18 Comments
Jun 11, 2021Liked by Best Evidence

There is a James Patterson true crime series - of course there is - and I wish he would just generally quit it all for a while.

Expand full comment
Jun 11, 2021Liked by Best Evidence

Toobin is writing a new book on the Oklahoma city bombing. Why?

Expand full comment
Jun 11, 2021Liked by Best Evidence

Gosh. This is hard. My true crime reading is rarely erudite. I am pretty indiscriminate about the author, as long as the crime itself interests me. I will say that M. William Phelps has disappointed me more often than he's pleased me. It seems like a page count issue; instead of writing a shorter book and keeping it interesting, there are often too many dullllll pages devoted to L.E. and the D.A.'s office. So if there is an author who spends more time with family and friends of the victims and truly investigates the background of the accused and guilty, I would much rather hear what those people have to say than, say, the home lives of cops.

Expand full comment
Jun 11, 2021Liked by Best Evidence

Good topic! This is kind of a deep cut (and I feel kinda bad harping on the guy because he's like 80 and probably isn't writing that much anymore), but Jerry Bledsoe. Given that he wrote for my hometown paper in NC and his books were among the first true crime titles I ever read, I've had a long relationship with him! But in the last couple of decades he's mostly concerned himself with antagonizing said hometown paper and making ad hominem attacks and I just can't.

Expand full comment
Jun 11, 2021Liked by Best Evidence

I accidentally borrowed Caitlin Rother’s Lost Girls instead of Kolker’s and my God, is it terrible. I actually didn’t mind Death on Ocean Boulevard, but I certainly wouldn’t mind if that was done by Bob Kolker either.

Expand full comment
Jun 11, 2021Liked by Best Evidence

This may be True Crime heresy, but aside from Small Sacrifices and her personal connection in Stranger Beside Me, Ann Rule was…not great.

Expand full comment