife and son is set to begin, in the same courthouse where his grandfather and father rallied against alleged murderers, setting the sun on not just a brilliant and renowned family’s legacy, but also on notions of being above the law.