Crime Books

By Anneli Rufus

As I write this, a strange case is unfolding in Oakland, California, not far from where I live. A little over a week ago, a man reported that while he dashed into and then out of a store on an errand, his 5-year-old foster son who had been waiting beside the family car had simply vanished. The boy, Hasanni Campbell, has cerebral palsy and so could not have successfully run away in that short span. The foster father subsequently failed a lie-detector test. Yesterday, as the boy remained missing, investigators arrived at the foster home bearing a search warrant. According to media reports, they were seeking a "sword-like weapon." As new updates on this story appear every few hours, I get the eerie feeling that we're watching a true-crime book in the making — which reminds me yet again that, unlike detective novels, each of these stories is all too tragically real.

June 01, 2008

by Paula Moore

Editor's Note: The University of New Mexico Press released Paula Moore's Cricket in the Web on March 31, 2008, in conjunction with the anniversary of the notorious and still-unsolved murder of a Las Cruces waitress, Cricket Coogler, in 1949. This excerpt is taken from the introduction to the book, which you can learn more about at www.unmpress.com.

In an old aerial photograph of the City of Las Cruces, New Mexico, the eye is drawn instantly to the largest and most noticeable structure in 1949—the Doña Ana County Courthouse, a gleaming white symbol of justice. Trials and grand jury hearings were held in its courtrooms, and it contained the county jail. The sheriff's small corner office managed to accommodate a desk for state police business.

(The Lyons Press)

by J. Patrick O'Connor

Vendetta

There's a great deal to admire about Maureen Faulkner, the widow of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner who was shot to death on December 9, 1981. Less than six months later she bravely sat through the entire trial that concluded with Mumia Abu-Jamal's conviction for first-degree murder and a sentence of death. Over the next 25 years, while Abu-Jamal was becoming the Alpha symbol of the anti-death penalty crusade, Maureen Faulkner became its Omega.

October 14, 2007

by Ron Chepesiuk and Anthony Gonzalez

Prologue

The law enforcement raid came on a crisp, cold night in late January, 1975, without a high profile. No involved planning. No SWAT team. No large show of force. No TV cameras. There was plenty of man power, though: a task force consisting of 10 agents from Group 22 of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and 10 New York Police Department detectives attached to the Organized Crime Control Bureau (OCCB).

Crime Magazine's List of Favorite Books on Crime, Criminals, and Criminal Justice

Updated 06/07/09

View Crime Books by Title and Category

~ Alphabetical by Author ~

by Patrick Quinn

Every dog has his day … and James Ellroy is certainly having his. But he doesn’t wear an Ivy League stamp of approval – or frankly even that of a small town high. This man went to the school of hard knocks. He learned through tragedy … which led to obsession, thieving and even drugs … which led to a collection of best-selling crime novels and a home in Mission Hills (a wealthy suburb of Kansas City).

Let us first put out the Dog. Dog – AKA the Mad Dog of Crime Fiction, AKA Barko – is the public persona of novelist James Ellroy, who quietly moved to Kansas City in the summer of 1995.

By J.J. Maloney

The publication of In Cold Blood, in 1966, launched Truman Capote firmly into the top rank of American writers. It was – and is – widely heralded as a masterpiece -- not only a masterpiece of writing, but as a brilliant insight into the criminal mind.

After publication of the book, Capote told George Plimpton, in an interview for the New York Times published in January, 1966, that he had been watching for an event that would allow him to write a "non-fiction" novel – in his definition, a factual book written using the literary skills of an accomplished novelist.

The murder of the Herbert Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, on Nov. 15, 1959, caught Capote’s eye. The case received a blurb in the New York Times because Herbert Clutter, during the Eisenhower administration, had been a member of the Farm Credit Board, and was founder of the Kansas Wheat Growers Association.

The murders were brutal, unsolved, and apparently without motivation, since nothing appeared to be missing from the house.