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.
“This story, with its wild human convulsions and its dense moral fibre, demands serious narrative muscle from its teller. James Lasdun has what it takes, and more: his final chapters are a masterclass in calm, hard reasoning.”
― Helen Garner, author of This House of Grief: The Story of a Murder Trial
“The Family Man is a meticulous, spotlessly written, and clear-eyed journey into a distinctly American morass of wealth, privilege, and power. It’s also a morally responsible meditation on the tragedies left within the ruinous wake. James Lasdun doesn’t allow us a moment’s breath to flinch and look away.”
― Paul Tremblay, author of Horror Movie
“James Lasdun, one of our very best true crime documentarians, has written a riveting account of the notorious Alex Murdaugh murder trial of March 2023. Though adjudicated, this public exposure of an ‘incredibly corrupt South Carolina ruling class’ remains a mystery in many ways, as Lasdun reveals. The Family Man is a memorable examination of the making and enabling of a psychopath who is also a ‘good-old-boy’ from a prominent South Carolina family; a ‘family-values’ gentleman who is also a ‘family annihilator.’ Highly recommended.”
― Joyce Carol Oates
“A true-life Gothic tale of moral horror that wrestles with the reality of evil and its sinister, persistent influence over one powerful family and its milieu.”
― Walter Kirn, author of Blood Will Out