Catch and Kill
On sale
15th October 2019
Price: £20
LA Times Book Prize, 2020
Genre
In a dramatic account of violence and espionage, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Ronan Farrow exposes serial abusers and a cabal of powerful interests hell-bent on covering up the truth, at any cost.
In 2017, a routine network television investigation led Ronan Farrow to a story only whispered about: one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers was a predator, protected by fear, wealth, and a conspiracy of silence. As Farrow drew closer to the truth, shadowy operatives, from high-priced lawyers to elite war-hardened spies, mounted a secret campaign of intimidation, threatening his career, following his every move and weaponizing an account of abuse in his own family.
All the while, Farrow and his producer faced a degree of resistance that could not be explained – until now. And a trail of clues revealed corruption and cover-ups from Hollywood, to Washington, and beyond.
This is the untold story of the exotic tactics of surveillance and intimidation deployed by wealthy and connected men to threaten journalists, evade accountability and silence victims of abuse – and it’s the story of the women who risked everything to expose the truth and spark a global movement.
Both a spy thriller and a meticulous work of investigative journalism, Catch and Kill breaks devastating new stories about the rampant abuse of power – and sheds far-reaching light on investigations that shook the culture.
In 2017, a routine network television investigation led Ronan Farrow to a story only whispered about: one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers was a predator, protected by fear, wealth, and a conspiracy of silence. As Farrow drew closer to the truth, shadowy operatives, from high-priced lawyers to elite war-hardened spies, mounted a secret campaign of intimidation, threatening his career, following his every move and weaponizing an account of abuse in his own family.
All the while, Farrow and his producer faced a degree of resistance that could not be explained – until now. And a trail of clues revealed corruption and cover-ups from Hollywood, to Washington, and beyond.
This is the untold story of the exotic tactics of surveillance and intimidation deployed by wealthy and connected men to threaten journalists, evade accountability and silence victims of abuse – and it’s the story of the women who risked everything to expose the truth and spark a global movement.
Both a spy thriller and a meticulous work of investigative journalism, Catch and Kill breaks devastating new stories about the rampant abuse of power – and sheds far-reaching light on investigations that shook the culture.
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Reviews
Humour is the impressive and, indeed, surprising quality found in this meticulous account of how Farrow helped bring down Harvey Weinstein in 2017 . . . An essential account of the story that will scar Hollywood for years
Absorbing . . . The behavior documented in Catch and Kill is obviously and profoundly distressing . . . But there are some hopeful threads, too
At the heart of every great noir is a conspiracy of evil that imbues the initial crime uncovered by the hero with a weightier resonance than was immediately obvious. So it goes with Catch and Kill
Catch and Kill is exhaustively reported . . . and compulsively readable, with nearly every page revealing a provocative detail about a household name in media or entertainment
Farrow knows he has a humdinger of a story, but he also has a nuanced appreciation of how women are smeared and discredited, of how the lines dividing news and show business have blurred . . . lively and wide-ranging
A thriller. My word, you thirst for more . . . Catch and Kill is a rip-roaring account of the years spent chasing the Weinstein story and its spin-offs. It's a deep dive into the world of US media, Hollywood pay-outs, Donald Trump's eccentric ways, spies and spineless editors. And is it gripping . . . The page-turner, as illustrated by Farrow's Weinstein confrontation, is dripping with jaw-dropping revelations and moments of astonishing pathos . . . Farrow's reporting is incredibly rigorous. He has spoken, he said, to over 200 sources. It's evident in the book; the breadth of the story is staggering. He has the private eyes and the NYPD, the accusers and the whistleblowers. It's a rollicking read; I found myself laughing out loud, aghast, at the details, or else reading out segments to colleagues. Not since Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury - an eye-watering account of life inside the White House, in the first months of the Trump presidency - has a book so comprehensively lifted the lid on something so troubling
Gripping
Packed with skulduggery and subterfuge, this is the account of how Harvey Weinstein tried to stop Farrow breaking his Pulitzer-winning story on him in October 2017. It's a deep dive into the world of US media, Hollywood payouts, spies and spineless editors. And is it utterly gripping
[A] scoop-filled book, part reporting memoir, part spy thriller . . . Riveting and often shocking . . . Catch and Kill has gone off like a hand grenade in the world of New York media . . . compelling
Moves at a brisk pace, feeding readers each revelation in real time, interspersed with personal notes that make the stories stick
Engrossing
The year's best spy thriller is stranger - and more horrifying - than fiction . . . He weaves a breathless narrative as compelling as it is disturbing . . . bracingly exposes the rot that's persisted across elite American institutions for decades
Gripping and humorous
Extraordinary . . . As some American critics have already observed, Farrow's narrative has the pace of a thriller . . . Farrow's book captures the terror and paranoia that eat away at Weinstein's victims for the simple reason that he comes to experience them himself, a human mirror. The producer's sphere of influence extends ever outwards, like the powerful arms of some giant squid
Reads like a thriller ...The reveal in Catch and Kill is not that there are corrupt people; it's that corrupt people are in control of our media, politics, and entertainment and that, in fact, many of them remain in control
Read this book . . . Farrow's greatest success was to listen, believe and act, even at his own peril
Meticulous and devastating . . . Catch and Kill is part All the President's Men, part spy thriller
Darkly funny and poignant . . . a winning account of how it feels to be at the centre of the biggest story in the world. It is also, of course, a breathtakingly dogged piece of reporting, in the face of extraordinary opposition
I have rarely read a more compelling account of the systematic reality of sexual harassment in the workplace. Things might be slowly changing but this book shows that the culture that normalises abusive behaviour remains pervasive and owes its persistence to the insidious ways in which it downplays the emotional toll this has on women