According to theurbanwriters.com, crime/mystery books is the 2nd most popular book genre right behind romance. Here at Treat Your Shelf, we are obsessed with all things surrounding crime books. If you are looking for some inspiration to add to your reading list, here are our top 6 favorite crime books.
Fiction
1. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Gillian Flynn has received world wide recognition from her novel Gone Girl. Many of us have read the book and watched the movie with Ben Affleck in awe of the great writing and plot twists within this story. This author has gone forward to continue to create intriguing crime books with twists at every turn.
Dark Places immediately dives into an ominous plot. The main character is a woman who is still healing from her childhood where her family was involved in an infamous multiple homicide. She must relive this event when true crime fans become too invested in her real life trauma. Dark Places is the perfect title for this dark story that is perfect for the lovers of crime books.
2. The Secret Place by Tana French
If you are a lover of crime/mystery novels, then Tana French has been on your reading list for multiple stories. This American-Irish writer has really explored the experience of detectives throughout all of her books.
The Secret Place tells a story of a tight-knit group of young high school students who were involved in a murder. Detectives dissect a story of a murder with unexpected suspects. Throughout the chapters, the reader experiences the story from the adolescents watching the situation escalate along with the detectives trying to understand it all. This complex story is just one of many of Tana French's examples of amazing story telling.
3. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
As you may already know from our book review vlogs (@TreatYourShelfLLC on YouTube), we love Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. This book can be placed in several different genres. It has romance, crime, mystery, historical fiction and the list continues!
In Victorian England, a young Sue is an orphan who gets involved in a undesirable plot to steal the money of a young heiress. Between love, lies, and psychological torment, this story pulls in the reader with every line. Check out this book or watch our video to learn more about this incredible story line.
4. Alex by Pierre Lemaitre
Pierre Lemaitre blows your mind over and over again in his novel Alex. Every other chapter of this book bounces from the detectives perspective to Alex's perspective. The detectives are searching for this missing woman who has been kidnapped and tortured by a mysterious man.
When you finally think you know everything, you find out you know nothing at all! The victim becomes the villain. The detectives are lost and shocked with the more information they receive on their villain. The plot just continues to thicken throughout this French novel.
Nonfiction
5. Lady Killers by Tori Telfer
Throughout human history, the majority of serial killers have been men. Lady Killers explore the most infamous stories of women serial killers that may surpass all the Jeffrey Dahmers and Ted Bundys we are so familiar with.
Poison has always been known as the murder weapon of women. It is thought of as a coward's ammunition but, we undermine the cruelty of those people who can watch a person slowly decay throughout weeks or months. Learn about the horrific stories of women who have used this method and more throughout this book.
6. The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes
The Minds of Billy Milligan has grown in popularity especially since the documentary of Billy Milligan on Netflix.
Billy Milligan was accused of raping multiple young women. When he was arrested was when the complexity came to light. This man was questionably diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. This story is regularly compared to the story of Sybil. Were his multiple personalities real? Should he be charged nonguilty for reason of insanity? Read this book to explore the interesting story of Billy Milligan.
Thank you for reading! To read more, join the club! Treat Your Shelf provides monthly new reads of crime books and more! Also, check out our weekly vlogs on Youtube @TreatYourShelfLLC.