Article
True Crime: Perkins’ Recommended Reads
True stories that are often stranger (and scarier) than fiction. While most of us will never solve a cold case or track down a serial killer, many of us are drawn to tales of the darker side of the human soul.
True stories that are often stranger (and scarier) than fiction.
While most of us will never solve a cold case or track down a serial killer, many of us are drawn to tales of the darker side of the human soul. There is a hint of real danger that comes with exploring the true accounts of murder, terror and mayhem listed below.
These are not gothic fancies or thrilling nightmares—these are the true stories of people’s corruption and ability to inflict harm. They may force you to examine your own soul and question whether we are all capable of evil depending on the circumstance. Read any of the books on this list and you’ll agree that the truth is sometimes more horrible than fiction.
Digital book (DB), braille (BR), large print (LT), and audio described videos (DVD) copies of these titles are available from the Perkins Library or the Worcester Talking Book Library. Please contact the library to order any of these books.
Prepared by Chelsea Wood
Senior Reader Advisor
Perkins Library
All-American Murder: The Rise and Fall of Aaron Hernandez, the Superstar Whose Life Ended on Murderers’ Row
James Patterson
After Aaron Hernandez made his first Pro Bowl, he was linked to a series of violent incidents that culminated in the death of Odin Lloyd, a semi-pro football player who dated the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée. Investigates Hernandez’s first-degree murder conviction and the mystery of his own shocking and untimely death. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2018.
Download All-American Murder, DB 90220
The Blood of Emmett Till
Timothy B. Tyson
Southern history scholar revisits the 1955 lynching of fourteen-year-old African American Emmett Till, from Chicago. While visiting relatives in Mississippi, Emmett’s interaction with a white female shopkeeper led to his kidnapping and violent murder. Also describes the trial, funeral, and the case’s impact on the civil rights movement. Violence and some strong language. 2017.
Download The Blood of Emmett Till, DB 89710
Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition
Karen Blumenthal
The history and legacy of Prohibition, which began with passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1920 and ended in 1933. Profiles Carrie Nation, the temperance movement’s first celebrity, and discusses the rise of bootleggers and gangsters such as Al Capone. For junior and senior high and older readers. 2011.
Download Braille, Bootleg, BR 19482
The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy
Masha Gessen
A Russian-American journalist examines the events surrounding the 2013 Boston Marathon, when two homemade bombs killed three people and wounded hundreds. In the ensuing manhunt, Tamerlan Tsarnaev died and his younger brother Dzhokhar was captured and charged. Gessen discusses how the young immigrants evolved into terrorists. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2015.
Download The Brothers, DB 81069
Columbine
David Cullen
A journalist uses eyewitness testimony, police reports, and the killers’ writings to dispel myths that the Columbine shooters were bullied, isolated kids who targeted victims. Argues Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had friends, good grades–and plans to blow up the school. Discusses the murderers’ psychological assessments. Violence and strong language. Bestseller. 2009.
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
Erik Larson
The author traces the crimes of Dr. H.H. Holmes, a serial killer who preyed on young women during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair in the amazing landscape that architect Daniel H. Burnham created in a mere two years. Bestseller. 2003.
Download The Devil in the White City, DB 55748
The Executioner’s Song
Norman Mailer
True-life novel meticulously details the events of a haunting nine-month period. An obscure criminal, Gary M. Gilmore, who is sentenced to die for two murders, rejects any attempts at reprieve and becomes the first man executed in America in more than a decade. Mailer scrupulously presents the evidence in the case and its outcome. Strong language. Bestseller. 1979.
Download The Executioner’s Song, DB 13985
The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir
Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
When beginning her summer job at a Louisiana law firm, the author is staunchly anti-death penalty. But the moment she reviews old tapes of convicted murderer Ricky Langley, she is overcome with the feeling of wanting him to die, and something in his story is unsettlingly familiar. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2017.
Download The Fact of a Body, DB 88137
The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World’s Largest Unsolved Art Theft
Ulrich Boser
In March of 1990 the greatest art theft in history occurred at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Ulrich Boser delves deep into the art underworld to help reveal the trail of the still unsolved crime of how over a dozen masterpieces were stolen and the leads on how they can hopefully be recovered. Contains some strong language.
Download The Gardner Heist, DBC 4644
Download Braille, The Gardner Heist, BR 19063
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
Vincent Bugliosi
Bugliosi prosecuted the 1969 murder case against cult leader Charles Manson and his followers. Among the brutal deaths attributed to the group is the mass murder of actress Sharon Tate and her house guests. Bugliosi gives detailed descriptions of the crime scenes, the frustrating investigation, the arrest and trial, and the retaliation murders. Strong language and violence.
Download Helter Skelter, DB 36994
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
David Simon
Simon, of the Baltimore Sun, spent 1988 observing the day-by-day grind of a Baltimore homicide unit. The cops’ reactions to overexposure to murder are reflected in grisly humor and angry outbursts. Simon sketches the history of the various policemen and the chronology of both the difficult and the open-and-shut cases they faced during that year. Strong language and violence.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
Michelle McNamara
The late author’s lifelong interest in true crime culminated in investigating the never-identified serial-killing rapist who plagued California in the seventies and eighties, whom she dubbed the Golden State Killer. This detailed telling of what she learned was completed posthumously by her researcher. Violence, strong language, and some explicit descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2018.
Download I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, DB 90637
In Cold Blood
Truman Capote
The author coined the term “nonfiction novel” for this account of the murder of a Kansas family. He reconstructs the crime and the backgrounds and personalities of all the principals, drawing his information from observation, interviews, and official records.
Download In Cold Blood, DB 22726
Download Braille, In Cold Blood, BRC 1440
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
David Grann
An examination of the 1920s murders of wealthy Osage Indian Nation members in Oklahoma. When the newly-formed FBI bungled the investigation, Director Hoover turned to ex-Texas Ranger Tom White, who put together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian agents in the Bureau. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2017.
Download Killers of the Flower Moon, DB 87767
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
John Berendt
In the 1980s, New Yorker Berendt began visiting Savannah, Georgia. Enchanted by the city and its inhabitants, he spent more and more time there. He introduces Savannah and the hodgepodge of friends he made, especially Jim Williams, an antique dealer active in the restoration of Savannah. He also discusses the murder on May 2, 1981, for which Williams went to trial–four times. Strong language.
Download Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, DB 38077
Download Braille, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, BR 11463
Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit
John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
Douglas, who pioneered criminal profiling, gives an inside account of the FBI’s elite Investigative Support Unit. He recounts some of his most famous cases and describes various tactics used to identify and prosecute serial criminals. Violence, descriptions of sex, and some strong language. Bestseller.
Murder on the Home Front: A True Story of Morgues, Murderers, and Mysteries During the London Blitz
Molly Lefebure
Author describes how, as a young British journalist in 1941, she accepted forensic pathologist Keith Simpson’s offer to be his secretary. She describes cases she encountered while working by his side for five years in the mortuary and at crime scenes. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 1955.
Download Murder on the Home Front, DB 80477
Download Braille, Murder on the Home Front, BR 20622
My Dark Places
James Ellroy
A mystery writer’s dark memoir of his mother’s murder when he was ten years old, and his youthful decline into crime, substance abuse, and alienation. Obsessed with his mother’s memory, he investigates her death—and her life—thirty-six years after the fact. Strong language, violence, and descriptions of sex. Bestseller.
Download My Dark Places, DB 44271
My Story
Elizabeth Smart
Elizabeth Smart recounts her ordeal of being kidnapped at age fourteen from her family’s home in Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 5, 2002, and her nine months of captivity. Highlights the ways her religious faith sustained her sanity, her subsequent recovery, and the trial of her abusers. Bestseller. 2013.
Download Braille, My Story, BR 20473
The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
Deborah Blum
Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist chronicles the birth of forensic medicine and the careers of toxicology pioneers Dr. Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler during the early twentieth century. Examines criminal cases in which Norris and Gettler identified previously difficult-to-detect chemicals and advanced scientific understanding of how poisons worked. Some violence. 2010.
Download The Poisoner’s Handbook, DB 72307
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
Jon Krakauer
Traces the origins of Mormonism in an effort to explain certain crimes committed by fundamentalist sect members—including the 1984 murder of Brenda Lafferty and her baby in Utah. Conveys how Brenda’s remorseless brother-in-law Dan and his brother Ron believed God ordered them to kill. Violence, strong language, and some explicit descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2003.
Download Under the Banner of Heaven, DB 56777
The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer
Kate Summerscale
Award-winning author examines the life of Robert Coombes, who killed his abusive mother at age thirteen in 1895 London. Explains how Robert was sent to the infamous Broadmoor lunatic asylum, ultimately survived, and built a life for himself. Some violence. 2016.
