Considering True Crime through academic and popular perspectives with reviews, interviews and more.
In The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder (Dutton, 2006) Daniel Stashower unravels the sensational tale of the ghastly murder of the young and beautiful Mary Rogers while simultaneously recounting the life of Edgar Allan Poe and the inspiration he drew from this murder case. On 28 July 1841 the …
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Leah Sottile’s 2022 text When the Moon Turns to Blood: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and a Story of Murder, Wild Faith, and End Times tells the story of the murders of seven-year-old JJ Vallow and his sister, sixteen-year-old Tylee Ryan—Lori Vallow’s children. JJ and Tylee’s bodies were found in Chad Daybell’s backyard; Vallow and Daybell had been …
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If you’re looking for the perfect winter read that will truly thrill and haunt you in equal measure, I cannot recommend Gregg Olsen’s Starvation Heights: The Chilling True Story of the Doctor who Starved her Patients to Death (Thread Books 1997 [reissued 2023]) more. By turns captivating and heartbreaking, Starvation Heights kept me guessing until the very end. Olsen’s …
One of my top murder cases to study and read about is that of Bobby Franks at the hands of the murderous pair, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two young men who seem to share the same face if you look at them long enough. With two similar faces along with two oddly similar surnames, their union …
Nicola Stow’s new anthology-style work of true crime, The Real-Life Murder Clubs: Citizens Solving True Crimes (Ad Lib Publishers 2022) is one of the first fascinating looks into some lesser-known citizen sleuths and the networks they use to solve cold cases and identify unknown murder victims. The Real-Life Murder Clubs is a timely and insightful look into what citizen …
Erin Kimmerle’s 2022 text We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys (William Morrow) is an unflinching examination of systemic racism in the state of Florida. Kimmerle is a forensic anthropologist who led a dig at the graveyard of the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida. The …
The Forever Witness: How Genetic Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder (Dutton 2022) by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Edward Humes is one of the best works of true crime published this year. The Forever Witness is bound to inform readers’ understanding of criminal investigation and DNA testing. The text recounts the murder investigation and close …
In Deadly Triangle: The Famous Architect, His Wife, Their Chauffer, and Murder Most Foul (Dundurn Press, 2022), the most recent publication by award-winning Canadian author Susan Goldenberg, the author chronicles a gruesome but scintillating tale of scandal, adultery, and murder. In 1925, renowned British-born Canadian architect Francis Mawson Rattenbury shocked Victoria, BC society when he divorced his …
Katherine Corcoran’s In the Mouth of the Wolf: A Murder, A Cover-up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press (Bloomsbury 2022) is a harrowing account of the murder of Mexican journalist Regina Martínez. Martínez was found bludgeoned to death in her bathroom in 2012. Because Martínez often covered political corruption and drug cartels in her …
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Rebecca Reisner’s new book, Forensic Files Now: Inside 40 Unforgettable True Crime Cases (Rowman & Littlefield 2022) is a hugely innovative and interesting text that will appeal to almost any true crime fan. Reisner’s text focuses on the television show that, for many of us, foregrounded our interest in true crime programs. Since its premiere in 1996, Forensic …
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