*I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.*

As a former journalist and current private eye, Ellen McGarrahan knows how to tell a story. I found this book to be very readable, and appreciated her attention to detail and thoroughness in exploring the minutia of this case. There were a lot of different people involved in the case, and I liked how the author often took the time to remind the reader who each of the players was after several chapters passed in which they were not mentioned. The Prologue draws the reader in immediately, and I couldn't believe the bravery, ingenuity, and downright gall the author had in seeking out and visiting all the people she found who had been connected with the case, including two of the three prime suspects. I enjoyed how the story unfolded and how the author would "return to the scene of the crime" to put together the pieces of the story as she was given them.

My biggest complaint about the book was that I found it to be extremely egocentric. Throughout the book, the author continually refers back to the idea that she is exploring this case because she witnessed the execution of the third prime suspect in 1990, and it haunted her. In the years following the execution, as she tried to put the case out of her mind, it kept coming back to her in various ways, and she could not shake the feeling of being haunted by the ghost of Jesse Tafero, the executed man. Her search for the truth of what happened, and whether or not Tafero was innocent, was in large part, driven by the author's own need to exorcise her demons. I might have enjoyed it more without the constant reminder of the author's internal battle, however, I supposed the case itself, and the author's feelings about it, were inextricably linked.

After reporting on Jesse Tafero's execution in 1990, Ellen McGarrahan was very upset to discover later, evidence was later found to prove his innocence. The anger led her to begin to go back and investigate the crime he's accused of and try to see how the executed the wrong man! 
I found it very interesting and it makes you wonder, how many times has an innocent man been prosecuted and /or executed and there was no one to speak up for them.
Thank you Ellen McGarrahan, NetGalley and Random House for a copy of this book for a fair and honest review.

Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for providing this ARC. This is an interesting investigation and memoir that I would categorize as a lesser version of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.  The author goes from naive cub reporter to a haunted and obsessive private detective, searching for answers that may never come in the hopes of finding peace for herself. The investigative parts got me hooked quickly (and I originally had zero expectations for this at all) but as I got further and further into the book, I started to lose a bit of interest in the solving of the questions and by the end I felt that it was really dragging. Recommended for true crime fans.

I absolutely love true crime, but I did not enjoy this one. It started out pretty strong, but the author tended to put a lot of emphasis on herself, rather than the accused killers/victims' families.

When Ellen McGarrahan volunteered to witness an execution as a young reporter she had no idea how that decision would affect the rest of her life. The execution was “botched” and the death of the inmate was brutal, she was haunted by this event and it led her to spend the next 25 years trying to find the truth of the case. The inmate was Jesse Tafero, he, his girlfriend, her 9 year old son and their 10 month old daughter were at the scene with another man that left two police officers dead. Jesse died in the electric chair but his girlfriend Sunny was later freed leaving questions on what really happened. 

 Like all true crime stories everyone the author speaks to has their own version of what happened the day the officers died and the court proceedings after. The author does a very thorough job speaking to EVERYONE she can that is involved and follows the evidence to the truth. There were  a few situations where I seriously questioned her judgement, she put  herself in some dangerous situations to get the answers she was looking for. But I think she really went on this journey in search of justice, she needed the answers and the real story.  

“Americans know that the foundation of our justice system, and our society is the principle of equality under the law. We also know that inequality and injustice exist, much as we may wish otherwise.”

 This is part true crime book and part memoir, Ellen McGarrahan’s whole life changed the days she witnessed Jesse Tafero die. While we follow her investigation we also get a glimpse on what changed in her life for the better and the worse. Her reactions are very real and I feel her honesty on the page.  While she gives  heaps of information on the case and the many players in this story.  I did not get bogged down with the information overload.  It was a really good book. I am giving it 3 stars.

Two Truths and a Lie by Ellen McGarrahan 

For me, the best type of true crime is the kind of text that blends memoir and nonfiction so seamlessly that the writer’s perspective and their reactions to the subject of their book seem inextricably wedded to the crimes the book recounts, as well as their consequences. Ellen McGarrahan’s book is just that. Two Truths and a Lie: A Murder, A Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice (Random House, 2021) seems as much about self-exploration as it does about finding the truth about a crime through investigative methods. 

The book starts not with a crime but with the state’s approximation of justice. McGarrahan, a reporter for the Miami Herald, witnesses the execution of inmate Jesse Tafero in Florida. His crime? The shooting deaths of two police officers in a violent altercation at a rest stop in the 1970s. Due to a malfunction with the electric chair and Tafero’s own surprising magnetism, Tafero’s violent and painful death haunts McGarrahan, much as she tries for years to avoid it. 

Moving from reporter to private investigator through a series of bizarre events seeming to stem from this watershed moment in McGarrhan’s life, she embarks on a stunning career that truly had me enthralled. Her small and tantalizing tidbits of her life as a PI tell me that McGarrahan could fill books with shocking stories of the criminal not-so-under-world. All the while, Tafero’s death haunts her—there are questions about the case that still don’t seem to add up, despite the fact that a man has been executed for these crimes. 

These questions take the form of two other people present at the rest stop that day. Walter Rhodes and Sunny Jacobs were also in the car the day that Jesse allegedly shot the police officers. Walter testified against Jesse and Sunny in order to avoid the death penalty, but then later confessed to the killings himself—and then recanted. Sunny herself was convicted of the killings as well, but years later her conviction was overturned, and she took an Alford plea. Therefore, although Jesse was executed, there are aspects of the case that remain unresolved. Who really fired the shots that day? Did the state execute an innocent man? McGarrahan, over the course of almost three decades, finally decides to use her skills as a PI to find out. 

This book gave me the distinct impression of being on a roller coaster in the dark—in a very good way. Reading this book, you really get a chance to find out how deep the rabbit hole goes as McGarrahan is haunted by this crime and her investigation. Not only are the lives of the three people involved with the crime immensely complex and wholly shocking at times, but the facts of the crime continue to get more confused and it becomes less and less clear who might have fired the gun and when. There are so many complex details that the book has a kind of ‘blink, and you’ll miss it’ character. Even the smallest detail matters here, and can turn the entire case on its head, which happens several times. For a crime that initially seems so ‘straightforward’ in the sense that there are a number of evidentiary elements and witnesses, the amount of complex evidence and contradictory testimony is shocking. 

McGarrahan’s journey through this investigation is both admirable and harrowing. Coming to terms with her own trauma—trauma that does not start with Tafero’s execution—is a difficult and complex aspect of this book. It is something that is necessarily blended throughout the investigation—inextricably so. McGarrahan’s search for connection through the story of the lives of these three people and those that knew him, and her desire to answer the question of whether or not she watched an innocent man die, is a crucial aspect of this book that I greatly admired. Highly skilled and deeply connected to the case—something that does not always serve her well as an investigator—McGarrahan’s book is stunningly human and unfailingly depicts all of the messiness that this entails. 

The writing here is, as I’ve said, very fast-paced throughout. While I would have liked to see the timeline represented more clearly because there is a consistent forward and backward move between people, testimony, and events, with the amount of information in this case it seems almost impossible to write a book that could link all of these elements together in another way. This case spans about half a century, and the people who have lived with this for decades have various parts to play. McGarrahan has the sharp, to the point writing style of a reporter, and I think that voice lends itself well to this book. 

Underlying much of McGarrahan’s investigation is her belief that Tafero’s execution was fundamentally flawed, and that the state’s use of the death penalty is wrong. Regardless of Tafero’s involvement in the crimes, McGarrahan witnessed a man die at the state’s hands and it affected her forever. This is one of the many solid, nonnegotiable fundaments of the book, and it goes without saying that, whatever happened, this man’s violent death was not the solution. 

I highly recommend Two Truths and a Lie if you’re looking for a gripping, fast-paced book with a thoughtful and insightful premise. McGarrahan’s journey through this case is a shocking one, and it will leave you guessing until the very last chapter. 

If you would like to read more about the death penalty in the United States and those organizations who work to abolish it, please visit The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Additionally, “7 Organizations Working To End The Death Penalty,” an article from Bustle, provides a short list of current organizations in the USA working to abolish executions and also addresses some current concerns around death penalty cases in 2020/21. 

Please add Two Truths and a Lie to your Goodreads shelf and have a look at Ellen McGarrahan’s About page on Penguin Random House’s website. 

Don’t forget to follow True Crime Index on Twitter and please visit our Goodreads for updates on what we’re reading! You can find Rachel on her personal @RachelMFriars or on Goodreads @Rachel Friars.

About the Writer:

Rachel M. Friars (she/her) is a PhD student in the Department of English Language and Literature at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. She holds a BA and an MA in English Literature with a focus on neo-Victorianism and adaptations of Jane Eyre. Her current work centers on neo-Victorianism and nineteenth-century lesbian literature and history, with secondary research interests in life writing, historical fiction, true crime, popular culture, and the Gothic. Her academic writing has been published with Palgrave Macmillan and in The Journal of Neo-Victorian Studies. She is a reviewer for The Lesbrary, the co-creator of True Crime Index, and an Associate Editor and Social Media Coordinator for PopMeC Research Collective. Rachel is co-editor-in-chief of the international literary journal, The Lamp, and regularly publishes her own short fiction and poetry. Find her on Twitter and Goodreads. 

A digital copy of this book was graciously provided to True Crime Index from Random House in exchange for an honest review.

This one starts off almost like a work of fiction, but by the 3/4 mark I was dolefully aware that it was nonfiction. Don’t get me wrong I love a good true story who dunnit but it just petered out for me at the end. I would of given this less stars had the epilogue not been so well written. The epilogue was so necessary in tying this work of nonfiction up. 

“You don’t always know who is telling you the truth and who is lying-especially in a situation like this. I guarantee you, there’s some people that can lie so good that you could not bust them.” This is the crux of the plot. A journalist needing to find an answer to a crime that haunts her past. Did she witness the execution of an innocent man? Two truths and a lie, 3 people involved in a deadly crime but only 1 person is telling the truth. Ellen sets off on a year long journey to figure out the truth and put the past that haunts her to bed, once and for all.

Journalist turned private investigator turned author Ellen McGarrahan covered and attended the execution of Jesse Tafero, 43, in May 1990 in Stark, Florida. Tafero, convicted for the murders of two policemen, did not die easily. The electric chair malfunctioned, sending out flames and smoke, and required three jolts of electricity over the course of seven minutes rather than the usual one jolt and one minute to kill the prisoner. It would haunt McGarrahan for decades to come. So much so, that after she quit her job as a journalist and became a private investigator she decided to look into the case and determine for herself whether, as she suspected, an innocent man had died at the state's hands.

The truth of what happened the day the police officers were murdered will most likely never be known in full, but there appear to have been sufficient contradictions in the evidence and testimonies associated with the case that it seems odd to this reader that the prosecution was able to prove Tafero's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury.

The read overall is a bit uneven; steady and even gripping in some parts, a bit boggy and repetitive in others; but that's probably the way real investigations go. Though the basis of the book is the guilt or innocence of Tafero, the broader issue on the board is the death penalty itself and whether it provides justice.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House for permitting me access to an advanced copy of the book which is scheduled for publication on 2/2/21. Opinions stated in this review are my own.

The events that happen in this book could not have been made up.  True crimes are often like that, when truth is much, much stranger than fiction.  As a young reporter, Ellen McGarrahan is tasked to witness a death row execution.  Her briefing was straight forward.  The execution was not.  When Jesse Tafero's body catches flame, it's a gruesome picture no one who witnessed it can forget.    
Jesse and several others were arrested, stood trial and were convicted for the murder of two policemen.  Not long after Jesse's execution, his co-defendants had their convictions over turned on appeal.  Now the question arises, was Jesse guilty?  Should his conviction have been over turned too?
When Ellen becomes a private investigator, she decides to search for the truth.  It has been 40 years since the deaths of the two police officers, but Ellen will track down witnesses and even talk to the co-defendants.  The story is very detailed and her research intense.  She will follow every lead and come to different conclusions after each witness until her investigation leaves her with a final verdict.........now you have to read the book!

Ellen McGarrahan has been haunted by a case since 1990. She was a young reporter and she covered the execution of Jesse Tafero. He was charged with murdering two police offers. She witnessed the execution and something went wrong and he started on fire.  But shortly after his execution people are wondering if they sent the wrong man to death. This makes her life spiral and she overgoes many life and career changes until she finally decides she has to find out what truly happened.

This unfortunately was a DNF for me because I was expecting true crime and it was more of a memoir. I think if I would have gone into it more with the mindset of it being a memoir I would have been able to get more into it but this novel was more about how this crime impacted her life and her choices as opposed to the crime itself.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Random House for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest opinion.

Ellen McGarrahan, journalist-turned-private detective had to cover a death row execution for work, and she hasn’t been able to get it out of her head. Jesse Tafero was sent to death row after being convicted of murdering two police officers. When word starts spreading that Tafero may not have committed the murders, McGarrahan becomes haunted by the execution that she witnessed. She sets out on a mission to get to the bottom of it. Was Tafero wrongfully convicted and executed? 

I love true crime, and reading this one felt like I was watching a docu-series. I couldn’t help but put myself in McGarrahan’s shoes and think about the effects it would have on me. In a way, I was able to understand why she couldn’t put this case to rest. She had to know if she watched the execution of an innocent man or if he was truly guilty. Ellen McGarrahan’s writing hooked me from the beginning, and I was trying to piece together the information as she shared it. I liked that I didn’t have any background knowledge on this case. Overall, I really enjoyed this one!

This book was, for lack of a better description, an absolute roller coaster of a read. I finished it faster than I finish most books, because I simply could not stop reading! I desperately wanted to know what the author wanted to know: the truth. Three, maybe even 4, people are convicted of various roles in a shooting. Two are sent to death row, one ends up facing the electric chair. Was it the right person though? The author witnessed the execution in 1990 and it never left her. She painted the most vivid picture, I felt that I was on the investigation trail with her, right in the seat beside her. I very nearly started a chart so that I could keep track of the information she was collecting! One page you think you've got it pegged, who was responsible for shooting 2 law enforcement officers early on the morning of February 20th, 1976. And then you read the next page and your idea is flipped on its head. And back and forth it goes - until you are certain that you'll never be sure. Two Truths and a Lie is the most captivating true crime story I've read in a long time, about a crime that I had no idea had ever even taken place. I was drawn in and invested in the story right from the first page though. 
What I also took from this book is a lesson. Holding onto things can be damaging. Am I glad that the author held onto this, and invested all of the time and energy that she did in investigating and writing this book? Yes, because I enjoyed reading it. Do I think it was damaging to the author to have held onto something like this for over a quarter century? Yes, I do. It took pieces from her life, it consumed her thoughts, it drove her to obsession with finding the truth. In the end, what she found was not necessarily the truth, but an acceptance of what had transpired. An acceptance of what she was able to know, and what she might never know.  I think that is the lesson - learning when to accept that what we know is all we may ever know, that we don't get to know everything. Leaving some things unknown is okay, and we have to find a way to be at peace with it, lest it consume our lives.
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest feedback.

In May 1990, Ellen McGarrahan was a journalist for the Miami Herald, and was assigned to witness the execution of Jesse Tafero. Rumors were flying that he was innocent of his accused crime, killing two police officers. Had she witnessed an innocent man's death? That traumatic event changed the course of her life.
Switching professions, Ellen became a private investigator. Her quest was for the truth for her clients, as well as herself. She needed to hear Jesse Taferos whole story, and find out the truth. This book is an account of her journey for justice, and all of the people she met and connected along the way.

Reading Two Truths And A Lie was like watching a docuseries on Netflix. We get the play by play, small details and character connections that lead to the outcome we all heard about in the news. The difference in the book, to what you would see on TV, is getting a first hand account  with an emotional retelling from someone who chose to investigate for their own need. Ellen McGarrahan was completely screwed up after watching the execution, and her need for answers became an obsession to heal her. 
  This is the first time I have heard of this case. Once I got a few chapters in, and found myself trying to piece things together as well, I was hooked in. Things didn't add up, too many different stories about how it all happened. I didnt expect the Mob, Drug Cartel, jewel thieves, excessive amount of guns or the Bonnie and Clyde angel. I'm still in a funk about all the information I just processed. 
  This was a great True Crime novel. The reader is given the facts and the outcome, but are also given the opportunity to figure things out for themselves. There is no focus on gore, and the victims are mentioned respectfully. Very informative and personal read.

Engaging memoir. Lovers of true crime will enjoy this passionate tale. The author struggles with the possibility that the convicted is innocent and  she is plagued by an execution "gone wrong". Informative read and interesting take on a private investigators search for truth. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this ARC in exchange for my honest review

I found I had mixed feelings on this one. The story was so interesting as it follows along with former reporter turned private detective, Ellen McGarrahan. While working as a new reporter, she saw a prisoner put to death in an execution in the electric chair, and it has haunted her ever since. She always wondered if he was guilty of his crimes or not. Some years later, it appears she had opportunities to dig into the story in her new job as a PI, when it started to really bother her again. She went back and began looking into it seriously, interviewing people and looking at police files and court records. Does she find out who really killed the cops, if it was the man she saw executed, or his girlfriend or co-conspirator? All three were at the scene and had access to weapons. You will have to read this twisty book to find out. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Ellen McGarrahan, and the publisher.

Engaging narrative about the author's quest to find the truth about the murder of two police officers. The narrative flows well and tells the story of her journey in chronological order. Details are provided when appropriate and support the narrative. The author's introspection about the haunting aftermath of witnessing the execution of a death row inmate is well told and develops as her understanding of the reasons surrounding the myth are revealed. 

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book to read and review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

The author, a journalist turned private eye, witnesses the electric chair execution of a man convicted of the murder of 2 police officers. The event leaves her shaken, and she embarks on a decades-long search for the “truth”, which she finds is elusive. I was a little dismayed by the author’s actions throughout the book; her crying during interviews, her repeatedly referring to the convicted man as “possibly innocent of the murders” (even though it was clear he was completely involved, if not the actual triggerman), and her failure to alert authorities to the location of a wanted fugitive (who she interviewed) who was also convicted in this case is especially galling. Her subject is an unsympathetic rapist, drug dealer, and murderer. And through all her soul-searching, the physical evidence (which is where she probably should have started) convincingly points to the executed defendant, a conclusion she eventually comes to. This book seems to be her self-therapy, and unfortunately the reader has to go along for the ride. Disappointing. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through @NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

i hadn't heard of this true crime case, I thought the author was able to keep the book interesting and informative. It was a good read and I would read more true crime books from Ms. McGarrahan.

I revived my copy of Two Truths and a Lie through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of the book. Thank you to Ellen McGarrahan and Random House for the opportunity to be able to read and review this book

Ellen is everything we women need in the criminal justice field. She’s witty, tenacious, but she’s also kind of a dog with a bone. After witnessing an  execution that went wrong and took about 5 minutes longer than it should have, Ellen spends years with the ghost of Jesse Tafero knocking around in her brain. After Jesse’s girlfriend was later released from death row on technically and goes on to write a best selling book and a sold out play on Broadway telling hers and Jesse’s story- Ellen has enough and goes in search of the truth of what happened that morning in 1976 that left two police officers dead and three people behind bars. 

Ellen tells this story magnificently; mesmerizingly so. I couldn’t put it down! Was Jesse innocent? Had they killed the wrong man? I had to know! She kept me on the edge the whole time. Absolute fabulous book and if it doesn’t become a bestseller I’ll eat my shoe.

By the time I got to 25% of this book, I was very confused because there seemed to be MANY characters and I was having a hard time following. I felt the book did not flow smoothly and jumped around in timelines and characters without any idea how I got there. This was a DNF for me, and I would not recommend it. I received an ARC of this book from Random House Publishing. All opinions expressed are my own.