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The Family Man

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What to expect

Justice may have been served, but the human element of the story didn't seem to add up. What drove a loving family man with everything to lose to become a killer?

In March of 2023, Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his wife Maggie and their younger son Paul at their home in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. The story became headline news around the world, with its outlandish revelations of corruption in high places, massive fraud, opioid abuse, fake suicides, suspicious accidents, and the generational recklessness of the wealthy legal dynasty at its centre.

James Lasdun explores the psychological puzzle at the heart of the story, which the murder trial failed to answer. Why did Alex Murdaugh murder his wife and son?

Featuring a cast of villains ranging from supposedly respectable lawyers to violent street gang members and a gothic setting in a small town in America's deep south, The Family Man is a gripping, immersive, twisting investigation of a double murder that seems to defy explanation.

‘A masterclass in calm, hard reasoning’ HELEN GARNER'
'One of our very best true crime documentarians... Riveting' JOYCE CAROL OATES
'The Truman Capote version of the Murdaugh story' SLATE

© James Lasdun 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Critics Review

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
James Lasdun, one of our very best true crime documentarians, has written a riveting account of the notorious Alex Murdaugh murder trial. THE FAMILY MAN is a memorable examination of the making and enabling of a psychopath. Highly recommended.
Joyce Carol Oates
Not since Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil have I read so vividly wrought an account of the South... when the book reaches a crescendo in its stunning final chapters, the elaborate detail becomes the foundation for his chilling distillation of Alex’s crimes
New York Times
The Family Man is the Truman Capote version of the Murdaugh story, a thoughtful, well-researched, and beautifully written inquiry into how and why a person comes to commit such an appalling crime…Ultimately, Lasdun finds a way to imagine how Alex committed those two murders, and the result, in the final chapter of The Family Man, is a masterful description of moral equivocation
Slate
He brings literary polish to a quest to understand the inexplicable
New York Times
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
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, New York Times bestselling author of HORROR MOVIE and A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS
Author James Lasdun
Narrator Matt Godfrey
Duration 13 hours and 10 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781529974751
Format Audiobook
Publisher Random House
Genre Criminal or forensic psychology, Offenders, True crime: serial killers and murderers, Violent crimes
Availability AU, GB, IE

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