Past Kindle Book Deals but Still Must Read Books!
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These Books Earned Our Seal of Approval—Snag Them Before They Vanish (Again)
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67 past books matching True Crime
Two promising college lives collide with violence when Jennifer Cave disappears in Austin.
Descent Into Hell
Biographies & Memoirs · True Crime
Our take
Two promising college lives collide with violence when Jennifer Cave disappears in Austin. What begins as a missing person search unravels into a brutal murder and a reckless flight from justice led by a privileged student hiding a dangerous edge. This true crime account is praised for its clarity and rigor, with 4.5 stars on Amazon and strong Goodreads acclaim.
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About the book
Bright, attractive, and both from good families, University of Texas college student Colton Pitonyak and vibrant redhead Jennifer Cave had the world at their beckoning. Cave, an ex-cheerleader, had just landed an exciting new job, while a big-money scholarship to UT's prestigious business school lured Pitonyak to Austin. Yet the former altar boy had a dark, unpredictable streak, one that ensnared him in the perilous underworld of drugs and guns. When Jennifer failed to show up for work on August 18, 2005, her mother became frightened. Sharon Cave's search led to Colton's West Campus apartment, where Jennifer's family discovered a scene worthy of the grisliest horror movie. Meanwhile, Colton Pitonyak was nowhere to be found.
A Descent Into Hell is the gripping true story of one of the most brutal slayings in UT history—and the wild "Bonnie and Clyde-like" flight from justice of a cold-blooded young killer and his would-be girlfriend, who claimed that her unquestioning allegiance to Pitonyak was "just the way I roll."
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In Doctor Ice Pick, Claire Prentice recounts the true story of Dr.
Doctor Ice Pick
Biographies & Memoirs · True Crime
Our take
In Doctor Ice Pick, Claire Prentice recounts the true story of Dr. Walter Freeman, whose rapid fire lobotomies scarred thousands of lives. Through chilling detail, this short work exposes how ambition, spectacle, and pseudoscience fueled one of America’s darkest medical tragedies. A haunting examination of harm done in the name of progress.
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A haunting and true short story of the lobotomist who cut a brutal swathe through the lives of thousands of vulnerable Americans from the author of Miracle at Coney Island.
In July 1952, Dr. Walter Freeman arrived at the gates of a West Virginia asylum. In his medical bag he carried two metal picks and a surgical hammer. He had invented a “cheap, easy” ten-minute lobotomy. The press described it as a miracle cure, a new frontier in psychosurgery.
That summer, in just twelve days, Freeman lobotomized 228 men, women, and children in West Virginia’s public mental hospitals. His blitzkrieg of brain surgery became known as “Operation Ice Pick,” named after the tools he wielded.
To some, the doctor was a hero, solving the crisis facing the nation’s underfunded and overcrowded psychiatric institutions. But many who watched him operate saw a dangerous risk-taker, a showman and a charlatan. This is the true story of a scientific pioneer whose misguided quest created one of the biggest tragedies in American medical history.
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One of America’s most infamous unsolved murders gets a chilling reexamination.
The Black Dahlia Files
True Crime
Our take
One of America’s most infamous unsolved murders gets a chilling reexamination. Drawing on long-buried files from the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, Donald H. Wolfe uncovers new evidence pointing to a shocking culprit behind the Black Dahlia killing. This gripping true crime investigation explores corruption, cover-ups, and the dark machinery of Hollywood power.
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About the book
In 1946, Elizabeth Short traveled to Hollywood to become famous and see her name up in lights. Instead, the dark-haired beauty became immortalized in the headlines as the "Black Dahlia" when her nude and bisected body was discovered in the weeds of a vacant lot. Despite the efforts of more than four hundred police officers and homicide investigators, the heinous crime was never solved. Now, after endless speculation and false claims, bestselling author Donald H. Wolfe discovers startling new evidence—buried in the files of the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office for more than half a century.
With the aid of archival photos, news clippings, and investigative reports, Wolfe documents the riveting untold story that names the brutal murderer—the notorious Mafia leader, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel—and the motive—an unwanted pregnancy resulting from Short's involvement with the most powerful figure in Los Angeles, Norman Chandler. But Wolfe goes even further to unravel the large-scale cover-up behind the case. Wolfe's extensive research, based on the evidence he discovered in the recently opened LADA files, makes The Black Dahlia Files the authoritative work on the murder that has drawn endless scrutiny but remained unsolved—until now.
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This will appeal to readers who want investigative nonfiction about missing hikers, wilderness searches, and the people who refuse to stop looking.
Trail of the Lost
Biographies & Memoirs · True Crime
Our take
A New York Times bestseller and Goodreads Choice Award nominee, Trail of the Lost follows former park ranger Andrea Lankford as she joins families and volunteer investigators searching for three men who vanished along the Pacific Crest Trail, with a 4.2-star rating from more than 1,600 Amazon reviewers. This will appeal to readers who want investigative nonfiction about missing hikers, wilderness searches, and the people who refuse to stop looking.
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About the book
From an award-winning former law enforcement park ranger and investigator, this female-driven true crime adventure follows the author’s quest to find missing hikers along the Pacific Crest Trail by pairing up with an eclectic group of unlikely allies.
As a park ranger with the National Park Service's law enforcement team, Andrea Lankford led search and rescue missions in some of the most beautiful (and dangerous) landscapes across America, from Yosemite to the Grand Canyon. But though she had the support of the agency, Andrea grew frustrated with the service's bureaucratic idiosyncrasies, and left the force after twelve years. Two decades later, however, she stumbles across a mystery that pulls her right back where she left off: three young men have vanished from the Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,650-mile trek made famous by Cheryl Strayed's Wild, and no one has been able to find them. It’s bugging the hell out of her.
Andrea’s concern soon leads her to a wild environment unlike any she’s ever encountered: missing person Facebook groups. Andrea launches an investigation, joining forces with an eclectic team of amateurs who are determined to solve the cases by land and by screen: a mother of the missing, a retired pharmacy manager, and a mapmaker who monitors terrorist activity for the government. Together, they track the activities of kidnappers and murderers, investigate a cult, rescue a psychic in peril, cross paths with an unconventional scientist, and reunite an international fugitive with his family. Searching for the missing is a brutal psychological and physical test with the highest stakes, but eventually their hardships begin to bear strange fruits—ones that lead them to places and people they never saw coming.
Beautifully written, heartfelt, and at times harrowing, TRAIL OF THE LOST paints a vivid picture of hiker culture and its complicated relationship with the ever-expanding online realm, all while exploring the power and limits of determination, generosity, and hope. It also offers a deep awe of the natural world, even as it unearths just how vast and treacherous it can be.
On the TRAIL OF THE LOST, you may not find what you are looking for, but you will certainly find more than you seek.
** THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER **
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In Manson, journalist Jeff Guinn traces the full arc of Charles Manson’s life, from a violent childhood to the 1969 Tate LaBianca murders that shocked the world.
Manson
Biographies & Memoirs · True Crime
Our take
In Manson, journalist Jeff Guinn traces the full arc of Charles Manson’s life, from a violent childhood to the 1969 Tate LaBianca murders that shocked the world. Drawing on new interviews and unreleased material, Guinn places Manson within the chaos of the late sixties, revealing how manipulation, ambition, and ideology turned influence into mass murder. A New York Times bestseller praised by Ann Rule.
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About the book
The New York Times bestselling, authoritative account of the life of Charles Manson, filled with surprising new information and previously unpublished photographs: “A riveting, almost Dickensian narrative…four stars” (People).
More than forty years ago Charles Manson and his mostly female commune killed nine people during thin 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders, among them the pregnant actress Sharon Tate. It was the culmination of a criminal career that author Jeff Guinn traces back to Manson’s childhood. Guinn interviewed Manson’s sister and cousin, neither of whom had ever previously cooperated with an author. Childhood friends, cellmates, and even some members of the Manson family have provided new information about Manson’s life. Guinn has made discoveries about the night of the Tate murders, answering unresolved questions, such as why one person near the scene of the crime was spared.
Manson puts the killer in the context of the turbulent late sixties, an era of race riots and street protests when authority in all its forms was under siege. Guinn shows us how Manson created and refined his message to fit the times, persuading confused young women (and a few men) that he had the solutions to their problems. At the same time he used them to pursue his long-standing musical ambitions. His frustrated ambitions, combined with his bizarre race-war obsession, would have lethal consequences.
Guinn’s book is a “tour de force of a biography…Manson stands as a definitive work: important for students of criminology, human behavior, popular culture, music, psychopathology, and sociopathology…and compulsively readable” (Ann Rule, The New York Times Book Review).
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When Douglas Preston moves his family to Italy, he learns their peaceful olive grove was once the site of notorious double murders.
The Monster of Florence
Biographies & Memoirs · True Crime
Our take
When Douglas Preston moves his family to Italy, he learns their peaceful olive grove was once the site of notorious double murders. Teaming with journalist Mario Spezi, he uncovers a chilling trail pointing to the Monster of Florence, only to become a target of the investigation himself. A gripping true-crime narrative with enduring acclaim.
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About the book
Read the true story that inspired the hit Netflix series! In the nonfiction tradition of John Berendt and Erik Larson, the author of the #1 NYT bestseller The Lost City of the Monkey God presents a gripping account of crime and punishment in the lush hills surrounding Florence as he seeks to uncover one of the most infamous figures in Italian history. In 2000, Douglas Preston fulfilled a dream to move his family to Italy. Then he discovered that the olive grove in front of their 14th century farmhouse had been the scene of the most infamous double-murders in Italian history, committed by a serial killer known as the Monster of Florence. Preston, intrigued, meets Italian investigative journalist Mario Spezi to learn more. This is the true story of their search for--and identification of--the man they believe committed the crimes, and their chilling interview with him. And then, in a strange twist of fate, Preston and Spezi themselves become targets of the police investigation. Preston has his phone tapped, is interrogated, and told to leave the country. Spezi fares worse: he is thrown into Italy's grim Capanne prison, accused of being the Monster of Florence himself. Like one of Preston's thrillers, The Monster of Florence, tells a remarkable and harrowing story involving murder, mutilation, and suicide-and at the center of it, Preston and Spezi, caught in a bizarre prosecutorial vendetta.
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At a Michigan nursing home, caregiver Cathy Wood grows convinced that her frail residents deserve release from suffering.
Forever and Five Days
True Crime
Our take
At a Michigan nursing home, caregiver Cathy Wood grows convinced that her frail residents deserve release from suffering. With her lover, Gwen Graham, she turns that belief into a deadly pact that hides in plain sight. As guilt deepens and secrets strain their bond, the truth becomes impossible to contain. A chilling and acclaimed true crime account.
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About the book
In a quiet Michigan nursing home, life drifts by in slow routines, unnoticed by the outside world. Cathy Wood moves through these halls every day, tending to residents who can no longer care for themselves. To her troubled mind, their frailty becomes a burden no one else will acknowledge. When she confides these thoughts to her lover, Gwen Graham, the two women form a pact that twists caregiving into something far darker.
As bodies begin to accumulate without suspicion, the line between mercy and manipulation dissolves. The secrecy that once bound Cathy and Gwen grows heavy, and the truth threatens to surface in ways neither can control.
A critically acclaimed debut in true crime, Forever and Five Days offers a disturbing, meticulously reported account of the Alpine Manor murders.
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From an idealistic Indiana preacher to the architect of a devastating tragedy, Jim Jones built a movement rooted in charisma and control.
The Road to Jonestown
Biographies & Memoirs · True Crime
Our take
From an idealistic Indiana preacher to the architect of a devastating tragedy, Jim Jones built a movement rooted in charisma and control. Jeff Guinn traces Jones’s rise, secret abuses, and the fateful relocation of his followers to Guyana. Based on FBI files and survivor accounts, this Edgar Award finalist offers a definitive portrait of a leader whose power turned deadly.
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About the book
Long before the tragedy in Guyana shocked the world, Jim Jones built his influence through conviction, charisma, and a talent for drawing people into his orbit. What began as an idealistic ministry in 1950s Indianapolis grew into a movement that blended faith, politics, and social activism, masking a darkness that deepened with every passing year.
As Peoples Temple rose in power, Jones cultivated a private world defined by manipulation, drugs, and staged miracles. His ambition ultimately carried nearly a thousand followers into the Guyanese jungle, where hope collapsed into fear and obedience became catastrophe.
Drawing on extensive research, FBI files, survivor testimony, and firsthand travel to key locations, The Road to Jonestown delivers a comprehensive account of the man behind the largest murder suicide in American history. An Edgar Award finalist for Best Fact Crime.
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Perfect for readers of All That Remains and Stiff.
Written in Bone
Biographies & Memoirs · True Crime
Our take
Our bones are the final storytellers of our lives. In Written in Bone, Dame Sue Black explores how every bone reveals secrets of identity, injury, and experience. Blending science, memoir, and true-crime insight, this award-winning work exposes the profound link between biology and humanity. Perfect for readers of All That Remains and Stiff.
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About the book
Our bones tell the story of who we were, how we lived, and how we died.
In Written in Bone, internationally renowned forensic anthropologist Dame Sue Black guides readers through the human skeleton, revealing how every fracture, mark, and joint preserves the truth of a life once lived. From the skull to the smallest bones of the foot, she unpacks the science of bone formation, change, and decay, blending biological detail with scenes from her own career investigating deaths and identifying the lost.
Her perspective is both clinical and deeply human, finding dignity and narrative in the aftermath of mortality.
Winner of the CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Nonfiction, Written in Bone combines scientific rigor with compassion and storytelling brilliance.
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When his brother vanished in 1984, Ted Kergan vowed to uncover the truth.
My Brother’s Keeper
Biographies & Memoirs · True Crime
Our take
When his brother vanished in 1984, Ted Kergan vowed to uncover the truth. For nearly thirty years, he followed two suspects across the country, risking everything to bring them to justice. Chris Russo Blackwood’s My Brother’s Keeper is a haunting true story of faith, family, and the relentless pursuit of justice against impossible odds.
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About the book
When Ted Kergan’s brother vanished one November night, he made a promise: he would not rest until he found the truth. Decades later, that promise still defined his life.
In 1984, Gary Kergan disappeared in Baton Rouge, leaving behind blood, questions, and two suspects who fled across the country. With no body and no trial, Ted devoted his fortune and his future to tracking them from New Orleans to Las Vegas, refusing to let his brother be forgotten.
Nearly thirty years later, science and persistence finally delivered justice. A diary, a courtroom, and a brother’s unyielding love brought the case to its end.
Chris Russo Blackwood’s My Brother’s Keeper is a powerful true story of loss, loyalty, and the long road to justice.
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FBI agent Mark Putnam had everything to lose when his affair with informant Susan Smith turned deadly.
Above Suspicion
Biographies & Memoirs · True Crime
Our take
FBI agent Mark Putnam had everything to lose when his affair with informant Susan Smith turned deadly. His confession made history and exposed the darkness within the bureau’s ranks. Above Suspicion by Joe Sharkey is a riveting true-crime classic about ambition, obsession, and the price of a single unforgivable mistake.
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He was trained to uphold the law. Then he broke it.
In 1987, rookie FBI agent Mark Putnam arrived in Pikeville, Kentucky, eager to prove himself in the heart of Appalachian coal country. It was a hard post full of drug runners, bank robbers, and old feuds, but his ambition soon made him a rising star. Until he met Susan Smith.
A young mother and small-time informant, Susan was as troubled as she was determined. Their affair began as manipulation and ended in murder. When Putnam strangled her in a moment of rage, he became the first FBI agent ever to confess to killing.
Joe Sharkey’s Above Suspicion is a chilling true story of passion, power, and the thin line between justice and corruption.
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In 1931 Arkansas, teenager Helen Spence shot her father’s killers in open court and became both hero and outlaw.
Daughter of the White River
Biographies & Memoirs · True Crime
Our take
In 1931 Arkansas, teenager Helen Spence shot her father’s killers in open court and became both hero and outlaw. Denise White Parkinson’s Daughter of the White River reveals the true story behind the headlines—a tale of vengeance, injustice, and the forgotten river communities that shaped one of the South’s most tragic legends.
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About the book
She was the girl who avenged her father’s death—and became a legend the law could not contain.
In 1931, Helen Spence shocked Depression-era Arkansas when she shot her father’s murderers in open court. Raised among the houseboat communities of the White River, Helen was young, beautiful, and utterly fearless. But her act of vengeance set her on a path that no prison could hold and no justice system could forgive.
Drawing on newly uncovered prison records and firsthand accounts, Denise White Parkinson restores the humanity behind the sensational headlines.
Daughter of the White River is the haunting true story of a woman shaped by loss, survival, and the wild beauty of the river that claimed her life and her legend.
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