Born in Douglas, Arizona,[1] Earley became a Washington Post reporter and also wrote books about the Aldrich Ames and John Walker espionage cases.

In 2007, Earley was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for his book Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness, about a man seeking help for his son.

[5] His most recent book, No Human Contact: Solitary Confinement, Maximum Security and Two Inmates Who Changed The System,[6]describes Earley's 33- year relationship with Thomas Silverstein, who was held under the harshest conditions allowed by law, after he murdered a prison guard.

)[7] Earley graduated from Fowler (Co.) high school in 1969 and attended Phillips University, Enid, Oklahoma, where he met and married Barbara Ann Hunter, a fellow student.

He was hired by The Washington Post in 1980 where he was assigned to what was called the "Holy Shit Squad" by Executive Editor Ben Bradlee who encouraged a small team of writers to make readers exclaim that expletive when reading their morning paper.

New York Times Book Reviewer Lucinda Franks wrote: "What distinguishes 'Family of Spies' is that Pete Earley, a former reporter for The Washington Post, uses Mr. Walker's words not to try to understand him but to expose his superficially slick but profoundly distorted mind.

The result is an unusually penetrating portrait of the banality of evil, or a psychology that usually defines intimate understanding - the narcissist whose rationalization make his wrongdoing seem almost normal.