18 books like Hope

What to read after Hope — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

The Birthday Party Stanley N. Alpert · 2007 · ★ 3.7 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate On January 21, 1998, the night before his thirty-eighth birthday, federal prosecutor Stanley N. Alpert was kidnapped off the streets of Manhattan by a car full of gun-toting thugs looking to use his ATM card. He ended up blindfolded in a Brooklyn apartment as his captors changed their plans, alternately threatening him and his family, seeking legal advice, expounding on the "gangsta" life, and… Shares: Kidnapping Victims, Victims of crimes, Kidnapping, True Crime

Bringing Adam home Les Standiford · 2011 · ★ 4.4 · 305p · ≈ 10h · Moderate This is the story of an unfathomable crime that would forever embed itself into the collective American psyche and lead to sweeping legislative changes in the way that missing person cases are handled. In 1981, Adam Walsh was a healthy and bright 6 1/2 year old boy with his entire life ahead of him. On the afternoon of July 27th, Adam accompanied his mom, Revé, to the local Sears department store… Shares: Case studies, Kidnapping, True Crime

A rip in Heaven Jeanine Cummins · 2004 · ★ 4.2 · 302p · ≈ 10h · Moderate It was a headline story in the New York Times and USA Today. It was covered by Court TV and profiled on the Ricki Lake Show. Now, here is the intimate memoir of a shocking crime and its aftermath...one family's immediate and unforgettable story of what victims can suffer long after they should be safe. Shares: Case studies, True Crime, Biography & Memoir

Blind Faith Joe McGinniss · 1981 · ★ 3.7 · 448p · ≈ 14h · Moderate The Marshalls were the model family of Tom’s River, New Jersey, living the American dream of all that money could buy. Rob Marshall was the big breadwinner, king of the country club set. Maria Marshall was his stunningly beautiful wife and the perfect mom to their three great kids. Then one night Rob, his head bloodied, reported Maria had been brutally slain. Sympathy poured in—until… Shares: Case studies, True Crime

The Butterfly Garden Dot Hutchison · 2016 · ★ 4.1 · 295p · ≈ 9h · Moderate "Near an isolated mansion lies a beautiful garden. In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees...and a collection of precious butterflies -- young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens. When the garden is discovered, a survivor is… Shares: Kidnapping Victims, Kidnapping

Crimes of Passion Howard Engel · 2001 · 239p · ≈ 7h · Moderate The very term "crimes of passion" evokes deep-seated, atavistic responses in everyone's heart. These are the crimes that are born in the emotional core of women and men who are pushed to do the unthinkable. There are never - well, hardly ever - any of the crass considerations of financial gain, no taint of reward; only release. These crimes are direct responses to betrayal, to broken hearts and… Shares: Case studies, True Crime

The private diary of Lyle Menendez Lyle Menendez · 1993 · ★ 4.6 · 263p · ≈ 8h · Moderate The personal story of Lyle Menendez is based on a four-and-a-half-year intimate correspondence with the author and covers the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez by Lyle and his brother Erik and the court trials that ended in hung juries. Shares: Case studies, True Crime, Biography & Memoir

Naming Jack the Ripper Russell Edwards · 2014 · ★ 3.6 · 384p · ≈ 12h · Moderate The definitive identity of the world’s most notorious serial killer is finally revealed.In this latest edition of Naming Jack the Ripper, three brand-new chapters detail Ripperologist Russell Edwards’ ongoing work since 2014 and how he has solved – for the first time ever – many of the long-unanswered mysteries regarding the how and why of the killings, the Goulston Street Graffito . . . and why… Shares: Victims of crimes, True Crime

The Authentic Life of Billy, The Kid Pat Garrett · 2008 · 128p · ≈ 4h · Moderate Hankering for a mostly true tale about the hard-living desperadoes who inhabited America's desert Southwest in the mid-1800s? This biography of the ill-fated gunslinger Billy, the Kid was written by Pat Garrett, the sheriff who shot Billy down. Although some historians now question the veracity of some of the self-aggrandizing bluster Garrett and his ghostwriter included in the book, The… Shares: True Crime, Biography & Memoir

Last Yakuza Jake Adelstein · 2017 · ★ 4.4 · 408p · ≈ 13h · Moderate The Last Yakuza tells the history of the yakuza like it’s never been told before.Makoto Saigo is half-American and half-Japanese in small-town Japan with a set of talents limited to playing guitar and picking fights. With rock stardom off the table, he turns toward the only place where you can start from the bottom and move up through sheer merit, loyalty, and brute force — the yakuza.Saigo,… Shares: True Crime, Biography & Memoir

No way of knowing Pamela Donovan · 2003 · 246p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Examining "old media" treatment of crime legends: news reports, fictional film and television depictions, and "new media" interactive discussions: versions and discussions circulating in Internet newsgroups and via electronic mail lists, this text examines a social context vastly changed from the height of rumour research in the mid-20th century. Shares: Case studies, True Crime

Severed John Gilmore · 1994 · 237p · ≈ 7h · Moderate The Black Dahlia murder hit post-War Los Angeles like a bombshell . . . an impenetrable mystery—the haunting crown jewel of LAPD’s “unsolved” murders. Even before her savage death, beautiful 22-year-old Elizabeth Short, an aspiring starlet and nightclub habitué, was known as the Black Dahlia—now a magnetic icon in American pop culture, an almost mythical symbol of noir Hollywood. In this expanded… Shares: Case studies, True Crime

The Company She Keeps Georgia Durante · 1998 · ★ 4.0 · 456p · ≈ 15h · Moderate A female Goodfellas— the true story of A supermodel turned getaway driver for the mob.All-American beauty Georgia Durante was one of the most photographed models in the country when she married mobster Joe Lamendola. It plunged her into a world she never dreamed of—and one she feared she’d never survive—as a getaway driver for the Mafia and an eyewitness to unspeakable violence, brutality, and… Shares: Case studies, True Crime, Women, Biography & Memoir

Nutcracker Shana Alexander · 1985 · ★ 4.1 · 453p · ≈ 15h · Moderate Nutcracker begins at the ballet but tells the story of a seemingly wholesome all-American family, whose tranquil life's surface erupted in shocking acts of avarice, theft and murder. The victim was Franklin Bradshaw, Mormon self-made millionaire, workaholic. The killer was Bradshaw's grandson, prep school student. The architect of the crime was said to be Frances Schreuder, Bradshaw's daughter,… Shares: Case studies, True Crime, Biography & Memoir

The Institute Stephen King · 2019 · ★ 4.2 · 624p · ≈ 20h · Moderate In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special… Shares: Kidnapping Victims, Kidnapping

A Descent Into Hell Kathryn Casey · 2008 · ★ 4.0 · 383p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Bright, attractive, and both from good families, University of Texas college student Colton Pitonyak and vibrant redhead Jennifer Cave had the world at their beckoning. Cave, an ex-cheerleader, had just landed an exciting new job, while a big-money scholarship to UT's prestigious business school lured Pitonyak to Austin. Yet the former altar boy had a dark, unpredictable streak, one that ensnared… Shares: Case studies, True Crime

Never Enough Joe McGinniss · 2007 · ★ 4.0 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate At thirty-nine, Nancy Kissel had it all: glamour, gusto, garishly flaunted wealth, and the royal lifestyle of the expatriate wife. Not to mention three young children and what a friend described as "the best marriage in the universe." That marriage -- to Merrill Lynch and former Goldman Sachs investment banker Robert Kissel -- ended abruptly one November night in 2003 in the bedroom of their… Shares: Case studies, True Crime

Serial Killers Peter Vronsky · 2004 · ★ 4.0 · 422p · ≈ 14h · Moderate A comprehensive examination into the frightening true crime history of serial homicide—including information on America’s most prolific serial killers such as:Jeffrey Dahmer • Ted Bundy • “Co-ed Killer” Ed Kemper • The BTK Killer • “Highway Stalker” Henry Lee Lucas • Monte Ralph Rissell • “Shoe Fetish Slayer” Jerry Brudos • “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez • “Unabomber”… Shares: Case studies, True Crime, Psychology

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