The CrimeReads editors select the best true crime memoirs of the year.
Tracy O’Neill, Woman of Interest
(HarperOne)
O’Neill’s memoir absorbs and upends the form of a detective novel, with the author herself starring as both an investigator and the elusive subject of inquiry, as she tries to track down her birth mother. She starts with the help of an experienced detective who soon disappears, leaving a new trail of questions and a good foundation for O’Neill to take on the duties herself. The narrative bends and evolves into something entirely new, telling the powerful, moving story of one woman’s journey toward an understanding of family and identity. –DM
Jay Nicorvo, Best Copy Available
(Univ. of Georgia Press)
When Jay Nicorvo was a child, his mother was sexually assaulted by a stranger, and he experienced sexual abuse from a babysitter. These twinned traumas, kept secret from each other for far too long, later inspired Nicorvo’s investigation into his family’s larger story and his journey towards processing his own experiences. Thoughtful, devastating, and surprisingly hopeful, Best Copy Available will linger in my mind for some time. –MO
Orlando Whitfield, All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art
(Pantheon)
Whitfield’s whirlwind account of the modern art world is intoxicating in its own right, but add to that a compelling and stubbornly complex crime committed by a longtime colleague, and you have the makings of an epic story. Whitfield and Inigo Philbrick met in art school, later went into business together, then went their separate but sometimes intersecting ways in the art world; except that Philbrick’s way was eventually shown to involve an intricate web of financial fraud. All That Glitters tells the story of the manipulations that went into some of those frauds, but it also tells a very human story of ambition and greed and the ultimate downfall of a high-flying golden boy. –DM
Sarah Gerard, Carrie Carolyn Coco: My Friend, Her Murder, and an Obsession with the Unthinkable
(Zando)
Sarah Gerard’s skills in both creative writing and private investigation are on full display in this disturbing account of her friend Carolyn Bush’s murder by a roommate, and the many iniquities that enabled the crime. She also examines a wider culture of male privilege and entitlement at Bard College, the same school attended by both Carolyn and her killer, drawing a convincing through-line between the university’s abysmal record on sexual assault and mental health treatment and the shocking crime at the heart of her book. Gerard also connects the case into a wider discussion of privilege and power in the New York literary scene, and shows the devastating impact of Carolyn’s loss on an entire community. –MO
Kristine S. Ervin, Rabbit Heart: A Mother’s Murder, A Daughter’s Story
(Counterpoint)
This one was an emotional read, but that doesn’t mean folks should shy away from experiencing Ervin’s lyrical search for answers and catharsis as she attempts to reconstruct the life and mind of her absent mother, murdered when Ervin was a child. As someone whose own mother passed when I was young, I found this book to be deeply helpful for anyone facing a hole where there was once a loved one, or trying to make sense of the myth that was once a person. –MO
