Books like Maneater by Harold Schechter

A chilling, factual account of the 1959 shotgun murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, where four members were killed with no clear motive or clues.

In 1893 Chicago, Erik Larson weaves the story of visionary architect Daniel Burnham and the cunning serial killer H.H. Holmes, whose crimes unfolded against the backdrop of the World’s Columbian Exposition.

A true‑crime chronicle that follows editor Michelle McNamara’s obsessive investigation of the Golden State Killer, a serial rapist and murderer who terrorized California for decades.

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

Ann Rule’s true‑crime biography exposes the chilling rise of serial killer Ted Bundy and the devastating realization she faced when she discovered the killer was her friend.

Mara Leveritt’s investigative account unravels the West Memphis Three case, exposing investigative failures, judicial error, and the wrongful imprisonment of three teenagers in Arkansas’s brutal triple‑murder trial.

A forensic biography of Dr. H. H. Holmes, the infamous Chicago serial killer whose deadly Castle hid twenty-seven murders.

For the Thrill of It details the 1924 Chicago murder of a child by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, their arrest, the courtroom battle led by Clarence Darrow, and the social context of the Jazz Age.

Clarence King, famed 19th‑century explorer, covertly led a double life as a Black Pullman porter named James Todd, revealing a hidden family of biracial children and a complex struggle with identity, race, and love.

X‑Rated traces the rise and fall of Jim and Artie Mitchell, San Francisco porn pioneers whose business success turned into a tragic fratricide, exposing the brutal reality of the adult‑film industry.

An exhaustive true‑crime account of Ed Gein, the Wisconsin farmhand whose murders and grave‑robbing shocked America in 1957, revealing the depths of deviant behavior and the social conditions that framed his crimes.

A true‑crime biography of Jane Toppan, the 19th‑century New England nurse who became the most prolific female serial killer in America.

Irish nationalists in Chicago join a secret group dedicated to driving the English out of Ireland. A schism develops over whether or not dynamite is a justifiable persuasion technique, and over the character of the leader of the pro-dynamite faction. After causing difficulties for the pro-dynamite faction, a prominent member of the anti-dynamite faction is murdered. The wheels of justice commence their slow grind.

The Best Crime Stories Ever Told is a collection of short stories featuring classic detective novels and mysteries.

From veteran true crime master Harold Schechter comes a unique look into the history of crime told through the dark objects left behind. The false teeth of a female serial killer from 1908, the cut-and-paste confession of the Black Dahlia killer, the newly cracked cipher of the Zodiac killer, the shotgun used in the Clutter family murders, which were made famous by Truman Capote's true crime classic In Cold Blood—these are more than simple artifacts that once belonged to notorious murderers. They are objets of fascination to the legion of true crime obsessives around the world. And not merely for fleeting dark thrills, but because they represent a way to better understand those who we typically label monsters in lieu of learning how they actually became one. In Murderabilia, veteran true crime writer Harold Schechter presents 100 murder-related artifacts spanning two centuries (1808–2014), with accompanying stories of various lengths. A visual and literary journey, it presents a history unlike any previously told in the true crime genre, one that speaks to the dark fascination of true crime fans while also presenting a larger historical timeline of how and why we continue to be captivated by the most sensational crimes and killers among us.