Seasoned investigative reporter Jim Glatt's latest true crime book, TANGLED VINES: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders, focuses on a prominent recent murder trial of Richard Alexander Murdaugh from the powerful South Carolina legal family and its history.

A century-old, multimillion-dollar law practice brought the family into incredible wealth, power, and privilege―but it was an unimaginable tragedy that would thrust them into the national spotlight.

On June 7th, 2021, prominent attorney Alex Murdaugh discovered the bodies of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, on the grounds of their thousand-acre hunting lodge. The mystery deepened only months later when Alex was discovered shot in the head on a local roadside.

The author explores the family history through the generations, born in Islandton, SC, in 1793, and the son who became the first lawyer in the family opening a one-man law practice in 1910. Taking readers to the next century and the Murdaugh name with three generations of lawyers.

By the time Murdaugh graduated from law school in 1994, new state laws had made it illegal for solicitors to also practice civil law. He joined the family law firm specializing in personal injury cases. Then his intoxicated teen son Paul drove a boat into a bridge and killed Mallory Beach, his nineteen-year-old friend.

Then in June 2021, Murdaugh found his wife and Paul shot to death at his hunting estate—a double murder for which he would be later convicted. Then Murdaugh was caught stealing ten million dollars of funds from his clients. Three days later his father, Randolph III, died of cancer after a long illness.

What happened after Alex ordered Fast Eddie to shoot him remains unclear.

The dark secrets of this Southern family are unraveled and come to light. They used their power, privilege, and influence to protect their own. From the financial fraud and the suspicious deaths linked to the Murdaughs, Alex was a desperate man on the brink of losing everything and his reputation who would do anything, even planning his death.

With a lot of media surrounding this family and murder, as well as podcasts and Netflix series, the author provides an in-depth family history. Their powers and influence were limitless. They had lorded it over judges, politicians, and top law officials for 86 years before Alex's father retired in 2006, appointing his own handpicked successor. The family ran one of South Carolina's top law firms, specializing in personal injury cases for the little man, which netted them millions of dollars a year.

Downplaying their wealth and privilege for political reasons, the Murdaugh family enjoyed their huge plantation estates, hunting lodges, and waterfront properties, including one called "Murdaugh Island." They appeared to be above the law and impervious to any legal consequences.

There are other questionable deaths with suspicion around the family; however, the Murdaugh family name, its power, and prestige allowed them not to be held accountable until all is unraveled with the deaths of Maggie and Paul.

The book details the corruption, the money Murdaugh stole, how he did so, and the victims—from fraud and embezzling to murder, making the beautiful Low Country feel dirty from the family history and the politics which goes back years. The author uses this background information effectively to help readers understand this entitled family and its motives. Murdaugh thought he would get away with his crimes.

As the author mentions—this is a twenty-first Greek tragedy that has played out in real-time as the world watches aghast. The author uses personal interviews, police records, and Alex's highly revealing jailhouse phone calls to his family, providing insight into his true character and many other interviews—some desiring to remain anonymous.

Glatt says he cannot say if Alex is a true sociopath, but in all the true crime books he has written, he has never come across anyone as dark and devoid of conscience as he appears to be.

The book was easier to follow than the audio, like someone reading a script without emotion, and the narrative was a little dry. While I liked the book's front cover, I did not care for the audiobook cover. I usually like this narrator, Shaun Grindell; however, it may be due to the non-fiction material.

There were a lot of characters to keep up with, from politicians, officials, clients, and family. Anyone who enjoys true crime and has followed the Murdaugh trials or readers who may not be familiar with the murders will appreciate the detail and research. It does not cover the trial and his ultimate conviction, but perhaps the final publication will include these details.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Tantor Audio for a gifted ARC and ALC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Pub Date: Aug 8, 2023
Aug 2023 Must-Read Books

This told the life of the Murdaughs before the trial, during the trial, and after. I gave it four stars because it had a lot of the same info the Netflix show had!

Thank you to Tantor Audio and NetGallery for an advanced audio copy of the book Tangled Vines by John Glatt. If you live in South Carolina and have been inundated by everything Murdaugh then you can pass on this book because it doesn’t tell you anything we haven’t already heard on the news, podcasts or any of the documentaries. If you love true crime and haven’t heard of the Murdaugh case check this book out. This book feels very surface and doesn’t include accounts by all the other people involved like the documentaries do. This is a very twisting and turning case where you wonder where does the depravity end. You hear one thing and think oh this is bad but just wait there is more. Overall this was a good account of a true crime case that’s taken over SC.

I read and follow quite a bit of true crime so I was pretty familiar with the Murdaugh case(s.) I could tell this book was very well researched and at the beginning of the book there's a large section about the family going back several generations. It was interesting to hear that there was a long history of corruption and getting away with all sorts of illegal activity. As for the current crimes, not much of that information was new to me so someone unfamiliar with this family would appreciate it more than I did. But this book would be great for any true crime fan, especially if you're new to this family's story. I really enjoyed the narrator. Sometimes nonfiction narration can be monotone and dull but I didn't find myself bored at all.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor audio for allowing me access to an ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Unless you've lived under a rock the past few years, you undoubtedly have heard of the notorious (infamous?) Murdaugh family of South Carolina. Whether through the son Paul's drunken homicide while driving a boat, to the dad Paul finding his wife and son murdered, to the mysterious death of the maid, a young man Stephen Smith killed on a Hampton County road......there is A LOT going on with this family. I've listened to podcasts, watched Dateline, seen documentaries so I went into this one knowing a lot. John Glatt has an amazing ability to present all the factual pieces chronologically in his true crime books, and Tangled Vines is no different.

This was a nice, succinct presentation of facts with little unexpected other than the introduction which included a lot of Murdaugh family ancestry and the fact that through and through the bloodline was/is filled with despicable, entitled people who monopolized the South Carolina justice system and have damaged the community in which they were overlords for a hundred years.

I listened to the audio arc narrated by Shaun Grindell and this is where my visceral, negative reaction must be shared. This is my third Glatt book in 2023 and Grindell has narrated all of them. Please, Tantor Audio, stop using him for Glatt's books. Just stop. He can read and he can talk, but he lacks any emotion or depth or ability to change his tone. Glatt is a British author but is it truly necessary to use a British narrator all the time? Especially for American based subjects? This Murdaugh book would have FELT so much more alive had the narrator been a Southern male - say a Michael Beck type voice. And why this guy was the narrator for Lori Vallow is beyond me. Should have been a woman. The problem with using a reader with a flat, distinctive British voice is he gets in the way of the story. He started speaking and it took me a while to think Murdaugh when I was thinking Chris Watts and Lori Vallow.

Rant over.

Thank you netgalley for the audiobook ARC. I have been obsessed with this case and have been watching the trial every day. So I had to read this book. It was very through. I loved it.

GOSH, I've been on such a true crime kick lately, and this was definitely one that I remember popping off in the media as it happened because it was so insane. I am so thankful to St. Martin's Press, John Glatt, and Netgalley for granting me advanced digital access to this one before it's projected to publish on August 8, 2023.

The mighty, unstoppable Murdaughs of South Carolina's low country have been ruling the swampland for more than 100 years and after three suspect and untimely deaths rock the small town, speculation gets tossed over to this seriously sinister family and you'll be shocked to learn how evil this patriarchal member, Big Red, or Alex Murdaugh truly is.

This book provides critical context and backstories into the lead-up of he criminal trial and is very eye-opening regarding how corruptly sanctioned government entities can be across our country.