Product Description

In the heat of the city, a man is out of time: speeding in a beat-up Ford Tempo, blasting easy-listening music.  Reporter Steve Everett drinks too much, makes love to his boss's wife, and has just stumbled upon a shocking truth: a convicted killer is about to be executed for a crime he didn't commit.

In the cold confines of Death Row, Frank Beachum is also out of time.  Ready to say good-bye to the wife and child he loves and hello to the God he still believes in, Beachum knows he did not kill a convenience store clerk six years ago.  But in a few hours--if Steve Everett can't find the evidence to stop it--a needle is going to pierce Frank Beachum's skin.

The killing machine is primed.  The executioner is waiting.  And so is the priest.  Now the clock is ticking down and the race is on--between the reporter and his demons, between the system and its lethal flaws, between the last innocent man and society's ultimate crime .  .  .  .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #253298 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-11
• Released on: 1997-08-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.com Review
True Crime is an edge-of-the-seat suspense novel that graphically portrays the final moments leading up to a condemned killer's appointment with the executioner. The plot is familiar but convincing: An inmate, Frank Beachum, denies any involvement in the murder of a young pregnant woman. His only chance for survival lies in the hands of a reporter, Steven Everett. From the very first page, however, veteran suspense writer Andrew Klavan does everything possible to make this journalist unlikable--he drinks too much, he's committed adultery. In fact, the incarcerated Beachum, who stands accused of a hideous crime, comes across as a much more decent person than Everett.

Foes of capital punishment will find in True Crime another buttress to the oft-expressed argument that state-sanctioned murder is not always just, that some police investigations are sloppy even when they're not politically tinged or racially motivated, and that exonerating evidence is often overlooked. Here such evidence is so glaringly overlooked that it's possible for a somewhat drunken reporter with plenty of other things on his mind (a wife who's about to leave him and a boss who's just discovered that Everett is cuckolding him) to spot the inconsistencies. He follows a hunch, discovers the identity of the real killer, and tries to clear Beachum's name as the minutes tick away. The relentless pace and Klavan's crisp, taut writing make the suspension of disbelief possible, and no doubt Clint Eastwood, who stars in the movie version, will make Steven Everett a more likely and likable hero. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly
Though this is only Klavan's fourth novel under his own name (he received two Edgar Awards for pseudonymous mysteries), his stylistic range and thoroughly compelling plots have earned him a loyal readership?an audience that should be broadened with this gripping tale. Here Klavan puts an intensely human, often intriguingly quirky face on a familiar plot device: the race to save a convicted killer on death row. When a St. Louis News staffer crashes her car hours before her scheduled interview with Frank Beachum (the interview itself to take place just eight hours before Beachum's execution), reporter Steve Everett is handed the assignment. Everett, 35 (and possessing "wicked, sharply angled brows and a wicked, sharply angled smile"), is already under pressure: though married, he has been shtupping the boss's wife, which creates no little tension at work and at home. Furthermore, he comes to believe that Beachum is innocent, and both personal ethics and career opportunism propel him to pursue his theory. To this end, Klavan gives us the photo finish to end all photo finishes: readers may be gasping for breath by the time Beachum's fate is decided. Even before that, however, the author's vivid characterizations and dramatic prose?packed with tension, black humor and wry observations on the human condition?command attention. Alternating chapters (their style changing as deftly as their settings) present a harrowing portrait of a killer's final hours along with perceptively observed personal and professional crises of an oddly likable schlemiel. 250,000 first printing; major ad/promo; film rights to 20th Century-Fox; simultaneous Random House audio.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Six years ago Frank Beachum, at his wife's request, was sent to buy steak sauce and ended up being accused of shooting a pregnant convenience store clerk. Although he swears his innocence, the only person to believe him is his wife. On the day he is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection, he agrees to an interview from a reporter for a local newspaper. As jaded reporter Steve Everett gathers background material for the interview, he discovers some alarming inconsistencies in the evidence used to convict Beachum. This novel is so well written that it is difficult to read. All the horror and panic of an impending execution are convincingly portrayed; particularly terrifying and nauseating are the descriptions of the minute details the prison staff attends to in preparation for the execution. The tension is at times unbearable. Highly recommended, but not for the faint of heart.
--Dawn L. Anderson, North Richland Hills P.L., Tex.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Best book I have ever read!
This is the best book I have ever read. Great suspense that builds the whole time. You will not want to put it down.

Crime fiction doesn't get much better than this
I read a lot of crime fiction, and frankly most of it is unremarkable. The few five star novels I read stand out in a sea of mediocrity. It usually doesn't take long (sometimes within a few pages) to know that a novel isn't like all the others; that it's exceptional. Such is the case with True Crime, the most flat out entertaining novel I've read in a while.

This high praise is not because of the novel's groundbreaking plot (the race to save a man on death row has been done before and the race against the clock conclusion is admittedly contrived and melodramatic). No, what sets this novel apart is the writing.

Klavan has created a cast of characters who are vividly compelling, flawed human beings. His dialogue is sharp, insightful, and convincingly authentic. His observations about human nature are remarkably perceptive. He gets inside his character's heads in a way that few authors of crime fiction ever try to. Klavan puts you on death row, with all its rituals, and makes you feel the same heartbreaking desperation that Frank Beachum feels in the hours before he has been condemned to die.

If I'm giving you the impression that this is a slow paced character study, with a depressing story line to boot, this couldn't be more wrong. This is as pure an adrenaline rush as you are likely to find in a novel. True Crime is pure entertainment. The suspense is relentless and the narrative, from the perspective of a reporter assigned to the execution on short notice, is cynical and darkly funny. The reporter, Steve Everett, is an unconventional leading man, an absolute (and there's no other word for it) sh**heel. He's also one of the most entertaining characters I've come across in a long time (right up there with Clete Purcel from the Dave Robicheaux novels).

True Crime could have been another run-of-the-mill thriller, but it isn't. Yes, it's thrilling, but more than that, it's perceptive, and thoughtful, and at times quite moving.

PS: I added a comment to discuss the ending that is a ***SPOILER***. Don't read the comments if you haven't read the novel.

Andrew Klavan Writes Yet Another Superb Thiller
Why isn't Andrew Klavan better known? He's written a large number of superb crime novels, many of which have put me on the edge of my seat. TRUE CRIME is no exception. This is a truly first-rate suspense novel.

The story is simple: a man seats on death row, with only 18 hours before his execution. But Steve Everett, a newspaper reporter, finds reason to believe the man is innocent, and races against the clock to find evidence that will support a last-minute reprieve from the governor.

Klavan does a superb job of describing the death-watch scenes, which I felt were both chillingly realistic and emotionally compelling. All the characters are superbly drawn, and none of them are straight heroes or villains. The reporter character, for example, is not a very nice guy. But that doesn't stop him from trying to do the right thing.

I plowed through TRUE CRIME in one sitting, and the last 200 pages just flew by. This novel is extremely tense, but it's a real blast to read. I enjoyed it enormously. I know Klavan is taking a break from novels to write for movies; I hope he returns to book-writing in the near future. I want more novels like this.

Highly recommended.