Overall this book starts off incredibly slow but is well-written. The first 10% of the book almost stopped me from finishing but I'm very glad I ended up picking it up again. It gives a thorough look at race relations and how it affected everything from social mobility to consumerism to law to politics. The story of the Reverend and his alleged murders and connections to voodoo were both very interesting and I wish the book started off with that but I understand why the context is provided first.

The first half of the book focuses promarily on 3 things:

1. The history of life insurance and how it has been used and abused
2. The life of Rev. Maxwell who was thought to have abused life insurance fraud before his death
3. The trial and lawyer of Robert Burns. This trial is the one mentioned in the title.

The second half of the book then focuses on Harper Lee, her life and how she is connected to the aforementioned trial.

It could almost be read as two completely separate books. If you were interested in the murders and trial, you could read the first half. If you were more interested in Harper, she isn't mentioned until the second half. It's a well written biography but of a woman with somewhat a dull life (outside of sadly some substance abuse issues, depressive episodes and family deaths).  She's a writer who didn't really write much and an author of what is considered to be an important anti-racism novel who held some racist ideas. It also makes a habit of glossing over the "good" individuals racism but delving into that of the "bad" individuals.