Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Terrifying True Crime

Sometimes true stories are scarier than fiction. If true crime is your thing, check out one of these sinister stories at your Community Library.

True crime author Ann Rule was friends with Ted Bundy long before anyone suspected he was a serial killer. Working together side by side at a suicide prevention hotline, the two grew to be quite close. Rule details Bundy's deadly charisma in The Stranger Beside Me.

Three year old Sayville Kent was brutally murdered in 1860 in an isolated country house inhabited by a limited number of suspects. Although the detective correctly names the murderer, he considers his reputation to be forever ruined. Kate Summersgale's The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a wonderfully suspenseful historically accurate mystery that details the birth of modern forensic investigations.

In The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson follows Dr. H.H. Holmes, the serial killer who haunted the 1893 Chicago World's Fair along with the fair's architect, David Burnham as he worked tirelessly to ensure the fair was a success. Written like an novel, Larson not only describes Holmes' horrific crimes but the sky reaching potential of the World's Fair as well.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

Terrifying True Crime

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