after "small town d.a.", voelker said that he "wanted to write [about] 'a criminal trial the way it really was.'" he selected the peterson murder trial from 1952. he wrote "anatomy of a murder" in three months and received an acceptance letter from a publisher in december 1956 just days before he was appointed to the michigan supreme court. the book was the first to portray both the preparation and trial phases of a legal case, creating a new genre of fiction. the novel was chosen as the january 1958 book-of-the-month club main selection, and it was listed on "the new york times" bestseller list for 62 weeks. in "the new york times", reviewer orville prescott called it "immensely readable and continuously entertaining" and noted voelker's "unflagging invention and narrative pace".