Two Truths and a Lie

A Murder, a Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice

By: Ellen McGarrahan

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

EDGAR AWARD FINALIST • A private investigator revisits the case that has haunted her for decades and sets out on a deeply personal quest to sort truth from lies.

CLUE AWARD FINALIST • “[A] haunting memoir, which also unfolds as a gripping true-crime narrative . . . This is a powerful, unsettling story, told with bracing honesty and skill.”—The Washington Post

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • One of Marie Claire’s Ten Best True Crime Books of the Year

Ellen McGarrahan was a young journalist for The Miami Herald in 1990 when she witnessed the botched execution of convicted killer Jesse Tafero: flames and smoke and three jolts of the electric chair. When evidence later emerged casting doubt on Tafero’s guilt, McGarrahan found herself haunted by his fiery death. Had she witnessed the execution of an innocent man?

Decades later, McGarrahan, now a successful private investigator, is still gripped by the mystery and infamy of the Tafero case, and decides she must investigate it herself. Her quest will take her around the world and deep into the harrowing heart of obsession, and as questions of guilt and innocence become more complex, McGarrahan discovers she is not alone in her need for closure. For whenever a human life is taken by violence, the reckoning is long and difficult for all.

A rare and vivid account of a private investigator’s real life and a classic true-crime tale, Two Truths and a Lie is ultimately a profound meditation on truth, grief, complicity, and justice.

©2021 Ellen McGarrahan (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“The experience of inhabiting that investigation with McGarrahan is so intense readers should experience it for themselves. For me, the even deeper draw here is McGarrahan’s struggle to come to terms with the evil she was drawn into as a young reporter.” (Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air)

“Extremely entertaining...McGarrahan’s obsession with rooting out the truth in the case leads her [to] Florida, Ireland and Australia, where she tracks down any detail that might potentially help her know what happened.” (The New York Times)

“This riveting read is the memoir of a reporter-turned-private investigator who looks back at the case that snagged her imagination.” (Marie Claire, The 10 Best True Crime Books of 2021)

Crime truth and justice

I live near Starke and recall the execution but not the case. The author gives and in-depth look at the Florida drug and crime world, the justice system and the difficulty in finding truth.
Well done. Voices are hard in audible books. It would be perfect but not feasible to have different voices, so it is never the fault of the reader.

Very Enthralling

Can't imagine what it must be like to carry the burden of witnessing this execution all these years. The author and narrator did good work. It was like peeling an onion to go back after all these years to get the different perspectives on the people and events. What you find is not what you started out wanting to know.

Very well written

Compelling story and very well written. Highly recommend to other true crime fans out there.

Interesting story but..

Jesse and Sunny’s is a powerful story and I was really looking forward to reading more about it. However, while I respect the author’s dedication and work, I did not like the delivery of this book. There’s too many detail that make it hard to keep up. At times, it is a bit redundant. Didn’t like the pace/change of voices the narrator tried to do so it was hard for me to keep listening (for an audiobook it’s amazing how the narration can affect if you keep listening or not)

Reporters view of an actual event

I found the story interesting and didnt realize until I was almost done with the book that it was based on true events.
I think had I known from the beginning it was based on real events I would have been very frustrated with the author and some people involved; especially Sunny Jacobs. I think the book is in desperate need of an editor. It become very redundant towards the end and I found myself skipping ahead to get to the end. I found myself frustrated by the end both with the author who must have the most patient spouse in the world and with the public that is so easily duped by true story shows that depict people like Sunny Jacobs as innocent,

loved!

well written. the story is real and progresses as a real story would, this can lead to some slow movement but everything is very thoughtful.

Navel-gazing at its worst

McGarrahan is a flighty, self-absorbed author that obsesses over her “story” for 25 years and tells the reader about every twinge of discomfort, every pledge to stop, every “breakthrough,” every doubt, in excruciating detail. The book also jumps around in time, repeating the details of the killings over and over as the author trots out new “insights.”

What struck me most—besides the overweening length of the book (11 hours when 2 would have sufficed) is that she finally decides who committed the murders by staging the shooting scene with her husband and a friend. She could have employed that strategy literally years earlier—as soon as she knew the bullets’ trajectories. No need to travel to Ireland and Australia. How her husband supported her through all her “sturm und drang” is a mystery.

over dramatic

Spoiler alert...

Basically the author is "haunted" because she witnesses an execution. it takes hours if reading to learn the right guy was executed. most of the book is about her quite over dramatic inner demons surrounding this case. The case itself is interesting, her take on it falls short.

All about herself, and much ado about nothing

If you're looking for the memoir of a privileged narcissist, this might be the book for you. There are murders of police, hidden agendas, a variety of rogues and villains, all with contradictory stories. Yet, somehow the author manages to forego all that potential drama, and focus on a vastly less interesting subject, making it all about... herself. Her ghosts, her haunting, her "blood monolith". She sees an execution go horribly wrong, and proceeds to spend decades pursuing the truth. To bring justice? No. To clear the name of a possibly innocent man? No. To have the truth of a cop-killing revealed? No. Just to have her ghosts exorcised, because clearly this is all about her. She seems to truly believe she's a legitimate victim in the story. In one of the few moments acknowledging the true victims, the author manages to pat herself on the back near the end on not bothering the family of one of the slain officers. How magnanimous.

It's no exaggeration to say that this book is twice as long as one might reasonably expect it to be. Along the way, we learn about her childhood, her procession of jobs, her very diverse dating habits, and jaunts around the globe. Some parts are completely extraneous, and some are tangential to the story, but with very little of substance about the actual crime. And what's worse, is that it ultimately amounts to nothing. It would be an interesting drinking game to count how many sentences start with "I", or contain "me". You wouldn't last long. The dreadfully purplish prose didn't help either. And even at 1.5x, I found the reading to be quite slow. (1.0x was excruciating). Avoid at all costs.

Not at all what I expected

I had heard an interview with the author and wanted to get the book after hearing about it from the author's point of view.

The author repeats the same information in just about evey chapter and there are hours yet to go. I have heard enough.