Now a major motion picture directed by Academy Award-nominated Lee Daniels and starring Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, David Oyelowo, and Macy Gray.The sun is rising over Moat County, Florida, when Sheriff Thurmond Call is found dead on the highway, gutted like an alligator. A local redneck is swiftly arrested, tried and sentenced to death. Ward James - hotshot investigative reporter - returns to his rural hometown, intrigued by the proposition from a death row femme fatale who promises him the story of the decade. She's armed with explosive evidence, aiming to free her convicted'fiancé'. Together, they barrel down Florida's back roads and through its seamy underbelly in search of The Story, racing flat out into a head-on collision that will make headline news.

Pete Dexter won the US National Book Award for Fiction for Paris Trout, two Penn West Awards for Best Novel of the Year (Paris Trout and The Paperboy), and the Los Angeles Times prize for Best Novel for Train. His most recent novel, Spooner (Atlantic Books), was published to critical acclaim in 2009.