Books To Read if You Love True Crime

In 2019 Cristina Rivera Garza traveled from her home in Texas to Mexico City, in search of an old, unresolved criminal file. It’s been 29 years since her sister, Liliana, was murdered by an abusive ex-boyfriend. Inspired by feminist movements across the world and enraged by the global epidemic of femicide and intimate partner violence, Cristina embarks on a path toward justice. Liliana’s Invincible Summer is the account — and the outcome — of that quest.

The gripping true story of a murder on an Indian reservation, and the unforgettable Arikara woman who becomes obsessed with solving it — an urgent work of literary journalism. Drawing on eight years of immersive investigation, Sierra Crane Murdoch has produced a profound examination of the legacy of systematic violence inflicted on a tribal nation and a tale of extraordinary healing.

John Grisham is known for his bestselling novels, but it’s his real-life passion for justice that led to his work with Jim McCloskey of Centurion Ministries, the first organization dedicated to exonerating innocent people who have been wrongly convicted. Together they offer an inside look at the many injustices in our criminal justice system. These 10 true stories shed light on Americans who were innocent but found guilty. Impeccably researched and told with page-turning suspense as only John Grisham can deliver, Framed is the story of winning freedom when the battle already seems lost and the deck is stacked against you.

From award-winning New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe comes a stunning, intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions.

A shocking and revelatory account of the murder of Emmett Till that lays bare how forces from around the world converged on the Mississippi Delta in the long lead-up to the crime, and how the truth was erased for so long. Ultimately, this is a story about property, money, power, and white supremacy. It implicates all of us. In The Barn, Thompson brings to life the small group of dedicated people who have been engaged in the hard, fearful business of bringing the truth to light. 

In a country where the powerful are rarely scrutinized, noted Mexican-American journalist Alfredo Corchado refuses to shrink from reporting on government corruption, murders in Juarez, or the ruthless drug cartels of Mexico. Midnight in Mexico is the story of one man’s quest to report the truth of his country — as he races to save his own life.

The astonishing true story of “one of the most startling police corruption scandals in a generation” (The New York Times), from the Pulitzer Prize–nominated reporter who exposed a gang of criminal cops and their yearslong plunder of an American city.

The last surviving witness to the lynching of Emmett Till tells his story. In a hypnotic interplay between uncovered facts and vivid recall, Rev. Parker offers an emotional and suspenseful page-turner, set against a backdrop of reporting errors and manipulations, racial reckoning, and political pushback — and he does so accompanied by never-before-seen findings in the investigation, the soft resurrection of memory, and the battle-tested courage of faith.

A riveting true story of a mother who fought back against the drug cartels in Mexico, pursuing her own brand of justice to avenge the kidnapping and murder of her daughter — from a global investigative correspondent for The New York Times.

The true tale of the 1893 World’s Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death.

The investigation behind one of the most frightening and enigmatic serial killers in modern American history, and into the ranks of a singular American police force: the Anchorage PD.

This haunting true-life murder mystery uncovers why the death toll rose so rapidly in the 1920s for the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, revealing one of the most monstrous crimes in American history.

A gripping historical true crime narrative that “reads like the best of Conan Doyle himself” (Karen Abbott, author of The Ghosts of Eden Park), American Sherlock recounts the riveting true story of the birth of modern criminal investigation.

A gripping story of a domestic assault that shocked the world, of the exercise of power and political influence, and of the Bangladeshi woman whose irrepressible spirit found light in sudden darkness.

The true story of how one dedicated forensic scientist restored the long-lost identities of the teenaged victims of the “Candy Man,” one of America’s most prolific serial killers. Investigative journalist Lise Olsen brings to life the teens who were hunted by a killer hiding in plain sight and the extraordinary woman who would finally give his unknown victims back their names and their dignity. With newly uncovered information about the case, The Scientist and the Serial Killer immerses readers in an astonishing story and reveals why these horrific events remain relevant decades later.

This “rollicking true crime” story reveals the surprising origins of the lie detector through shocking murders and dramatic trials (WIRED). Touching on psychology, technology, and the science of the truth, Tremors in the Blood is a vibrant, atmospheric thriller, and a warning from history: beware what you believe.

The uproarious, bestselling true story of the world’s most sought-after con man, immortalized by Leonardo DiCaprio in DreamWorks’ feature film of the same name, from the author of Scam Me If You Can.

Internationally bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Kate Summerscale follows a ghost hunter in 1938 London in a case that illuminates changing social attitudes toward psychoanalysis, sexuality, and the supernatural.

A never-before-seen glimpse into the rarefied world of the Ghost Shadows, New York’s powerful Chinese crime organization of the 1970s and ’80s — written by the young leader who ran it: reformed gangster Peter Chin.

Joined by award-winning Mexican journalist Luis Nájera, leading organized-crime author Peter Edwards introduces a motley assortment of millennial bikers, gangsters, and Mafia whose bloody trail of murders and schemes gone wrong led to the arrival in Canada of the world’s most dangerous criminal organizations: the drug cartels of Mexico.

On a spring afternoon in 1985 in Gary, Indiana, a 15-year-old girl kills an elderly woman in a violent home invasion. In Seventy Times Seven, Alex Mar weaves an unforgettable narrative of an act of violence and its aftermath. This is a story about the will to live — to survive, to grow, to change — and about what we are willing to accept as justice. Tirelessly researched and told with intimacy and precision, this book brings a haunting chapter in the history of our criminal justice system to astonishing life.

These are the 14 red flags to identify the scammer in your life before they con you — from a victim-turned-vigilante and host of the hit podcast Queen of the Con. Some con artists scheme for money, some for attention, some just for the thrill of lying. And if you think it can’t happen to you, then you are exactly the kind of “mark” a professional con artist is looking for. With this insightful guide in your hands, you are far less likely to get conned and far more likely to spot these nefarious manipulators from a mile away—and cross the street when you see them coming.

Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? John Berendt’s sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like an engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. A sublime and seductive reading experience, this enormously engaging portrait of a most beguiling Southern city has become a modern classic.

In March 2015, Denise Huskins and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn awoke from a sound sleep into a nightmare. Armed men bound and drugged them, then abducted Denise. Warned not to call the police or Denise would be killed. Aaron agonized about what to do. Finally he put his trust in law enforcement and dialed 911. But instead of searching for Denise, the police accused Aaron of her murder. His story, they told him, was just unbelievable. When Denise was released alive, the police turned their fire on her, dubbing her the “real-life ‘Gone Girl’” who had faked her own kidnapping.

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Prairie Fires comes a terrifying true-crime history of serial killers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond — a gripping investigation of how a new strain of psychopath emerged out of a toxic landscape of deadly industrial violence. A propulsive nonfiction thriller, Murderland transcends true-crime voyeurism and noir mythology, taking readers on a profound quest into the dark heart of the real American berserk.

In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, Michael Finkel gives us one of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of our times, a riveting story of art, theft, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.

Traffickers and smugglers, pirates and mercenaries, wreck thieves and repo men, vigilante conservationists and elusive poachers, seabound abortion providers, clandestine oil dumpers, shackled slaves and cast-adrift stowaways — drawing on five years of perilous and intrepid reporting, often hundreds of miles from shore, Ian Urbina introduces us to the inhabitants of the hidden world of oceans.

Marty Goddard dreamed up a new crime-solving tool — a kit that could help rape survivors fight for justice. This thrilling investigation tells the story of the troubled, heroic woman who kicked off a feminist revolution in forensics, and then vanished into obscurity.

The incredible true story of a group of moms who, united by a search for new purpose, attempt to solve a 15-year-old double murder. An emotional and often terrifying odyssey through a DIY criminal investigation, The Carpool Detectives is the ultimate wish fulfillment for any true crime fanatic, an absolutely thrilling read for armchair sleuths and mystery fans alike.

A brilliant, riveting, and harrowing debut novel about a young woman who is brutally assaulted, and who must then piece her life back together while her attacker faces a justice system that seems stacked against the victim. Inspired by true events, Dark Chapter is both a literary masterpiece and a riveting novel of suspense about the dark chapters and chance encounters that can irrevocably determine the shape of our lives.