8 True Crime Stories from Around the Globe

An engrossing, in-depth look at a world of unimaginable power and corruption, Ben Mezrich follows the partnership between two businessmen as they grasp immense influence in Russia after the end of the Cold War. A tale of wealth, murder, and betrayal, ONCE UPON A TIME IN RUSSIA is an epic modern-day thriller that seems ripped from today’s headlines.

During the twilight of the Belle Époque era in Paris, the city was rocked by a shocking and devastating crime: the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Mixing true crime with thrilling mystery and fascinating history, THE CRIMES OF PARIS skillfully and breathlessly explores the dark side to the City of Light in the 1910s.

For more than a decade, women and girls have been brutally attacked and killed in the Mexican desert. In this crucial and authoritative investigation, the authors explore who is killing these women, why they are doing it, why arrests have not stopped the murders, and if a cover-up is involved. Shocking and tragic, THE DAUGHTERS OF JUÁREZ is not just a mystery but a call for justice.

When Bridget Cleary disappeared from her home in Ireland in 1895, her family claimed that she was a changeling and fairies carried her off—but the truth was much deadlier. A multifaceted story of murder, magic, and prejudice, THE BURNING OF BRIDGET CLEARY proves that truth is always stranger than fiction.

A fascinating, unique, and intimate view of crime during the Renaissance in Germany from the perspective of the man whose job it was to violently punish lawbreakers. Based on an executioner’s actual journal, you can discover how crime and punishment were carried out and consider how far we’ve come (or how little we’ve changed).

One of those books that makes you fall off the face of the earth until you finish it, People Who Eat Darkness concerns the case of a young British woman who disappeared from the streets of Tokyo in 2001. Following the discovery of her dismembered remains in a seaside cave, Richard Lloyd Parry spent ten years dissecting Japan’s convoluted legal system, Tokyo’s booming sex industry, and the lingering stigma of Korean immigration in order to delve deep into the “unprecedented and extremely evil” mind of the accused. Selected as one of the best books of 2012 by The New York Times and Publishers Weekly, it shines light into dark corners of Japan that have never been glimpsed before.

Few people know of the surprising second career of Sir Isaac Newton: warden of the Royal Mint. In this absorbing tale that reads like a breathless Sherlock Holmes mystery, Newton is hell-bent on capturing a famous counterfeiter. In NEWTON AND THE COUNTERFEITER, you can discover a little known true story starring one of the most famous and enigmatic men in history.

Travel to a time of immense change and explore the dark corners of 19th-century Great Britain, during which the understanding of crime evolved immensely. In this engrossing social history, Michael Knox Beran explores some of the most infamous crimes, the newly scientific attempts to solve them, and how the masses consumed these gruesome tales in the media.