Panzram: A Journal of Murder is pretty wild. No one can really match up to the perverse, unhinged insanity of Carl.
Romofan1973 on
A favorite is tough, because there are so many crimes (and yet they are all depressingly similar…) anyways, I would say *Vulgar Favors* by Maureen Orth. It’s about the decline and fall of the killer chameleon Andrew Cunanan. A fascinating guy. He was a total narcissist, and envious, and these nasties ate away at him until he erupted into violence. But there was more to him—born with great mental gifts and some charisma, he could have succeeded in a conventional field.
But something was missing.
motherjuno on
*Cherry* by Nico Walker, without a doubt. That’s one of my favorite books of all time, too. It’s not ‘true crime’ in the traditional overview-of-a-murder way, but it was written while Walker was in prison and it’s a fictionalised autobiography of his life and what led him to prison (he was a serial bank robber, which isn’t a spoiler, it’s laid out in the prologue). *Cherry* is a sobering, painfully human, and wildly entertaining read and Walker’s casual yet confrontational writing style has been a major inspiration for myself as a writer. The novel’s themes are largely focused on how America systemically fails veterans (and those actively enlisted/deployed), the full brutality of war (particularly the Iraq war) and the toll it takes on every party involved, as well as how desperation, poverty, and drug addiction can quickly lead people to extremes. Even if you aren’t interested in novels that focus on wars (which I myself don’t care for, and neither does Nico Walker — the way he covers those parts of the book reflect that), I would still highly recommend it just for its style and the sheer amount of personality Walker packs into every sentence.
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Panzram: A Journal of Murder is pretty wild. No one can really match up to the perverse, unhinged insanity of Carl.
A favorite is tough, because there are so many crimes (and yet they are all depressingly similar…) anyways, I would say *Vulgar Favors* by Maureen Orth. It’s about the decline and fall of the killer chameleon Andrew Cunanan. A fascinating guy. He was a total narcissist, and envious, and these nasties ate away at him until he erupted into violence. But there was more to him—born with great mental gifts and some charisma, he could have succeeded in a conventional field.
But something was missing.
*Cherry* by Nico Walker, without a doubt. That’s one of my favorite books of all time, too. It’s not ‘true crime’ in the traditional overview-of-a-murder way, but it was written while Walker was in prison and it’s a fictionalised autobiography of his life and what led him to prison (he was a serial bank robber, which isn’t a spoiler, it’s laid out in the prologue). *Cherry* is a sobering, painfully human, and wildly entertaining read and Walker’s casual yet confrontational writing style has been a major inspiration for myself as a writer. The novel’s themes are largely focused on how America systemically fails veterans (and those actively enlisted/deployed), the full brutality of war (particularly the Iraq war) and the toll it takes on every party involved, as well as how desperation, poverty, and drug addiction can quickly lead people to extremes. Even if you aren’t interested in novels that focus on wars (which I myself don’t care for, and neither does Nico Walker — the way he covers those parts of the book reflect that), I would still highly recommend it just for its style and the sheer amount of personality Walker packs into every sentence.