Berendt, John. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
An account of a 1981 murder in Savannah, Georgia, that
manages to be both an intriguing suspense story and a fascinating character
study of the people in Savannah.
Bernall, Misty. She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall.
A true story of teenager Cassie Bernall who lost her life
at the hands of her classmates, as did twelve other students at Columbine High
School. This memoir, written by her mother, recounts Cassie's last years of
life.
Bugliosi, Vincent. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders.
The best-selling true crime book of all time, Helter
Skelter recounts the seven murders committed by followers of Charles Manson
in 1969.
Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences.
Capote recreates the scene of the murder of the Clutter
family, who were brutally killed in their Kansas home in November 1959 by two
recently released prisoners. In Cold Blood is considered a classic of
modern literature for breaking the boundary between reporting and literature
with its well-written, eerie tale of tragedy.
Chaiton, Sam, and Swinton, Terry. Lazarus and the Hurricane.
A remarkable true story begins in a Brooklyn ghetto. An
illiterate black teenager, Lesra (Lazarus), wins the hearts of a group of
canadians, bringing him to Toronto to help him with his education.
While learning to read, Lesra finds a copy of Rubin "Hurricane"
Carter's The Sixteenth Round. It
was a book destined to change Lesra's life forever, and the lives of his adopted
family.
Douglas, John. Anatomy of a Motive: the FBI's legendary mindhunter explores the key to understanding and catching violent criminals.
Presents a look at the development and evolution of the
criminal mind, attempting to discover what motivates arsonists, hijackers,
bombers, poisoners, serial and spree killers, and mass murderers to commit their
violent acts.
Douglas, John. Journey Into Darkness: follow the FBI's premier investigative profiler as he penetrates the minds and motives of the most terrifying serial killers.
The author, former chief of the Investigative Support Unit
of the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, discusses how he
and his colleagues solved some of the most violent and baffling crimes of the
late twentieth century through a process known as behavioral profiling.
Douglas, John. Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit.
One of the foremost forensic detectives for the FBI details
a number of high-profile crimes he has helped to solve in his career.
Douglas, John. Obsession: the FBI's legendary profiler probes, the psyches of killers, rapists, and stalkers and their victims and tells how to fight back.
A federal agent discusses the practice of behavioral
profiling of serial criminals in which he uses psychological assessments to
solve crimes and catch criminals.
Dumas, Timonthy. Greentown: Murder and Mystery in Greenwich, America’s Wealthiest Community.
In examining the still-unsolved 1975 murder of 15-year-old
Martha Moxley in a wealthy suburb of Greenwich, Connecticut, first-time author
Timothy Dumas does not attempt to deliver a knockout punch of new evidence that
might crack the case wide open. Instead, Dumas takes his readers on a literate
excursion through the darkest secrets and fears of the girl's neighbors and
fellow townspeople as they attempt to cope--first with the murder itself, and
then with the helplessness of almost a quarter century of frustration as the
case remains unsolved.
Farrell, Harry. Shallow Grave in Trinity County.
In steady prose that is rich with details, Farrell
describes how a weak-minded and repellent UC-Berkeley student was apprehended
and convicted of the kidnap-murder of a 14-year-old girl, in the comparatively
peaceful times of the 1950s. Shallow Grave is a model of how a true crime
book should be written: the text is clear, chronological, compassionate,
unembellished, and quietly gripping. (Review from Amazon.com).
Fuhrman, Mark. Murder in Greenwich: Who Killed Martha Moxley?
Profiles the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley, presents new
evidence that points the finger of suspicion to Martha's neighbors, and
discusses how the police mishandled the case and may have prevented the crime
from being solved.
Garbarino, James. Lost Boys: How Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them.
Garbarino explores the recent upsurge in youth violence,
particularly that committed by young men and boys, and examines the societal
changes and trends that may be responsible. He discusses ways parents and
teachers can act to raise men who are not violent, and how to spot and help
those who may be headed towards violent activity.
Hirsch, James. Hurricane: The Miracle of Rubin
Carter.
Hurricane recounts the harrowing, inspiring odyssey o f
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a black boxer wrongly convicted of three
murders, from fierce despair to freedom and enlightenment.
Lefkowitz, Bernard. Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb.
Recreates a hidden adolescent world that parents didn't, or
wouldn't, see: a high school dominated by a band of predatory athletes, a
teenage culture in which girls were frequently abused and humiliated, and a town
that embraced its celebrity athletes, despite the havoc they created. Graphic.
May be inappropriate for some readers.
Levy, Harlan. And the Blood Cried Out: A prosecutor's spellbinding account of the power of DNA.
An analysis of how DNA analysis (DNA fingerprinting) can be
used to solve crimes and free wrongly-charged prisoners. The author uses
well-known cases from around the world to demonstrate how DNA evidence to
illustrate information about DNA. Of
special interest is his analysis of the DNA evidence used in the O.J. Simpson
trial.
Manhein, Mary. The Bone Lady.
The riveting tale of a true-life, crime-fighting scientific
sleuth. Manheim shares the
extraordinary details of the often high profile cases on which she works as a
forensic anthropologist, and the science underlying her analyses.
From a pile of bones, she assesses age, sex, race, signs of trauma and
time of death.
Sereny, Gita. Cries Unheard: Why Children Kill: The Mary Bell Story.
In 1968, cases like that of Mary Bell were almost unheard
of. Two little boys were dead, and the two accused killers, Mary Bell and Norma
Bell (no relation), were 11 and 13. Norma was acquitted, but Mary was found
guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Almost 30 years after her conviction,
Mary Bell was able to tell her story, from her troubled childhood to her
eventual release from prison as an institutionalized young woman and her awkward
attempts to build a life for herself in a hostile world. (Review from Amazon.com).
Wincester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman : A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary.
When the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary put out a call during the late 19th century pleading for "men of letters" to provide help with their mammoth undertaking, hundreds of responses came forth. Some helpers, like Dr. W.C. Minor, provided literally thousands of entries to the editors. But Minor, an American expatriate in England and a Civil War veteran, was actually a certified lunatic who turned in his dictionary entries from the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Simon Winchester has produced a mesmerizing coda to the deeply troubled Minor's life, a life that in one sense began with the senseless murder of an innocent British brewery worker that the deluded Minor believed was an assassin sent by one of his numerous "enemies." (Review from Amazon.com).