Best True Crime Books

American author John Berendt invites us to take a journey to the south of the USA, a city of Savannah, Georgia. Describing a mysterious crime that happened there in the 1980s, The Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil had a massive success not only among Americans but also people all over the world.

John Berendt is the main character and the narrator of the story, so we see everything through his eyes. Even though some events actually were slightly different and the timeline wasn't historically correct, the book is still considered a non-fiction one. In the beginning, John travels to Savannah to collect the material for his new book. There he meets a nouveau riche Jim Williams who was a famous antique dealer and historic preservationist. One evening, Williams shoots Danny Hansford, a young man with a questionable reputation. Jim stated that it was self-defense, as drunk Danny broke into his house and started threatening him. As the story goes, it becomes clear that Danny was in a relationship with Williams. Considering himself a friend of Jim’s, John starts his own investigation and tries to find out what actually happened that night.

Apart from the main plotline with a detective element, there are also a few more interesting lines with exiting characters. You will meet such eccentric people as a roguish lawyer, a funny and extravagant drag queen, a stranger that wanders around with a bottle of poison, a man that walks with a leash with no dog on it, and many more. Spiced up with some mysterious voodoo rituals and unique Southern traditions, it is such an incredible story that it is hard to believe this is all true.

The Pale-Faced Lie was written in 2019 by a newcomer David Crow. Even though this is his first book, the author did a great job and managed to create a capturing story that can compete with those written by professional writers. It is a winner of the Spur Award as the best non-fiction book.

David Crow is a truly inspiring person. Having an incredibly traumatic childhood, he managed to grow into a worthy man, get an education, and build a successful lobbying firm. He also supports multiple charity organizations (including Save the Children), a shelter for homeless, and mentors lots of college students. David Crow's biography aside, let's plunge deeper into the plot of his book.

In the memoirs, Mr. Crow opens up about growing up in the Navajo Indian Reservation. He grew up in a full family (parents and three siblings). Yet, the environment in his household was neither pleasant nor safe for a child. His father, Thurston Crow, was ex-convicted, and even though the children used to idolize him at a young age thanks to his constant brags about Cherokee heritage and World War II stories, they still grow up to understand what a monster he actually is.

David Crow goes in detail about mental abuse he suffered from his dad, who was a wicked, vile, and extremely manipulative person. Charged with the sentence in the San Quentin State Prison for attempted murder, he bragged that his time there was the best years of his life. Unfortunately, David’s mother had mental issues and was unable to stand up for her children since she could barely take care of herself. Shortly after Thurston left her and took their children with him and remarried, David with his siblings faced a new type of hell. His stepmother was as wicked as her husband and had no moral code. Throughout his childhood and youth, David was manipulated by his cruel family and was dragged into his father’s illegal affairs.

Charles Manson and his "family" are probably one of the darkest parts of American history of the 20th century. The cult and its sadistic leader committed multiple crimes and destroyed the lives of many people. Vincent Bugliosi and his co-writer Curt Gentry tried to get in the mind of this wicked person and analyze the convoluted crimes of Manson, as well as his followers, in their book Helter Skelter.

The book was written in 1974, shortly after Charles Manson was convicted of his crimes. Vincent Bugliosi who served as a prosecutor on the trial provided his in-depth analysis of the investigation, Manson’s philosophy, and the long complicated trial process. Thanks to all these elements, the book can be called a true-crime classic.

The readers will be able to take a closer look at the number of murders that occurred in Los Angeles in 1969. One of the cruelest crimes - the death of actress Sharon Tate and her unborn child, was among them. At first sight, the crimes seemed totally random and the police were unable to link them all together. But there were a few leads that seemingly pointed out that the crimes were committed by one group of people - the word “pig” written with blood, multiple stabbings on the victims, and so on. After the arrest of one of the family members who was driving a stolen car of a recently murdered victim, police started an investigation and managed to charge Manson and the whole community with car theft. Yet, all of them were released. Then, Manson decided to move to the desert since he was sure that the Helter Skelter (the racial war) was about to come. There he was finally arrested for arson.

Even though the prosecution was able to connect Manson with the murders and multiple other crimes, Vincent Bugliosi had to work with a very weak case that could fall apart at any moment. In that time, he decided to dig deeply into Manson’s idea of Helter Skelter, and thanks to that, he managed to put one of the most outrageous people in jail.

The Victorian era in England is famous for a few famous murder cases that still thrill true crime lovers all over the world. Before the well-known Jack the Reaper stepped up to this arena, there actually was another murder that deeply shocked the society. In 1860, a little boy was found dead with multiple wounds. Later on, Kate Summerscale wrote the story about that horrific crime in The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher.

The murder occurred in the family home of a rich family in Devon. The detective inspector investigating the crime, Jack Whicher, was one of the first detectives in Scotland Yard’s newly formed Detective Branch. He was one of the most brilliant detectives of that time and became the main character of a few literary works.

The inspector found the body of a 3-year-old Francis Saville Kent with multiple stabbing wounds and the throat deeply cut. The first suspect was considered the boy’s nurse, Elisabeth Gough. Yet, she was released from custody after the detective had pressed charges against the boy’s older step-sister Constance Kent. She was arrested but soon released since the inspector didn’t have enough evidence, plus it was considered unacceptable for a working-class detective to accuse a noble young lady of something so horrible without much proof. The detective had to go back to London with nothing.

The case took a new turn 5 years later when an Anglo-Catholic clergyman came to police and told he had a confession of a murder from a member of the Kent family, which proved the Witcher's suspicions. However, the priest refused to share a lot of details and didn't testify on the trial referring to the seal of sacrament confession.

Every family keeps secrets, but some of them are much darker than the others. When Gregg Olsen heard the story of the Knoteks family, he decided that it was so shocking and attention-worthy that he made it into a book. If You Tell is a true-crime book with an incredibly sad premise yet the inspiring message that will be a worthy read for all non-fiction fans.

Almost every person gets a pleasantly warm feeling in their chest when they hear the word “mom”. But for sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori, this word made their skin crawl. The sisters grew up in Raymond, Washington, on a family farm, and the story of their childhood seems too horrific to be true. Their mother was a real sociopathic monster that kept torturing girls and abusing them mentally and physically from a very young age. The only thing that kept sisters alive and didn’t let them give up was the bond they formed and kept throughout the years.

Yet, the horrifying deeds of their mother Michelle, or Shelly, doesn’t end there. Her name is not new to Americans since she went big back in 2004. She was convicted of manslaughter and second-degree murder of the boarders living in her home.

The fear the girls lived in made them think they had no choice, so they covered up their mom and kept up with her cruel nature. But luckily, they managed to survive and come out of this horror strong and independent. Now, the daughters bravely talk about the horrible things they witnessed their mother did.