Books about true crimes
Books about true crimes
Authors often find inspiration for novels in crimes that have taken place in real life. Revisiting a crime or reimaging that time gives scope for readers today to see what might have gone on, and how we might have felt about it.
Infamous crimes like Jack the Ripper or the Rillington Place murders fascinate to this day. They are a way of facing our fears from the comfort of our own homes and in many cases, feeling reassured that the criminals got their comeuppance/
Here are a few real life criminal cases and their literary equivalents:
Rillington Place
The Peepshow
London, 1953. Police discover the bodies of three young women hidden in a wall at 10 Rillington Place, a dingy terrace house in Notting Hill.
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
The Rode Hill House murder
A true life murder in 1860 in a beautiful quiet village – the first detective story of its day and the story of the relationship between a wealthy family and a crime that seemed unsolvable.
Jack the Ripper
The Five
The story not of Jack the Ripper but the women he murdered. They are the ones talked about here and given their voice. They tell their story and there is barely any mention of the killer. It’s the victims in the driving seat here. Remember their names.
James Bulger
The Wicked Girls
No one will ever forget the horrific killing of James Bulger aged just 2 by two ten year old boys. On 12 February 1993 in Merseyside, England, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, abducted, tortured, and murdered him. The Wicked Girls features a similar case and was part of the Written in Blood series of TV shows about how real crime can often influence novels.
More literary settings here
Crime novels here
