2025 Edgar Awards round-up: Hell Put to Shame
Susan Howard’s Edgars coverage continues with Earl Swift’s book on a peonage massacre; read the full review here, or subscribe at the paid level to get all...
Gone Girls and the rule of three(-part streaming doc)s
Read SDB’s full review here. Want full reviews in your inbox? Grab a paid sub! Subscribe now
Edgar Awards round-up: The Amish Wife
Prolific genre author Gregg Olsen returns to the subject of his FIRST book: the murder of Ida Stutzman. Is it a case worth revisiting? Susan Howard gets into...
March 2025 bonus review: Eaten Alive!
A South Texas Bluebeard meets the Texas Chainsaw Massacre creative team; it may not go exactly the way you think it does. Mars Productions Corp. Subscribe now
Horror story: The Killing Fields of East New York
Stacy Horn's recent book chronicles the corruption that turned a neighborhood into a cautionary, all-too-true tale. Is it worth your time? Read Mark...
2025 Edgar Awards round-up: A Devil Went Down To Georgia
Deb Miller Landau covered Lita McClinton's murder for Atlanta Magazine; 20 years later, she returned to the case. Is the book worth your time? Read the rest...
Happy Face: "Please don't produce me"
SDB’s full review is here. Want these sent in full to your inbox? Mash that button… Subscribe now
Last Take: "How you get justice from an accident"
The making of Rust turned into a Möbius of trauma for everyone involved, not least Halyna Hutchins. Is a documentary about it worth making – or watching?...
2025 Edgar Awards round-up: The Infernal Machine
Read Susan Howard’s take on a tale of anarchist bombings and the birth of the surveillance state right here… …or up your support of Best Evidence and get...
Read-Handed: Gypsy-Rose, Michael Stewart, and sisters of mercy
Plus a Lawrence Wright longread, the passing of a genre giant, and the perils of branded crimoir. More from SDB’s reading list here, or grab a full sub and...
2025 Edgar Awards round-up: Long Haul
Once again this year, Best Evidence is tackling the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award nominees for Best Fact Crime book. Read Susan Howard’s first...
The Man Nobody Killed: art, community, and the grief left behind
Mark Blankenship’s review of Elon Green’s latest is here — or, to get full reviews straight to your inbox, Subscribe now
Sin City Gigolo: A Murder in Las Vegas is true crime comfort food
I should lead by confessing that prior to watching new Paramount+ true crime series Sin City Gigolo: A Murder in Las Vegas, almost everything I knew about...
February 2025 Bonus Review: The Annals of Manhattan Crime
6 takeaways from a rare '80s magazine issue…including how to read it for free A Pottstown, PA publication contemplates the Crater case. Subscribe now
How true-crimey was Gene Hackman’s c.v.?
The late great Hoosiers star has a long IMDb résumé, including a handful of classics. But is he a GENRE legend? find out with SDB’s Hackman BET-CRP or read...
6 better uses of your time than Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy
Peacock had its reasons for making the hourlong doc; I can't really come up with any for watching it. SDB’s alternative read/watch list is here, or grab a...
You’ve watched Secrets Of The Dead’s Nazi art-thief episode. What’s next?
The PBS show wraps up its look at Hitler's righthand art looter, Bruno Lohse, this week; we've got your further reading covered. SDB’s review and reader here...
Read-Handed: FDR, forensics, and French takes on 50 cases
SDB’s updated reading list is right here; to get this, the entire Best Evidence archive, AND delivery of new content straight to your inbox, grab a paid sub...
American Murder: Gabby Petito is a wasted opportunity
It’s hard to see the through line between the cases Netflix franchise American Murder has chosen to spotlight. In 2020, it was the death of Watts family at...
Who Is Luigi Mangione? ID's hour-long doc won't tell you
But it IS rather informative on how NOT to cover UHC CEO Brian Thompson’s murder/er. SDB’s full review is here; if you’d like all these reviews in your...
The Ice Man: Kuklinski, Soprano, and an unjustly forgotten doc series
America Undercover probably belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of TV true crime. Why don't we talk about it anymore? Richard Kuklinski. (HBO) read SDB’s review...
Read-Handed: Carolina murders and computer crimes
Plus Vivian Gordon vs. Jimmy Walker, law enforcement vs. the written word, and SDB vs. the inventory pile. SDB’s whole reading/review list is here — but with...
Apple Cider Vinegar is Anatomy of Lies for the MAHA set
On the surface, the case of Belle Gibson doesn't have enough meat on its bones to justify a one-off true crime feature, let alone a full series. The...
The terms by which the thing is understood: Zodiac Killer Project
The crimeThe Zodiac killings. A snarky frame from Charlie Shackleton’s Zodiac Killer Project. (Charlie Shackleton) The storyFilmmaker Charlie Shackleton...
The Girl With the Needle is a gorgeous Danish nightmare
The crimeBorn in 1887, Dagmar Overby was a Danish woman who worked as a "baby farmer," taking in unwanted children from parents unable to care for them in...
January 2025 Bonus Review: The Apprentice in Wonderland
The president makes a famous gesture. (FilmMagic) The crimeRape; fraud; slander; treason; misdemeanor use of a TJ Eckleburg reference. Subscribe now
4 new true crime shows to look forward to
True crime programming planners, they're just like us! There's been a marked lull in true crime drops the last few weeks, which makes sense given how...
Can American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson say anything new using the same old framework?
The crimeOn June 12, 1994, OJ Simpson murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her acquaintance, Ron Goldman. In doing so, he ushered American culture under a...
Read-Handed: ’80s hackers, movie gangsters, and sleuthing brothers
Read-Handed is our occasional feature updating you on true-crime books, listens, research etc. that we're in the middle of right now. We hope you'll add YOUR...
Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy rushes to judgment
The crimeAllegedly, harassment, intimate-partner assault, sexual assault, sex trafficking, and murder/attempted murder. Sean Combs and his reps continue to...
Read-Handed: Plagiarism, puppy-napping, and police corruption
Read-Handed is our occasional feature updating you on true-crime books, listens, research etc. that we're in the middle of right now. We hope you'll add YOUR...
The Breakthrough hit big on Netflix. Why?
The Swedish docudrama about a 2004 double murder is surprisingly buzzy. Should you see what everyone's talking about? SDB’s full review is here…but you can...
Lucy Worsley Investigates: Where "cozy British mystery" and "true crime" meet
The Beeb2 history series kicked off its second series with a Jack the Ripper episode. Should you brew a cuppa and tune in? Find out here (or grab a paid sub...
Lady of the Dunes is ALMOST interesting, by accident
My full review of Oxygen’s deeply typical, but allllmost compelling, take on Provincetown’s majorest case is right here. Grab a paid subscription and you’ll...
Read-Handed: The Big Apple, the White House, and the frozen north
Read-Handed is an occasional feature updating you on true-crime books, listens, research etc. that we're in the middle of right now. We hope you'll add YOUR...
Our hopes for true crime in 2025
We've reached the final day of Best Evidence's annual Year in Review series, which you are presumably reading through a pair of those funny "2025" glasses...
December 2024 Bonus: The Mole Agent
The crimeChilean private investigator Rómulo Aitken has a client who believes that her elderly mother may be the victim of theft and abuse at the mother's...
The worst true crime of 2024
Best Evidence’s tagline is "the true crime that's worth your time," and that's one of the reasons we do this annual Year in Review series — we want to make...
The hidden true crime gems you missed in 2024
Today is my second-favorite (after our longread list) in Best Evidence’s annual Year in Review series. I love talking about properties that were overlooked...
The most anticipated true crime properties of 2025
We're looking to the future for today's installment in Best Evidence’s Year in Review. (If you're just catching up, here are our lists of the best vintage...
Our favorite throwback true crime properties in 2024
Supporters get every Best Evidence article in their inbox, while free subscribers can click through to read at Reality Blurred. We're starting this week of...
The best true crime dramas of 2024
As we reach the end of the first Year in Review (Best Evidence’s fourth annual, I should note), I’m already overwhelmed by all the remarkable best true crime...
The best true crime documentaries of 2024
Welcome to day four of Best Evidence’s fourth annual Year in Review, in which we celebrate the best true crime properties, complain about the worst, and spin...
The best true crime longreads of 2024
Welcome to day three of Best Evidence's fourth annual Year in Review, in which we celebrate the best true crime properties, complain about the worst, and...
The best true crime podcasts of 2024
Welcome to day two of Best Evidence's fourth annual Year in Review, in which we celebrate the best true crime properties, complain about the worst, and spin...
The best true crime books of 2024
Welcome to Best Evidence's fourth annual Year in Review, in which we celebrate the best true crime properties, complain about the worst, and spin hopeful...
The Elissas: Crimoir and compromise
The crimeBroadly, the Troubled Teen Industry – unregulated at best, fraudulent and abusive at worst. Specifically, the untimely death of author Samantha...
Making Manson: We're still listening to his name
The crimeI assume I don't have to go over the particulars of August 8-10, 1969 yet again. We do apparently have some reason to doubt the culpability of...
V13: Chronicle of a Trial struggles to make sense of the 2015 Paris massacre
On Friday November 13, 2015, a series of coordinated terror attacks throughout Paris killed 130 people, most of them young people attending a rock concert....
Jailbreak: Love on the Run is a prisoner of convention
The crimeIn late April of 2022, Alabama corrections officer Vicky White facilitated the escape of her incarcerated lover, Casey White, shocking her friends...