8 Thrillers to Feed Your True Crime Addiction

In 1943, four boys in England discovered the skeletal remains of a woman in the hollow trunk of a tree. Investigators struggled to identify those remains, but received a new lead the next year in the form of a graffitied message: Who put Bella in the Wych Elm? That chilling phrase has kept true crime aficionados speculating about this crime for decades, and the story itself inspired Tana French’s THE WITCH ELM. In that novel, a man returns to his family’s ancestral home to care for his dying uncle, only to find a skull in the trunk of a tree on his property. Long-buried secrets soon unravel, upending everything this family thought they knew about their past.

Fans of the HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest—about the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard, for which Gypsy Rose, the daughter Dee Dee abused for decades, was accused—will find a familiar story line in Stephanie Wrobel’s debut thriller, DARLING ROSE GOLD. In the novel, Rose Gold’s abusive mother is released from prison, and Rose Gold, who believed she was seriously ill for the first eighteen years of her life, has big plans for their reunion. Those who know the Dee Dee Blanchard case will think they have the story all figured out, but Wrobel throws in plenty of surprises to keep this disturbing page-turner fresh and satisfying.

While not a true crime story, the tale of “Baby Jessica”—who, at eighteen months old, fell into a well—captivated the nation in 1987 as rescuers worked to successfully free her. Megan Miranda’s THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS, about a woman who gained fame as a child after she was swept away while sleepwalking during a rainstorm, certainly has echoes of Baby Jessica, but Miranda has given this story a thriller twist. When the woman begins sleepwalking again as an adult, she wakes one night to find at her feet the dead body of a man from her sensationalized past, forcing her to confront the personal history she’s tried so hard to escape. This novel is like the story of Baby Jessica if there’d actually been crime involved—and it is as haunting and suspenseful as all of Miranda’s novels.

Any fan of true crime can tell you about the Golden State Killer—the man who terrorized California communities in the 1970s and ’80s—and the fact that, in 2018, detectives were finally able to catch him using DNA databases from ancestry kits. In their terrifying debut, THE FAMILY TREE, Steph Mullin and Nicole Mabry give this true crime classic a fictional twist with the story of a woman whose ancestry kit reveals she was adopted—and is related to a serial killer. Zipping back and forth between the perspectives of the Tri-State Killer’s victims and the woman’s own investigation into the dark branches of her family tree, this fast-paced exploration of identity feels ripped from the headlines.

True crime fans may have already latched on to the excellent Apple TV+ series adapted from Kathleen Barber’s debut, but as the saying goes, the book is even better. The podcast at the heart of TRUTH BE TOLD is one that revisits the murder of protagonist Josie Burhman’s father. As podcast host Poppy Parnell (props to Barber for creating this amazing name) digs up dirt from the long-closed case and questions whether the wrong person was convicted of the crime, Josie’s entire world, and the promise of her future, is threatened. The podcast excerpts are just as compelling as the chapters narrating Josie’s story—and both intertwine for a riveting journey.

Listen to this one as an audiobook, and you’ll swear you’re enjoying a real podcast. The production value (down to the crackly voice of the 911 dispatcher and background noise during interviews) is excellent, and the story itself is just as good. West McCray, host of the podcast The Girls, tries to track down nineteen-year-old runaway Sadie, who fled town after the horrific murder of her sister. Meanwhile, Sadie’s out for revenge, hunting her sister’s killer, and as McCray gets closer to finding her, he uncovers more darkness than he ever expected. Summers’s stylish, razor-sharp writing makes this an unforgettable thriller that’s both beautiful and brutal.

This book masterfully tackles our fascination (okay, obsession) with true crime as Sera, a massive fan of Rachel Bard’s podcast, launches a personal investigation when Rachel disappears, taking her cues—and clues—from previous episodes. Each chapter of this taut and creepy thriller begins with a snippet from Rachel’s podcast that resonates with Sera’s investigation, and the podcast also gets woven into Sera’s first-person narrative in clever and energizing ways. Through her lyrical prose and chilling plot, Brazier brings something new and necessary to the true crime discourse, and isn’t afraid to cast the spotlight on the reader.

At the start of this electrifying debut, Elle Castillo, host of a successful podcast focusing on cold cases and abducted children, decides to investigate The Countdown Killer. Years ago, TCK ritualistically murdered several girls before abruptly going dormant. Now, the case grows increasingly personal for Elle as new victims emerge that seem to fit TCK’s pattern, and she’ll risk anything—including her own safety—to stop him this time. Fans of I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK will devour this pulse-pounding story.  

THE FAMILY PLOT comes out on August 17, 2021!

At twenty-six, Dahlia Lighthouse is haunted by her upbringing. Raised in a secluded island mansion deep in the woods and kept isolated by her true crime-obsessed parents, she is unable to move beyond the disappearance of her twin brother, Andy, when they were sixteen. After several years away and following her father’s death, Dahlia returns to the house, where the family makes a gruesome discovery: buried in their father’s plot is another body—Andy’s, his skull split open with an ax. Dahlia is quick to blame Andy’s murder on the serial killer who terrorized the island for decades, while the rest of her family reacts to the revelation in unsettling ways. As Dahlia grapples with her own grief and horror, she realizes that her eccentric family, and the mansion itself, may hold the answers to what happened to her twin.