True crime books, tv shows, and podcasts are everywhere, but every now and then a crime, or series of connected crimes, breaks out of one format to overtake them all. The tale of the Murdaugh family in a rural part of South Carolina is one of those. From the first stirrings about the boat crash that killed a pretty young teenager, to the deaths of a mother and her son, to the father claiming to have survived an assassination attempt and then the revelation that there were two deaths that preceded all of this? This was a crime story that had everything and then some. And author Mandy Matney was reporting (and then podcasting) from the earliest moments when that boat crash occurred. In Blood on Their Hands, a combination true crime investigation and memoir of a young reporter's experiences, Matney takes the reader step by step through the crime and corruption. She also takes aim at the "good ol' boy" system - both within the world of justice and in the world of the media.
Matney hooked me from the first pages and her experiences as one of the earliest to be reporting on the family add layers to what may be a familiar crime. Her deep dive into the family, the justice system, and small-town, generational power is an engrossing and eye-opening read.