Pete Earley Explained

Pete Earley
Birth Date:	5 September 1951
Birth Place:	Douglas, Arizona, U.S.
Occupation:	Journalist, writer

Pete Earley (born September 5, 1951)^[1] is an American journalist and author who has written non-fiction books and novels.

Career

Born in Douglas, Arizona, Earley became a Washington Post reporter and also wrote books about the Aldrich Ames and John Walker espionage cases. His book Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life, and Justice in a Southern Town (1995), about the wrongful conviction of Walter McMillian in Alabama, won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Fact Crime Book in 1996.^[2]

His book about the John Walker spy ring, Family of Spies, was a New York Times bestseller. It was adapted as a CBS miniseries starring Powers Boothe and Lesley Ann Warren. In 2007, Earley was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for his book Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness, about a man seeking help for his son.^[3]

His 2008 book, Comrade J, is about Russian SVR defector Sergei Tretyakov.^[4]

Family

Pete's older sister, Alice Lee Earley, died at the age of 17 on June 14, 1966, after being hit by a car while riding Pete's scooter.^[5] (Pete was 14 years old and at church camp when his sister was killed.) Years later, in a 1985 Washington Post article called "To Find a Sister" (1985), Earley wrote about Alice's death and its effect on his life. (As part of it, he interviewed the woman driver who had hit his sister.)

Bibliography

Non-fiction

• Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring, Bantam (October 1, 1988),
• Prophet of Death: The Mormon Blood Atonement Killings, William Morrow & Co (October 1991),
• The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison, Bantam (February 1, 1992),
• Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life, and Justice in a Southern Town, Bantam (August 1, 1995),
• Confessions of A Spy: The Real Story of Aldrich Ames, Putnam (February 10, 1997),
• Super Casino: Inside the "New" Las Vegas, Bantam (January 4, 2000),
• WITSEC: Inside The Federal Witness Protection Program, Bantam (January 29, 2002),
• Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness, Berkley (April 3, 2007),
• Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War, Putnam (January 24, 2008),
• The Serial Killer Whisperer: How One Man's Tragedy Helped Unlock the Deadliest Secrets of the World's Most Terrifying Killers, Touchstone (January 10, 2012),
• by Jessie Close and Pete Earley, Grand Central Publishing, (January 13, 2015), ^[6]

Fiction

• The Big Secret, Forge Books (June 1, 2004),
• Lethal Secrets, Forge Books (June 1, 2005),
• The Apocalypse Stone, Forge Books (June 13, 2006),
  • • Duplicity: A Novel, Center Street Press (October 2015), co-author Newt Gingrich Treason: A Novel, Center Street Press (October 2016), co-author Newt Gingrich Vengeance: A Novel, Center Street Press (October 10, 2017), co-author Newt Gingrich,
• Collusion: A Novel, Broadside Books (April 30, 2019), co-author Newt Gingrich,
• Shakedown: A Novel, Broadside Books (March 24, 2020), co-author Newt Gingrich,

Notes and References

1. Web site: Earley, Pete 1951- Encyclopedia.com.
2. Web site: Pete Earley . Pete Earley | Authors | Macmillan . Us.macmillan.com . December 4, 2009 . February 14, 2012.
3. Web site: 2007 finalists . pulitzer.org . September 1, 2009.
4. Web site: CQ Politics | Top U.N. Nuclear Watchdog a Russian Spy, Defector Says in New Book . April 30, 2008 . dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20080521073419/http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=hsnews-000002657689 . May 21, 2008 . https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/23/AR2007042301749.html, https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-01-26-592200836_x.htm,http://www.townhall.com/columnists/BillSteigerwald/2008/03/31/comrade_j_by_pete_earley?page=full&comments=true
5. News: Earley . Pete . To Find a Sister . The Washington Post . March 31, 1985 . August 4, 2018.
6. News: Resilience . en . Kirkus Reviews . June 16, 2020.