Author Guide · Investigative Journalism
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In 2008 Jeffrey Epstein, accused of abusing dozens of underage girls in Palm Beach, pleaded guilty to state charges under a deal approved by the federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta and served 13 months in a county jail. A decade later the Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown went back through the police records, identified about 80 women who said they had been abused as teenagers, and persuaded eight of them to tell their stories. Her five-part series “Perversion of Justice” ran in November 2018. In July 2019 Epstein was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges and Acosta, by then Secretary of Labor, resigned. Her book tells the full story of that investigation. This guide covers her one book: what it is about and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 1 key book · 2021–2021 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Julie K. Brown has written one book: Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story (2021), her account of the Miami Herald investigation that led to Epstein’s 2019 arrest. Start there; her 2018 Herald series of the same name, recognised with a Pulitzer Prize special citation in 2026, is where it began.
Where to Start with Julie K. Brown
If you have never read her
→ Perversion of Justice (2021) — her only book, the full story of the investigation.
If you want to understand the 2008 plea deal
→ Perversion of Justice (2021) — how prosecutors and lawyers shaped the outcome of the first case.
If you read the 2018 Herald series
→ Perversion of Justice (2021) — the book goes behind the reporting and follows the case to 2021.
Julie K. Brown’s Book
Perversion of Justice
Brown describes how she reopened a case most of the press had dropped: working through the records of the original Palm Beach police investigation, talking to the detectives, tracing about 80 women who said Epstein had abused them as teenagers, and examining the 2008 plea deal that let him avoid federal charges. It sets out the network of people around Epstein and the legal system that shielded him, and follows the case after the series, from Epstein’s arrest in July 2019 to his death in jail a month later. Dey Street Books, an imprint of William Morrow, published it in July 2021 (448 pages). In March 2026 Sony Pictures Television announced a limited series based on it, with Laura Dern playing Brown.
How to Read Julie K. Brown
There is one book, and it reads best straight through. It moves between the case itself, from the Palm Beach police investigation of the mid-2000s to the federal arrest in 2019, and the story of how Brown and her Herald colleague Emily Michot reported the series. It is a book about a justice system and the people who worked it, not a retelling of the abuse in detail.
If you want to see where it started, read the Miami Herald series “Perversion of Justice” (November 2018) first, then the book, which adds the reporting behind it and what happened after publication.
A reading path
1. “Perversion of Justice”, Miami Herald (2018)
2. Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story (2021)
Everything Else Julie K. Brown Published
Beyond the 1 key book: 1 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Newspaper series
1
1 book · 2018
- 2018Perversion of Justicefive-part Miami Herald series on the Epstein case, November 2018, which won a George Polk Award
The years · 1961–2026
Quick facts about Julie K. Brown
- Known for
- Her Miami Herald investigation into the Jeffrey Epstein case, which put the 2008 plea deal and its victims back in the news and preceded his 2019 federal arrest.
- 1961
- Born in Philadelphia
- 1987
- Journalism degree, Temple University
- 2026
- Pulitzer Prize special citation
- Born
- 1961, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Education
- Temple University, B.A. in journalism (1987)
- Worked
- Philadelphia Daily News; Miami Herald from about 2000, as an investigative reporter
- Earlier work
- Four years investigating abuse in Florida prisons, which won her a George Polk Award
- Honours
- George Polk Award (2018), Hillman Prize (2019), Time 100 (2020)
- Pulitzer
- Special citation (2026) for her Epstein reporting
The red mark is 2021: Perversion of Justice, her first and so far only book.
How Julie K. Brown Works: Back to the Records
Brown started from paper. The Epstein case had been reported before, so she went back to the files of the original Palm Beach police investigation and to the detectives who had built it, and used them to identify about 80 women who said they had been abused at his Palm Beach home as teenagers. Eight agreed to tell their stories.
Her focus is the system rather than the crime. The series and the book concentrate on how the 2008 plea deal was negotiated, who approved it, and how victims were kept in the dark, and they describe the abuse only as far as the legal story needs. She contacted Epstein’s lawyers early, sent certified letters to the people she named, and went to his door. On NPR’s Fresh Air she said that nothing was “more powerful than the words of the women talking about this themselves”.
It is the same method she used over four years on Florida’s prisons: long document work, then the people inside the records. For other reporters who took on powerful men and the systems that protected them, see Ronan Farrow and Megan Twohey.
Watch
Julie K. Brown in Conversation with Carol Leonnig
Washington Post investigative reporter Carol Leonnig interviews Miami Herald journalist Julie K. Brown about her book on the Jeffrey Epstein case, streamed on 22 July 2021. From the official Washington Post Live channel.
Frequently asked questions about Julie K. Brown’s book
How many books has Julie K. Brown written?
One: Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story (2021). The rest of her work is newspaper journalism for the Miami Herald, including the 2018 series the book grew out of.
How many books has Julie K. Brown written?
There is one book, Perversion of Justice (2021). It expands her five-part Miami Herald series “Perversion of Justice”, published in November 2018.
Where should I start with Julie K. Brown?
With Perversion of Justice, her only book. For a shorter way in, read the 2018 Herald series first; the book adds how it was reported and follows the case into 2019.
What is Julie K. Brown’s most famous book?
Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story (2021), published by Dey Street Books. Her best-known work overall is the 2018 Herald series of the same name.
What did the Perversion of Justice series lead to?
In July 2019 federal prosecutors in New York arrested Jeffrey Epstein on sex-trafficking charges, and Alexander Acosta, who as a U.S. attorney had approved the 2008 plea deal, resigned as Secretary of Labor. Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, credited “excellent investigative journalism”. Epstein died in jail in August 2019.
Did Julie K. Brown win a Pulitzer Prize?
Yes, in 2026 the Pulitzer board gave her a special citation for her 2017–2018 reporting on Epstein, the justice system that protected him and the people around him. In April 2019 Alan Dershowitz, one of Epstein’s former lawyers, had written to the board urging it not to honour the series. She also won a George Polk Award for it.
Is Perversion of Justice being made into a TV series?
Yes. In March 2026 Sony Pictures Television announced a limited series based on the book, with Laura Dern as Brown and Adam McKay’s Hyperobject Industries producing; Brown is an executive producer.
Was Julie K. Brown sued over the book?
In 2022 two of Epstein’s Florida victims filed a defamation suit against Brown in Miami-Dade County, disputing how the book describes them and asking for a public apology and damages. Brown did not immediately comment on the suit.
Is Perversion of Justice graphic?
It deals with the sexual abuse of minors, but its focus is the investigation and the legal case: the police files, the 2008 plea deal, and the women who decided to speak. Readers sensitive to the subject should still expect first-hand accounts from survivors.
Footnotes
- Julie K. Brown — Wikipedia
- Julie K. Brown, special citation — The Pulitzer Prizes
- Perversion of justice: the Jeffrey Epstein story — Knox County Public Library catalogue
- Miami journalist says she sought to give Epstein’s victims the chance to speak — NPR, 2021
- Laura Dern to play Julie K. Brown in Epstein series — TheWrap, 2026
- Two Epstein accusers sue Julie K. Brown for defamation — Rolling Stone, 2022
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“He didn’t do this alone. He had a whole ecosystem that he created that allowed this to happen.”
— Julie K. Brown on Jeffrey Epstein, interview with Dave Davies, NPR Fresh Air (2021)
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