Books like The Skeleton Crew by Deborah Halber

John Douglas reveals the hidden motives behind violent crime, examining the psychology of serial killers, mass murderers, and ordinary people who commit horrific acts.

When Amanda Pierce vanishes on her wedding day, investigative TV host Laurie Moran teams with her crew to reconstruct the night at Florida’s Grand Victoria Hotel, uncovering hidden motives and a cold case that threatens to stay buried.

There is no scientist in the world like Dr. Bill Bass. A pioneer in forensic anthropology, Bass created the world's first laboratory dedicated to the study of human decomposition—three acres of land on a hillside in Tennessee where human bodies are left to the elements. His research at "the Body Farm" has revolutionized forensic science, helping police crack cold cases and pinpoint time of death. But during a forensics career that spans half a century, Bass and his work have ranged far beyond the gates of the Body Farm. In this riveting book, the bone sleuth explores the rise of modern forensic science, using fascinating cases from his career to take readers into the real world of C.S.I. Some of Bill Bass's cases rely on the simplest of tools and techniques, such as reassembling—from battered torsos and a stack of severed limbs—eleven people hurled skyward by an explosion at an illegal fireworks factory. Other cases hinge on sophisticated techniques Bass could not have imagined when he began his career: harnessing scanning electron microscopy to detect trace elements in knife wounds; and extracting DNA from a long-buried corpse, only to find that the female murder victim may have been mistakenly identified a quarter-century before. In Beyond the Body Farm, readers will follow Bass as he explores the depths of an East Tennessee lake with a twenty-first-century sonar system, in a quest for an airplane that disappeared with two people on board thirty-five years ago; see Bass exhume fifties pop star "the Big Bopper" to determine what injuries he suffered in the plane crash that killed three rock and roll legends on "the day the music died"; and join Bass as he works to decipher an ancient Persian death scene nearly three thousand years old. Witty and engaging, Bass dissects the methods used by homicide investigators every day, leading readers on an extraordinary journey into the high-tech science that it takes to crack a case.

Harold Schechter investigates the 1937 Beekman Place triple‑murder in Manhattan, uncovering the twisted mind of sculptor Robert Irwin and his fixation with model Veronica Gedeon in this true‑crime portrait of American psychopathology.

A true crime story based on the East Area Rapist's case in California, detailing the ten-year investigation and the terror it caused in the United States of America, while maintaining the privacy and dignity of the victims.

Robert Mann, a forensic anthropologist and deputy scientific director of the U.S. Central Identification Laboratory, chronicles real‑world cases where bones uncovered killers, identified the nameless dead, and solved baffling deaths worldwide, from 9/11 to Cold War military fatalities.

A true crime investigation following the murder of nineteen‑year‑old Mark Fisher, a college football star from New York City.

An intensive look at the unsolved 1991 murder of four girls in Austin, Texas, tracing decades of investigation, DNA advances, and the challenges of justice.

After leaving the Maine Warden Service, ex‑warden Mike Bowditch becomes a fishing guide in the North Woods, but a controversial death forces him back into a hunt for a sniper, while old loves and new dangers test his loyalty and resolve.

Senior police officer Richard Jury investigates a long‑forgotten murder of Tess, a wife whose death was ruled an accidental fall, possibly linked to a fatal incident at a children’s party and a recent tower collapse near his bars.

Ann Rule investigates a shocking Christmas‑time murder on the Washington coast, exposing the greed, sex, and scandal that led to a brutal killing.

In February 2013, Suburban Washington, D.C. faced an alarming spike in homicides and police‑involved shootings. Del Quentin Wilber follows the Prince George’s County homicide unit through its frantic investigation of a series of brutal murders, including the infamous “Red Ball” case.