Fox News Books Expands Into Fiction With Trey Gowdy Crime Thriller

Fox News Media’s book publishing imprint has turned a new page. Fox News Books, launched in 2020 to publish titles from the network’s on-air personalities, turned to a familiar name for its first foray into the world of fiction writing: Trey Gowdy, the former prosecutor, congressman, and current Fox News host whose debut novel The Color of Death blends a murder mystery and courtroom strategy into a psychological crime drama.

Co-written with Wall Street Journal bestselling author Christopher Greyson, the book marks an expansion of the publishing ambitions of Fox News Books — the nonfiction catalog of which has already sold more than three million copies to date.

‘This book has been in my head for a decade’

When I spoke with Gowdy about the book, which is now available, he made it clear that fiction was not always on his career roadmap. “This book has been in my head for a decade,” he told me. “It would have remained there but for our CEO Suzanne Scott. She knew I’d written three nonfiction books and asked, ‘Have you ever thought about writing fiction?’ She said, ‘Take a chance. Put pen to paper.’ And here we are.”

That mandate she gave him, by the way, also underscores the degree to which Fox News Media has been steadily diversifying in recent years beyond its core news and political programming, by building out a slate of lifestyle and non-news ventures. The company’s Fox Nation streaming service, for example, offers everything from true-crime content to outdoors-related programming. Other efforts include the newly launched Fox News American Wine Club, as well as Fox News Books.

At the center of The Color of Death is Assistant District Attorney Colm Truesdale, a character whose life has been shattered by personal tragedy (the deaths of his wife and daughter) and who gets pulled into a murder investigation. When evidence goes missing and the crime scene is destroyed, Truesdale finds himself pulled into a web of lies that includes a powerful judge and his family.

Fox News Books fiction debut rooted in reality

Gowdy emphasizes that while The Color of Death is fiction, it draws heavily from his two decades as a prosecutor — a span during which he handled thousands of criminal cases, including nearly 100 jury trials. Those experiences, no surprise, gave him plenty of raw literary material to mine for the book’s courtroom scenes and character dynamics

“There’s zero politics in it,” Gowdy said. “It’s all criminal justice, which I’m very familiar with. Many series and movies don’t accurately portray the role that prosecutors play. I wanted to show readers what it actually looks like — being at the crime scene, sitting in on the first interview, and then having to explain everything to the jury at the end.”

His writing process also borrows from his time in court. “I start at the end. Whether it’s a speech, a closing argument, or a book, I start with where I want the reader to wind up and then work backward. It’s a little unconventional, but that’s the way I’ve always done it.”

What interests Gowdy most, he says, is not just the mechanics of prosecution but the psychology of human behavior. “I’m fascinated by the way people think and why they do what they do — the way we rationalize, the way we project,” he told me. That perspective runs throughout the novel, which he’s described in other interviews as featuring a “roller coaster of emotions” designed to put readers in the prosecutor’s shoes.

For a man who’s spent his career persuading juries and voters, fiction also offers an entirely new outlet outside of the law, politics, and his current work with Fox News. Speaking of why he left the law: “It does extract a very heavy toll on you, to be surrounded by malice and depravity. There’s a shelf life for how long you can do it without becoming hopelessly cynical … I love to write. It’s probably my favorite thing to do. Writing allows me to move people in a different way.”