This image is the cover for the book Reckless, St. Martin's True Crime Library

Reckless, St. Martin's True Crime Library

New York Times bestselling author Carlton Smith, one of the award-winning journalists who covered the Green River Killer case, examines the rise and fall of a musical legend whose self-destructive personality resulted in murder in Reckless: Millionaire Record Producer Phil Spector and the Violent Death of Lana Clarkson.

In the early morning hours of February 3, 2003, police were summoned to the spooky Alhambra, California castle of legendary music producer Phil Spector. There they discovered the body of actress Lana Clarkson, dying in a chair, shot through the mouth. Spector claimed she had killed herself, but was soon charged with murder.

The pop music genius, who revolutionized music from the Beatles to the Ramones, was making headlines again. But Spector, notorious for his eccentric behavior, volatile temper, and fascination with guns, pleaded innocent. What really happened on that fateful pre-dawn morning in Spector’s hilltop mansion? As the controversial wunderkind’s life of fame, money, and excess was coming undone, a true Hollywood mystery was about to unfold.

Carlton Smith

Carlton Smith (1947–2011) was a prizewinning crime reporter and the author of dozens of books. Born in Riverside, California, Smith graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, with a degree in history. He began his journalism career at the Los Angeles Times and arrived at the Seattle Times in 1983, where he and Tomas Guillen covered the Green River Killer case for more than a decade. They were named Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative reporting in 1988 and published the New York Times bestseller The Search for the Green River Killer (1991) ten years before investigators arrested Gary Ridgway for the murders. Smith went on to write twenty-five true crime books, including Killing Season (1994), Cold-Blooded (2004), and Dying for Love (2011).

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