Trey Gowdy's new book honors a witness murdered in the '90s
Former Rep. Trey Gowdy dedicated his new crime thriller, "The Sound of Regret," to Ricky Tyrone Samuel, a Spartanburg man who became a federal witness in the 1990s and was shot execution-style six months later. Gowdy, who prosecuted the case, says the real tragedy still shapes how he writes about justice, cooperation deals, and the cost of telling the truth.
On Fox News, Gowdy called the story behind the book "heartbreaking" as he discussed the Aug. 25 release with viewers. For fans who know him from Congress or "Sunday Night in America," the novel is also a return to the courthouse world he left decades ago — one where a single choice can mean freedom or a death sentence.
Key Takeaways
- Trey Gowdy's "The Sound of Regret" is dedicated to federal witness Ricky Tyrone Samuel and his mother, Sylvene.
- Samuel was murdered in northern Greenville County about six months after agreeing to cooperate in a federal case Gowdy prosecuted in the 1990s.
- The legal thriller sequel follows prosecutor Colm Truesdale through a witness-execution mystery rooted in Gowdy's real prosecutorial experience.
- Gowdy co-wrote the book with Christopher Greyson; it follows his New York Times bestselling debut, "The Color of Death."
- The former congressman says the fiction explores drug-war cooperation deals, state-federal rivalries, and the emotional toll of prosecution.
Who Was Ricky Tyrone Samuel?
In the 1990s, Trey Gowdy was a federal prosecutor when he met Ricky Tyrone Samuel, a young man from Spartanburg, South Carolina. Samuel had gotten into trouble and faced a familiar fork in the road.
As Gowdy later told a House subcommittee he chaired in March 2017, Samuel "could follow that sometimes-predictable path for young people who get in trouble, or he could use that incident to try to turn his life around." Samuel chose the second path and began cooperating with prosecutors.
He became a witness in a federal criminal case. About six months later, investigators found him dead beside a pond in northern Greenville County — shot execution-style, according to Gowdy's congressional testimony. The killing stayed with Gowdy long after he moved on from prosecution and into Congress.
Reporting from The Post and Courier notes that Gowdy has never stopped carrying Samuel's story. His new novel is explicitly dedicated to Samuel and his mother, Sylvene.
What Is 'The Sound of Regret' About?
"The Sound of Regret" arrived in stores on Aug. 25, 2026, as Gowdy's second novel and a sequel to "The Color of Death." Co-authored with Christopher Greyson and published by Fox News Books, the thriller returns readers to small-town South Carolina and assistant district attorney Colm Truesdale.
In this installment, Truesdale's investigation surfaces old threats and unfinished business. He begins to suspect links among a psychopath who has spent years trying to destroy him, the murder of a confidential informant, and the execution of a case's only witness.
Gowdy told the Daily Signal that the book shows "what it's like to be chased when you are doing the chasing." He also offered a blunt line about his protagonist: "The truth can set you free. It can also get you killed."
Although the witness execution is the novel's central hook, Gowdy stresses that the plot is fiction. "It is in his honor and his memory, although the facts are very, very different," he told The Post and Courier.
How Did Gowdy's Real Prosecutorial Work Shape the Book?
Gowdy draws heavily on his years as a state and federal prosecutor, especially the moral weight of cooperation agreements in drug cases. He says the book offers a "realistic, unvarnished look" at the war on drugs — a system where young men caught dealing often face a brutal either-or.
Prosecutors might offer decades in a distant federal prison or the chance to wear a wire and climb the chain of a drug ring. One path could mean a life sentence behind bars; the other, Gowdy said, could amount to a death sentence.
"It's a very difficult choice for some of these young men," he told The Post and Courier. "And I'm not trying to make the reader sympathetic. I'm trying to explain the way it really unfolds in real life."
The novel also highlights tensions the public rarely sees: rivalries between state and federal law enforcement and among prosecutors themselves. Gowdy argues those fault lines matter because they shape how cases move — and who survives them.
Why Did Trey Gowdy Leave Prosecution — and Turn to Fiction?
The emotional cost of criminal justice work runs through both Gowdy's public comments and his fiction. He has said exposure to the system's darkest cases took a personal toll. In one week alone, he encountered three murders of children under age 11.
Some colleagues drew closer to faith; Gowdy said that was not his response. His mother and wife eventually told him, "You need to go do something else for a living." He left the courthouse — a decision that echoes in Colm Truesdale's cynicism on the page.
Years later, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott encouraged Gowdy to write the story he had carried for a decade. His debut became a New York Times bestseller, and the original concept was split into a planned trilogy. Gowdy hosts "Sunday Night in America" and discussed the Samuel dedication during a Fox News appearance on "Outnumbered," describing the real-life inspiration as devastating.
For readers tracing how public figures reinvent themselves after leaving office, Gowdy's pivot from oversight hearings to legal thrillers fits a broader pattern explored in our Nostalgia: Then & Now coverage — revisiting the past to explain the present.
Where Can Readers Find the Book?
"The Sound of Regret" is available in bookstores and online following its Aug. 25 release. Gowdy describes it as a stand-alone sequel, though readers new to Colm Truesdale can start with "The Color of Death," now out in paperback.
Whether you pick it up for the mystery or the backstory, the dedication page makes the author's intent clear. Three decades after a young witness chose to help federal prosecutors, Trey Gowdy is still telling a story about regret, risk, and the price of cooperation — one that began beside a pond in Greenville County and now sits on bookstore shelves nationwide.