The Clews List of 10 Best True Crime Books of All Time

Everyone’s tastes are different, and I haven’t read everything. But here goes anyway. I’m sure there are gaping holes in my list. I’m looking forward to other suggestions too. (And let this list also suffice as a rebuke to the New York Times critic who called true crime “inelegant.” They don’t give out Pulitzer prizes for “droopy prose.”)

Laura’s List of The 10 Best True Crime Books of All Time

1. Studies in Murder by Edmund L. Pearson (which includes his seminal Lizzie Borden)
2. To Meet Miss Madeline Smith by William Roughead (technically this is just one essay of hundreds he wrote; but it's the absolute best, anthologized a billion times - take your pick)
3. Murder and its Motives by F. Tennyson Jesse
4. Small Sacrifices by Ann Rule
5. Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi
6. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
7. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
8. Son by Jack Olsen
9. The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
10. The Newgate Calendar by the Ordinary of Newgate Prison

As long as I'm making lists....

Laura’s Personal Favorite Books for a Desert Island:

• A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H.B. Irving
• Butcher’s Dozen by Larry Wakefield
• Masterpieces of Murder by Edmund L. Pearson (Gerald Gross, Ed.)
• Instigation of the Devil by Edmund L. Pearson
• The Cases That Haunt Us by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
• Science of Sherlock Holmes by E.J. Wagner
• something by Harold Schechter
• something by Miriam Allen deFord
• Look for the Woman by Jay Robert Nash (not terribly accurate, heavily reliant on the Newgate Calendar, but a fun read nonetheless)

On the Nightstand Now:

• The Bobbed-Haired Bandit
• White Mischief

I’m always on the lookout for reading suggestions. What’s the best true crime account you’ve ever read?

Comments

[Kim Cooper]

Brian Masters' "Killing For Company" (on the Dennis Nilsen case) is exceptional, compassionate without ever excusing the killer for his crimes. Nilsen's motives and actions are oddly similar to Jeffrey Dahmer's. A very interesting book and case.

[Gregg Olsen]

With the exception of Midnight in the Garden, I concur with your list. I'd dump Midnight in favor of Darcy O'Brien's classic Two of a Kind (horrific, yes, but not a wasted word. Fantastic writing. Check it out.)

[Kester Aspden]

A very good British true crime - one of the best in my view - is John Williams, Bloody Valentine: a killing in Cardiff.

It is about the murder of a prostitute in the Welsh capital and is an expose of an injustice. A very passionate, polemical book.

My favourite (by another Welsh writer) is Emlyn Williams, Beyond Belief. This is a book about the Moors Murders and was influenced by Truman Capote's non-fiction novel approach.

[Laura]

Thanks for the suggestions, Kester. I'll add Bloody Valentine to my To Get List.
But Emlyn Williams?? I have this book....tried to read it... we'll have to agree to disagree on that one!

[Susan Rand]

I appreciate all the references to books I have not read.

I have favorite books, and favorite authors.

Favorite books:

The Executioner's Song
The Michigan Murders
In Cold Blood
Beyond Belief (awful, but compelling)
A Cry in the Dark (heart-rending)
In Broad Daylight (This is a particular favorite because I faced a similar situation when I lived in Virginia in 1992)
Baby Be Mine

I'll read anything by:

Ann Rule
Aphrodite Jones
Jack Olsen
Carleton Stowers
Darcy O'Brien

I just noticed that on this forum I said I'd have to disagree about BEYOND BELIEF. I loved the book but have never returned to it.

[Faye Musselman]

Laura - Your Top Ten Best Crime Books of All Time are remarkably the same listing I would have come up with except for two. I would substitute Thomas De Quincey's Murder As a Fine Art and William Roughead's Murderous Companions for John Berendt and Jack Olsen. For female writers of the Roughead/Pearson ilk, you just can't beat F. Tennyson Jesse. And I tip my hat to Ann Jones, whose Women Who Kill would be in my Desert Island carry all for female contemporary true crime writers. And Ann Rule, formulated as she is, still can keep us up nights. However, if my house were on fire and I could only grab one (gasp, choke, gasp) ONE book - I would not bat an eye nor miss a step in bolting for my Lizzie Borden Past & Present by Leonard Rebello.

-Faye Musselman

P.S. Some say American hasn't been the same since JFK's assassination. I say almost all murder cases after Elizabeth Short (1947) have palled in comparison to the 18th and 19th Century classics. A dark alley, a shriek, the flash of a knife - to paraphrase De Quicney.

[RJ]

I have had an interest in true crime reading , with heavy emphasis on British locales for many (many) years...
Two recent "best reads" for me are:

1: Masterpieces of Murder, edited by J. Goodman (contributions by those masters of the genre, W. Roughead (whom You also admire, I see), and (Mr.) Whittington-Egan..plus others.

2: Bodies of Evidence; C. Anderson and S. McGehee, (story of the most evil monstrous woman I know of) , not British tho'

3:Either book by Ronnie Kray's widow "Kate", for it's insider views of British criminals.

4:Blood Will Tell, Joseph Bosco..(U.S. story)

[Meg]

My personal favorites are:

Murder in Greenwich by Mark Furman
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi

Also a very good book that is BASED on factual events in The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketcham...

[Andrew Brown]

I am suprised that no one has mentioned Joseph Wambaugh yet, who is for me the most consistently excellent true-crime writer. Do NOT be confused by his fiction, which is poor. Start with The Blooding (first use of DNA evidence to solve a murder), which has story twists that would be unbelievable in fiction, and then try Lines And Shadows (a brief attempt by the San Diego P.D. to prevents bandits from preying upon illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S.). Other classics include the Onion Field, Echoes in the Darkness, and, most recently, Fire Lover.

Also, the VERY BEST true crime book has to be Homicide, by David Simon (which spawned the fictional TV series).

Finally, if you can still find Chief, by Albert Seedman (Chief NYC detective in 1970's) and Peter Hellman (writer), grab it. NYT called it "fascinating" and "excellent," while Kirkus called it "riveting," all of which are accurate.

[SBHopton]

Good morning,

I'm quite new to blogging, so please forgive me if I do/say something that is uncouth.

I am a writer working on a fiction piece about a true crime committed in London, 1890. My blog, and the account of the story can be found here: http://marypearcey.blogspot.com

I am looking for help in my research and recreation of the world at that time (Victorian England). Any news, research, thoughts, photos or other data available about Mary Pearcey (also known as Mary Eleanor Wheeler) would be greatly appreciated.

Although this story will ultimately be classified as historical fiction, I want to maintain the integrity of truth behind it.

Thank you for your help,

SBHopton

[Mark Russell]

Great site. Don't know if you know of The Wallace Case in Liverpool 1931? I am hoping to write a book on it...One of the most famous cases ever...

Regards
Mark

[Kicha]

Haven't seen it mentioned but I particularly liked a book that came out in Nov. '97 on the 1955 Stephanie Bryan murder case called
'Shallow Grave in Trinity County'

[John G Wallace]

Have you read "And The Sea Will Tell"? Its an older book by Vincent Bugliosi. I just finished it and thought it was very good.

[Kitty]

I liked your list but was shocked to see many talented and great authors omitted...except for Ann Rule-of course. Here is my list:

House of Secrets by Lowell Cauffiel [this book astonishes the mind in how easy it was and probably still is, to get away with this type of crime right under everyones nose]

Murder In Paradise by Chris Loo & Rick Castberg

I AM CAIN by Gera-Lind Kolarik & Wayne Klatt

September Sacrifice by Mark Horner

Innocence Lost by Carlton Stowers

Unsolved Mysteries by True Detective Magazine

A Rip In Heaven by Jeanine Cummins

The Gift Of Fear by Gavin De Becker [not a true crime book but a asset for fighting crime aginst you]

LENA-Murder In Southern Indiana by Christine Righthouse

A Beautiful Child by ?

The Sylvia Likens Story by ? [A horrific account]

and many more but I don't have their titles in front of me and my memory is not being nice to me today...lol.

[JaimeeG.]

Does noone like John Grisham's first true crime book, "The Innocent Man" I thought it was fabulous...

[Rita]

Evidence of Love has to make any top 10 list.

I am new to this blog and have so enjoyed reading about so many who are true crime fans like myself. Of course Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" is a classic in every sense of the word. I also enjoyed "Two of a Kind" an expose of the Hillside Stranglers Kenneth Bianci and Angela Buono during the early seventies. I tend to prefer classic true crime rather then the more contemporary ones. One new book I just finished is called "Bestial" by Harold Schechter. In "Bestial", Schechter takes on the lesser known Earle Leonard Nelson. On a cross-continental spree that is documented to have taken the lives of 22 landladies in America in 1926. This countries first in a long line of serial killers. A fascinating read, that had me checking and rechecking my doors before heading to bed!

[Ruth]

William Roughead was my great-great uncle (or 3 greats? not completely sure, but where that name occurs, we're related... It's also my father's name). I am so pleased that people recognize him for his early, even initial, contribution to the true-crime genre!!! I love his attention to detail - but he also makes me laugh at his occasional sarcastic and almost Victorian comments.

[Kim]

This is for Mark above who says he hopes to write a book on the Wallace Case, which I have always found fascinating. The most I have ever found written about it is an essay by Dorothy L. Sayers in a book entitled "Unsolved! Classic True Murder Cases" (one of my all-time favorite collections) published in 1987 by Peter Bedrick Books, New York. The best line in the story has to do with William Herbert Wallace's motive for bashing his wife's brains out with a fireplace poker: "Since nobody else could be shown to have any motive for murdering Mrs. Wallace, the murderer must be the husband, since after all he was her husband, and so had his motive ready made." I'll be looking for your book, Mark!!

[Fiz]

Me too, Mark! Let us know when it comes out! I love the Wallace Case and Jonathan Goodman (RIP) wrote one of the best crime books I've ever read about the case (I mean the book is is one of the best TC books I've ever read)