

True crime
The Man No One Believed
Debut
by Joshua Sharpe
Quick take
The true story of a grisly murder, the man falsely accused of the crime, and the journalist fighting to set him free.
Good to know
80s
Social issues
Underdog
Unsettling
Synopsis
In 1985, a white man walked into a South Georgia church and brutally murdered Harold and Thelma Swain, two pillars of the area’s Black community. The killer vanished into the night. For fifteen years, the case remained unsolved. Then authorities zeroed in on Dennis Perry, a carpenter who grew up nearby. Convicted with devastatingly flawed evidence, Perry received a double life sentence.
When award-winning journalist and South Georgia native Joshua Sharpe retraces the case, he discovers a winding path of corruption, devastating missteps, and secrets. Driven by the pursuit of the truth, Sharpe’s investigation takes him through dusty courthouse archives, down winding dirt roads, and into intense interviews. But he keeps knocking on doors—even after they’re slammed in his face. Sharpe uncovers explosive evidence that helps prove Dennis Perry’s innocence. And he confronts a long-ignored suspect: an alleged white supremacist who had bragged about committing the murders.
But the fight for the truth is not easily won. When a key figure in the investigation turns up dead under suspicious circumstances, Sharpe’s sources and editors insist that he could be in danger. And even as evidence mounts of Perry’s innocence, local officials work to keep him in prison—until Sharpe’s reporting forces the state to launch a new investigation—thirty-five years after the Swains’ murders. Driven by Sharpe’s tireless reporting, The Man No One Believed tells the unbelievable story of one of the most confounding cases in Georgia history, the extraordinary fight to free an innocent man, and how state officials worked against the odds to deliver justice for the Swains after all.
Content warning
This book contains mentions of domestic abuse, sexual assault, and suicide.
Read a sample
Get an early look from the first pages of The Man No One Believed.
Why we chose it...
With the pacing of a thriller and vivid, immersive writing, this book transported us right into the heart of the story, and we couldn’t put it down.
This is an eye-opening, unflinching look at how local politics, race, and corruption all played a role in imprisoning the wrong man in 1980s Georgia.
It’s a rare blend of crime narrative, investigative journalism, history, and personal storytelling—we were riveted following this author on his quest to discover the truth.