Category Archives: True Crime

2022 Adult Reading Challenge! March

DISCOVER DIFFERENT GENRES!    FIND NEW AUTHORS!    WIN PRIZES!

Join us for a fun book challenge throughout 2022! Sign up and keep track via Beanstack. If you’ve participated in any of our recent summer or winter reading challenges, you’re all set to go and don’t need to create a new account.

Visit Beanstack here.

Our theme for March is MARCH MADNESS. Choose from sports related books, or true crime books about murder, burglary, or basically anything people go to jail for. See what we did there? Here are a few titles to get you started:

GREED IN THE GILDED AGE
By William Elliott Hazelgrove

“Readers curious about the Gilded Age or who enjoy stories of con artists will appreciate Hazelgrove’s lively tale of a most ambitious grifter.” ~ Library Journal

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

THE OTHER DR. GILMER
By Benjamin Gilmer

“A haunting, insightful story of justice and humanity.” ~Library Journal

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

DELIBERATE EVIL
By Edward J. Renehan Jr.

“Readers of Nathaniel Hawthorne, lovers of history, and anyone who enjoys a good mystery will be absorbed by this bizarre true crime tale.” ~Library Journal

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

 

True Crime Fan? Try One of These Popular Digital Downloads!

Are You a True Crime Fan? Now might be a great time to read or listen to a book while you’re staying home and staying safe. Here are a few suggestions that you can download from Overdrive with your Fairfield Public Library card.

Title details for The Trial of Lizzie Borden by Cara Robertson - Available

THE TRIAL OF LIZZIE BORDEN
By Cara Robertson

“Readers are given every bit of evidence available and will be hard-pressed to reach a verdict; it’s fun trying, though. Fans of crime novels will love it.”~Kirkus

For more information, please click here.

Title details for The Murder of the Century by Paul Collins - Available

THE MURDER OF THE CENTURY
By Paul Collins

“Collins, the literary detective often featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition, has constructed a gripping work of narrative nonfiction. He revisits 1897 New York, where the discovery in the East River of a male torso with arms was first dismissed as a medical-student prank. But other findings of body parts soon convinced experts that a grisly murder had been committed.” ~Booklist

For more information, please click here.

Title details for The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson - Available

THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY
By Erik Larson

“Larson’s ambitious, engrossing tale of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 focuses primarily on two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect who was the driving force behind the fair, and Henry H. Holmes, a sadistic serial killer working under the cover of the busy fair.” ~Booklist
This title is definitely a staff favorite. Erik Larson is a master of narrative non-fiction. Try any of his other titles and you will not be disappointed! ~ Sue, Circulation

For more information, please click here.

Title details for The Black Hand by Stephan Talty - Available

THE BLACK HAND
By Stephan Talty

“Talty (Black Irish) spins a gripping tale in this true crime account of one man’s crusade to combat organized crime in early-20th-century New York City. His hero is Joseph Petrosino, one of the first Italian-Americans hired by the New York Police Department, who ultimately sacrificed his life in an effort to defeat the Black Hand, an Italian organized crime group that terrorized the city through its kidnappings of children, extortions, and murders.” ~Publisher’s Weekly

For more information, please click here.

Title details for I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara - Available

I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK
By Michelle McNamara

“The Golden State Killer is once again in the headlines after finally being caught. This book about the search for him is sure to catch—and keep—readers’ attention…An exemplary true-crime book, and with an HBO adaptation in the works, this book will be enjoyed by any reader with an interest in human nature, crime, puzzles, and investigative dramas.” ~Kirkus

For more information, please click here.

Title details for American Heiress by Jeffrey Toobin - Available

AMERICAN HEIRESS
By Jeffrey Toobin

Toobin, a New Yorker staff writer and CNN senior legal analyst, provides another definitive and nuanced look at a notorious crime case—this time, the 1974 abduction of heiress Patty Hearst in San Francisco by the Symbionese Liberation Army, and its sensational aftermath… His thorough research, careful parsing of all the evidence, and superior prose make the book read like a summertime thriller.” ~Publisher’s Weekly

For more information, please click here.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Check Out These New True Crime Books!

THE THIRD RAINBOW GIRL by Emma Copley Eisenberg

“Two young women, Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered on June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Three girls were on their way to a gathering called the Rainbow Festival, and two were murdered en route. What happened to the third? Emma Copley Eisenberg was living in West Virginia when she first came across the story of the murders, and her time spent in the state helps get the texture and nuance right. The result is dazzling.” ~Lisa Levy, CrimeReads contributing editor

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

Kidnapped By a Client by Sharon R. Muse, JD

“Attorney Sharon Muse experienced every defense attorney’s worst nightmare when a former client of hers escalated a pattern of harassment to the point of kidnapping her. After escaping by the skin of her teeth, Muse soon realized her path to justice—and safety—would be long and arduous. This powerful new memoir details  her long journey to justice and healing.” ~CrimeReads

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

Wolf of Wall Street

[Cover]
Title: Wolf of Wall Street
 
Author: Jordan Belfort
 
Publisher: Bantam Books, 2007
 
Summary/Review: It’s hard to believe that this book is non-fiction because Jordon Belfort, the author and main character of the book, has portrayed his meteoric rise from lowly assistant stockbroker a mega-millionaire as such a farce.  I am sure that there are financial and stock market insights to be gleaned from reading this book, but it is so funny that you don’t care.  The author describes in excruciating detail his all-encompassing desire to eat, drink, self-medicate, and debauch to his heart’s content.  All while earning millions of dollars each month.  He takes us behind the scenes of manipulated IPO’s, some of which seem to be created exclusively to enrich him and his firm.  By the time he is caught out by federal authorities for money laundering, insider trading, and other financial crimes he has been married twice, had two children, and achieved the ripe old age of 36!  This is a morality story but again it is so funny, page after page, that you can simply enjoy it.
 
This book has been made into a movie starring Leonard DeCaprio.
 
Who will like this book?If you saw (and enjoyed) the movie, we always recommend reading the book!  If you’re looking for a funny read about a very serious topic.  If you’re interested in memoirs, finance, or comedy!
 
If you like this, try this: Belfort has written another book about his exploits (and ultimately, his downfall) in “Catching the Wolf of Wall Street”.  If you felt there was anything lacking, this second book of stories may fill in the gaps.  If you’re looking for more information and stories dealing with Wall Street and the people who run it, try “House of Cards” by William Cohan (who also writes “The Last Tycoons”).  Greg Smith also wrote a piece for the New York Times, “Why I Left Wall Street”, which has since been turned into a book after 3 million readers logged onto the Times website to see his account.  This one has a much darker view on the excess and extravagance of Wall Street. 
 
Recommended by: Mark Z, Guest Reviewer
If you’d like to read this book, visit the Fairfield Public Library catalog to see if it’s available and/or place a hold!
 

Dangerous Instincts

[Cover]

Title: Dangerous Instincts: How Gut Feelings Betray Us. (Fear Can’t Help You. An FBI Profiler Can)

Author: Mary Ellen O’Toole, Ph.D.

Publisher: Penguin, 2011

Summary/Review: The author knows her business.  She is a retired FBI profiler and has seen and interviewed violent criminals of all types: mass murderers, rapists, kidnappers, pedophiles.  The purpose of this book is to impart to readers how people don’t make safe decisions on a regular basis:  hiring a contractor in the home, deciding at whose home your child can play, or even opening the door to a complete stranger.  We get lulled into a false sense of safety because our biases lead us to deem someone harmless when we really don’t have enough information to make a decision. The author tries to instruct on how to assess risk: physical risk, health risk, social or emotional risk, professional, or financial.  Being a good listener is key; but “listening between the lines” is even better.  She also discusses how to observe a persons behavior to try to make an assessment.  She also discusses those people in our society who are most dangerous:  the sociopath.

Scary when I think of the number of times that I have done exactly what the author warns us against.  I will never be able to read someone’s mind, but I will try to employ some of these techniques in my own danger-filled life!

Who will like this book?:  Those who are interested in psychology, or are interested in true crime.

If you like this, try this:  If you are interested in the psychology topics discussed in the book, Malcolm Gladwell has a number of books, including “Blink” which you may find interesting- especially because he discusses the decisions made on impulse.  “The Sociopath Next Door” by Martha Stout may also be interesting for you, as she discusses the nature of humans and what makes them stray from a healthy psychological profile.

If you would like to learn more about criminal profiling, Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood”, Erik Larson’s “Devil in the White City”, and Vincent Bugliosi’s “Helter Skelter” might be good choices, but beware – they may be graphic.

Recommended by: Sue Z, Reference Librarian

If this looks like your kind of book, visit the Fairfield Public Library catalog to check if its available and place a hold. [Link will open in a new window]