18 books like The Queen

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

The Chronology of Water Lidia Yuknavitch · 2011 · ★ 4.2 · 296p · ≈ 9h · Moderate This is not your mother's memoir. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch expertly moves the reader through issues of gender, sexuality, violence, and the family from the point of view of a lifelong swimmer turned artist. In writing that explores the nature of memoir itself, her story traces the effect of extreme grief on a young woman's developing sexuality that some define as untraditional… Shares: Women, Biography & Memoir

The Hit Charade Tyler Gray · 2008 · ★ 3.4 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Without Lou Pearlman, there would have been no Backstreet Boys, no NSYNC, and possibly no Justin Timberlake. In the late 1990s, Pearlman's boy bands ushered out guitar-and-angst-driven grunge music, and NSYNC and Backstreet Boys began to dominate the television and radio airwaves. At the core of this squeaky-clean pop revolution was a sinister international fraud conceived by Pearlman, a husky… Shares: Swindlers and swindling, True Crime, Biography & Memoir

Woman at the Devil's Door Sarah Beth Hopton · 2018 · 283p · ≈ 9h · Moderate On October 24, 1890, a woman was discovered on a pile of rubbish in Hampstead, North London. Her arms were lacerated and her face bloodied; her head was severed from her body save a few sinews. Later that day, a blood-soaked stroller was found leaning against a residential gate, and the following morning the dead body of a baby was found hidden underneath a nettle bush. So began the chilling… Shares: Female offenders, 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

The con game and "Yellow Kid" Weil J. R. Weil · 1948 · 297p · ≈ 9h · Challenging Bilked bankers, grifted gamblers, and swindled spinsters: welcome to the world of confidence men.You'll marvel at the elaborate schemes developed by The Yellow Kid and cry for the marks who lost it all to his ingenuity—$8,000,000 by some estimations. Fixed horse races, bad real-estate deals, even a money-making machine—all were tools of the trade for the Kid and his associates: the Swede,… Shares: Swindlers and swindling, 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 Bloody Countess Valentine Penrose · 1970 · 192p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Descended from one of the most ancient aristocratic families of Europe, Erzsebet Bathory bore the psychotic aberrations of centuries of intermarriage. From adolescence she indulged in sadistic lesbian fantasies, where only the spilling of a woman’s blood could satisfy her urges. By middle age, she had regressed to a mirror-fixated state of pathological necro-sadism involving witchcraft, torture,… Shares: Female offenders, True Crime, Women, Biography & Memoir

Women who kill Ann Jones · 1988 · 458p · ≈ 15h · Moderate This legendary bestseller exposes the truths and consequences of women on the edges of society—women driven to kill. From Lizzie Borden to Jean Harris to Aileen Wuornos, this riveting investigation will change the ways you think about crime and punishment. A new introduction by the author illuminates the conditions for women who kill—and are killed—now. Shares: Female offenders, True Crime

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

Presidents for Kids Presidents For Kids · 2025 TIME For Kids presents a complete overview of our nation's chief executives from George Washington to the newly elected 45th president!Did you know that James Monroe was the first president to appear without a wig in public? Or that George W. Bush appointed the first African-American secretary of state? Presidents of the United States invites the reader inside the White House to discover… Shares: United States, 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

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

She Said Jodi Kantor · 2019 · ★ 4.3 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate The instant New York Times bestseller."An instant classic of investigative journalism...‘All the President’s Men’ for the Me Too era." — Carlos Lozada, The Washington PostFrom the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who broke the news of Harvey Weinstein's sexual harassment and abuse for the New York Times, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the thrilling untold story of their investigation and its… Shares: Case studies, United States, True Crime, Women

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

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