Riot Recommendation

31 of Your Favorite True Crime Books About Women

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

This giveaway is sponsored by Mulholland Books.

In 1901, Evelyn Nesbit, a New York society darling, dined with Stanford White in his decadent 24th Street apartment. Evelyn was given champagne, lost consciousness, and woke, nearly naked, in bed next to White. An acclaimed architect and notorious womanizer, White was 47. Evelyn Nesbit was just 16.

Four years later, Evelyn married Harry Thaw, a playboy millionaire rumored to be mentally disturbed. One night in 1906, a vengeful Thaw shot and killed White before hundreds of theatre-goers at Madison Square Garden—a venue designed by Stanford White himself. The murder and ensuing trial were the scandal of the century, perhaps the nation’s first tabloid murder.


The first true crime story I remember being really into was that of Lizzie Borden. I saw a TV movie where she was played by Samantha from “Bewitched” and I just had to find a book to tell me more. You told us your picks for compelling true crime books with women at the center, and we’re sharing them below!


Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn

Lethal Marriage: The Unspeakable Crimes of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka by Nick Pron

From Cradle to Grave: The Short Lives and Strange Deaths of Marybeth Tinning’s Nine Children by Joyce Egginton

Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty that Sparked a National Debate by Helen Prejean

American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst by Jeff Toobin

The Crime of the Century: Richard Speck and the Murders that Shocked a Nation by Dennis L. Breo and William J. Martin

The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

Secrets of the Congdon Mansion: The Unofficial Guide to Glensheen and the Congdon Murders by Joe Kimball

The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd by Jana Bommersbach

The Search for the Green River Killer by Carlton Smith and Tomas Guillen

The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions by Helen Prejean

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry

Blood and Money by Thomas Thompson

Ripper Confidential: New Research on the Whitechapel Murders by Tom Wescott

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

Missoula by Jon Krakauer

The Girl in the Leaves by Robert Scott and Sarah Maynard

Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr

The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers who Inspired Chicago by Douglas Perry

Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century by Peter Graham

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott

Alice and Freda Forever by Alexis Coe

Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker

Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America by Kevin Cook

The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century by Sarah Miller

Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder by Ann Rule

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Mother’s Day by Dennis McDougal

Strange Piece of Paradise by Terri Jentz

Queen of the South by Arturo Perez-Reverte