In Cold Blood
It seems like our hunger for true crime is never sated. These books probe the darker side of human nature and uncover searing truths about the societies we’re living in.
Rotten Row by Pettina Gappah
These short stories explore strife, tension and conflict at every level of Zimbabwean society - from salacious gossip in hairdressing salons, to the confessions of a state executioner, and the absurd politics of mid-tier committee corruption. A lively, humorous and compelling collection that meditates on the meaning of justice.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Holcomb, Kansas, 1959: all four members of the Clutter family are murdered in their beds. Capote investigates the crime that rocked this small farming town and gives gripping insights into the psychology of the killers. An important, pioneering work of true crime and an absolute classic.
The Red Parts by Maggie Nelson
When a suspect is found many years after Nelson's aunt's murder, the case is reopened. This book is Nelson's memoir of the trial, an account of a family shadowed by loss and grief, and a searing look at a society obsessed with dead (white) women.
A Brief History Of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Revolving around the attempted assassination of Bob Marley, this book takes us into the criminal underworld of Kingston in the 1970s. Filled with a large cast of characters and set to the rhythm of Reggaeton and Jamaican patois, this epic novel spans a dangerous and unstable time in Jamaican history.
See What You Made Me Do by Jess Hill
An urgent and essential look into crime that happens behind closed doors: the national emergency that is domestic abuse in Australia. Hill confronts our broken justice system that silences women in order to reframe the conversation and place perpetrators in the spotlight.
The Tall Man: Life And Death On Palm Island by Chloe Hooper
Cameron Doomadgee was arrested for swearing at police officer Chris Hurley on Palm Island; the next day, he was found dead in his cell with appalling injuries. This book follows the coronial inquest and trial of Hurley amidst a community where dysfunction and domestic violence are rife. The portraits of Doomadgee and Hurley speak to a complex, divided Australia, where the ongoing impacts of colonisation are keenly felt and where there is still little justice for black deaths in custody.
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
In a claustrophobic Mexican village, a woman known as The Witch is brutally murdered. From this one act of femicide, Melchor launches into an exploration of the inequality and toxicity that fuels the systemic and increasingly sadistic murders of women in Mexico. A ferocious and feverish novel that takes on the horrors of ingrained misogyny in full force.
A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Men And Women Fighting Extremism In Africa by Alexis Okeowo
These four narratives depict the lives of ordinary people when faced with extraordinary circumstances of terror and trauma. A young couple kidnapped by Kony's LRA start a new life for themselves; a Mauritanian wages a campaign against modern-day slavery; a women's basketball team fights for their right to play in war-torn Somalia; and a vigilante takes up arms against Boko Haram. An insightful and sensitive look at lives that are often passed over by news stories and history books.