FLC Staff Picks Blog

Taylor's Picks: Crème de la Crime

Who doesn't love a good true crime? True crime is a form of nonfiction that explores the details of an actual crime and the lives of those involved. True crimes most often deal with murders, especially serial killers, but they also can look into heists, white collar crime, abuse, and much more. Modern true crime books often are told with a narrative style, which is largely credited to have stemmed back to Truman Capote's "nonfiction novel" In Cold Blood.

These works can having a lasting impact on the crime itself. Take Michelle McNamara's posthumous book, I'll Be Gone in the Dark, for example. Published in 2018, this title is largely thought to have stemmed the renewed interest that led to the capture of the dormant Golden State Killer. Admittedly, there are books that turn these crimes into sensational stories, and those are to be avoided, but for the selected titles below, you'll find factual accounts of crimes with true literary merit.

note: Follow the title links to get a full description or to the "place a hold". We'll pull it for you! 

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Call Number: E 99 .O8 G73 2018

A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history. In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off.

The True American by Anand Giridharadas

Call Number: 364.1523 G525t, 2014

The True American tells the story of Raisuddin Bhuiyan, a Bangladesh Air Force officer who dreams of immigrating to America and working in technology. But days after 9/11, an avowed "American terrorist" named Mark Stroman, seeking revenge, walks into the Dallas minimart where Bhuiyan has found temporary work and shoots him, maiming and nearly killing him. Two other victims, at other gas stations, aren't so lucky, dying at once. The True American traces the making of these two men, Stroman and Bhuiyan, and of their fateful encounter.

 

The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn

Call Number: BP 605 .P46 G85 2017

A comprehensive, authoritative, and tragic story of preacher Jim Jones, who was responsible for the Jonestown Massacre--the largest murder-suicide in American history. In the 1950s, a young Indianapolis minister named Jim Jones preached a curious blend of the gospel and Marxism. 

Mindhunter by John E. Douglas; Mark Olshaker

Call Number: HV 7911 .D68 M56 2017

Discover the classic, behind-the-scenes chronicle of John E. Douglas' twenty-five-year career in the FBI Investigative Support Unit, where he used psychological profiling to delve into the minds of the country's most notorious serial killers and criminals. In chilling detail, the legendary Mindhunter takes us behind the scenes of some of his most gruesome, fascinating, and challenging cases--and into the darkest recesses of our worst nightmares.

The Third Rainbow Girl by Emma Copley Eisenberg

Call Number: HV 6533 .W4 E37 2020

A stunning, complex narrative about the fractured legacy of a decades-old double murder in rural West Virginia--and the writer determined to put the pieces back together. In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders were murdered in an isolated clearing. They were hitchhiking to a festival known as the Rainbow Gathering but never arrived. For thirteen years, no one was prosecuted for the "Rainbow Murders" though deep suspicion was cast on a succession of local residents in the community, depicted as poor, dangerous, and backward.

For the Thrill of It by Simon Baatz

Call Number: 364.1523 B111f, 2008

It was a crime that shocked the nation, a brutal murder in Chicago in 1924 of a child, by two wealthy college students who killed solely for the thrill of the experience. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb had first met several years earlier, and their friendship had blossomed into a love affair. Both were intellectuals--too smart, they believed, for the police to catch them. However, the police had recovered an important clue at the scene of the crime--a pair of eyeglasses--and soon both Leopold and Loeb were in the custody of Cook County.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Call Number: 364.1523 L334d, 2004

This bestseller intertwines the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi; Curt Gentry

Call Number: HV 6533 .C2 B84 1994

Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the twentieth century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers.

The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson

Call Number: HV 6465 .M7 T97 2017

This work looks at a pivotal event of the civil rights movement--the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till. In 1955, white men in the Mississippi Delta lynched a fourteen-year-old from Chicago named Emmett Till. His murder was part of a wave of white terrorism in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared public school segregation unconstitutional.

Lethal Passage by Erik Larson

Call Number: 364.1523 L334ℓ, 1994

ISBN: 9780517596777

This devastating book begins with an account of a crime that is by now almost commonplace: on December 16, 1988, sixteen-year-old Nicholas Elliot walked into his Virginia high school with a Cobray M-11/9 and several hundred rounds of ammunition tucked in his backpack. By day's end, he had killed one teacher and severely wounded another. In Lethal Passage Erik Larson shows us how a disturbed teenager was able to buy a weapon advertised as "the gun that made the eighties roar."