The Best New and Recent True Crime Books

Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
Considering how important they were in shaping the modern age, the Osage Indian murders of the 1920s are remarkably little-known today. When the Nation became incredibly wealthy after oil was discovered on their land, more than 20 of its members of were murdered between 1921 and 1926. As public outrage grew, the federal government was pressured into putting the obscure Bureau of Investigation, led by a young Herbert Hoover, in charge of the case. Hoover used the notoriety of these awful crimes to establish what would soon be known as the FBI, which became the nation’s preeminent investigative body, with himself as its all-powerful chief. Grann, of The Lost City of Z fame, does a marvelous job catching you up on vital history that’s been nearly forgotten.

The Fact of a Body, by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
This intensely powerful book is more than just a clinical investigation into a crime—it’s a personal journey through anger, shame, and the legal system. As a child, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich was abused by her grandfather. Her parents intervened when the abuse was discovered, but never said anything about it. Years later, while working an internship during law school, she viewed the taped confession of Ricky Langley, a man accused of molesting and murdering a six-year old boy, and was surprised at the intense hatred she felt for the man—despite being opposed to the death penalty, she found herself wishing he would die for his crimes. She begins an investigation into Langley’s case, finding in it parallels to her own horrific experience, and leading her to questions of blame, responsibility, and punishment. By bringing herself into the story with such brutal honesty, Marzano-Lesnevich transforms the true crime genre into something new.

Ranger Games: A Story of Soldiers, Family and an Inexplicable Crime, by Ben Blum
In 2006, Alex Blum (the author’s cousin) was arrested as part of a four-man team that robbed a bank in Tacoma, Washington. What made the crime unusual was that Alex was an active-duty Army Ranger, and the crime was planned by higher-ranking Ranger Luke Sommer. Alex claimed he believed the heist was part of a special training course, opening up a national conversation about the military mindset, training techniques that often involve brutal psychological attacks, and what exactly our soldiers are being trained to do. Ben Blum explores this complicated case with incredible skill, sifting through the mind games and bringing a fair-handed sympathy to all involved.

The Black Hand, by Stephan Talty
Talty tells the story of Joseph Petrosino, one of the first Italian-American police officers in New York City, whose extraordinary memory and investigative skills earned him the nick name “the Italian Sherlock Holmes,” and his crusade against The Black Hand, a precursor of the mafia that plagued Italian communities in both Italy and immigrant-crowded New York. Starting in 1883, when a young Petrosino joins the force, and ending in 1909, when he was assassinated while following leads in Sicily, Talty takes a big-picture approach, not focusing on one specific event, but relating the totality of evil imposed on a city by a shadowy organization. The Black Hand served to reinforce negative stereotypes of Italians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and Petrosino was celebrated as a hero by his community for bringing them law and order when the bulk of the city’s government didn’t care to.

American Heiress, by Jeffrey Toobin
Toobin’s book is an examination of the curious case of Patty Hearst, kidnapped and held for ransom by perhaps the least-organized and most-dimwitted revolutionaries to emerge from the 1970s  radical left, only to undergo the most famous case of Stockholm Syndrome in recorded history. Seeing Hearst wielding a semiautomatic rifle during a bank robbery shocked the nation, as did hearing her voice as she declared her allegiance to her one-time kidnappers. Toobin fleshes out the characters who made up the small, bumbling Symbonese Liberation Army, and offers insights into Hearst’s own psychological issues. It’s the sort of story that would be criticized as unbelievable in a work of fiction, and offers a fascinating assessment of a modern world where incompetents can leverage the media to make an outsized mark—something that still happens today.

A False Report, by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong
Miller and Armstrong expand their award-winning reporting on misogyny and rape culture across the U.S. into a book that focuses in on a single, horrifying story. A woman named Marie had just left foster care to live on her own for the first time at the age of 18 when a man broke into her apartment and raped her. The police—and her former foster parents—doubted her story, and Marie was slowly convinced that she had imagined the assault. Years later, an investigation into a separate crime turned up evidence that demonstrated Marie had, in fact, been raped. This story seems unbelievable until you put it into the context of the current #MeToo moment, and Miller and Armstrong begin to paint a portrait of an entire culture that’s turned blind to violence toward women. It’s one of the most important, timely true crime books of recent years.

The Blood of Emmett Till, by Timothy B. Tyson
The horrific 1955 murder of a young African-American boy named Emmett Till by a white lynch mob, and the trial that followed—which resulted in acquittal from an all-male, all-white jury—remains one of the most shocking crimes of 20th century American history. Tyson doesn’t simply reexamine the facts of the case, but investigates the people involved in every facet of it. He sketches the relationships between families and neighbors, between the accused, the victim, and law enforcement, and between witnesses and other actors. He uncovers the people behind the names, slowly sifting through details to study the humanity of each, and consider the steps that led to such a disgusting act of brutality and injustice. The end result isn’t reassuring when it comes to human nature, but it is one of the most essential, educational books you’ll read this year.

Truevine, by Beth Macy
In 1899 two brothers—10-year old black albino children named Willie and George Muse—were kidnapped from a tobacco field. For more than a decade, they were displayed as a part of traveling freak shows, represented as missionaries from Africa, genetic oddities, and even Martians. Their mother’s tireless efforts to locate and reclaim them finally succeeded in 1927, but the brothers returned to the freak show circuit, this time as slightly-better treated contract performers. The idea that this story could happen in the 20th century is a chilling reminder that we haven’t come as far as we think in terms of race relations—or human relations.

The Good Nurse, by Charles Graeber
Charles Cullen is suspected of having killed upwards of 300 people under his care while he worked as a nurse in New Jersey. Graeber takes a classic approach, remaining at a neutral distance as he relates Cullen’s horrifying childhood, offering neither exoneration or damnation and letting the facts speak for themselves. There’s less sympathy for the various hospital administrators who knew enough about Cullen’s activities to push him out of jobs but never went further, and never warned other hospitals of their suspicions or made any effort to stop him. Alternately chilling and terrifying, this new true crime classic serves as a reminder that serial killers aren’t always the obvious psychos of movies and TV shows.

The Midnight Assassin, by Skip Hollandsworth
Despite our collective fascination with serial killers, the story of what might be the very first example of one operating in the United States remains obscure. Hollandsworth tells the amazing story of the Midnight Assassin, who terrorized Austin, Texas in the late 1800s, murdering women from all social strata. The crimes were brutal and violent, and the murderer seemed to almost be supernatural, killing at will and disappearing. The authorities were completely clueless regarding how to deal with such incessant and sociopathic violence, which in turn ratcheted up the terror even as racist attitudes saw them pursue several pointless leads. In the end, 10 people died, no one was ever caught, and several prominent people saw their careers and lives destroyed as a result. This is an important look at one of the earliest serial killings in the country, and the peculiarly American response to them.
What true crime stories do you recommend?