“He’s the fake shark in Jaws, barely seen so doubly feared.”
Fans of true crime know that some of the most gripping tales are the ones rooted in reality, where the line between fact and fiction blurs. Over the years, there have been many compelling true crime books that have found their way onto the screen, bringing unforgettable stories of real-life mysteries, infamous killers and chilling investigations to a wider audience. These adaptations offer a unique thrill – allowing readers to experience familiar stories from fresh perspectives. Today at What We Reading we thought we would delve into some of the best books that found themselves inspiring true crime adaptations across the film and television world. From courtroom dramas to unsolved cases, these are the real-life stories that have leapt from the page to the screen, inviting audiences everywhere to confront the darkest truths in unforgettable ways.
Mind Hunter: Inside The FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit (Mindhunter #1) – John Douglas And Mark Olshaker
First up on our list of the best true crime adaptations comes from John Douglas and his acclaimed work, Mind Hunter. From The Trailside Killer in San Francisco to the likes of Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy and James Earl Ray, Douglas has confronted, interviewed and researched dozens of the most sadistic criminals in American history.
His efforts have been to get inside the psyche of these criminals and understand their motivations with more clarity than ever before. The real-life inspiration behind Jack Crawford in Thomas Harris’ thriller, Red Dragon, John Douglas helped to pioneer a new age in behavioural science and criminal profiling. Penned after twenty-five years of service, Mind Hunter is the best collection of his works and findings and would help to inspire the success of Netflix’s gripping adaptation.
I’ll Be Gone In The Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search For The Golden State Killer – Michelle McNamara
For over a decade, an elusive predator committed fifty assaults across Northern California before moving southwards and perpetrating ten gruesome murders. Then he vanished, dodging some of the most skilled detectives in the region. Thirty years later, true crime journalist Michelle McNamara embarked on an epic, expansive investigation of her own to unmask the psychopath she dubbed the ‘Golden State Killer’.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death. Offering an atmospheric and gripping snapshot of a timely moment in American history as well as a comprehensive overview of the reporting, interviewing and obsession McNamara poured into discovering the truth, this true crime classic helped to inspire an HBO series on the Golden State Killer.
Check Out These Thriller Books That Read Like True Crime
Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil – John Berendt
In the early morning hours of May 2, 1981, shots rang out across Savannah’s grandest estate. Was it murder or self-defence? For almost ten years, the shooting and its fallout rocked the city. In Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt delivers one of the most compelling true crime stories that reads like an addictive whodunnit, but that is very much grounded in reality.
Berendt introduces readers to the cast of remarkable characters at the heart of the case, the well-bred ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club. Interweaving these individuals with a first-person account of the life of the isolated remnant of the Old South, Berendt brings to life an unpredictable tale filled with twists and turns of a landmark murder case that would eventually receive an adaptation on the big screen.
The Innocent Man: Murder And Injustice In A Small Town – John Grisham
In the Major League draft of 1971, the first player selected from the state of Oklahoma was Ron Williamson. When he signed with the Oakland A’s, he bid his hometown farewell and set off to follow his dreams of big league glory. Six years on, he was back in town living with his mother, with a number of unhealthy habits and signs of a mental health crisis. When a cocktail waitress Debra Sue Carter was killed, for reasons still unclear, Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz found themselves as prime suspects in the case and eventually arrested.
With no physical evidence, the prosecution’s case orbited around junk science and the testimonies of snitches and convicts. Nevertheless, Fritz was given a life sentence and Williamson was sent to Death Row. In his first work of non-fiction that would be given a Netflix adaptation, John Grisham tells the baffling and infuriating story of Ron Williamson’s wrongful conviction in The Innocent Man.
My Friend Dahmer: A Graphic Novel – Derf Backderf
In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer, the most infamous serial killer since Jack the Ripper, seared himself into the American consciousness. To the majority of the population, he was the epitome of evil who committed unthinkable atrocities. Yet, to Derf Backderf, ‘Jeff’ was a far more complex individual: a friend in high school whom he had shared classrooms, hallways and car rides with.
In My Friend Dahmer, writer-and-artist Backderf paints a surprisingly intimate and compassionate portrait of a disturbed young man grappling with the urges emanating from within his fractured psyche. An introverted kid, a teenage alcoholic and a goofball who never truly fit in, My Friend Dahmer is a compelling true crime novel that delves into the sides of Jeffrey Dahmer people never got to see and was eventually given its own adaptation on the big screen.
Check Out The Best True Crime Books From 2024
Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery – Robert Kolker
Award-winning investigative journalist Robert Kolker produces a stunningly gripping account of the real-life search for a serial killer still at large on Long Island in his true crime book, Lost Girls. Kolker’s work is also one of the first humanising accounts of the shadowing realm of online escorts, where making a living is easier than ever before, and the dangers involved remain all too real.
Lost Girls is a comprehensive painting of unsolved murders in a picturesque part of the world, of the underside of the internet and of the secrets we keep without admitting to ourselves that we’re holding on to them. The book has since been adapted for Netflix with a film centred around the Long Island case.
The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy: The Shocking Inside Story – Ann Rule
Ann Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me is an astonishingly intimate and jarringly frightening account that defies our expectations that we would be able to spot if a real-life monster lived among us, worked alongside us or appeared as one of us. Delivered with a gradual, slow-burning sense of dread, Rule reveals the ways in which she came to realise that her sensitive coworker, Ted Bundy, was actually one of the most prolific serial killers in history.
Balancing her deeply personal perspectives and her role as a crime reporter, Rule utilises her correspondence with Bundy himself to deliver one of the most gripping true crime books ever written, and her work has gone on to be adapted numerous times across the film and television industry.
Check Out The Best True Crime Books From The 2010s
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
