Who is Louella Harper?

In 1977, a certain national treasure went down to Alexander City, Alabama to research a book about the Reverend Will Maxwell, the so-called voodoo preacher. She never produced the book. Or did she?

This new book, Blood Cries, combines the work of the ostensive author, Chris Hope, and a book-within-a-book written by a woman called Louella Harper. Me thinks this Louella resembles a certain real-life legendary author. The book-within-a-book even bears the same title, The Reverend, as her famous lost manuscript. 

Check out the description for yourself at Amazon.com

Two New Books Based on Reverend Maxwell Story

Two new books come out this year dealing with the alleged Alabama serial killer known as the Reverend: Casey Cep's Furious Hours and our own Chris Hope's novel Blood Cries.

As long-time readers of the blog know, Harper Lee intended to write a book on the subject but it was never published. You can learn more about it here.

Cep's book is a nonfiction account focused on Harper Lee while Hope's book appears to be a thinly veiled treatment featuring a book-within-a-book written by one Louella Harper. The title of the bwb? The Reverend.

I visited the Penguin Random House website page for Furious Hours, and found that the cover looks remarkably similar to the cover designed for Blood Cries, which first appeared on this site last summer. 

Here are the two covers side by side:

 

Another interesting coincidence—Blood Cries and Furious Hours are both set to be released in early May. This blogger suggests buying them both.