At the Daily Beast, Sarah Weinman lists her favorite true crime books. Some are classics (In Cold Blood
, Helter Skelter
) and others are more obscure, like an out-of-print book about forensic techniques that “may now seem quaint in the age of DNA and CSI-style glamorization,” and an 800-page book about “one of the most troubling criminal chapters in [Canada’s] history.”
In a recent feature here, Matt Weiland recommended Calvin Trillin’s Killings, an out-of-print collection of his true-crime pieces for The New Yorker. Weiland said the book is “true to the raw, messy drama of the living as well as the dead.” Trillin is still at it, with a very good piece in this week’s New Yorker called “Incident in Dodge City.” It’s available to subscribers online. If you don’t subscribe, of course, you should.