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. These books range from mild to intense - please choose with care. Plant a seed, read!

Updated May 11, 2026
LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County) Milwaukie Ledding Library
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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. These books range from mild to intense - please choose with care. Plant a seed, read!

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Furious hours : murder, fraud, and the last trial of Harper Lee
Cep, Casey N.
Paper Book
ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2019 NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2019 BY Time, LitHub, Vulture, Glamour, O Magazine, Town and Country, Suspense Magazine, Inside Hook New York Times Best Seller   "Compelling...
The Monsters We Make: Murder, Obsession, and the Rise of Criminal Profiling
Corbett, Rachel.
Paper Book
Criminal profiling--the delicate art of collecting and deciphering the psychological "fingerprints" of the monsters among us--holds an almost mythological status in pop culture. But what exactly is it, does it work, and why is the American public so entranced by it? What do we gain, and endanger,...
The third rainbow girl : the long life of a double murder in Appalachia
Eisenberg, Emma Copley
Paper Book
*** A NEW YORK TIMES "100 Notable Books of 2020" *** A stunning, complex narrative about the fractured legacy of a decades-old double murder in rural West Virginia--and the writer determined to put the pieces back together.   In...
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...
Death in the jungle : murder, betrayal, and the lost dream of Jonestown
Fleming, Candace
Paper Book
How did Jim Jones, the leader of Peoples Temple, convince more than 900 of his followers to commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced punch? From a master of narrative nonfiction comes a chilling chronicle of one of the most notorious cults in American history. A YALSA...
The falcon thief : a true tale of adventure, treachery, and the hunt for the perfect bird
Hammer, Joshua
Paper Book
A rollicking true-crime adventure about a rogue who trades in rare birds and their eggs--and the wildlife detective determined to stop him. On May 3, 2010, an Irish national named Jeffrey Lendrum was apprehended at Britain's Birmingham International Airport with a suspicious...
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...
A gentleman and a thief : the daring jewel heists of a Jazz Age rogue
Jobb, Dean
Paper Book
A captivating Jazz Age true-crime caper about "the greatest jewel thief who ever lived" (Life Magazine), Arthur Barry, who charmed everyone from Rockefellers to members of the royal family while simultaneously planning and executing the most audacious and lucrative heists of the...
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 secret history of the rape kit : a true crime story
Kennedy, Pagan
Paper Book
Marty Goddard dreamed up a new crime-solving tool-a kit that could help rape survivors fight for justice. This thrilling investigation tells the story of the troubled, heroic woman who kicked off a feminist revolution in forensics, and then vanished into obscurity. "Astonishing . . ....
A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides
Pelicot, Gisele
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A rousing feminist manifesto." - The New York Times Book Review "Staggering . . . a lyrical book about monstrous events, a compelling exploration of what it feels like to hold two existences in your brain at once." -...
The Impostor Heiress: Cassie Chadwick, the Greatest Grifter of the Gilded Age
Reed, Annie
Paper Book
Paroled felon. Rich doctor's wife. Famous clairvoyant. Cassie Chadwick, one of history's most successful con artists, was a master of reinvention. In the dusk of the Gilded Age, she swept from town to town, assuming fresh identities to swindle a fortune so large that it rivaled the robber...
The trial of Lizzie Borden : a true story
Robertson, Cara
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY BOOK AWARD In Cara Robertson's "enthralling" book, The Trial of Lizzie Borden, "the reader is to serve as judge and jury" (The New York Times). Based on twenty years of research and recently unearthed evidence, this true crime...
Practice to deceive
Rule, Ann.
Paper Book
#1 New York Times bestselling author and Queen of True Crime Ann Rule delivers another gripping true-crime story-this time a shattering case of Christmastime murder off the coast of Washington State, with a shocking amount of drama, greed, sex, and scandal and no shortage of suspects. ...
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...
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