Reviews

In Susan Lehmann’s line of work, cheating spouses, custody combatants, and child castaways turned killers are among the subjects of her investigation. In her latest book Southern Lies and Homicides, she takes the reader along in her quest for evidence as she sets up cameras in risky stakeouts, sifts through garbage looking for telltale receipts, escapes the target of an investigation in a high-speed chase, and interviews the family of a young man sentence to death. Whatever you think you know about private investigators, forget it. Susan Lehmann tells you what it’s really like to be one. It can be dangerous and heart breaking. The book’s finale is the case of Robert Butts, a young man executed in Georgia after a prosecutor lied to a jury and Butts’s shoddy legal defense team failed to reveal a childhood of unimaginable hardship, abandonment by family, and finally despair. Susan brings the injustice of our legal system to light as she deftly leads readers into realms unimaginable to most. Southern Lies and Homicides is comprised of finely told stories of deception, of unforgettable plots and characters, of a fractured legal system and its victims.

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.

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.