The 20 Best True Crime Books to Read in 2025

These nonfiction titles and memoirs about serial killers and scammers are the definition of page-turners.

a collage of book covers of the best true crime books
(Image credit: Various publishers)

If you're the type to cope with daily anxieties and stress by burying your head in a pile of riveting true crime stories—the devil you know, as they say—then do we have just the reading list for you.

Women are more drawn to true crime stories than men, according to researchers Amanda M. Vicary and R. Chris Fraley. In their 2010 study, they looked at online book reviews and learned that men were more likely to choose books about gang violence or war, while women were drawn to gruesome stories of crime—even when those books involved women being kidnapped, raped, tortured, and/or killed.

One reason for this: By reading about these crimes and investigating the psychology of a criminal, we may hope that on some level we'll get clues on how to protect ourselves. The study by Vicary and Fraley concluded, "Women, more so than men, were drawn to the book that contained tips on how to defend oneself from an attacker. It appears that the potential to learn defense tactics from these stories is one factor that draws women, more so than men, to true crime books."

So, if immersing yourself in true crime stories makes you feel a little bit braver or a little bit more prepared, then have at it. From nonfiction books about shocking robberies and serial killers to moving memoirs about survival, below, we rounded up the best true-crime books from the past decade that are worth reading.

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Andrea Park

Andrea Park is a Chicago-based writer and reporter with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the extended Kardashian-Jenner kingdom, early 2000s rom-coms and celebrity book club selections. She graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism in 2017 and has also written for W, Brides, Glamour, Women's Health, People and more.