Before TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD was published, Nelle Harper Lee, helped Truman Capote research his true crime book, IN COLD BLOOD. Author Casey Cep outlines Lee's contributions. For one thing, the people in the town where the Clutter family were murdered, didn't like Truman, but they would talk to the likable Nelle.

The question has always been why Harper Lee never wrote a follow-up to TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. One reason was that it zoomed to the top of the best seller list, and reporters and fans wouldn't leave her alone. But after her work researching Capote's book, she realized she was good at compiling the material and interviews necessary to write true crime, and she had a handy case to work on. Serial murderer Reverend Willie Maxwell lived close to her home town of Monroeville. Life insurance was cheap in those days and Maxwell insured just about all of his relatives. His first two wives were found dead in their cars parked on lonely country roads.

Casey Cep divides her book into four parts. First, we learn about Maxwell and his motivation. Then we get a look at Tom Radney, his lawyer, democratic super lawyer who based his style on Clarence Darrow, homespun lawyer whose clients were never guilty. Unbelievably, Radney got Maxwell off. The people of Alexandria City and nearby small towns were scared to death of Maxwell. They were worried he might have a life insurance policy on them. Often there wasn't any evidence of what killed the victim. That's when superstition took over. He was thought by some to be a voodoo priest. This really bugged Nelle Lee. She knew that Truman Capote fictionalized part of his book. She wasn't about to do that, so superstition was a roadblock.

Then Shirley Anne Ellington is found murdered. She was living with Maxwell and his third wife. During her funeral Maxwell was shot three times in the forehead by a relative, Robert Burns. Ironically Radney agreed to defend him. That's when we get to the third section. We get a brief bio of Nelle and how she finally got published. And finally we see Harper Lee in the courtroom during the Burns case,, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. She had a devil of a time researching the case, but eventually attorney Tom Radney gave her a briefcase full of evidence and files, and she paid clerk Mary Anne Karr a thousand dollars for a transcript of the case.

She worked on the book for years. Her older sister said she read it, and it was better than IN COLD BLOOD. Then Truman Capote died of an apparent drug overdose and she apparently lost interest. Truman had always been jealous of Harper Lee's dumbfounding success, and she played no small part in the success of IN COLD BLOOD. They were childhood friends. She didn't deny Dill, Scout's next door neighbor, was based on Truman. So there was some competition, and now the competition was dead. Another factor was that everybody who helped her with TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD was dead: her original agent and her editor at Lippencourt who convinced her to feature the kids, even her agent's wife who had become a bosom friend.

Whatever the case, the book was never published and her literary assets are under seal. Her new agent claims Lee was very happy GO SET A WATCHMAN was published, apparently because she was trying to show that not every Southerner who opposed integration supported the KKK.

I don't believe any of the excuses for not publishing THE REVEREND, Lee's working title for the Maxwell book. I don't think she thought it was good enough. There just wasn't an Atticus she could use as a protagonist to be the voice of the book. The closest she got was Radney, but he defended an obvious serial killer.