LibGuides: The Edgar Awards: Best Fact Crime

The Edgar Awards

Best Fact Crime Award
(1948- )

2020s

Titles highlighted in BLUE are print copies found within the Unger Memorial Library Collections. Titles highlighted in GREEN are e-book or audiobook only. Titles highlighted in ORANGE are on order.

Winner

The Less People Know About Us : a Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets, and Stolen Identity by Axton Betz-Hamilton

The Less People Know about Us : a mystery of betrayal, family secrets, and stolen identity by Axton Betz-Hamilton
Call Number: 364.16 B5525L (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9781538730287

Publication Date: 2019-10-15

Small-town Indiana in the early '90s. Betz-Hamilton's parents both had their identities stolen; their credit ratings were ruined. The family changed all of their personal information and moved to different addresses, but the identity thief followed them wherever they went. Convinced that the thief had to be someone they knew, her parents isolated themselves from friends and family. Betz-Hamilton spent her formative years crippled by anxiety; her mother became paranoid, consumed by how others perceived the family. Herself a victim of the identity thief, her credit ruined, Betz-Hamilton vowed to find the thief who broke the unwritten rules of love, protection, and family.

Finalists

The Ghosts of Eden Park by Karen Abbott
American Predator by Maureen Callahan
Norco '80 by Peter Houlahan
Indecent Advances by James Polchin

Ghosts of Eden Park

The Ghosts of Eden Park : the bootleg king, the women who pursued him, and the murder that shocked jazz age America by Karen Abbott
Call Number: 345.771 A132g (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780451498625

Publication Date: 2019-08-06

In the early days of Prohibition, long before Al Capone became a household name, a German immigrant named George Remus quits practicing law and starts trafficking whiskey. Within two years he's a multi-millionaire. The press calls him "King of the Bootleggers," writing breathless stories about the Gatsby-esque events he and his glamorous second wife, Imogene, host at their Cincinnati mansion, with party favors ranging from diamond jewelry for the men to brand-new cars for the women. By the summer of 1921, Remus owns 35 percent of all the liquor in the United States. Pioneering prosecutor Mabel Walker Willebrandt is determined to bring him down. Willebrandt's bosses at the Justice Department hired her right out of law school, assuming she'd pose no real threat to the cozy relationship they maintain with Remus. Eager to prove them wrong, she dispatches her best investigator, Franklin Dodge, to look into his empire. It's a decision with deadly consequences. With the fledgling FBI on the case, Remus is quickly imprisoned for violating the Volstead Act. Her husband behind bars, Imogene begins an affair with Dodge. Together, they plot to ruin Remus, sparking a bitter feud that soon reaches the highest levels of government ; and that can only end in murder.
The Ghosts of Eden Park [E-Book] : the Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder that Shocked Jazz-Age America by Karen Abbott
Call Number: OverDrive

ISBN: 9780451498649

Publication Date: 2019

American Predator

American Predator : the hunt for the most meticulous serial killer of the 21st century by Maureen Callahan
Call Number: 364.1523 K44c (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780525428640

Publication Date: 2019-07-02

A gripping tour de force of investigative journalism that takes us deep into the investigation behind one of the most frightening and enigmatic serial killers in modern American history, and into the ranks of a singular American police force: the Anchorage PD Most of us have never heard of Israel Keyes. But he is one of the most ambitious, meticulous serial killers of modern time. The FBI considered his behavior unprecedented. Described by a prosecutor as "a force of pure evil," he was a predator who struck all over the United States. He buried "kill kits"--Cash, weapons, and body-disposal tools--in remote locations across the country and over the course of fourteen years, would fly to a city, rent a car, and drive thousands of miles in order to use his kits. He would break into a stranger's house, abduct his victims in broad daylight, and kill and dispose of them in mere hours. And then he would return home, resuming life as a quiet, reliable construction worker devoted to his only daughter. When journalist Maureen Callahan first heard about Israel Keyes in 2012, she was captivated by how a killer of this magnitude could go undetected by law enforcement for over a decade. And so began a project that consumed her for the next several years--uncovering the true story behind how the FBI ultimately caught Israel Keyes, and trying to understand what it means for a killer like Keyes to exist.

Norco '80

Norco '80 by Peter Houlahan
Call Number: 364.15 H838n (Adult Fiction)

ISBN: 9781640092129

Publication Date: 2019-06-11

Southern California, the 1970s. Five heavily armed young men-- led by an apocalyptic born-again Christian-- attempted a bank robbery that turned into one of the most violent criminal events in U.S. history. Houlahan explains how a group of landscapers transformed into a murderous gang of bank robbers armed to the teeth with military-grade weapons. Their desperate getaway turned the surrounding towns into war zones. When it was over, three were dead and close to twenty wounded; a police helicopter was forced down from the sky, and thirty-two police vehicles were destroyed by thousands of rounds of ammo. The resulting trial raised many issues that continue to plague society today: from the epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder within law enforcement to religious extremism and the militarization of local police forces.

Indecent Advances

Indecent Advances by James Polchin
Call Number: 070.449 P762i (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9781640091894

Publication Date: 2019-06-04

Winner

Death in Mud Lick : a Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies that Delivered the Opioid Epidemic by Eri Eyre

Death in Mud Lick : a coal country fight against the drug companies that delivered the opioid epidemic by Eric Eyre
Call Number: 362.29 E98d (Adult nonfiction)

ISBN: 9781982105310

Publication Date: 2020-03-31

FINALISTS

Blood Runs Coal : the Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America by Mark A. Bradley
The Third Rainbow Girl : the long life of a double murder in Appalachia by Emma Cople Eisenberg
Yellow Bird : oil, murder, and a woman's search for justice in Indian Country by Sierra Craine Murdoch
Veritas : a Harvard professor, a con man, and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife by Ariel Sabar

Blood Runs Coal

Blood Runs Coal : the Yablonski murders and the battle for the United Mine Workers of America by Mark A. Bradley
Call Number: 364.1 B811b (Adult nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780393652536

Publication Date: 2020-10-13

The Third Rainbow Girl

The Third Rainbow Girl : the long life of a double murder in Appalachia by Emma Copley Eisenberg
Call Number: 364.152 E36t (Adult nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780316449236

Publication Date: 2020-01-21

Yellow Bird

Yellow Bird : oil, murder, and a woman's search for justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch
Call Number: BIO YELLO LIS M (Adult biography)

ISBN: 9780399589171

Publication Date: 2021-02-16

Veritas

Veritas : a Harvard professor, a con man and the Gospel of Jesus's wife by Ariel Sabar
Call Number: 229.8 S113v (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780385542586

Publication Date: 2020-08-11

WINNER

Last Call : a true story of love, lust, and murder in queer New York by Elon Green

Last Call : a true story of love, lust, and murder in queer New York by Elon Green
Call Number: 364.152 G795L (Adult nonfiction)

ISBN: 9781250224354

Publication Date: 2021-03-09

FINALISTS:

The Confidence Men: how two prisoners of war engineered the most remarkable escape in history by Margalit Fox
Sleeper Agent: the atomic spy in America who got away by Ann Hagedorn
Two Truths and a Lie: a murder, a private investigator, and her search for justice by Ellen McGarrahan
The Dope: the real history of the Mexican drug trade by Benjamin T. Smith
When Evil Lived in Laurel: the "White Knights" and the murder of Vernon Dahmer by Curtis Wilkie

The Confidence Men : how two prisoners of war engineered the most remarkable escape in history by Margalit Fox
Call Number: 940.4 F793c (Adult nonfiction)

ISBN: 9781984853844

Publication Date: 2021-06-01
Sleeper Agent : the atomic spy in America who got away by Ann Hagedorn
Call Number: BIO KOVAL ZHOA H (Adult biography)

ISBN: 9781501173943

Publication Date: 2021-07-20
Two Truths and a Lie : a murder, a private investigator, and her search for justice by Ellen McGarrahan
Call Number: 364.152 M145t (Adult nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780812998665

Publication Date: 2021-02-02
When Evil Lived in Laurel : the White Knights and the murder of Vernon Dahmer by Curtis Wilkie
Call Number: 305.8 W683w (Adult nonfiction)

ISBN: 9781324005759

Publication Date: 2021-06-15

WINNER

Tell Me Everything : the Story of a Private Investigation by Erika Krouse

Tell Me Everything : the story of a private investigator by Erika Krouse
Call Number: 363.25 KROUS T

ISBN: 9781250826466

Publication Date: 2023-03-14

Part memoir and part literary true crime, Tell Me Everything is the mesmerizing story of a landmark sexual assault investigation and the female private investigator who helped crack it open. Erika Krouse has one of those faces. "I don't know why I'm telling you this," people say, spilling confessions. In the fall of 2002, Erika accepted a new contract job investigating lawsuits as a private investigator. The role seems perfect for her, but she quickly realizes she has no idea what she's doing. Then a lawyer named Grayson assigns her to investigate a sexual assault, a college student who was attacked by football players and recruits at a party a year earlier. Erika knows she should turn the assignment down. Her own history with sexual violence makes it all too personal. But she takes the job anyway, inspired by Grayson's conviction that he could help change things forever. And maybe she could, too. Over the next five years, Erika learns everything she can about P. I. technique, tracking down witnesses and investigating a culture of sexual assault and harassment ingrained in the university's football program. But as the investigation grows into a national scandal and a historic civil rights case, Erika finds herself increasingly consumed. When the case and her life both implode at the same time, Erika must figure out how to help win the case without losing herself.

FINALISTS

Slenderman : Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls by Kathleen Hale
Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles
American Caliph : the True Story of a Muslim Mystic, a Hollywood Epic, and the 1977 Siege of Washington, D. C. by Shahan Mufti
American Demon : Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack the Ripper by Daniel Stashower

Trailed : one woman's quest to solve the Shenandoah murders by Kathryn Miles
Call Number: 364.152 M639t (Adult nonfiction)

ISBN: 9781616209094

Publication Date: 2022-05-03
Trailed [E-Book] : one woman's quest to solve the Shenandoah murders by Kathryn Miles
Call Number: 364.152 M639t Ebook (OverDrive)

ISBN: 9781643752938

Publication Date: 2022-05-03

_____

American Demon : Eliot Ness and the hunt for America's Jack the Ripper by Daniel Stashower
Call Number: 364.152 S796a (Adult nonfiction)

ISBN: 9781250041166

Publication Date: 2022-09-06

WINNER

Crooked: The Roaring '20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal by Nathan Masters

Crooked : the Roaring '20s tale of a corrupt attorney general, a crusading Senator, and the birth of the American Political Scandal by Nathan Masters
Call Number: 345.0232 MASTE C

ISBN: 9780306826139

Publication Date: 2023-03-21

Masters tell the forgotten narrative of the most corrupt attorney general in American history and the maverick senator who stopped at nothing to take him down. Many tales from the Jazz Age reek of crime and corruption. But perhaps the era's greatest political fiasco--one that resulted in a nationwide scandal, a public reckoning at the Department of Justice, the rise of J. Edgar Hoover, and an Oscar-winning film--has long been lost to the annals of history. Newly elected to the Senate on a promise to root out corruption, Burton 'Boxcar Burt' Wheeler sets his sights on ousting Attorney General Harry Daugherty, puppet-master behind President Harding's unlikely rise to power. Daugherty is famous for doing whatever it takes to keep his boss in power, and his cozy relations with bootleggers and other scofflaws have long spawned rumors of impropriety. But when his constant companion and trusted fixer, Jess Smith, is found dead of a gunshot wound in the apartment the two men share, Daugherty is suddenly thrust into the spotlight, exposing the rot consuming the Harding administration to a shocked public. Determined to uncover the truth in the ensuing investigation, Wheeler takes the prosecutorial reins and subpoenas a rogue's gallery of witnesses--convicted felons, shady detectives, disgraced officials--to expose the attorney general's treachery and solve the riddle of Jess Smith's suspicious death. With the muckraking senator hot on his trail, Daugherty turns to his greatest weapon, the nascent Federal Bureau of Investigation, whose eager second-in-command, J. Edgar Hoover, sees opportunity amidst the chaos. Packed with political intrigue, scandal, and no shortage of lessons for our modern era of political discord, Masters' historical narrative shows how this intricate web of inconceivable crookedness set the stage for the next century of American political scandals.

FINALISTS

In Light of All Darkness : inside the Polly Klaas kidnapping and the search for America's child by Kim Cross
Number Go Up : inside crypto's wild rise and staggering fall by Zeke Faux
Tangled Vines : power, privilege, and the Murdaugh Family murders by John Glatt
I Know Who You Are : how an amateur DNA sleuth unmasked the Golden State Killer and changed crime fighting forever by Barbara Rae-Venter

Tangled Vines : power, privilege, and the Murdaugh family murders by John Glatt
Call Number: 364.152 GLATT T

ISBN: 9781250283481

Publication Date: 2023-08-08

In Tangled Vines, bestselling true crime author John Glatt reconstructs the rise of the prestigious Murdaugh family and the shocking double murder that led to the downfall of its patriarch, Alex Murdaugh. Among the lush, tree-lined waterways of South Carolina's low country, the Murdaugh name means power. A century-old, multimillion-dollar law practice has catapulted the family into incredible wealth and local celebrity-but it was an unimaginable tragedy that would thrust them into the national spotlight. On June 7th, 2021, prominent attorney Alex Murdaugh discovered the bodies of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, on the grounds of their thousand-acre hunting lodge. The mystery deepened only months later when Alex himself was discovered shot in the head on a local roadside. But as authorities scrambled for clues and the community reeled from the loss and media attention, dark secrets about this Southern legal dynasty came to light. The Murdaughs, it turned out, were feared as much as they were loved. And they wouldn't hesitate to wield their influence to protect one of their own; two years before he was killed, a highly intoxicated Paul Murdaugh was at the helm of a boat when it crashed and killed a teenage girl, and his light treatment by police led to speculation that privilege had come into play. As bombshells of financial fraud were revealed and more suspicious deaths were linked to the Murdaughs, a new portrait of Alex Murdaugh emerged: a desperate man on the brink of ruin who would do anything, even plan his own death, to save his family's reputation.
I Know Who You Are : how an amateur DNA sleuth unmasked the Golden State Killer and changed crime fighting forever by Barbara Rae-Venter
Call Number: 364.152 R134i (Adult nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780593358894

Publication Date: 2023-02-07

The amateur DNA sleuth who solved one of the most infamous cold cases in American history-the Golden State Killer crime spree-tells the incredible true story of how she did it, and explains how her methods have forever changed criminal investigations. In the span of just a few years, Barbara Rae-Venter went from researching her family history as a retiree to finding a serial killer who had baffled law enforcement for decades. I Know Who You Are tracks her improbable journey to becoming the nation's leading authority in investigative genetic genealogy, and to identifying the Golden State Killer-who had evaded authorities for forty-four years-in just sixty-three days. Rae-Venter also details other extraordinary cases that she has worked on, from the first criminal cold case she ever cracked-uncovering the long-lost identity of a child abductee-to the heartbreaking case of the Billboard Boy, which began with unidentified remains dumped along a North Carolina highway. When she looks at DNA data, Rae-Venter sees numbers, percentages, probabilities-but she also sees the very stuff that makes us who we are. Drawing on both her own experiences and insights from all the key players in her investigations, Rae-Venter brings readers inside her unique "grasshopper mind" as she analyzes DNA data; pores through obituaries, marriage records, and old newspapers articles; and envisions different scenarios that bring her closer and closer to her target. She lets readers join in on urgent calls from sheriffs, FBI agents, district attorneys, and researchers, and she takes us inside the struggle to obtain a usable crime scene DNA sample and other unexpected roadblocks that often make the search more difficult. Time and again, Rae-Venter pushes through setbacks, finds new angles of investigation, and uses the most cutting-edge new technology-much of it developed during her search-until, finally, a critical piece of the puzzle suddenly tumbles into place. I Know Who You Are captures the exhilaration of the moment of discovery in cold case investigations, but also the sheer depth of emotion that lingers around these cases and informs Rae-Venter's careful approach to her work. It is a story of relentless curiosity, of constant invention and reinvention, and of recognizing that we may not be who we thought we were.

THE WINNER

The Infernal Machine : a true story of dynamite, terror, and the rise of the modern detective by Steven Johnson

The Infernal Machine : a true story of dynamite, terror, and the rise of the modern detective by Steven Johnson
Call Number: 335.83 JOHNS I

ISBN: 9780593443958

Publication Date: 2024-05-14

A riveting account of the anarchists who terrorized the streets of New York-and the detective duo who transformed policing to meet the threat.

THE FINALISTS

Long Haul : hunting the highway serial killers by Frank Figliuzzi
A Devil Went Down to Georgia : race, power, privilege, and the murder of Lita McClinton by Deb Miller Landau
The Amish Wife : unraveling the lies, secrets, and conspiracy that let a killer go free by Gregg Olsen
Hell Put to Shame : the 1921 murder farm massacre and the horror of America's second slavery by Earl Swift
The Bishop and the Butterfly : murder, politics, and the end of the Jazz Age by Michael Wolraich

Long Haul : hunting the highway serial killers by Frank Figliuzzi
Call Number: 364.1523 MS LONGH FL

ISBN: 9780063265165

Publication Date: 2025-05-13

In 2004, the FBI was tipped off to a gruesome pattern of murders along American roadways. Today at least 850 homicides have been linked to a solitary breed of predators: long-haul truck drivers. They have been given names like the Truck Stop Killer, who rigged a traveling torture chamber in the rear of his truck and is suspected to have killed fifty women, and The Interstate Strangler, who once answered a phone call from his mother while killing one of his dozen victims. The crisis was such that the FBI opened a special unit, the Highway Serial Killings Initiative. In each case, the victims, often at-risk women, are picked up at truck stops in one jurisdiction, sexually assaulted and murdered in another, and dumped along a highway in a third place. What's worse, the transient nature of the offenders and multiple jurisdictions involved make these cases difficult to solve. Based on his own on-the-ground research and drawing on his twenty-five-year career as an FBI special agent, Frank Figliuzzi investigates the most terrifying cases
The Amish Wife : unraveling the lies, secrets and conspiracy that let a killer go free by Gregg Olsen
Call Number: 164.1523 MM STUTZ OA

ISBN: 9781542016506

Publication Date: 2024-01-01

In 1977, in an Ohio Amish community, pregnant wife and mother Ida Stutzman perished during a barn fire. The coroner's report: natural causes. Ida's husband, Eli, was never considered a suspect. But when he eventually rejected the faith and took his son, Danny, with him, murder followed. What really happened to Ida? The dubious circumstances of the tragic blaze were willfully ignored and Eli's shifting narratives disregarded. Could Eli's subsequent cross-country journey of death-including that of his own son-have been prevented if just one person came forward with what they knew about the real Eli Stutzman? The questions haunted Gregg Olsen and Ida's brother Daniel Gingery for decades. At Daniel's urging, Olsen now returns to Amish Country and to Eli's crimes first exposed in Olsen's Abandoned Prayers, one of which has remained a mystery until now. With the help of aging witnesses and shocking long-buried letters, Olsen finally uncovers the disturbing truth-about Ida's murder and the conspiracy of silence and secrets that kept it hidden for forty-five years.
Hell Put to Shame : the 1921 murder farm massacre and the horror of America's second slavery by Earl Swift
Call Number: 364.1523 MM WILI SH

ISBN: 9780063265394

Publication Date: 2025-04-08

Follows the story of eleven black men who were bailed out of jail, forced into slavery on a Georgia farm in 1921, and eventually murdered, and the trials of the white plantation owner and the black overseer, based on the FBI's notes.
The Bishop and the Butterfly : murder, politics, and the end of the Jazz Age by Michael Wolraich
Call Number: 364.1523 M NYPD WB

ISBN: 9781454956921

Publication Date: 2025-02-04

Vivian Gordon went out before midnight in a velvet dress and mink coat. Her body turned up the next morning in a desolate Bronx park, a dirty clothesline wrapped around her neck. At her stylish Manhattan apartment, detectives discovered notebooks full of names--businessmen, socialites, gangsters. And something else: a letter from an anti-corruption commission established by Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Led by the imperious Judge Samuel Seabury, the commission had uncovered a police conspiracy to frame women as prostitutes. Had Gordon been executed to bury her secrets? As FDR pressed the police to solve her murder, Seabury pursued the trail of corruption to the top of Gotham's powerful political machine--the infamous Tammany Hall.

2010s

Winner

Columbine by David Cullen

Columbine by Dave Cullen
Call Number: 373.788 C967c (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780446546935

Publication Date: 2009-04-06

What really happened April 20, 1999? The horror of Columbine left an indelible stamp on the American psyche, but most of what we "know" is wrong. It wasn't about jocks, goths, or the Trench Coat Mafia. Dave Cullen was one of the first reporters on scene, and spent ten years on this book -- widely recognized as the definitive account. With a keen investigative eye and psychological acumen, Cullen draws on mountains of evidence, insights from the world's leading forensic psychologists, and the killers' own words and drawings -- several reproduced in a new appendix for the paperback.

Winner

The Destiny of the Republic : a Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

Destiny of the Republic : a tale of madness, medicine and the murder of a president by Candice Millard
Call Number: 973.8 M645d (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780385526265

Publication Date: 2011-09-20

James A. Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back. But the shot didn’t kill Garfield. The drama of what happened subsequently is a powerful story of a nation in turmoil. The unhinged assassin’s half-delivered strike shattered the fragile national mood of a country so recently fractured by civil war, and left the wounded president as the object of a bitter behind-the-scenes struggle for power—over his administration, over the nation’s future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care.
Destiny of the Republic [E-Book] : a tale of madness, medicine and the murder of a president by Candice Millard
Call Number: OverDrive E-Book

ISBN: 9780385535007

Publication Date: 2011

Winner

Tinseltown : Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann

Tinseltown : murder, morphine, and madness at the dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann
Call Number: 364.1523 M282t (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780062242167

Publication Date: 2014-10-14

Hollywood chronicler William J. Mann draws on a rich host of sources, including recently released FBI files, to unpack the story of the enigmatic William Desmond Taylor, the popular president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, and the diverse cast that surrounded him before he was murdered in 1922-- including three beautiful, ambitious actresses, the ruthless founder of Paramount locked in a struggle for control of the film industry, a grasping stage mother, a devoted valet, and a gang of two-bit thugs, any of whom might have fired the fatal bullet.

Winner

Killers of the Flower Moon : the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

Killers of the Flower Moon : the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI by David Grann
Call Number: 976.6 G748k (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780385534246

Publication Date: 2017-04-18

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances.
Killers of the Flower Moon [Streaming audiobook] : the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI by David Grann
Call Number: OverDrive Audiobook

ISBN: 9780307747471

Publication Date: 2017

2000s

Winner

Blind Eye : How the Medical Establishment Let a Doctor Get Away With Murder by James B. Stewart

Blind Eye : how the medical establishment let a doctor get away with murder by James B. Stewart
Call Number: 364.1523 S972s (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780684854847

Publication Date: 1999-08-17

A medical thriller from Pulitzer Prize–winning author James B. Stewart about serial killer doctor Michael Swango and the medical community that chose to turn a blind eye on his criminal activities.

Winner

Son of a Grifter : the Twisted Tale of Sante and Kenny Kimes, the Most Notorious Con Artists in America : a Memoir by the other Son by Kent Walker

Son of a Grifter : the twisted tale of Sante and Kenny Kimes, the most notorious con artists in America : a memoir by the other son by Kent Walker; Mark Schone
Call Number: 364.16 K49w (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780060188658

Publication Date: 2001-04-24

In 1988 a troubled young man and his flamboyant mother were arrested for murdering a wealthy widow in her New York City mansion. Suddenly, America was transfixed by a pair of real-life film noir characters. The media couldn't get enough of the twisted relationship between Sante Kimes and her twenty-three-year-old son Kenny. But the most chilling story of all was never told—until now. Kent Walker, Sante's elder son, reveals how he survived forty years of "the Dragon Lady's" very special brand of motherly love and still managed to get away.

Winner

Devil in the White City : Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson

The Devil in the White City : murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America by Erik Larson
Call Number: 364.15 L318d (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780609608449

Publication Date: 2003-02-11

Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America's rush toward the twentieth century. Daniel Hudson Burnham, a renowned architect, was the brilliant director of works for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor, was the satanic murderer of scores of young women in a torture palace built for the purpose near the fairgrounds.
The Devil in the White City [OverDrive E-Book] : a saga of magic and murder at the fair that changed America by Erik Larson
Call Number: OverDrive E-Book

ISBN: 9781400076314

Publication Date: 2004
The Devil in the White City [OverDrive Audiobook] : murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America by Erik Larson
Call Number: OverDrive Audiobook

ISBN: 9780739353011

Publication Date: 2006

Winner

The Rescue Artist : a True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece by Edward Dolnick

The Rescue Artist : a true story of art, thieves, and the hunt for a missing masterpiece by Edward Dolnick
Call Number: 364.16 D665r (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780060531171

Publication Date: 2005-06-28

In the predawn hours of a gloomy February day in 1994, two thieves entered the National Gallery in Oslo and made off with one of the world's most famous paintings, Edvard Munch's Scream. It was a brazen crime committed while the whole world was watching the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. Baffled and humiliated, the Norwegian police turned to the one man they believed could help: a half English, half American undercover cop named Charley Hill, the world's greatest art detective.

Winner

Manhunt : the Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson

Manhunt : the twelve-day chase for Lincoln's killer by James L. Swanson
Call Number: 364.1524 S972m (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780060518493

Publication Date: 2006-02-07

The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror.

Winner

American Lightning : Terror, Mystery Movie-Making, and the Crime of the Century by Howard Blum

American Lightning : terrory, mystery, movie-making, and the crime of the century by Howard Blum
Call Number: 364.1523 B658a (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780307346940

Publication Date: 2008-09-16

It was an explosion that reverberated across the country; and into the very heart of early-twentieth-century America. On the morning of October 1, 1910, the walls of the Los Angeles Times Building buckled as a thunderous detonation sent men, machinery, and mortar rocketing into the night air. When at last the wreckage had been sifted and the hospital triage units consulted, twenty-one people were declared dead and dozens more injured. But as it turned out, this was just a prelude to the devastation that was to come.In American Lightning, acclaimed author Howard Blum masterfully evokes the incredible circumstances that led to the original "crime of the century" and an aftermath more dramatic than even the crime itself.
American Lightning [E-Book] : terror, mystery, the birth of Hollywood, and the crime of the century by Howard Blum
Call Number: OverDrive E-Book

ISBN: 9780307410269

Publication Date: 2008

1990s

Winner

"Doc" : the Rape of the Town of Lovell by Jack Olsen

"Doc" : the rape of the town of Lovell by Jack Olsen
Call Number: 364.1532 O52d (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780689119590

Publication Date: 1989-06-01

Reveals the mass sexual exploitation of the women in Lovell, Wyoming by a family doctor.

Winner

In a Child's Name : the Legacy of a Mother's Murder by Peter Maas

In a Child's Name : the legacy of a mother's murder by Peter Maas
Call Number: 364.1523 T243m (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780671694166

Publication Date: 1990-11-01

Examines the events surrounding the murder of Teresa Benigno Taylor--a wife and new mother. Her husband was arrested, but could he be convicted?.

1980s

Winner

Savage Grace by Natalie S. Robins

Savage Grace by Natalie Robins; Steven M. Aronson
Call Number: 364.1523 B139r (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780688043735

Publication Date: 1985-07-01

Interviews, letters, diaries, plus confidential hospital, State Department, and prison documents portray the fatal relations of a distinguished American family.

Winner

In Broad Daylight by Harry N. MacLean

In Broad Daylight by Harry N. MacLean
Call Number: 364.1523 M473m (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780060158767

Publication Date: 1988-12-01

A case study of the vigilante style death of Ken McElroy in 1981 in Skidmore, Missouri.

1970s

Winner

Blood and Money

Blood and Money by Thomas Thompson
Call Number: 364.1523 H646t (Adult Nonfiction)

ISBN: 9780385096850

Publication Date: 1976-09-01

Joan Robinson Hill was a world-class equestrian, a glamorous member of Houston high society, and the wife of Dr. John Hill, a handsome and successful plastic surgeon. Her father, Ash Robinson, was a charismatic oil tycoon obsessed with making his daughter’s every dream come true. Then one morning in 1969, she fell mysteriously ill.

1960s

Winner

Gideon's Trumpet by Anthony Lewis

Gideon's Trumpet by Anthony Lewis
Call Number: 347.9 L673g (Adult Nonfiction)

Publication Date: 1964

A history of the landmark case of Clarence Earl Gideon's fight for the right to legal counsel. Notes, table of cases, index. The classic backlist bestseller. More than 800,000 sold since its first pub date of 1964.

Winner

In Cold Blood : a True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences by Truman Capote
Call Number: 364.1523 C246i (Adult Nonfiction)

Publication Date: 1984, 1966

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence
In Cold Blood [E-Book] by Truman Capote
Call Number: OverDrive E-Book

ISBN: 9781588361653

Publication Date: 2001-10-09

The Edgar Awards

2020s

Winner

The Less People Know About Us : a Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets, and Stolen Identity by Axton Betz-Hamilton

Finalists

Ghosts of Eden Park

American Predator

Norco '80

Indecent Advances

Winner

Death in Mud Lick : a Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies that Delivered the Opioid Epidemic by Eri Eyre

FINALISTS

Blood Runs Coal : the Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America by Mark A. Bradley

The Third Rainbow Girl : the long life of a double murder in Appalachia by Emma Cople Eisenberg

Yellow Bird : oil, murder, and a woman's search for justice in Indian Country by Sierra Craine Murdoch

Veritas : a Harvard professor, a con man, and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife by Ariel Sabar

WINNER

Last Call : a true story of love, lust, and murder in queer New York by Elon Green

FINALISTS:

The Confidence Men: how two prisoners of war engineered the most remarkable escape in history by Margalit Fox

Sleeper Agent: the atomic spy in America who got away by Ann Hagedorn

Two Truths and a Lie: a murder, a private investigator, and her search for justice by Ellen McGarrahan

The Dope: the real history of the Mexican drug trade by Benjamin T. Smith

When Evil Lived in Laurel: the "White Knights" and the murder of Vernon Dahmer by Curtis Wilkie

WINNER

Tell Me Everything : the Story of a Private Investigation by Erika Krouse

FINALISTS

Slenderman : Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls by Kathleen Hale

Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles

American Caliph : the True Story of a Muslim Mystic, a Hollywood Epic, and the 1977 Siege of Washington, D. C. by Shahan Mufti

American Demon : Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack the Ripper by Daniel Stashower

WINNER

Crooked: The Roaring '20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal by Nathan Masters

FINALISTS

In Light of All Darkness : inside the Polly Klaas kidnapping and the search for America's child by Kim Cross

Number Go Up : inside crypto's wild rise and staggering fall by Zeke Faux

Tangled Vines : power, privilege, and the Murdaugh Family murders by John Glatt

I Know Who You Are : how an amateur DNA sleuth unmasked the Golden State Killer and changed crime fighting forever by Barbara Rae-Venter

THE WINNER

The Infernal Machine : a true story of dynamite, terror, and the rise of the modern detective by Steven Johnson

THE FINALISTS

Long Haul : hunting the highway serial killers by Frank Figliuzzi

A Devil Went Down to Georgia : race, power, privilege, and the murder of Lita McClinton by Deb Miller Landau

The Amish Wife : unraveling the lies, secrets, and conspiracy that let a killer go free by Gregg Olsen

Hell Put to Shame : the 1921 murder farm massacre and the horror of America's second slavery by Earl Swift

The Bishop and the Butterfly : murder, politics, and the end of the Jazz Age by Michael Wolraich

2010s

Winner

Columbine by David Cullen

Winner

The Destiny of the Republic : a Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

Winner

Tinseltown : Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann

Winner

Killers of the Flower Moon : the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

2000s

Winner

Blind Eye : How the Medical Establishment Let a Doctor Get Away With Murder by James B. Stewart

Winner

Son of a Grifter : the Twisted Tale of Sante and Kenny Kimes, the Most Notorious Con Artists in America : a Memoir by the other Son by Kent Walker

Winner

Devil in the White City : Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson

Winner

The Rescue Artist : a True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece by Edward Dolnick

Winner

Manhunt : the Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson

Winner

American Lightning : Terror, Mystery Movie-Making, and the Crime of the Century by Howard Blum

1990s

Winner

"Doc" : the Rape of the Town of Lovell by Jack Olsen

Winner

In a Child's Name : the Legacy of a Mother's Murder by Peter Maas

1980s

Winner

Savage Grace by Natalie S. Robins

Winner

In Broad Daylight by Harry N. MacLean

1970s

Winner