Overview

This compelling collection of stories by private investigator and award-winning author Susan Waller Lehmann takes readers on her personal journey of casework in the South, from her first process service through domestic situations, to capital murder cases, to the execution of her favorite client. After an unexpected relocation to rural Alabama, Susan decided to become a private investigator. Using skills honed as a journalist, she landed a job with an agency. Situations arose and she soon set out on her own. These stories impart universal truths about working as a female PI on emotionally charged and volatile civil and criminal cases. In a deeply conservative society where lies are told and winning matters more than truth, justice is bought and favors the few.

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9780999230077

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Reviews

Susan Lehmann is that rarest of private investigators, and storytellers-one driven by curiosity and dedication and a powerful, perhaps nameless compulsion to dig as deeply as necessary, peeling away layer after layer, through complication after complication, to get at something like the truth-no matter how painful in the end. From her start in the business as a Sue Grafton-reading PI wannabe, to her years-long work on complex cases as a death-penalty mitigation specialist, Lehmann has maintained not only her investigative tenacity, and the skills to match, but also her deep and abiding sense of humanity, all of which she explores in this must-read collection of true tales of her lifetime in the business. Lehmann's memoir reads at times like the best PI procedurals, and at times like a literary genre of her own making-a meditation on family, and caring, and fear, and loss, and what can be salvaged from all the lost souls among us-including, at times, our own. -Steve Watkins, Award-winning author This book is a powerful and deeply personal journey through the world of criminal defense investigation and mitigation, as experienced firsthand by the author. Set against the backdrop of the South-primarily Alabama and Georgia-these stories delve into the lives of death row convicts and individuals caught in private crises. With unflinching honesty and compassion, the author brings to light the humanity behind these often-overlooked lives. It took tremendous courage not only to engage with these difficult realities but also to share them so openly. This work stands as a testament to the author's resolve to ensure these voices are heard. -Krista Bentley, Creative Strategist at Paddles & Paragraphs Susan Lehmann's collection of in-the-field case stories is an entertaining and candid peek behind the curtain at the real work of private investigations. With a former journalist's storytelling instincts and a detective's eye for the perfect, telling detail, Lehmann offers a fascinating highlights reel of her investigative life, describing the daily tediums, human dramas, case-breaking discoveries, and alarming confrontations that make up a PI career. Interspersed with thrilling action sequences are flashes of empathy and insight, as Lehmann illuminates the complicated human lives at the heart of her cases. Southern Lies and Homicides is part memoir and part field guide to process service, surveillance, and mitigation investigations. It's an essential read for rookie PIs, anyone considering this profession, or spy-curious civilians. -Kim Green, Managing Editor, Pursuit Magazine At once a how-to and fearless Bildungsroman of a private investigator, with squirmy details of client indiscretion and rife with PI skullduggery, Lehmann's new book also has heart. -Sean Feral, Writer Read Southern Lies and Homicides. In the second part of the book, the author leads the reader through several of her investigations of death penalty appeals. Besides entertaining writing, you will find yourself questioning our justice system. A rare book that entertains and provokes thought. -Kevin Wolf, Award-winning author This was an engaging trip into the world of a private investigator, not just any PI, but one very particular PI, the author Susan Lehmann. While Susan and I spent countless hours together in rural Alabama doing death penalty mitigation field work, much of her story was new to me. The stories in Southern Lies and Homicides shine a light on the work and the people, the tribulations and surprises and gifts. But in these stories also witnessed Susan's personal journey through events that made her swear and rant and laugh-and the things that battered her heart. Her very big heart. -Catherine L Boyer, Ph.D., Forensic Psychologist

Author Information

Susan Lehmann is a licensed private investigator, a criminal defense and capital mitigation specialist, a journalist, and award-winning author. She lives in the western U.S. with her husband, two Golden Retrievers and a black cat.

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