A former reporter for The Washington Post, Pete Earley has written five books, Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring, Prophet of Death, The Hot House, Life Inside Leavenworth Prison, Circumstantial Evidence and Confessions of A Spy.

For the New York Times bestseller Family of Spies,  Earley was the only journalist to speak with all members of the Walker spy ring. For The Hot House, Earley was the first journalist given unlimited access by the government to a major federal penitentiary.  For Circumstantial Evidence, Earley helped uncover information that led to the release of a black man unfairly sentenced to death in southern Alabama.  The book won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Social Justice and an Edgar Award.