Nonviolent True Crime

Updated June 6, 2026
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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...
Anansi's gold : the man who looted the west, outfoxed Washington, and swindled the world
Yeebo, Yepoka
Paper Book
"Catch Me if You Can meets Coming to America in this epic tale of one of the greatest scammers of all time."-NPR Shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize * A New York Times Notable Book of the Year * A New Yorker, NPR, Newsweek...
Rogues true stories of grifters, killers, rebels and crooks
Keefe, Patrick Radden
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the award-winning author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing--and one of the most decorated journalists of our time--twelve enthralling true stories of skulduggery and intrigue "An excellent collection of Keefe's detective...
The dinosaur artist : obsession, betrayal, and the quest for Earth's ultimate trophy
Williams, Paige
Paper Book
In this 2018 New York Times Notable Book,Paige Williams "does for fossils what Susan Orlean did for orchids" (Book Riot) in her account of one Florida man's attempt to sell a dinosaur skeleton from Mongolia--a story "steeped in natural history, human nature, commerce, crime, science...
The feather thief : beauty, obsession, and the natural history heist of the century
Johnson, Kirk W.
Paper Book
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...
Empire of pain : the secret history of the Sackler dynasty
Keefe, Patrick Radden
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR * A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. From...
Little bosses everywhere : how the pyramid scheme shaped America
Read, Bridget
Paper Book
A "gripping" (The Washington Post) work of history and reportage that unveils the stranger-than-fiction world of multilevel marketing- a massive money-making scam and radical political conspiracy that has remade American society. "Reads like a thriller . . . masterfully...
Bad blood : secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley startup
Carreyrou, John
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The gripping story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos--one of the biggest corporate frauds in history--a tale of ambition and hubris set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley, rigorously reported by the prize-winning journalist. With a new Afterword.
0101818131795
364.168 B498A
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. The unbelievable true story of the man who built a billion-dollar online drug empire from his bedroom--and almost got away with it   In 2011, a twenty-six-year-old libertarian programmer named Ross Ulbricht launched the ultimate free market: the...
The orchid thief
Orlean, Susan.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK * THE BASIS FOR THE FILM ADAPTATION DIRECTED BY SPIKE JONZE AND STARRING NICOLAS CAGE AND MERYL STREEP The "eccentric, illuminating, [and] hilarious" (New York Daily News) true story of...
Unmask Alice : LSD, satanic panic, and the imposter behind the world's most notorious diaries
Emerson, Rick
Paper Book
Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson goes a long way to showing what investigative journalism could be in the right hands ... this book is undeniably buzzworthy.' -- Portland Book Review. 'An absorbing and unnerving read ... this book demands to be finished in one sitting.' -- Booklist. Two teens. Two...
Billion dollar whale : the man who fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the world
Wright, Tom (Wall Street Journal reporter)
Paper Book
Named a Best Book of 2018 by the Financial Times and Fortune, this "thrilling" (Bill Gates) New York Times bestseller exposes how a "modern Gatsby" swindled over $5 billion with the aid of Goldman Sachs in "the heist of the century" (Axios). Now a #1...
The King of Diamonds : the search for the elusive Texas jewel thief
Pederson, Rena
Paper Book
The thrilling story of a brazen, uncatchable jewel thief who roamed the homes of Dallas high society--and a window into the dark secrets lurking beneath the surface of the Swinging Sixties. As a string of high profile jewel thefts went unsolved during the Swinging Sixties, the...
My friend Anna : the true story of a fake heiress
Williams, Rachel DeLoache
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF TIME'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Sex and the City meets Bad Blood and Catch Me if You Can in this riveting true crime memoir that tells the astonishing firsthand story of Anna Delvey--the...
Nowhere girl : a memoir of a fugitive childhood /
Diamond, Cheryl
Paper Book
By the age of nine, I will have lived in more than a dozen countries, on five continents, under six assumed identities. I'll know how a document is forged, how to withstand an interrogation, and most important, how to disappear . . . To the young Cheryl...
American heiress : the wild saga of the kidnapping, crimes and trial of Patty Hearst
Toobin, Jeffrey
Paper Book
From New Yorker staff writer and bestselling author of The Nine and The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson, the definitive account of the kidnapping and trial that defined an insane era in American history   On February 4, 1974, Patty...
The less people know about us : a mystery of betrayal, family secrets, and stolen identity
Betz-Hamilton, Axton
Paper Book
AN EDGAR AWARDS 2020 WINNER AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER In this powerful true crime memoir, an award-winning identity theft expert tells the shocking story of the duplicity and betrayal that inspired her career and nearly destroyed her family. ...
Sex on the moon the amazing story behind the most audacious heist in history
Mezrich, Ben
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestselling Author -- Thad Roberts, a fellow in a prestigious NASA program, had an idea -- a romantic, albeit crazy, idea. He wanted to give his girlfriend the moon. Literally. Somehow he convinced his girlfriend (also a NASA fellow) and another female accomplice to break into an...
The billionaire's vinegar : the mystery of the world's most expensive bottle of wine
Wallace, Benjamin
Paper Book
The rivetingly strange story of the world's most expensive bottle of wine, and the even stranger characters whose lives have intersected with it. The New York Times bestseller, updated with a new epilogue, that tells the true story of a 1787 Ch teau Lafite Bordeaux...
A gentleman and a thief : the daring jewel heists of a Jazz Age rogue
Jobb, Dean
Paper Book
National Bestseller Globe and Mail Bestseller List Toronto Star Bestseller List Finalist Chicago Writers Association Nonfiction Book of the Year Award An Amazon.com Editors' Pick as a Best Book, Best History & Best Biography Catch Me If You Can meets...
The man who loved books too much : the true story of a thief, a detective, and a world of literary obsession
Bartlett, Allison Hoover.
Paper Book
People have been collecting--and stealing--books since even before Gutenberg invented the printing press. Internationally, according to Interpol, rare book theft is more widespread than fine art theft. In The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, Allison Hoover Bartlett takes us deep inside the...
Run, hide, repeat : a memoir of a fugitive childhood
Dakin, Pauline
Paper Book
Winner of the 2018 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction Longlisted for British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction 2018 Shortlisted for the 2018 Evelyn Richardson Non-fiction Award Shortlisted for the 2018 Atlantic...
All that glitters a story of friendship, fraud, and fine art
Whitfield, Orlando
Paper Book
Orlando Whitfield and Inigo Philbrick met in 2006 at London's Goldsmiths University where they became best friends. By 2007 they had started I...
American fire : love, arson, and life in a vanishing land
Hesse, Monica
Paper Book
The arsons started on a cold November midnight and didn't stop for months. Night after night, the people of Accomack County waited to see which building would burn down next, regarding each other at first with compassion, and later suspicion. Vigilante groups sprang up, patrolling the rural Virginia...
Ghost in the wires : my adventures as the world's most wanted hacker
Mitnick, Kevin D.
Paper Book
In this "intriguing, insightful and extremely educational" novel, the world's most famous hacker teaches you easy cloaking and counter-measures for citizens and consumers in the age of Big Brother and Big Data (Frank W. Abagnale). Kevin Mitnick was the most elusive computer break...
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...
Empire of deception the incredible story of a master swindler who seduced a city and captivated the nation
Jobb, Dean
Paper Book
It was a time of unregulated madness, and nowhere was it madder than Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. As Al Capone rose to underworld domination, corrupt politicians held court in thriving speakeasies and stock market gambling was rampant. Enter slick, charismatic lawyer Leo Koretz,...
You'll never believe me : a life of lies, second tries, and things I should only tell my therapist
Ferrell, Kari
Paper Book
"A captivating, sharp and very funny memoir." --New York Times Book Review The compelling, edgy, compassionate, laugh-out-loud memoir from Kari Ferrell, formerly known as the "Hipster Grifter" Before Anna Delvey, before the Tinder Swindler,...
Gator country : deception, danger, and alligators in the Everglades
Renner, Rebecca
Paper Book
A New York Times Editors' Choice "Delivers everything its title promises and much more." - NPR "Remarkable... Every species, and every person who fights for its continued existence, deserves a book like this." -- The New York Times
Easy money : cryptocurrency, casino capitalism, and the golden age of fraud
McKenzie, Benjamin
Paper Book
At the height of the pandemic, TV star Ben McKenzie (The O.C., Gotham) was the perfect mark for cryptocurrency: a dad stuck at home with some cash in his pocket, worried about his family, armed with only the vague notion that people were making heaps of money on something he-despite...
The Napoleon of crime : the life and times of Adam Worth, master thief
Macintyre, Ben
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK From the bestselling, acclaimed author of A Spy Among Friends, The Spy and the Traitor, and Rogue Heroes, the vastly entertaining saga of Adam Worth, the most notorious bank thief of Victorian society and the...
Confident women : swindlers, grifters, and shapeshifters of the feminine persuasion
Telfer, Tori
Paper Book
A thoroughly entertaining and darkly humorous roundup of history's notorious but often forgotten female con artists and their bold, outrageous scams--by the acclaimed author of Lady Killers. From Elizabeth Holmes and Anna Delvey to Frank Abagnale and Charles Ponzi,...
Master thieves : the Boston gangsters who pulled off the world's greatest art heist
Kurkjian, Stephen A.
Paper Book
The definitive story of the greatest art theft in history. In a secret meeting in 1981, a low-level Boston thief gave career gangster Ralph Rossetti the tip of a lifetime: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was a big score waiting to happen. Though its collections included...
Hype : how scammers, grifters, and con artists are taking over the internet--and why we're following
Bluestone, Gabrielle
Paper Book
"Hype is the best kind of nonfiction: juicy, sharp, savage and wildly entertaining, with a celebrity behaving badly on every page. What more could you want?" -Cat Marnell, New York Times-bestselling author of How to Murder Your Life From former Vice...
The confidence men : how two prisoners of war engineered the most remarkable escape in history
Fox, Margalit
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The Great Escape for the Great War: the astonishing true story of two World War I prisoners who pulled off one of the most ingenious escapes of all time. FINALIST FOR THE EDGAR® AWARD * ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post,<...
The pirate king : the strange adventures of Henry Avery and the birth of the Golden Age of piracy
Kingsley, Sean
Paper Book
The incredible story of the "Robin Hood of the Seas," who absconded with millions during the Golden Age of Piracy and who harbored an even greater secret. Henry Avery of Devon pillaged a fortune from a Mughal ship off the coast of India and then vanished into thin air--and into...
The key man : the true story of how the global elite was duped by a capitalist fairy tale
Clark, Simon
Paper Book
LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES & MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BEST BOOKS OF 2021 In this compelling story of lies, greed and tarnished idealism, two Wall Street Journal reporters investigate a man who Bill Gates, Western governments, and other...
Diamond Doris : the true story of the world's most notorious jewel thief
Payne, Doris
Paper Book
Soon to be a Major Motion Picture In the ebullient spirit of Ocean's 8, The Heist, and Thelma & Louise, a sensational and entertaining memoir of the world's most notorious jewel thief--a woman who defied society's prejudices and norms to carve her own path, stealing...
The woman who stole Vermeer : the true story of Rose Dugdale and the Russborough House art heist
Amore, Anthony M.
Paper Book
The extraordinary life and crimes of heiress-turned-revolutionary Rose Dugdale, who in 1974 became the only woman to pull off a major art heist. In the world of crime, there exists an unusual commonality between those who steal art and those who repeatedly kill: they are almost...
Playing dead : a journey through the world of death fraud
Greenwood, Elizabeth
Paper Book
Is it still possible to fake your own death in the twenty-first century? With six figures of student loan debt, Elizabeth Greenwood was tempted to find out. So she sets off on a foray into the world of death fraud, where for $30,000 a consultant can make you disappear--but your...
The art of the con : the most notorious fakes, frauds, and forgeries in the art world
Amore, Anthony M.
Paper Book
Art scams are today so numerous that the specter of a lawsuit arising from a mistaken attribution has scared a number of experts away from the business of authentication, and with good reason. Art scams are increasingly convincing and involve incredible sums of money. The cons perpetrated by...
Scam goddess : lessons from a life of cons, grifts, and schemes
Mosley, Laci
Paper Book
A delightfully subversive essay collection from Laci Mosley, host of the award-winning "Scam Goddess" podcast, about the frauds, cons, and schemes that make up our world--and how the scammer mindset has affected her own upbringing, career, friendships, love life, and more. ​ ...
The rescue artist : a true story of art, thieves, and the hunt for a missing masterpiece
Dolnick, Edward
Paper Book
In the predawn hours of a gloomy February day in 1994, two thieves entered the National Gallery in Oslo and made off with one of the world's most famous paintings, Edvard Munch's Scream. It was a brazen crime committed while the whole world was watching the opening ceremonies of the Winter...
Con/artist : the life and crimes of the world's greatest art forger
Tetro, Tony
Paper Book
The world's most renowned art forger reveals the secrets behind his decades of painting like the masters--exposing an art world that is far more corrupt than we ever knew while providing an art history lesson wrapped in sex, drugs, and Caravaggio. The art world is a...
Gentleman bandit : the true story of Black Bart, the Old West's most infamous stagecoach robber
Boessenecker, John
Paper Book
As seen on Netflix's Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War New York Times bestselling author and award-winning historian John Boessenecker separates fact from fiction in the first new biography in decades of Black Bart, the Wild West's most mysterious gentleman...
Tree thieves : crime and survival in North America's woods
Bourgon, Lyndsie
Paper Book
"An absorbing true-crime story and a fascinating examination of the deep and troubled relationship between people and forests." --Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts A fast-paced investigation into timber poaching that reveals why stealing trees has become a...
Hoax : a history of deception : 5,000 years of fakes, forgeries, and fallacies
Tattersall, Ian
Paper Book
An entertaining collection of the most audacious and underhanded deceptions in the history of mankind, from sacred relics to financial schemes to fake art, music, and identities. World history is littered with tall tales and those who have fallen for them. Ian Tattersall, a...
Devil's coin : my battle to take down the notorious OneCoin cryptoqueen
McAdam, Jennifer
Paper Book
*A NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB MUST-READ BOOK FOR AUGUST 2023* "[An] exhilarating mix of memoir and true crime. . ." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) The astonishing true story of the coal miner's daughter who took on the creators of the world's biggest financial fraud and...
Retail gangster : the insane, real-life story of Crazy Eddie
Weiss, Gary
Paper Book
A biography of the spectacular rise and fall of Eddie Antar, better known as "Crazy Eddie," whose home electronics empire changed the world even as it turned out to be one of the biggest business scams of all time Back in the fall of 2016 we heard the news about the...
The Peking Express : the bandits who stole a train, stunned the West, and broke the Republic of China
Zimmerman, James M.
Paper Book
The thrilling true story of train-robbing revolutionaries and passengers who got more than they paid for in this Murder on the Orient Express-style adventure, set in China's republican era.   In May 1923, when Shanghai publisher and reporter John Benjamin...
Can you ever forgive me? : memoirs of a literary forger
Israel, Lee
Paper Book
Now a major motion picture starring Melissa McCarthy--Lee Israel's hilarious and shocking memoir of the astonishing caper she carried on for almost two years when she forged and sold more than three hundred letters by such literary notables as Dorothy Parker, Edna Ferber, Noel Coward, and...
The woman who wasn't there : the true story of an incredible deception
Fisher, Robin Gaby.
Paper Book
"The Woman Who Wasn't There is a riveting real-life mystery, a probe into the inner depths of humanity. This is a page-turner for every American" (Star Tribune, Minneapolis). Tania Head's astonishing account of her experience on September 11, 2001, was a tale...
The mark inside : a perfect swindle, a cunning revenge, and a small history of the big con
Reading, Amy.
Paper Book
In 1919, Texas rancher J. Frank Norfleet lost everything he had in a stock market swindle. He did what many other marks did--he went home, borrowed more money from his family, and returned for another round of swindling.     Only after he lost that second fortune did he reclaim control...
Satellite boy : the international manhunt for a master thief that launched the modern communication age
Amelinckx, Andrew
Paper Book
Spanning the underworld haunts of Montreal to Havana and Miami in the early days of the Cold War, Satellite Boy reveals the unlikely connection between an audacious bank heist and the "other Space Race" that gave birth to the modern communication age On April 6, 1965,...
Stealing Rembrandts : the untold stories of notorious art heists
Amore, Anthony M.
Paper Book
A spellbinding journey into the high-stakes world of art theft Today, art theft is one of the most profitable criminal enterprises in the world, exceeding $6 billion in losses to galleries and art collectors annually. And the masterpieces of Rembrandt van Rijn are some of the most...
The missing cryptoqueen : the billion dollar cryptocurrency con and the woman who got away with it
Bartlett, Jamie
Paper Book
175 countries, four billion dollars, one scam: the thrilling rise and fall of the biggest cryptocurrency con in history and the woman behind it all In 2016, on stage at Wembley Arena in front of thousands of adoring fans, Dr. Ruja Ignatova promised her followers a...
Guilty admissions : the bribes, favors, and phonies behind the college cheating scandal
Laporte, Nicole
Paper Book
GUILTY ADMISSIONS weaves together the story of an unscrupulous college counselor named Rick Singer, and how he preyed on the desperation of some of the country's wealthiest families living in a world defined by fierce competition, who function under constant pressure to get into the "right"...
The dead duke, his secret wife, and the missing corpse : an extraordinary Edwardian case of deception and intrigue
Eatwell, Piu Marie
Paper Book
In 1898, an elderly widow, Anna Maria Druce, came to the British court with an astonishing request. She stood among the overflowing pews of St. Pauls Cathedral claiming that the merchant T. C. Druce, her late father-in-law, had in truth been a secret identity for none other than the deceased and...
The unusual suspect : the rise and fall of a modern-day outlaw
Machell, Ben
Paper Book
The remarkable true story of a modern-day Robin Hood: a British college student who started robbing banks as the financial crisis unfolded. "Completely fascinating . . . [The Unusual Suspect] reads like a deep psychological thriller, but it's real. Is truth...
The last job : the "bad grandpas" and the Hatton Garden heist
Bilefsky, Dan
Paper Book
The definitive account of one of the most brazen jewel heists in history. Over Easter weekend 2015, a motley crew of six English thieves, several in their sixties and seventies, couldn't resist coming out of retirement for one last career-topping heist. Their target: the Hatton...
The thieves of Threadneedle Street : the incredible true story of the American forgers who nearly broke the Bank of England
Booth, Nicholas
Paper Book
The greatest untold crime saga of the Victorian Era: the extraordinary true story of four American forgers who tried to steal five million dollars from the Bank of England. In the summer of 1873, four American forgers went on trial at the Old Bailey for the greatest fraud the...
The great pearl heist : London's greatest thief and Scotland Yard's hunt for the world's most valuable necklace
Crosby, Molly Caldwell.
Paper Book
Molly Caldwell Crosby, author of The American Plague and Asleep, once again brings forgotten history to vivid life in an absorbing account of crime and deduction in the early days of the twentieth century. . . . In the summer of 1913, under the cover of London’s...
Flawless : inside the largest diamond heist in history
Selby, Scott Andrew.
Paper Book
On February 15, 2003, a group of thieves broke into an allegedly airtight vault in the international diamond capital of Antwerp, Belgium and made off with over $108 million dollars worth of diamonds and other valuables. They did so...
The map thief : the gripping story of an esteemed rare-map dealer who made millions stealing priceless maps
Blanding, Michael
Paper Book
Once considered a respectable rare-map dealer, E. Forbes Smiley made millions and was highly esteemed for his knowledge; until he was arrested for slipping maps out of books in the Yale University library. Though pieces of the story have been told before, Blanding is the first reporter to gain...
The Bettencourt affair : the world's richest woman and the scandal that rocked Paris
Sancton, Thomas
Paper Book
Liliane Bettencourt is the world's richest woman, and the tenth wealthiest in the entire world. But at 93, she's embroiled in incredible controversy - controversy so great it almost took down the French government. It's all become Europe's biggest scandal in years, uncovering a shadowy corporate...
Vanished smile the mysterious theft of Mona Lisa
Scotti, R. A.
Paper Book
On August 21, 1911, the unfathomable happened-Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa vanished from the Louvre. More than twenty-four hours passed before museum officials realized she was gone. The prime suspects were as shocking as the crime: Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire, young provocateurs of a...
There is no Ethan : how three women caught America's biggest catfish
Akbari, Anna
Paper Book
Part memoir, part explosive window into the mind of a catfisher, a thrilling personal account of three women coming face-to-face with an internet predator and teaming up to expose them. In 2011, three successful and highly educated women fell head over heels...
Never saw me coming : how I outsmarted the FBI and the entire banking system--and pocketed $40 million
Smith, Tanya
Paper Book
A riveting true story of an unsuspecting woman who creates an ingeniously clever white-collar scheme that manipulates the Federal banking system out of millions--who eventually loses everything that is most important to her.   In Never Saw Me Coming,...

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