Reviews

Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty by Mandy Matney

ktmonson's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.0

kimmilulu's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

toriholzwarth44's review against another edition

3.0

It was interesting to see the reporting process and become immersed into that industry, but I don't normally read true crime. Did look up more updates though, so I guess I was interested enough to do that.

donereadthat's review

emotional inspiring medium-paced

4.75

caidyn's review against another edition

More a memoir, less a book about the Murdaugh's.

daumari's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

2.25

 It was ok. The second author was a clue for me that this is another entry in the internet: the book genre (the last podcast-turned-book I read was Dolls of Our Lives but in that case, dual authors were because of the two hosts) which sort of surprised me given Mandy Matney is a journalist though fleshing into a book is a different kind of writing, especially pulling throughlines together.

From the title, I would've expected a deeper dive into past generations with "dynasty", but this focuses primarily on recent events starting from reporting on the 2019 boat crash through Alex Murdagh's guilty conviction in 2023. As someone who didn't listen to the podcast, I assume this is a good summary of her discovery/investigation without listening (props to y'all who listen to pods sped up, but I can't). Still, this was a quick read and unintentionally served as indirect promo for The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty by Valerie Bauerlain which sounds like a more thorough look at the Murdaughs themselves. This did go into more detail about the financial crimes than I'd known prior, so that was new to me. 

jojothefool's review

emotional informative mysterious tense slow-paced

3.0

I got very bored about half way through tbh. The book was a lot more about Mandy’s life than the true crime aspects I was hoping for. A lot of like legal stuff, journalism stuff, podcast-making stuff etc that I just didn’t actually care about. I also feel kind of bad because she talks a lot in the book about how people came for her voice when she started the podcast, but I also wasn’t a fan of her narration. Her voice itself is fine, but I didn’t enjoy her reading of the book. Just not great narration, weird pacing, and there were many times I could basically hear her turning the page (not actually, but there was a clear weird pause that I’m assuming was a break between pages)

bratdorkable's review

1.0

DNF if you want to write a memoir write a memoir but don’t disguise it as a true crime book about a case that was holding a lot of people’s attention

beingjada's review

I understand Matney is chronically her journey through the Murdaugh situation but it takes her too long to get to the point at hand. 

molly_dettmann's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

I thought this was a fine memoir about a journalist who also covered the infamous Murdaugh Murders. It all started with a boat accident in 2019 and the powerful/untouchable Murdaugh family and then ended in a murder conviction that made national news. I guess I was living under a rock because I hadn’t heard of this at all, so I’m glad I read this to catch up on everything. I liked Mandy Matney also sharing about her start in journalism, including the highs and lows, but the investigation itself was the best part of this read.