Read-Handed: Houdini, hens, and Hal Chase
Plus teen monsters, tween lamsters, and the twenty-five greatest genre docs ever?
book reviews
Read-Handed: Houdini, hens, and Hal Chase
Plus teen monsters, tween lamsters, and the twenty-five greatest genre docs ever?
Read-Handed: London Falling and Lewis and Clark
And 7 other true-crime reads for your late-June weekend.
18 arresting moments in Storm at the Capitol
I frequently reacted out loud while reading Mary Clare Jalonick’s oral history of January 6th. Here’s a (partial) list of reasons why.
3 books on the Leongatha mushroom murders
Margaret Howie forages for the best reads on the most notorious poisoning case in recent history.
2026 Edgar Awards round-up: Story of a Murder
The last Best Fact Crime nominee on Susan Howard’s list aims to separate the myth of Dr. Crippen from the reality.
2026 Edgar Awards round-up: Out of the Woods
Susan Howard on perennial Best Fact Crime nominee Gregg Olsen’s “collaboration” with abduction survivor Shasta Groene.
Read-Handed: Lyfts, grifts, and early GIFs
Plus prison break-ins in Tennessee, and bad reviews of bank heists gone Broadway.
2026 Edgar Awards round-up: Murderland
Caroline Fraser set out to examine the relationship between 20th-century serial killers and environmental toxins. Susan Howard gauges whether Fraser succeeded.
2026 Edgar Awards round-up: Blood and the Badge
Does Michael Cannell’s look back at NYPD corruption and Gambino moles bring anything new to the LCN-subgenre table?
2026 Edgar Awards round-up: They Poisoned The World
Susan Howard’s 2026 Best Fact Crime overview begins with forever chemicals in a New York village.
The Best True Crime Stories Of The Year 2025, ranked
The legendary longreads book series is back; SDB heatmapped the stories that made the cut.
Murderland: “You cannot look away because she doesn’t”
Kevin Smokler reviews Caroline Fraser’s investigation of serial killers and environmental toxicity.
It’s the 100th anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy Sr.’s birth
Books, docs, and podcasts about RFK The Greater’s life, and death.
Don’t bet against John Gregory Dunne’s Vegas: A Memoir of a Dark Season
I find the author tough to take at times, and it’s unclear if this even IS a crimoir — but Dunne’s prose is a solid gamble.
Old-school spiritualist scams; New York cold cases
Plus Jim McGreevey, the Kingfish, and more Halloween true-crime reads.
Murderland, Murdaugh fatigue, and making room on the subway
The “one simple trick” to getting a seat? Reading garishly designed copaganda from the eighties.
Read-Handed: A Ponzi prequel and felony slut-shaming
Alice Crimmins, Leo Koretz, bad science, the return of Best American Crime Writing, and more in our reading round-up.
6 true-crime audiobook narrators to keep an ear on
3 hall-of-famers and 3 up-and-comers, on cases from Wyatt Earp to Watergate.
Theresa Allore, John Edward, and Da Vinci
Plus the Main Line murders, and why a crimoir succeeds or fails.
Read-Handed: Death fakers and empty prisons
Plus NYPD bribes, disbarred documentarians, and the testimony of the incarcerated in our latest true-crime reading round-up.
