Books like Night Beat by Mikal Gilmore

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.

A tense psychological thriller that pits FBI agent Clarice Starling against the notorious cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter as they collaborate to catch a new predator.

After a May 1981 shooting in Savannah, John Berendt chronicles the city’s eccentric society, a murder trial, and the undercurrents of Southern culture in a nonfiction narrative that reads like a taut novel.

A biographical portrait of Gary Gilmore, the 1976 Utah murderer who demanded his death sentence be carried out, fighting a system eager to keep him alive long after conviction.

An investigative narrative that traces the lives of five Craigslist‑working prostitutes and the circumstances that led to their tragic deaths on a Long Island beach in 2010.

A precise, ten‑year investigation into the 1999 Columbine High School massacre that uncovers the truth behind the myth and examines the killers, victims, and community response.

An unflinching look at the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till, the case that ignited the modern civil‑rights movement, drawing on newly recovered court transcripts, FBI reports, and the only interview given by Carolyn Bryant.

The Chitlin' Circuit traces the rise of rock 'n' roll in black America, showing how venues and performers like James Brown, B. B. King, and Little Richard honed their craft in the smoky back rooms that birthed a music revolution.

In 1976 David Bowie moved to Berlin, where he overcame personal turmoil to create the seminal albums Low, Heroes and Lodger with collaborators Brian Eno, Tony Visconti and Robert Fripp, shaping rock's electronic era.

An analytical overview of the post‑punk movement from 1978 to 1984, detailing its musical innovations and cultural impact.

Heroes and Villains is the first collection of essays by David Hajdu, award-winning author of The Ten-Cent Plague, Positively 4th Street, and Lush Life. Eclectic and controversial, Hajdu's essays take on topics as varied as pop music, jazz, the avant-garde, comic books, and our downloading culture. The heart of Heroes and Villains is an extraordinary new piece of cultural rediscovery, original to this book. It tells the untold story of one of the most important—and, ultimately, one of the most tragic—figures in American popular music, Billy Eckstine. Through exhaustive new research, Hajdu shows how this great, forgotten singer, once more popular than Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, transformed American music by combining sex appeal, sophistication, and black machismo—in the era of segregation. The cost, for Eckstine, was his career—and nearly his life. Other essays in this expansive book deal with topical and surprising subjects like Beyonce, Bobby Darin, Kanye West, Marjane Satrapi, Woody Guthrie, Will Eisner, the White Stripes, Elmer Fudd, Elvis Costello, Harry Partch, Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell, and more.

A curated anthology of Robert Palmer’s acclaimed music essays, weaving critical insight on blues and popular music history, biographies of musicians, and sound‑recording reviews.