Bad Seeds: True Crime

Not all seeds grow beautiful flowers! Check out some of these stories of real-life criminals, grifters, cult leaders, con artists, thieves, and murderers. Plant a seed, read!

Updated May 3, 2026
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Catch and kill : lies, spies, and a conspiracy to protect predators
Farrow, Ronan
Paper Book
Now an HBO documentary series streaming on HBO Max.  In this instant New York Times bestselling account of violence and espionage, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Ronan Farrow exposes serial abusers and a cabal of powerful interests...
The art thief : a true story of love, crime, and a dangerous obsession
Finkel, Michael
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century * "The Art Thief, like its title character, has confidence, élan, and a great sense of timing."--The New Yorker A...
Chase darkness with me : how one true-crime writer started solving murders
Jensen, Billy
Paper Book
Have you ever wanted to solve a murder? Gather the clues the police overlooked? Put together the pieces? Identify the suspect? Journalist Billy Jensen spent fifteen years investigating unsolved murders, fighting for the families of victims. Every story he wrote had one thing in common...
The feather thief : beauty, obsession, and the natural history heist of the century
Johnson, Kirk W.
Ebook
As heard on NPR's This American Life "Absorbing . . . Though it's non-fiction, The Feather Thief contains many of the elements of a classic thriller." --Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air "One of the most peculiar and memorable true-crime...
Eden undone : a true story of sex, murder, and utopia at the dawn of World War II
Kahler, Abbott
Paper Book
A power-hungry baroness with two lovers disrupts life on an Eden-like island in the Galápagos, and an isolated community descends into madness and murder--a true story of utopia gone wrong from New York Times bestselling author Abbott Kahler. "Abbott Kahler's wickedly...
Say nothing : a true story of murder and memory in Northern Ireland
Keefe, Patrick Radden
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NOW AN FX LIMITED SERIES STREAMING ON HULU * NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER * From the author of Empire of Pain--a stunning, intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions. One...
The trial of Lizzie Borden : a true story
Robertson, Cara
Audiobook
The 57 bus
Slater, Dashka
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller Stonewall Book Award Winner A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the 21st Century (So Far) The riveting New York Times bestseller and Stonewall Book Award winner that will make you rethink all you...
The killer of little shepherds : a true crime story and the birth of forensic science
Starr, Douglas P.
Paper Book
A riveting true crime story that vividly recounts the birth of modern forensics. At the end of the nineteenth century, serial murderer Joseph Vacher, known and feared as “The Killer of Little Shepherds,” terrorized the French countryside. He eluded authorities for years...
Kill show : a true crime novel
Sweren-Becker, Daniel
Paper Book
"Riveting, original, and chillingly plausible, Kill Show is both an urgent reckoning with the ethics of true crime and a tense mystery in its own right. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough."--Flynn Berry, Edgar Award-winning author of Northern Spy When sixteen-year-old Sara...

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