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]
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.)[5] 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.)[5]
Bibliography
Non-fiction
Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring, Bantam (October 1, 1988),
ISBN978-0-5530-5283-1
Prophet of Death: The Mormon Blood Atonement Killings, William Morrow & Co (October 1991),
ISBN978-0-6881-0584-6
The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison, Bantam (February 1, 1992),
ISBN978-0-5530-7573-1
Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life, and Justice in a Southern Town, Bantam (August 1, 1995),
ISBN978-0-5530-9501-2
Confessions of A Spy: The Real Story of Aldrich Ames, Putnam (February 10, 1997),
ISBN978-0-3991-4188-1
Super Casino: Inside the "New" Las Vegas, Bantam (January 4, 2000),
ISBN978-0-5530-9502-9
WITSEC: Inside The Federal Witness Protection Program, Bantam (January 29, 2002),
ISBN978-0-5538-0145-3
Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness, Berkley (April 3, 2007),
ISBN0-425-21389-7
Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War, Putnam (January 24, 2008),
ISBN978-0-399-15439-3
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),
ISBN978-1-4391-9902-2