Daniel Barban Levin’s Slonim Woods 9: A Memoir (Penguin Random House, 2021) tells the story about his experience in the so-called “Sarah Lawrence Cult.” Levin’s experience in this cult began when he was attending Sarah Lawrence College his housemate’s father—Larry Ray, who had just gotten out of prison—moved in with Levin and the rest of his housemates. Ray proved …
Author: jessleonamae
Rachel’s Top Five True Crime Texts of 2021
This week, we finish up our top five series with Rachel's top texts of 2021. Check them out below! 1) When She Was Bad by Patricia Pearson (Penguin Random House, 2021) Pearson’s text, as a reprint of the same 1997 edition with a new chapter, is shockingly still relevant. I loved this book’s meditation on the way …
Jesyka’s Top Five True Crime Texts of 2021
As we near the end of 2021, all of us at True Crime Index have been looking back on a year of excellent books. We wanted to share these favourites with you in hopes that you too will give them a read. Up first is Jesyka's Top Five: Empire of Pain: The Secret History of …
The Beatle Bandit by Nate Hendley
Nate Hendley’s The Beatle Bandit: A Serial Bank Robber’s Deadly Heist, A Cross Country Manhunt, and the Insanity Plea that Shook the Nation (Dundurn Press, 2021) is a sad and shocking tale about Matthew Kerry Smith, a twenty-four year old man who robbed a bank in North York, Ontario in 1964 while wearing a Beatle wig. During …
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
Even though it has been a few weeks since I finished Patrick Radden Keefe’s Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (Penguin Random House, 2021), the book does not feel over for me. The book has not left me. Part of the reason why I still feel very much in the middle of this …
The Donnellys: Powder Keg (Vol. 1) by John Little
In The Donnellys: Powder Keg, 1840-1880, Vol. 1 (ECW Press, 2021), author John Little delves into the history of the infamous Irish-Canadian family known as the ‘Black’ Donnellys. The notoriety of the Donnelly family has lived on within the popular imagination of many Canadians, their crimes and escapades often being recounted by academic historians and writers of popular history …
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The Uninnocent by Katherine Blake
Katherine Blake’s The Uninnocent: Notes on Violence and Mercy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021) is one of the best non-fiction books I have read in recent memory. I purposefully do not call this book true crime because although it has many true crime elements—a violent murder and the search for the reasons why that crime was committed—Blake’s …
Psychopathy: A Very Short Introduction by Essi Viding
Essi Viding’s Psychopathy: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2019), a part of Oxford’s A Very Short Introduction series, identifies the common misconceptions about psychopathy and instead explores the term medically, psychologically, and sociologically. There is no shortage of both popular and academic texts on psychopathy, especially as the term relates to serial killers, but Viding’s text distills that …
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Children Under Fire by John Woodrow Cox
John Woodrow Cox’s Children Under Fire: An American Crisis (Ecco, 2021) is an unflinching look at gun violence in the United States. Cox, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his Washington Post series Children Under Fire presents a detailed account of two elementary school children—Ava from South Carolina and Tyshaun from Washington, D.C.—and explores how they have both been affected …
The Violence Project by Jillian Peterson and James Densley
There are many books that discuss mass shootings and their causes, and I have read a few. What I have not seen in most of these books are solutions to prevent mass shootings. Jillian Peterson’s and James Densley’s The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic (Abrams Press, 2021) is that book—it is the book …
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