The Best True Crime of the Month: August 2026

4 new works of true crime history and reportage out this month, as selected by the CrimeReads editors.

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Kimon de Greef, The Ego Trip : Psychedelic Toads, a Trail of Deaths, and the Guru Who Peddled Transcendence
(Doubleday)

“A true crime tale spiked with psychedelics. . . . As de Greef demonstrates in this deeply researched history, there was a dark side to the miracle drug—one that led to cults, lies and death.” –The New York Times

Chet Hardin, The Vampire’s Cult : The Untold Story of Obsession, Control, and a Shocking Small-Town Murder
(Sourcebooks)

“An engrossing story about human depravity that will attract true crime enthusiasts.” –Library Journal

Philip Guitar, Jim Martyka, Poker Wars: Murder, Mayhem, and the Bloody History that Led to the World Series of Poker
(Crooked Lane Books)

“With a deep well of research and a colorful cast to rival any Damon Runyon story, it’s a safe bet that true crime fans and poker aficionados will enjoy this.”
–Publishers Weekly

Rory Cormac, Fakers: A Top-Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Disinformation Front Line
(Oxford University Press)

“[A] carefully researched social history…Cormac captures Britain’s uniquely literary approach to covert action, preferring the pen to poison.” –Times Literary Supplement