Blood Will Out: The True story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade by Walter Kirn

The true story of a young novelist who meets and befriends an eccentric, privileged New Yorker when he delivers a crippled hunting dog to him from an animal shelter, and later discovers that his friend was a serial imposter and brutal double-murderer.

Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member by Sanyika Shakur

The memoir of one of Los Angeles' most notorious gang leaders chronicles his brutal rise within the organization as well as his subsequent jail term, and his political and personal transformation into an anti-gang crusader. 

Den of Thieves by James B. Stewart

Den of Thieves tells the full story of the insider-trading scandal that nearly destroyed Wall Street, the men who pulled it off, and the chase that finally brought them to justice. Pulitzer Prize-winner James B. Stewart shows for the first time how four of the eighties’ biggest names on Wall Street—Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin Siegel, and Dennis Levine—created the greatest insider-trading ring in financial history and almost walked away with billions.

 

The Fact of a Body: a Murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

Documents the story of how a summer job at a Louisiana law firm and the case of a convicted murderer and child molester changed the author's views about the death penalty and forced her to confront traumatic secrets in her own family.

Brothers and Keepers by John Edgar Wideman

In a study that is part autobiography and part social history, the author documents the life of his younger brother, Robby, who has been imprisoned for life without parole, discussing the reasons for his own success and his brother's tragedy.

The Bling Ring: How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World by Nancy Jo Sales

This true crime novel introduces the club-hopping LA teenagers accused of stealing more than $3 million in clothing and jewelry from the likes of Paris Hilton and Orlando Bloom.

The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McClean and Peter Elkind

The definitive volume on Enron's amazing rise and scandalous fall, from an award-winning team of Fortune investigative reporters. The Smartest Guys in the Room is a story of greed, arrogance, and deceit—a microcosm of all that is wrong with American business today. Above all, it's a fascinating human drama that will prove to be the authoritative account of the Enron scandal.



 

The Other Side: A Memoir by Lacy M. Johnson

Lacy Johnson bangs on the glass doors of a sleepy local police station in the middle of the night. Her feet are bare; her body is bruised and bloody; U-bolts dangle from her wrists. She has escaped, but not unscathed. The Other Side is the haunting account of a first passionate, and then abusive relationship. At once thrilling, terrifying, harrowing, and hopeful, The Other Side offers more than just a true crime record.




 

Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street by Sheelah Kolhatkar

Steven A. Cohen is a Wall Street legend. In 1992 launched the hedge fund SAC Capital, which grew into a $15 billion empire. He cultivated an air of mystery and reclusiveness, and also of extreme excess. His public image was shattered when SAC Capital became the target of a sprawling criminal and SEC investigation, the largest in Wall Street history, led by an undermanned but determined group of government agents, prosecutors, and investigators. Experts in finding and using "black edge" (inside information), SAC Capital was ultimately fined nearly $2 billion and shut down. But as Sheelah Kolhatkar shows, Steven Cohen was never actually put out of business. 

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Presents a true account of the early twentieth-century murders of dozens of wealthy Osage and law-enforcement officials, citing the contributions and missteps of a fledgling FBI that eventually uncovered one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

Killings by Calvin Trillin

Drawn from the renowned journalist's acclaimed "U.S. Journal" series from the New Yorker, vivid pieces deal with the theme of sudden death, ranging from the murder of a Miami defense lawyer to a violent tragedy in an Iowa farm family.

The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm

Explores the relationship between journalists and their subjects, and the question of journalistic ethics, using the lawsuit of convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald against author Joe McGinniss, as a case study.

Missoula: Rape and the Justice Systen in a College Town by John Krakauer

Chronicles the experiences of several women in Missoula, Montana, who claimed to be raped by University of Montana football players, highlighting the inequities of the law in regard to rape allegations and the treatment of rape victims and perpetrators.

The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy by Masha Gessen

On April 15, 2013, two homemade bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston marathon, killing three people and wounding more than 264 others. In the ensuing manhunt, Tamerlan Tsarnaev died, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, was captured and ultimately charged on thirty federal counts. Yet long after the bombings and the terror they sowed, after all the testimony and debate, what we still haven’t learned is why. Why did the American Dream go so wrong for two immigrants? How did such a nightmare come to pass? Acclaimed Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen is uniquely endowed with the background, access, and talents to tell the full story.

A Wilderness of Error: The Trials of Jeffrey MacDonald by Errol Morris

An Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and a former private detective recounts the infamous Jeffrey MacDonald murder case and how it reflects shortcomings in the justice system, drawing on court transcripts, lab reports, and original interviews to consider the plausibility of MacDonald's innocence. 

My Dark Places: An L.A. Crime Memoir by James Ellroy

The best-selling author offers a true-life account of the murder of his mother in 1958 when he was ten years old, how he teamed up with a homicide detective to investigate the facts about the killing, and its impact on his own life.

I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

An account of the unsolved Golden State Killer case, written by the late author of the TrueCrimeDiary.com website and featuring an afterword by her husband, comedian Patton Oswalt, traces the rapes and murders of dozens of victims and the author's determined efforts to help identify the killer and bring him to justice. (Note: a suspect was arrested two months after the publication of this book.)

Black Klansman: A Memoir by Ron Stallworth

A decorated African-American law enforcement veteran traces his remarkable undercover infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado Springsin 1978, describing how he rose in the ranks sabotaged Klan activities, and exposed white supremacists in the military during the months-long investigation.

A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger

Junger uses his family's brush with murder and with the Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, who was a handyman at the Junger's home, to explore race and justice in America. Junger's story follows three lives that collide in the midst of one of the most controversial serial murder cases in America.

Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy

Discusses the hundreds of murders that occur in Los Angeles each year, and focuses on the story of the dedicated group of detectives who pursued justice at any cost in the killing of Bryant Tennelle.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.


 

The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein

Details the unique life of a woman who went from husband and father, to drag queen, gender reassignment patient, sex worker, small businesswoman, and trophy wife to a trauma cleaner who brings order to chaotic crime scenes.

Three Minutes to Doomsday: An Agent, a Traitor, and the Worst Espionage Breach in U.S. History by Joe Navarro

In a gripping real-life cat-and-mouse game between two brilliant men in the last days of the Cold War, one of the youngest agents ever hired by the FBI and an expert at reading body language, engages in a two-year long battle of wits with a former American solider whom he believed handed the Soviets the ability to utterly destroy the U.S.

Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward

Ward, the first in her family to escape the rural poverty and racism of small-town DeLisle, Mississippi, reflects on the loss of five young Black men of DeLisle, including her beloved brother. Over the course of four years, their lives are cut short by drugs, violence, and suicide. She travels back in time to their early years to find the roots of destructive patterns, and reflects on the many factors that conspire against Black men in the South.

Book descriptions taken from NYPL catalog.