True Crime
How an Epic History of the Mafia Came out of a Chance Meeting with a Literary Legend
.
My last book about the mafia, Mob Rules: What the Mafia Can Teach the Legitimate Businessman, was an international bestseller translated into 20 languages. Because of the book’s global…
How to Write Fiction about True Crime
.
If you are going to write a sensational, news-worthy crime story into your fiction, you have a few models for how to proceed. First, there is the Gone Girl…
The Best True Crime Books of 2023
.
The CrimeReads editors make their selections for the year’s best true crime books. * Jillian Lauren, Behold the Monster (Sourcebooks) This startling new book uncovers the crimes of serial…
The Mystery of Oak Island
.
On Oak Island, everybody gets up early. By dawn, with the fog turning into a drizzle, the crew is hard at work. I’ve taken refuge inside the rusted hulk…
Uptown Gothic: The NYC Photographs of Thaddeus Wilkerson
.
Growing-up in upper Manhattan, on 151st Street between Broadway and Riverside, I always thought of my neighborhood as Harlem or Sugar Hill. Mom, who’d lived in the area since…
Delusions of Grandeur: The Scandalous Crime of a Los Angeles Millionaire
.
The couple walked on the beach at Santa Monica that September afternoon in 1903, then stopped at a shop to buy postcards. Once they were back in their suite…
The Many Words for Yakuza
.
“It seems fairly evident that the selection of such simple terms must to a certain extent depend upon the chief interests of a people; and where it is necessary…
Memory, Place, and Hauntings: On Toronto’s Seedy Seventies-Era “Sin Strip”
.
In the late 70s my family emigrated to Toronto and stayed for two years. In those days, downtown was notorious for its Sin Strip. Four blocks concentrated on Yonge…
The Grieving Mother Who Became An Angel of Vengeance
.
On January 24, 2014, Miriam Rodriguez received a call at 4 a.m. from her eldest daughter Azalea—a call that would change her and her family’s lives forever. Miriam’s younger…
Delving Into the Real Story of Charlie Starkweather, Spree Killer, Demon of the American ’50s
.
In 1958, America was at the peak of the post-WWII boom. The country had emerged from the war as the strongest economic and military power in the world. Prosperity…