Suddenly, I was way more interested. But true crime is not without its flaws. This was brought home to me when I listened to my Feminist Book Club colleagues, Mariquita Guerrera and Natalia Santana-Pollard, discuss whether it’s possible to ethically consume true crime, particularly considering its overwhelming whiteness. In fact, I struggle to find authors of color in the genre, and the focus of many true crime stories is often on the innocent young white girl, or what is known as the perfect or ideal victim. The world of true crime podcasts actually does a much better job of closing true crime’s racial gap. Standouts include series like Black Girl Gone, Cases of Color, and Affirmative Murder. But back to the books. Rather than present a list of standout true crime titles (we have plenty of those already), I wanted to get somewhat meta. The list below contains both true crime and crime fiction that also examines the inherent failings of the true crime genre. If reading this post made you want to read MOAR TRUE CRIME, allow me to point you in the direction of this list of books about missing and murdered people of color. Or this list of 18 international true crime books you’ve likely never heard of. Or even this list of 50 must-reads in the genre.
