Gore, blood, kidnappings and murders – our ten best new true crime books list has got it all, and then some. All the titles on the list are guaranteed bestsellers and they were all released within the last month! Fall is a great time to update your reading list, and if true crime is your area of interest, then the ones listed below are definitely the titles and authors you need to check out as 2011 draws to an end.
1. Legally Dead by Kevin Flynn and Rebecca Lavoie
Legally Dead, the title ranking tenth on our best new true crime books list, is the story of an attorney and his young wife, who move to New England in the early ‘90s. Sounds like a good, creepy setting for a murder, doesn’t it? Well, three years later, the marriage is over, the wife is a wreck, and the former husband convinces their teenage son to violently kill his own mother in cold blood.
2. Wiseguy: The 25th Anniversary Edition, by Nicholas Pileggi
Not one of the new true crime books of fall ’11 per se, Nicholas Pileggi’s Wiseguy, is however, a title you will want to check out, if you haven’t already. It’s the written story of Henry Hill, a kid born in Brooklyn, who, at the age of 12, already knew he was going to be a “wiseguy”, a gangster who would one day rule the world. Martin Scorsese’s introduction to the book is also a must-read for fans of the mobster genre.
3. The Sex Slave Murders: The True Story of Serial Killers Gerald and Charlene Gallego by R. Barri Flowers
The Sex Slave Murders truly is a gritty, gripping read about a marriage made in hell. The protagonists? Charming Charlene Gallego, who would lure pretty teenage girls and young women into the back of a van. Not surprisingly, husband Gerald awaited there, to enact his most hardcore sex slave fantasy and then murder the women…
4. DarkMarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You by Misha Glenny
Glenny’s DarkMarket explores a relatively untapped niche in the crime literary genre. It tackles cybercrime and manages to prove how poorly prepared and utterly defenseless the world is, in the face of a new wave of cyber criminals, aimed with all the right new weapons.
5. The Secrets of the FBI by Ronald Kessler
Ronald Kessler is huge name on the market, standing as an internationally acclaimed New York Times bestselling author. His latest title is a most exciting addition to the new true crime books chart, as it reveals very well kept secrets on the FBI, the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, the Russian spy swap, Marilyn Monroe’s death… and more!
6. A Killer’s Touch by Michael Benson
A Killer’s Touch offers its readers not one true crime story, but three. The story of a pretty young woman, a married mother of two, who found her demise at the hands of an intruder into her Florida home. The story of a middle-aged out-of-work plumber, who decided to kill, violently, without mercy. And ultimately, the story of a tragic failure – during the murder, Denise called 911 twice, but to no avail.
7. America the Vulnerable by Joel Brenner
The complete title of Joel Brenner’s latest book is America the Vulnerable: Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare. Now, Brenner is not your run-of-the-mill author, he’s a former top-level National Security Agency insider, who wanted to get the inside scoop on cyber crime. He revealed a new generation of spies operating from China, the Middle East and Europe, who are leaving America utterly defenceless.
8. Camouflaged Killer by David A. Gibb
Subtitled The Shocking Double Life of Canadian Air Force Colonel Russell Williams, Gibb’s book proves that horrible criminals, who engage in acts of sexual deviancy, rapes and murders, are often highly-functioning individuals. Col. Russell Williams commanded the largest Canadian Forces base in the country; he flew prime ministers, officials and members of the British Royal Family. Yet he still was a horrible criminal.
9. Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry and Scott Brick
The Manson murders, though decades old by now, still capture the interest of US and international audiences alike. What this new true crime book brings to the table is the unique angle: it is written from the perspective of prosecuting attorney Vincent Bugliosi. It’s also available in unabridged audio for the first time and sheds new light on perhaps the most baffling murder in American history.
10. Death in the City of Light by David King and Paul Michael
The ultimate bestseller of our best new true crime books list is the story of ‘The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris’, yet another title that proves some topics never get old. It narrates the tale of a French police commissioner in charge with capturing an elusive murder, in a world of Gestapo officers, pimps, prostitutes, spies, as well as 1940s European glitz and glamour. The book also follows the trial of the main murder suspect, in a gripping tale with plenty of turning points.
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