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The Family Man: Blood and Betrayal in the House of Murdaugh

The Family Man: Blood and Betrayal in the House of Murdaugh

by James Lasdun

W. W. Norton & Company ·2026 ·432 pages
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About This Book

An immersive account of a seemingly loving father's transformation into family annihilator. In March 2023, Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his wife and younger son at Moselle, their home in South Carolina's Lowcountry. In The Family Man, James Lasdun takes a new angle on this story of corruption in high places, massive fraud, opioid abuse, fake suicides, suspicious accidents, and the generational recklessness of the wealthy legal dynasty at its center. The acclaimed novelist brings his long-standing interest in the darker drives of the human psyche to investigate the events leading up to the slaughter at Moselle, examining Murdaugh through original interviews with those involved in the case, transcripts of phone calls Murdaugh made from prison, the literature of criminal psychology, and the murder trial itself. Deeply researched, sharply written, and with the page-turning intensity of a Southern gothic novel, The Family Man constructs a masterful portrait of Murdaugh and the mind-boggling crimes that wreaked havoc on his community in the Lowcountry.


Reviews

"Ultimately, Lasdun finds a way to imagine how Alex committed those two murders, and the result, in the final chapter of The Family Man, is a masterful description of moral equivocation, the accumulation of little lies and diversions and excuses that people who do bad things."

Laura Miller· Slate Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"A tenacious effort to grapple with how a man becomes a monster."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"But when the book reaches a crescendo in its stunning final chapters, the elaborate detail becomes the foundation for his chilling distillation of Alex's crimes ..."

Orlando Whitfield· The New York Times Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Like Truman Capote before him with In Cold Blood, Lasdun leaves room for the weight of the unknown, carefully researched and vividly brought to life."

Courtney Eathorne· Booklist Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

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