The True Crime File

“True crime is having, as they say, a moment,” reports the New York Times, where they know a thing or two about covering crime. “There’s a boom in the genre across media, from books to television to podcasting.”

Perfect for newcomers and hardened crime junkies alike, The True Crime File is an impulse gift book designed to deliver the mixed pleasures of true crime across more than 200 stories of mayhem, madness, and survival. Adapted from the perennially popular A Year ofTrue Crime Page-A-Day® Calendar, here is a full celebration of the genre, more than 400 pages packed with tales of slashers and serial killers, grifters and con men, dogged investigators and miraculous survivors, and of course the story behind the immortal New York Post headline “Headless Body in Topless Bar.”

And so very much more, including: Ted Bundy’s prison escape, mini-rampage, and eventual capture; the tragic litany of missed early chances to capture Jeffrey Dahmer; and the fascinating puzzle of the Zodiac Killer. Also: celebrity stories, like the murder of Tupac Shakur, and old-yet-still-chilling tales such as the Lindbergh kidnapping, the Black Dahlia murder, the drowning at Chappaquiddick. Readers will learn about DNA profiling and tattoo analysis, get a smattering of cartel drug lingo, and take quizzes like “Where Did They Hide?” Compulsively readable, illustrated throughout, and animated with the frisson that comes with discovering there are real monsters under the bed, The True Crime File is a little book that delivers big to true crime fans of all stripes.