Many people associate summer reading with trashy fiction. But if you like your recreational reading spiced with real people and true events, there’s a never-ending supply of true crime writing that can be every bit as absorbing as the best mystery novels.

Interest in the San Francisco area Zodiac murders of the 1960s and ‘70s was rekindled last year with the release of the film based on the book Zodiac, by Robert Graysmith. The author was a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle when a killer calling himself “The Zodiac” began sending taunting letters and cryptograms to the newspaper following each in a series of brutal murders. Officially unsolved to this day, the identity of the killer became an obsession for Graysmith. Graysmith believes he knows who the Zodiac killer was, and reveals his identity in a follow-up book, the equally chilling Zodiac Unmasked.

As a result of the success of “Zodiac,” Graysmith became a professional true crime writer. In The Sleeping Lady he wrote about another notorious serial killer. Known as the “Trailside Killer,” David J. Carpenter was eventually convicted of a string of murders that began in 1979 in the shadow of San Francisco’s Mt. Tamalpais, known as “The Sleeping Lady.”

If you prefer true crime with a local flavor, you could hardly do better than A Scream on the Water, by Salem author Margaret Press. Martha Brailsford left her Salem Willows home one day in the summer of 1991 to go sailing with acquaintance Thomas Maimoni. She never returned. The Brailsford case and Maimoni’s subsequent trial dominated the North Shore and Boston news cycles for months. Maimoni was a compulsive liar with a history of assaulting women. But did he kill Martha Brailsford? Press’s book reveals the details of this fascinating case.

Another true crime offering with local appeal is A Death in Belmont, by Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm. In the spring of 1963, the quiet suburb of Belmont, Massachusetts was rocked by a shocking sex murder that exactly fit the pattern of the Boston Strangler. Sensing a break in the case that had paralyzed the city of Boston, the police tracked down a black man, Roy Smith, who had cleaned the victim’s house that day and left a receipt with his name on the kitchen counter. Smith was convicted of the Belmont murder, but the terror of the Strangler continued. On the day of the murder, Albert DeSalvo–the man who would eventually confess in lurid detail to the Strangler’s crimes–was also in Belmont, working as a carpenter at the Jungers’ home. Was Desalvo the Belmont killer? Junger’s book explores this fascinating possibility.

Deadly American Beauty: a true story of passion, adultery, and murder, by John Glatt, chronicles the trial of Kristin Rossum, the brilliant and stunningly beautiful criminal toxicologist from a prominent family. The San Diego blonde was accused of poisoning her devoted husband so she could pursue an affair with her boss. Rossum admitted being a drug addict and an adultress, but denied murdering her husband. Glatt reveals the true story.

In Invisible Eden, Maria Flook wrote about the murder of 46 year-old fashion writer Christa Worthington, who was found stabbed to death on the kitchen floor of her seaside cottage on Cape Cod, her toddler daughter nestled by her side. Written before the trial and conviction of a local trash collector for the murder, Flook’s book chronicles the early investigation, when “persons of interest” included Worthington’s neighbor as well as her former boyfriend and father of her child.

If you like your true crime writing with a literary twist, check out The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson. Bringing 1893 Chicago to vivid life, Larson’s bestseller intertwines the true tale of two men: the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 Word’s Fair; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their deaths. Esquire magazine called Larson’s book, “So good, you’ll find yourself asking how you could not know this already.”

Don’t overlook the true crime genre when thinking about your summer reading. Beebe Library has a wide selection in both hardcover and paperback.

Categories: Book Buzz,Booklists,Nonfiction,Staff Picks,Suspense
Tags: boos, crime, criminals, non-fiction, nonfiction, reading, trials, true crime