8 True Crime Books Like in Cold Blood - Books Like This One

26.11.2020 г.
8 True Crime Books Like In Cold Blood - Books Like This One
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8 True Crime Books Like In Cold

Blood
Published on November 7, 2020 by Claire Hool
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Books like In Cold Blood lure me in, like many other readers, with the
grotesque fascination of getting inside the minds of murderers and
criminals and finding out the unbelievably shocking details of high
profile cases. It is a grotesque fascination that doesn’t seem to waiver
despite how unsettled, scared or shocked I get reading true crime
novels.
Truman Capote’s renowned novel surrounding the infamous Clutter

family murder is one of my personal favourites I think because of
Capote’s ability to interweave his incredible journalistic capabilities into
a deeply affecting narrative.
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26.11.2020 г. 8 True Crime Books Like In Cold Blood - Books Like This One
The novel is comprised of a three-way narrative which pieces together

events leading up to the seemingly motiveless quadruple murder, the
lives of the victims and murderers and how this horrific cold-blooded
attack shook the small town of Holcomb in Kansas.
A lot of the books on this list owe a debt to Capote as In Cold Blood is
often said to be the original true crime novel, meaning that luckily for us
true crime fans there are plenty of books like it to fuel our morbid
fascination.
Table of Contents 
8 Books like In Cold Blood

Helter Skelter, by Vincent Bugliosi
Not many murderers are as notorious as Charles Manson, who
instigated a series of brutal murders including that of the actress
Sharon Tate. Helter Skelter is a book by Vincent Bugliosi, the

prosecutor in the 1970 trial which brought Manson and his cult of
accomplices to justice, and chronicles the events leading up to the
murders and the process and outcome of the trial.
Manson — and the murders he goaded to ignite a race war amongst

Americans in response to the Civil Rights Movement — has been the
inspiration and influence behind many songs, other novels such as The
Girls by Emma Cline and films like Quentin Tarantino’s recent Once
Upon a Time in Hollywood (which, let’s face it, was a much nicer
outcome of events).
Thanks to the notoriety of the case and Bugliosi’s award-winning

narrative, Helter Skelter is the perfect next book for readers of true
crime novels like In Cold Blood.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, by Michelle McNamara

As with a lot of novelists of books like In Cold Blood, they can become
embroiled in the cases and the people that they write about sometimes
to detrimental effect, Capote for example spent 6 years writing In Cold
Blood and was unable to finish another novel since its publication
having become quite taken with Perry Smith and embedded in his trial.
In the case of our next book, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle
McNamara became obsessed with trying to find the violent psychopath
known as the Golden State Killer who terrorised California for over a
decade. McNamara, a true-crime journalist and creator of the popular
website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to track down the
criminal mastermind who’d eluded multiple police forces and detectives
while committing fifty sexual assaults and ten sadistic murders.
Unfortunately, McNamara died before finishing her book and seeing the
Golden State Killer brought to justice, her chilling account I‘ll Be Gone
in the Dark is McNamara’s legacy and is certainly worth a read.
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The Stranger Beside Me, by Ann Rule

Another notorious killer is next on this list of true crime novels like In
Cold Blood, it’s Ann Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me, which documents
a first-hand experience working alongside the infamous Ted Bundy.
Defying common belief that we would surely know that our neighbour,
colleague or partner was a monstrous lady killer, Rule describes her
gradual realisation that her sensitive, charming, colleague at the crisis
hotline was in fact just that, confessing to at least thirty-six counts of
murder.
Rule expertly draws from her own personal experience working

alongside Bundy weaving this into the narrative along with her skill as a
crime reporter and her continued correspondence with Bundy until his
eventual execution.
The Stranger Beside Me is a remarkable feat, originally published in

1980, Rule is another writer said to have changed the course of the true
crime narrative as her chronicle is utterly unique with so many intimate
details while being equally terrifying for the same reason – a shocking
read for any true crime readers out there.
The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson

Erik Larson offers readers some light relief in his non-fiction novel The
Devil in the White City by alternating between his portrayal of the
sinister H.H Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a doctor, with a
profile on Daniel H. Burman, the architect behind the construction of the
Chicago World’s Fair.
Burman’s project to construct the fair was turbulent all the way to its
fruition, he had to overcome the death of his partner, huge financial
hurdles and an extremely tight deadline among many other unforeseen
problems but his dedication to complete his vision combined with the
fair’s success are inspirational.
However, this story of success is juxtaposed with the altogether

horrifying activities of Dr H.H Holmes who used the fair to lure his
victims across the street to his World’s Fair Hotel which came equipped
with its very own crematorium and gas chamber – perfect for disposing
of evidence! Shockingly unbelievable at times, fans of books similar to
In Cold Blood will enjoy reading The Devil in the White City too.
For The Thrill Of It, by Simon Baatz

Fans of In Cold Blood will be familiar with the next two murderers on
this list as they were on death row at the same time as Perry and Dick
before they were all consequently put to their deaths for the heinous
crimes they committed. Simon Baatz documents the murderous
escapades of the equally monstrous Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb
in his novel For The Thrill of It.
Both Leopold and Loeb were sons of rich Jewish families and, being
tremendously privileged, thought they were above the law. What started
out as petty criminal acts such as vandalism and thievery soon turned
nasty when they decided to up the ante on their crimes and murdered a
14-year-old boy called Bobby Franks in a shockingly dark seemingly
motiveless act.
Baatz’s chronicle of the murderous pair explores the question why they
would do something like this, two young men who potentially have the
world at the feet concluding, as the title implies, simply For The Thrill
of It.
Uncovering another terrifying facet to the human psyche, readers of

books similar to In Cold Blood are sure to be positively horrified by For
The Thrill of It.
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Woman Killed

by Jack the Ripper, by Hallie Rubenhold
Everyone knows about Jack the Ripper, the villainous lady killer of the
Victorian era, being taught widely in history classes in England, having
a section dedicated to him in the London Dungeons as well as walking
tours throughout the city. As historian Hallie Rubenhold realised, little is
known about his five victims, the lives they led before, the kind of
women they were all of this is lost in the cloud of Jack the Rippers
notoriety.
In Rubenhold’s novel The Five: The Untold Lives of the Woman

Killed by Jack the Ripper, she sets the record straight, these women
were not prostitutes as the media would have us believe they ran coffee
houses, they wrote ballads, they worked in printing presses. They were
Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane and they were so
much more than their end.
A moving portrait which absolutely blew me away, The Five is a

devastating but necessary account which anyone looking for more true
crime novels like In Cold Blood will enjoy.
Killing for Company: The Case of Dennis Nilsen,

by Brian Masters
A particularly twisted one next which unnerves even the most hardened
true crime reader among us as the author Brian Masters became
particularly close with the subject of his book Killing for Company:
The Case of Dennis Nilsen.
The notorious Dennis Nilsen has been catapulted into the forefront of
everyone’s minds following a recent ITV series about this book by
Masters and Nilsen’s string of particularly gruesome murders, which
stars David Tennant as Nilsen.
Nilsen was arrested on February 9th 1983 following the cause of a

blocked drain was found to be human remains, Nilsen then confessed
to a total of fifteen gruesome murders which he conducted over the
course of four years. His victims were all young homosexual men who,
sadly, were never reported missing.

Though creepy, with Masters writing the book with complete
cooperation from Nilsen even receiving his notes/comments on certain
aspects of his own story, Killing for Company does provide readers
with unfettered access into the study of a mass murderer’s mind which
any fan of books like In Cold Blood will find riveting.
The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer

Normal Mailer won a Pulitzer Prize for The Executioner’s Song, his
chronicle of Gary Gilmore and his fight to receive execution for
committing the senseless murders of two people following a lifetime of
petty crime and imprisonment.
Composed almost entirely of interviews with the families and friends of

Gilmore and his victims’ too, Mailer is able to compose a profile of the
troubled youth-turned-murderer focusing on events leading up to the
murders, Gilmore’s eventual capture, trial and execution by firing
squad.
His refusal of the appeals process made Gilmore a celebrity, with his
trial and this novel forming the basis of a 1982 movie starring Tommy
Lee Jones as Gilmore. What is perhaps most haunting was Gilmore’s
insistence on the death penalty rather than life imprisonment which I
think is also what caught Mailer’s attention too, adding depth to this
apparent cold-hearted yet tortured soul. The Executioner’s Song is a
fitting novel to end this list of true crime books like In Cold Blood.
Though I enjoy books like In Cold Blood, true crime is a genre I

can’t read consistently, I always say after I finish a novel “this will
be my last” but after some time passes the sickly fascination
returns (probably spurred on by a recent Netflix documentary) and
off I pop down the true crime aisle again.
It is the authors’ talent that I find most compelling, their ability to

weave such absorbing narratives around such heinous crimes is
truly remarkable and worthy of the awards the authors featured
here have won.
Are you searching for more books like In Cold Blood? Have any
recommendations that didn’t make the list? Let us know in the
comments!
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About Claire Hool

Claire is a writer for Books Like This One, a website helping you find more books to
read! She loves reading classics, general fiction and non-fiction books.
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26.11.2020 г.

8 True Crime Books Like In Cold

Truman Capote’s renowned novel surrounding the infamous Clutter

The novel is comprised of a three-way narrative which pieces together

8 Books like In Cold Blood

instigated a series of brutal murders including that of the actress

Sharon Tate. Helter Skelter is a book by Vincent Bugliosi, the

Manson — and the murders he goaded to ignite a race war amongst

Thanks to the notoriety of the case and Bugliosi’s award-winning

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, by Michelle McNamara

Want a change from paper books? - Get a 30-Day Free Trial of

The Stranger Beside Me, by Ann Rule

Rule expertly draws from her own personal experience working

The Stranger Beside Me is a remarkable feat, originally published in

The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson

However, this story of success is juxtaposed with the altogether

For The Thrill Of It, by Simon Baatz

in his novel For The Thrill of It.

Uncovering another terrifying facet to the human psyche, readers of

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Woman Killed

In Rubenhold’s novel The Five: The Untold Lives of the Woman

A moving portrait which absolutely blew me away, The Five is a

Killing for Company: The Case of Dennis Nilsen,

Nilsen was arrested on February 9th 1983 following the cause of a

sadly, were never reported missing.

The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer

Composed almost entirely of interviews with the families and friends of

Though I enjoy books like In Cold Blood, true crime is a genre I

It is the authors’ talent that I find most compelling, their ability to

Like It? Pin It!

About Claire Hool

HOME ABOUT PRIVACY POLICY CONTACT

© 2020 Books Like This One • All rights reserved. •

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