Riot Recommendation

Riot Recommendation: Share the Best Everyday Criminal Stories

Not every criminal is a cartoon Bond villain. Come share your stories of the more pedestrian law-breakers!

María Cristina García Lynch

Staff Writer

María Cristina García lives in New York with her favorite spouse, her favorite toddler, her favorite cat, and her second-favorite cat. When not ranking members of her household, she's catching up on Supergirl, strumming her mandolin, or trying to beat the clock on her library loans. Twitter: @MeowyCristina Blog: MeowyCristina.com

View All posts by María Cristina García Lynch

This Riot Recommendation asking for the best everyday criminal stories is sponsored by Alfred A. Knopf, publisher of Cherry by Nico Walker.

Hammered out on a typewriter, Cherry is a breakneck-paced debut novel about love, war, bank robberies, and heroin.

Cleveland, 2003. A young man falls hard in love and gets married—just before flunking out of school and joining the Army. But he’s unprepared for the grisly reality that awaits him as an Army medic. When he returns from Iraq, his PTSD is profound, and the drugs on the street have changed. Hooked on heroin, desperate for a normal life, and running low on cash, he turns to the one thing he thinks he could be really good at—robbing banks.

Things that are not universally true about criminals:

-are masterminds

-have henchpeople

-stroke cats while plotting

Come on over to the comments and give us your recommendations for the best everyday criminal stories. We’ll be back next week with a roundup of your suggestions!