10 True Crime Books You Won't Be Able To Put Down

What is there to say about true-crime books? They're fun. They can be intellectually compelling, and, like the fictional variety from Hammett, Cain and that crowd, they're more often than not rooted in the far side of respectability or polite society. Most every writer wants to write one. The trick is to come up with the right crime, the right crook or issue. Here are ten of my favorites that helped get me through "Reasonable Doubt: The Fashion Writer, Cape Cod, and the Trial of Chris McCowen":

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"Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi

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Deservedly the all-timer bestseller of the genre, a remarkable page-turner that both moves at about 90 m.p.h but is also chockablock with the many details, complexities and sub-plots, not to say points of law, that studded the Manson investigation and trial. A groundbreaking achievement that probably could only have come from Manson's prosecutor, who's gone on to emerge as a major writer.

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Deservedly the all-timer bestseller of the genre, a remarkable page-turner that both moves at about 90 m.p.h but is also chockablock with the many details, complexities and sub-plots, not to say points of law, that studded the Manson investigation and trial. A groundbreaking achievement that probably could only have come from Manson's prosecutor, who's gone on to emerge as a major writer.

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Comments

[horsey]

11:35 PM on 07/25/2011

they left out The Onion Field, a gripping true story.

[euromarkusx]

08:19 PM on 07/24/2011

"The Brothers Bulger" has the brothers listed as "Billy and "Billy"

[mmkay]

11:59 AM on 07/21/2011

"If I Did It" didn't make the cut. Bummer.

[Mika Hawkes]

10:42 AM on 07/21/2011

Definitely "Deep Creek" by Dana Hand--based on a true U.S. crime but told as fiction, so...documentary fiction, I guess. Rather like "In Cold Blood," only more subtle, and just as frightening.
Very good website, too: http://www.dana-hand.com/

[MoeJava]

02:38 PM on 07/20/2011

also try: Serpentine by Thommy Thompson
.
bet you can't put that one down....... international crime drama at it's best
.

[bulletinboardsn]

09:17 AM on 07/16/2011

Ann Rule rulez in my book. Mostly her earlier works, now they all kind of blend. She's the only TC writer that I cannot put down. J. Olson is good too, though I don't like all his books. There is one true horrific book that I recommended to a therapist just becuz it was so horrific. I think House of Shadows or something like that. About how a father committed incest, fathered his own grand child (had it killed by the daughter) and had his sons (who had all incestous relationships with sister and one w/ mom) kill so many people. And they did some of these crimes when they were ADULTS. It's an interesting psychological study of how man controlled his family absolutely. Even the therapist found the story fascinating.

[Kimberly Cantrell]

05:58 PM on 07/15/2011

Fatal Vision and Helter Skelter, I agree with. The others are really good books but I don't know if they should be in a "top" list. In Cold Blood is a good read, but so much of it is made up that Capote doesn't deserve the credit he receives for it.

[piney94]

10:30 PM on 07/14/2011

Another great true crime book that is hard to put down - "Lilacs in the Rain"

[pugzbarbq]

08:50 AM on 07/14/2011

Killer Department by Robert Cullen

My favorite true crime book. Follows Detective Burakov's decade long hunt for a serial killer in the former Soviet Union, but is so much more. Really an expose of the disgustingly dark underbelly of the USSR.

In the Belly of the Beast by Jack H. Abbott is great companion piece to Executioner's Song.

[Nathan Gregorski]

05:34 PM on 07/13/2011

Dave Cullen's "Columbine" is one of the most insightful, engrossing, enlightening, and terrifying works of non-fiction that I have read. You have to pick it up.

[Dave Cullen]

12:24 PM on 07/15/2011

Thanks, Nathan. That's great to hear.

[Brad T Casali]

12:55 PM on 07/10/2011

Helter Skelter is probably the best of them all; albeit, a bit long.

[horsey]

11:36 PM on 07/25/2011

cosign, it was gripping

[DuCasse]

03:57 AM on 07/10/2011

Ok. American only ; That's the hidden rule?

"The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or the Murder at Road Hill House", by british writer Kate Summerscale.
"The Adversary", by french writer Emmanuel Carrere.

[Kambriel2]

12:02 AM on 07/10/2011

I would have included "The Stranger Beside Me," by Ann Rule, "The Only Living Witness" by Michand and Ashworth, "Mindhunter" and "Obsession" by John Douglas, "The Evil That Men Do" and "Dark Dreams" by Roy Hazelwood, and "Whoever Fights Monsters" by Robert Ressler; as well. They are all well-written, facinating, compelling, and incredibly frightening.

[horsey]

11:36 PM on 07/25/2011

add The Onion Field

[meandmydog]

09:40 AM on 07/09/2011

"The Stranger Beside Me" by Ann Rule...about the serial killer Ted Bundy. Excellent!

[Lleah]

01:06 AM on 07/09/2011

Ahhhh...."The Executioner's Song".....read it 30 years ago....the best. You must read "Property of the Folsom Wolf" and "Die For Me" by Don Lasseter.....