In Cold Blood
By Truman Capote, read by Scott Brick
Random House Audio
When an unsolved crime finally appears to be cracked, as the JonBenet Ramsey case recently seemed to be, the public’s excitement is palpable. There’s just something about true crime that gets the imagination roaring, and audiobooks, so like ghost stories, are the perfect medium to rehash the details of creepy true tales. Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” the story of two criminals who murdered a popular Kansas family, has long been considered the exemplary forerunner of the genre’s modern novelistic stylings. Here are a few more audiobooks that will keep your heart racing:
My Dark Places
By James Ellroy, read by the author
Random House
Gritty noir at its finest. James Ellroy (“L.A. Confidential”) snoops around Los Angeles looking for clues to his mother’s seedy, unsolved murder.
Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper–Case Closed
By Patricia Cornwell, read by Kate Burton
Penguin Group
Acclaimed crime-fiction writer Patricia Cornwell takes a spin through Victorian London and, through meticulous investigative reporting, claims to have nailed the mystery of the Ripper’s identity.
The Executioner’s Song
By Norman Mailer, read by Jonathan Reese
Books on Tape
The devastating Pulitzer Prize-winning story of Gary Gilmore, who was put to death for the murder of two men in Utah.
Bitter Harvest: A Woman’s Fury, a Mother’s Sacrifice
By Ann Rule, read by Mary Beth Hurt
Simon & Schuster Audio
True-crime queen Ann Rule (“Small Sacrifices”) turns her sights on the bizarre case of Dr. Deborah Green, who repeatedly poisoned her husband and murdered her children. A little trashy, but enthralling nonetheless.
———-
Kristin Kloberdanz is a Chicago writer
