18 books like The private diary of Lyle Menendez

What to read after The private diary of Lyle Menendez — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

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, Murder, 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, Criminals, True Crime, Murder

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, Murder

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, Murder

Echoes in the darkness Joseph Wambaugh · 1987 · ★ 3.6 · 415p · ≈ 13h · Moderate On June 25, 1989, the naked corpse of schoolteacher Susan Reinert was found wedged into her hatchback car in a hotel parking lot near Philadelphia's "Main Line." Her two children had vanished. The Main Line Murder Case burst upon the headlines--and wasn't resolved for seven years. Now, master crime writer Joseph Wambaugh reconstructs the case from its roots, recounting the details, drama,… Shares: Case studies, Criminals, True Crime, Murder

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, Murder

Mob star Gene Mustain · 1988 · ★ 4.3 · 269p · ≈ 8h · Moderate John Gotti is terminally ill; when he passes on to that great Mafia in the sky, co-author Capeci will be in great demand for interviews and will the plug the book.As he battles terminal cancer in a federal prison in Illinois, John Gotti, still the acting head of the Gambino Mafia family, is constantly in the news. Once Mr. Gotti ascends to Mafia heaven, he will be worldwide news-and Alpha will… Shares: Case studies, Criminals, True Crime, Biography & Memoir

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, True Crime, Murder

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, Murder

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, Murder

The Best American Crime Writing 2005 Thomas H. Cook · 2005 · ★ 3.9 · 367p · ≈ 12h · Moderate The 2005 edition of The Best American Crime Writing offers the year's most shocking, compelling, and gripping writing about real-life crime, including Peter Landesman's article about female sex slaves (the most requested and widely read New York Times story of 2004), a piece from The New Yorker by Stephen J. Dubner (the coauthor of Freakanomics) about a high-society silver thief, and an… Shares: Case studies, Criminals, True Crime

The Best American Crime Reporting 2008 Thomas H. Cook · 2008 · ★ 3.5 · 329p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Thieves, liars, killers, and conspirators—it's a criminal world out there, and someone has got to write about it. An eclectic collection of the year's best reportage, The Best American Crime Reporting 2008 brings together the murderers and the masterminds, the mysteries and missteps that make for brilliant stories, told by the aces of the true-crime genre. This latest addition to the highly… Shares: Case studies, Criminals, True Crime

Deadly Angel Fred Rosen · 2009 · ★ 3.2 · 227p · ≈ 7h · Moderate An astonishing true story of bizarre love and lethal obsession in America's last frontier. Mechele Hughes came to Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 4200), looking for a new life and easy money. As an exotic dancer at the Great Alaskan Bush Company in nearby Anchorage, she was soon earning thousands a night—and getting expensive gifts from admiring male clients. Three in particular fell under her spell. Each… Shares: Case studies, Criminals, True Crime, Murder

Smaldone Dick Kreck · 2009 · ★ 2.0 I never thought it would end.—Clyde SmaldoneStarted by Italian brothers from North Denver, the high-profile Smaldone crime syndicate began in the bootlegging days of the 1920s and flourished well into the late twentieth century. Connected to such notorious crime figures as Al Capone and Carlos Marcello, as well as to presidents and other politicians, charismatic Clyde Smaldone was the crime… Shares: Case studies, Criminals, True Crime, Biography & Memoir

Hit #29 Joey. · 1974 · 248p · ≈ 8h · Moderate The New York Times–bestselling author of Killer: The Autobiography of a Mafia Hit Man reveals the true story of his most harrowing contract murder. "Joey the Hit Man" was a Bronx-born hired assassin who achieved widespread notoriety after writing a bestselling memoir and appearing on the David Susskind show. In this "down-to-earth realistic account," Joey tells the riveting story behind the… Shares: Case studies, Criminals, True Crime, Murder

Mafia son Sandra Harmon · 2009 · ★ 4.0 · 301p · ≈ 10h · Moderate In this dark, jagged true crime thriller, wily mob head Gregory Scarpa Sr. (alias the "Grim Reaper") secretly steals and kills under FBI protection for decades. When faced with arrest for his own crimes, he betrays his adoring son, Gregory Jr., whom he'd groomed to take his place. Taking the fall for his father out of familial respect and love, the young Scarpa endures decades of maximum security… Shares: Case studies, Criminals, True Crime, Biography & Memoir

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

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