Best Of 2022: Favorite true-crime book
From Alice to Zodiac, some of the year's top reads
the true crime that's worth your time
We asked an esteemed panel of colleagues and contributors for the best (and most disappointing) true-crime properties of 2022; the true crime they look forward to in 2023; vintage gems and underrated treasures they discovered; and their big-picture takes on the genre.
Here’s what they told us about their favorite true-crime books of the past year.
Sarah Weinman, author of Scoundrel and New York Times crime-fiction columnist: “Motor Spirit by Jarett Kobek. It's the standard from which all subsequent Zodiac-related material (including Kobek's own companion volume, How To Find Zodiac) will deviate from, debunking myths and adding necessary sociological context for the murders. Even if the case is solved -- and it well might [be] now -- MOTOR SPIRIT succeeds because it doesn't require the reader to meditate on possible suspects.” (SDB reviewed Motor Spirit here.)
Toby Ball, host of Strange Arrivals and co-host of Crime Writers On…: “It wasn't published in 2022, but the best true crime book I read in 2022 was probably The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper. Beautifully written and fascinating look at a deadly wildfire in Australia and the person who might have set it.”
David Bushman, author of Murder At Teal’s Pond: “The Combat Zone: Murder, Race, and Boston's Struggle for Justice by Jan Brogan; Murder Book: A Graphic Memoir of a True Crime Obsession by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell.”
Margaret Howie, the co-founder of Space Fruit Press and editor of the Three Weeks newsletter: “Rick Emerson’s Unmask Alice, which is the only 2022 true-crime release I read, and isn’t a stone classic, but does have an agreeably more-ish quality.” (Read Margaret’s review here.)
Susan Howard, B.E. contributor: “Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles. Not just a detailed account of the 1992 unsolved double murder of Julie Williams and Lollie Winans in Shenandoah National Park, but a thoughtful examination of the safety of outdoor spaces for anyone who isn’t white, male, and able-bodied. Put this one in the canon alongside Jon Krakauer’s catalogue of nature and outdoor writing.”
Dan Cassino, professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University: “I didn’t review it for Best Evidence — Margaret Howie got there first! — but Rick Emerson’s Unmask Alice was my favorite true-crime read of the year. The ‘crime’ here is relatively minor — a struggling author using a connection with Art ‘kids say the darndest things’ Linkletter to pass off a novel as an authentic diary — but it had enormous ramifications for the war on drugs, much as the author’s later book was in the right place at the right time to fuel the Satanic panic.
It did what I find my favorite work does, and got really, really deep into the details, laying out exactly what Emerson was able to find out, and how he found it out, leading the reader through how he reached his conclusions. He’s careful to not go beyond what he can prove — the specter of a lawsuit seems to hang over every word — but what’s there is damning. It’s well done, and it’s my best of the year because it’s so relevant to today, because the Satanic panic never went away, but just went dormant. Reading Go Ask Alice in 2022, it’s laughably obvious that no teenager ever wrote this way, that the evidence taken at face value at the time was ridiculous. It would be funny if we weren’t living through the same thing today.”
Elizabeth Held, author of What To Read If: “2022 was such a great year for true crime books — and I haven’t even made it through all my library holds. Some of my favorites from this year:
Scoundrel by Sarah Weinman is a searing examination of how privilege and politics shape our criminal justice system. She documents the unlikely friendship between conservative scion William F. Buckley and murderer Edgar Smith, while maintaining a focus on the killer’s female victims. With it, Weinman proved — again — that she’s one of the genre’s best contemporary writers.
Tell Me Everything by Erika Krouse isn’t a straight true crime memoir, but a beautifully written meditation on the time Krouse spent as a private investigator. She chronicles how her investigation into a college sexual assault case forced her to confront the abuse she suffered as a child.
The Missing Crypto Queen by Jamie Bartlett documents a wild scam that combined fake cryptocurrency, an MLM scheme and a con artist who disappeared with billions. Excellent option if you’ve always thought crypto was mostly a swindle.
Retail Gangster by Gary Weiss was way more fascinating than any book about accounting fraud should be. I referenced this book documenting the rise and fall of Crazy Eddie, a electronics retailer in New York, roughly 15 times over Thanksgiving week because I could not stop thinking about it.” (Elizabeth reviewed Tell Me Everything earlier this year; I just got Retail Gangster as a holiday gift and can’t wait to read it. - SDB)
As for me, Scoundrel is right up there, along with Pharma (a 2020 publication, but it felt very fresh…alas). But Motor Spirit just knocked me out, and for recent true crime on audio, I can’t recommend Graff’s Watergate highly enough. — SDB
Did the NYT agree with us in their best-of-true-crime list? Do you? What’d we miss?
This week on Best Evidence: The year’s best true-crime pods and longreads, plus docs and docudramae. We’re free all week this week and next, but if you’ve got a hard-to-surprise true-crime consumer on your gift list, well well what do you know…
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