First True Crime

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Over 1 million copies sold! This unputdownable psychological thriller by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell follows a woman who finds herself the subject of her own popular true crime podcast. Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub...

Terrifying things are happening to Kay Weden, a 40-something single mom and high school teacher in Salisbury, North Carolina. Despite having no known enemies, Kay's home, car, and peace of mind are under attack throughout 1993. Most chilling of all are the senseless attacks on her only son and the shot fired in the night through a wall of her house, which narrowly misses his head as he sleeps.

🕯 He couldn’t stop history’s first serial killer… but he might finally save himself. 🕯 On the brink of relapse, a broken man wanders into a decaying amusement park exhibit on Chicago’s lakefront. Moments after taking a long-feared hit of heroin, he finds himself not dead — but transported to the glittering horror of the 1893 World’s Fair. There, amid marvels of invention and carnival excess, he meets a charming doctor named H.H. Holmes. What begins as a surreal hallucination turns into a waking nightmare as the man realizes he’s inside the past… and inside the orbit of...

“No badge, no problem. Michael Lister’s first swing at the modern private eye novel is a home run. The Night Of is an instant classic with rich characters and storytelling that grips your heart from first page to last.” - #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly Lucas Burke and Alix "Blade" Baker: A Pair of Determined Detectives In the sun-soaked expanse of Panama City Beach, Florida, Lucas Burke and Alix “Blade” Baker are the area's most tenacious private investigators. Specializing in missing persons cases, their work is more than just a job—it’s a personal ...

Mix in murderous maids, bumbling burglars, and unflinching local heroes and you have True Crime Philadelphia.

We tend to think of serial killers as a modern phenomenon. They are not. The first known serial killers in the United States were the Harpe brothers. Active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Harpe brothers spread a path of terror across more than half a dozen American states. Along their way, they murdered between 39 and 50 men, women, and children. Their crimes, which often included grotesque mutilations, were so vicious that they made other murderers cringe with disgust. This is a true story, and it is as gruesome as any horror tale ever told. This fully documented story ...

John Edward Robinson, often labeled the “Internet’s First Serial Killer,” was an American murderer whose crimes in the late 20th century showcased a chilling new era of predation through digital means. Operating primarily in Missouri, Robinson exploited the burgeoning accessibility of the internet to lure victims—mostly young women—under the guise of professional opportunity, romance, or mentorship. His crimes represented one of the first high-profile cases in which the internet became an active tool for a serial killer, highlighting the emerging dangers of online anonymity. ...

From the bestselling author of If Something Happens to Me , which AudioFile called "thoroughly engaging from beginning to end," comes one of the year’s most anticipated thrillers. This program features an author's note and acknowledgments read by the author. In the glow of their children’s...

One blizzard that swallows the world. Four Phantoms who play rough and protect harder. And a heat I can’t outrun anymore… I walk into a team dynasty with a fake name and a camera, ready to crack a story wide open while tagging along. Then the weather gets nasty, plans change, and we’re snowed in at a billionaire’s mountain lodge—me, a secret I was supposed to keep, and four men built out of trouble. One other problem—my suppressant refill didn’t make it on time. The captain shuts the doors and says the house is ours. The goalie’s calm turns the storm into background noise. ...

Writer Karen Walker knows more than most about murderers. Her first love went on to become The Bagman, a notorious serial killer now locked away for life in a maximum-security prison. Karen has spent her life running from the weight of having loved him, defended him and, ultimately, leading the police to his door. But now, ten years later, just as she’s about to publish her account of his crimes, a young woman is abducted in horribly familiar circumstances.

Step into a critical fight for survival that most will never see, and track rhino poachers in India in an effort to save this majestic species from extinction Bolin Deori is a Police Office. His assignment is to hunt the hunters seeking to kill rhinos in Assam, India and thwart the illegal trade of rhino horn in Asia. Who hunts? Who trades in rhino horns? Deori seeks to find the answers in a race against time for the critically endangered greater one-horned rhino found only in India and Nepal. Documenting his personal experiences over the years and miles, Hunting the Hunter is a soul-...

The Black Widow is a non-fiction true crime novel about the notorious drug smuggler Griselda Blanco. Discover Griselda's story from her childhood on the streets, to becoming an international criminal mastermind. Learn how she partnered with infamous criminals like Pablo Escobar to become one of the most powerful businesswomen in organized crime history - earning billions of dollars in profits along the way. This riveting tale of true crime takes you through all the twists and turns as you uncover secrets that span countries and continents while witnessing first-hand what it takes to become ...

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER From the bestselling author of The Taking of Jemima Boone, the unbelievable true story of a real-life Swiss Family Robinson (and their dog) who faced sharks, shipwreck, and betrayal. On December 10, 1887, a shark fishing boat disappeared. On board the doomed vessel were...

Charged with the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in 1984, Kirk Bloodsworth was tried, convicted, and sentenced to die in Maryland's gas chamber. Maintaining his innocence, he read everything on criminal law available in the prison library and persuaded a new lawyer to petition for the then-innovative DNA testing. After nine years in one of the harshest prisons in America, Kirk Bloodsworth became the first death row inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.

"Finlay’s debut is a twisty puzzle that will please fans of thrillers, suspense, and true crime. Cady McClain and Jon Lindstrom capably voice a large cast of characters and keep ratcheting up the tension." -- Library Journal One of the Most Anticipated Books of the year: Newsweek CNN...

Ex-Minneapolis Police Detective Rembrandt Stone walked away from a career he loved - just the price of being sure he can come home to the wife and daughter he cherishes. But he can’t shake the deep regret over a case left behind. When his mentor dies and leaves Rembrandt with a box of cold cases and a mysterious watch, he finds himself thrust into a world he recognizes - the same world he’s woken from in a cold sweat a hundred times. But is it a dream, or some kind of twisted reality? If he solves the case that plagues him, will it destroy the life he loves?

On September 6, 1949, 28-year-old Howard Barton Unruh shot 13 people, in less than 12 minutes, on his block in East Camden, New Jersey. The shocking, true story of the first recorded mass-shooting in America has never been told, until now. Through the eyes of the young boy who visited Howard regularly to listen to his war stories, and the mother trying to piece together the disturbing inner-workings of her son’s mind, Ellen Green uncovers the chilling true story of Howard Unruh - the quiet oddball who meticulously plotted his revenge on the neighbors who shunned him.

In 1979, Brenda Spencer, a seemingly average teenage girl living in a nice suburban neighborhood, made and executed plans that would place her in infamy and set a violent and terrifying national precedent. She recieved a rifle for Christmas and a month later set her sights and opens fire on the elementary school across the street. The event is forever glorified by the song "I Don't Like Mondays" by The Boomtown Rats and marks the bloody beginning of the American phenomenon of school shootings.

Sandy Johnson was in shock. Her husband, Duane, and young daughter, Sherrie, were violently ill when word arrived that her infant nephew just died of mysterious causes. Days earlier, the entire family was happy, healthy, and living the American dream. Now they were at the center of a terrifying medical crisis. Duane soon died in a condition unlike anything the doctors had ever seen. As they raced to discover what disease or toxin could have done so much damage so quickly, Lt. Foster Burchard of the Omaha police began to suspect foul play.

Murder, terrorism, and mass killings were prominent in the news for 2018, and in this true crime anthology, you will find the cases that made international headlines from January to the end of December.