44 books like The Hunt for the 60s’ Ripper

By Robin Jarossi,

Here are 44 books that The Hunt for the 60s’ Ripper fans have personally recommended if you like The Hunt for the 60s’ Ripper. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Murders at White House Farm: Jeremy Bamber and the Killing of His Family

Sarah Wise Author Of The Italian Boy: Murder and Grave-Robbery in 1830s London

From my list on true crime shoiwng fact is FAR odder than fiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

While completing a Master’s degree in Victorian Studies at the University of London, I stumbled across a passing reference to a series of killings in 1831 in East London. I was astonished that I had never heard of these and further research resulted in my first book, The Italian Boy. Three books later I realise now that all my work is an attempt to squeeze out of the archives the less-recorded aspects of the everyday life of ‘marginalised’ people. And I guess that’s why I have selected the true crime books below – they all shine a bright light on previously little-known aspects of our world, and reveal the inter-relationship of victims, criminal, and location of the deed.

Sarah's book list on true crime shoiwng fact is FAR odder than fiction

Sarah Wise Why did Sarah love this book?

Of all the books written about the massacre of the Bamber/Caffell family in August 1985, none captures the sadness and tragedy of the family dynamic as Lee has here. She delves deep into the troubled lives of June and Neville Bamber and their adopted children Jeremy and Sheila. It’s an extraordinary case – a real puzzle. I don’t actually agree with Lee’s (apparent) assumption of Jeremy Bamber’s guilt – the seven pages of police surmise at the end of her book have a number of holes that undermine the plausibility of their case. In my view, a retrial should have taken place. Nevertheless, Lee has created a truly poignant portrait of a time and a place – rural Essex in the brash 1980s – in which horror does battle with pity.

By Carol Ann Lee,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Murders at White House Farm as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Sunday Times bestseller and the definitive story behind the ITV factual drama White House Farm about the horrific killings that took place in 1985.

On 7 August 1985, Nevill and June Bamber, their daughter Sheila and her two young sons Nicholas and Daniel were discovered shot to death at White House Farm in Essex. The murder weapon was found on Sheila's body, a bible lay at her side. All the windows and doors of the farmhouse were secure, and the Bambers' son, 24-year-old Jeremy, had alerted police after apparently receiving a phone call from his father, who told him…


Book cover of The Maul and the Pear Tree

Geri Schear Author Of A Biased Judgement: The Sherlock Holmes Diaries 1897

From my list on mystery and malevolence in 19th century England.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a child, I lived in 1950’s London. Despite the ravages of WWII, the city retained many of its Victorian buildings and its foggy atmosphere. I found it enchanting. Reading books sent in England around the 19th century connected me to the city long after my family moved to Ireland. If I felt homesick for the Angel or Camden Town, a book would take me back. Thanks to The Hound, I became captivated by Gothic tales and by what my mum called ‘A juicy mystery.’ This apple didn’t fall far from that tree. It’s a good thing I became a writer, or who knows how I would have ended up!

Geri's book list on mystery and malevolence in 19th century England

Geri Schear Why did Geri love this book?

As a writer of Victorian mysteries, I love books that depict how the role of police evolved from peacekeepers to investigators. The case, the Radcliff Highway Murders of 1811, was a catalyst for that change. Truthfully, I often shouted at this book and turned the air into a dark ultramarine cloud around me. But then, I love a book that rouses my emotions.

I love PD James’s mystery novels, and although this is nonfiction, it boasts her analytic style and her skill in crafting an atmosphere. Did she and Mr Critchley identify the real killer? We’ll never know, but I will be wondering for many years to come. 

By P. D. James, T.A. Critchley,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Maul and the Pear Tree as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1811 John Williams was buried with a stake in his heart. Was he the notorious East End killer or his eighth victim in the bizarre and shocking Ratcliffe Highway Murders? In this vivid and gripping reconstruction P. D. James and police historian T. A. Critchley draw on forensics, public records, newspaper clippings and hitherto unpublished sources, expertly sifting the evidence to shed new light on this infamous Wapping mystery.

This true crime novel begins amid the horror of a dark, wintry London in the year 1811. Using elegant historical detection P.D. James and police historian T.A. Critchley piece together…


Book cover of Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

Rob St. Clair Author Of Saving Stacy: The Untold Story of the Moody Massacre

From my list on true crime tragedies.

Why am I passionate about this?

Working as a prosecutor, trial lawyer for defendants, and as a magistrate, I’m always bothered by the misconception most people have of our criminal justice system. Unfortunately, cops are crooked, judges are corrupt, and witnesses lie on the stand. Not everyone, not every day, but more often than you would ever imagine. I write true crime books about cases where the underlying focus is on officials who are incompetent, derelict in their duties, or simply downright corrupt. The cases are always suspenseful, but justice is rarely served, and both the defendant and the public are the ones who lose.

Rob's book list on true crime tragedies

Rob St. Clair Why did Rob love this book?

After you read the book, you need to see Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood.

In the summer of 1969, in Los Angeles, a series of brutal, seemingly random murders captured headlines across America. A thin trail of circumstances eventually tied the Tate-LeBianca murders to Charles Manson, a would-be pop singer of small talent living in the desert with his "family" of devoted young women and men. What was the motivation behind such savagery?

The murders marked the end of the sixties and became an immediate symbol of the dark underside of that era. Vincent Bugliosi was the prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, and this book is his riveting account of how he built his case from what a defense attorney dismissed as only “two fingerprints and Vince Bugliosi.”

The meticulous detective work with which the story begins, the prosecutor’s view of a complex murder trial, the reconstruction of…

By Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Helter Skelter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the summer of 1969, in Los Angeles, a series of brutal, seemingly random murders captured headlines across America. A famous actress (and her unborn child), an heiress to a coffee fortune, a supermarket owner and his wife were among the seven victims. A thin trail of circumstances eventually tied the Tate-LeBianca murders to Charles Manson, a would-be pop singer of small talent living in the desert with his "family" of devoted young women and men. What was his hold over them? And what was the motivation behind such savagery? In the public imagination, over time, the case assumed the…


Book cover of Ten Rillington Place

Sarah Wise Author Of The Italian Boy: Murder and Grave-Robbery in 1830s London

From my list on true crime shoiwng fact is FAR odder than fiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

While completing a Master’s degree in Victorian Studies at the University of London, I stumbled across a passing reference to a series of killings in 1831 in East London. I was astonished that I had never heard of these and further research resulted in my first book, The Italian Boy. Three books later I realise now that all my work is an attempt to squeeze out of the archives the less-recorded aspects of the everyday life of ‘marginalised’ people. And I guess that’s why I have selected the true crime books below – they all shine a bright light on previously little-known aspects of our world, and reveal the inter-relationship of victims, criminal, and location of the deed.

Sarah's book list on true crime shoiwng fact is FAR odder than fiction

Sarah Wise Why did Sarah love this book?

In 1961 campaigning journalist Ludovic Kennedy stirred the hornets’ nest of the Christie killings in north Kensington in the 1940s/early 50s. John Christie’s tenant, Timothy Evans, had been hanged in 1950 for the murder of his wife and child at 10 Rillington Place; but in 1953 it was discovered that Christie himself had turned the small terraced home into a charnel house – with the discovery of six female bodies. Kennedy’s book captures the squalor and madness at number ten, and the tragic chain of events that sent the wrong man to the gallows.

By Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ten Rillington Place as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1950 Timothy Evans was hanged for the murder of his wife and baby daughter in a nightmare scenario. This is an account of all that took place in the house in Ladbroke Grove, London, of the lives of those who lived there and the events that were to lead to a miscarriage of justice. Timothy Evans and his wife Beryl moved into lodgings in the home of John Christie, and within a short space of time the lives of the young couple were brutally shattered and destroyed by their landlord - who had murdered before. Events simply overtook Evans,…


Book cover of Silent Fear

John Morris Author Of The Gatekeeper and the Guardian

From my list on fiction for curious minds.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love to read a good story, but I also get the greatest satisfaction from writing one, or several. I believe good fiction can say what factual books cannot, and done right, they can offer differing perspectives to any accepted norm. The trick is to let the characters speak, regardless of whether I agree with what they say, or not. The secret to good presentation is to offer the reader the choice to think about what has been said, consider and delve deeper, or not and pass by.

John's book list on fiction for curious minds

John Morris Why did John love this book?

Silent Fear is a stunning mystery novel, scary because it is set in an institute for the blind during a lockdown. There is a serial killer on the loose and no inmates have the ability to see their persecutor. Yes, this one gets right inside your mind and I felt privileged to read it.

By Lance Morcan, James Morcan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Silent Fear as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When you can't hear...death comes silently.

Scotland Yard detective Valerie Crowther is assigned to investigate the murder of a student at a university for the Deaf in London, England. The murder investigation coincides with a deadly flu virus outbreak, resulting in the university being quarantined from the outside world.

When more Deaf students are murdered, it becomes clear there is a serial killer operating within the sealed-off university. A chilling cat-and-mouse game evolves as the unknown killer targets Valerie and the virus claims more lives.

A stunning, claustrophobic, "whodunit" murder mystery, Silent Fear (A novel inspired by true crimes) is…


Book cover of The Murder of Helen Jewett: The Life and Death of a Prostitute in Ninetenth-Century New York

Rebecca Frost Author Of Words of a Monster: Analyzing the Writings of H.H. Holmes, America's First Serial Killer

From my list on crimes you've never heard of.

Why am I passionate about this?

I picked up my first book about Jack the Ripper the summer after college and never looked back. Since then my collection of true crime has grown to overflow my office bookshelves and I’ve written a PhD dissertation and multiple books about true crime, focusing on serial killers. The genre is so much more than Bundy, Gacy, and Dahmer and I love talking with people about the less mainstream cases that interest them, and the newer victim-centered approaches that—fingers crossed—mark a change in how we talk about criminals and victims.

Rebecca's book list on crimes you've never heard of

Rebecca Frost Why did Rebecca love this book?

Helen Jewett was a sex worker living in New York in the 1830s. She worked in a brothel under a matron, which should have been a safe enough situation—she wasn’t out on the street, at least, and others knew when she had clients. Early one morning, however, others in the house wake up to realize there’s a fire in Helen’s room, and that she’s dead. Was it a murder committed by her last client, a man quickly identified as Richard Robinson, or was it a suicide? If she hadn’t died so brutally, we wouldn’t know Helen Jewett’s name, so she’s become another victim only known for her murder. Cohen reminds us that she’s more than just her death.

By Patricia Cline Cohen,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Murder of Helen Jewett as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1836, the murder of a young prostitute made headlines in New York City and around the country, inaugurating a sex-and-death sensationalism in news reporting that haunts us today. Patricia Cline Cohen goes behind these first lurid accounts to reconstruct the story of the mysterious victim, Helen Jewett.

From her beginnings as a servant girl in Maine, Helen Jewett refashioned herself, using four successive aliases, into a highly paid courtesan. She invented life stories for herself that helped her build a sympathetic clientele among New York City's elite, and she further captivated her customers through her seductive letters, which mixed…


Book cover of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Patti McCracken Author Of The Angel Makers: Arsenic, a Midwife, and Modern History's Most Astonishing Murder Ring

From my list on true crime books that are literary keepers.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I was a practicing journalist, I preferred getting my stories from the back road—“off the beaten path,” as is said. What I’m drawn to is the way a story is told, and since my game is journalism, I like the true ones. My father was a pretty good storyteller. My brother-in-law is wicked good. I hang with my jaw open, waiting on his next word. It’s like being able to tell a good joke. Few can do it. When it comes to True Crime, forget the blood and body count. Anyone can lay out the facts. It takes master storytelling to deliver us to the army of small truths that brought forth the crime—and the humanity that dissolved along the way.

Patti's book list on true crime books that are literary keepers

Patti McCracken Why did Patti love this book?

Larger-than-life characters can be a bear to write. They give so much, but you really have to rein them in, or they’ll look like clowns. And I know about characters. I’m from the South. I had a mother who used to wear a shower cap in the rain because, you know, she’d just had her hair done.

Reading Midnight in the Garden was like flipping through a family album. The guy with the one-winged housefly attached to a string? My family could match that. The guy who fake-walked a dog for years? Maybe that, too. This book is one of my favorites because author John Berendt, as if he were himself a Southern gentleman, graciously gives the characters a stage, allowing them to tell their own stories. Except for the elusive killer. Berendt keeps him wrapped in mystery. All deliciously Southern. All so familiar to me. 

By John Berendt,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Genteel society ladies who compare notes on their husbands' suicides. A hilariously foul-mouthed black drag queen. A voodoo priestess who works her roots in the graveyard at midnight. A morose inventor who owns a bottle of poison powerful enough to kill everyone in town. A prominent antiques dealer who hangs a Nazi flag from his window to disrupt the shooting of a movie. And a redneck gigolo whose conquests describe him as a 'walking streak of sex'.

These are some of the real residents of Savannah, Georgia, a city whose eccentric mores are unerringly observed - and whose dirty linen…


Book cover of The Neon Rain

Kate Watterson Author Of The Lake House

From my list on steep cliff page-turners.

Why am I passionate about this?

Kate Watterson is the author of thriller novels for various publishers, and has always been a fan of the suspense genre. Good tension and a bit of danger balanced by an investigator who is on the trail, and she turns pages into the night. It is all about the hunt and the solution in her opinion, and of course, being perched on the edge of your seat.

Kate's book list on steep cliff page-turners

Kate Watterson Why did Kate love this book?

The first in the series of Dave Robicheaux novels, this is handled quite well. The main character is very human, flawed by his own admission by a battle with an addiction to alcohol, but nonetheless is a tough and competent cop who definitely sees—and knows well—the seedier side. Set in the deep south, Burke takes you there with description that is so evocative that you can feel it with every sense, and the danger as the story unravels into a tale of corruption and bloody violence. I really wanted the main character to win this battle and it was one almost literally to the death. If you like great writing and to sit on the edge of your seat (near the bayou, so be careful), this is a must-read.

By James Lee Burke,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Neon Rain as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The outstanding first book in the ever-popular Dave Robicheaux series.

Introducing the New Orleans detective Dave Robicheaux.

Johnny Massina, a convicted murderer bound for the electric chair, has warned Dave Robicheaux that he's on somebody's hit list, and now the homicide detective is trying to discover just who that is before he ends up dead.

Meanwhile he has taken on the murder investigation of a young black girl found dead in the Bayou Swamp - a case no one seems keen for him to investigate. But Robicheaux persists and uncovers a web of corruption that some would kill to protect,…


Book cover of Rain Will Come

Elle Mitchell Author Of Another Elizabeth

From my list on dark fiction serial killer.

Why am I passionate about this?

My interest in serial killers began when I was a teen watching horror movies with my mom. I learned all I could about them—even became a horror special-effects makeup artist. Eventually, I had to quit due to my connective tissue disorder (Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome). It put me on a path of writing. I love digging into the darker side of humanity—murder or mental illness. The story of a serial killer who could challenge the reader to see disability in a new light came to me, and I had to write her story, if not just so I could dive into the psyche of another serial killer.

Elle's book list on dark fiction serial killer

Elle Mitchell Why did Elle love this book?

The biggest strength of this book is a large spoiler, which is a shame. I’d love to gush about it. You (should you choose to read it) get to learn about it as the work unfolds, though. For that, I’m jealous. Who doesn’t love to enjoy something so fun for the first time? The choice of victims and the reason for the kills makes the serial killer so compelling I rooted for the detective to always be one step behind. I loved him, don’t get me wrong. He is flawed and damaged, and I wanted him to succeed eventually. Thomas Holgate makes it easy to do that—want them both to “win”—as both have a point-of-view. The book was fun, interesting, and just a little brutal. 

By Thomas Holgate,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Rain Will Come as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A thrilling, page-turning debut about a twisted killer and a broken cop-both with nothing to lose.

Paul Czarcik, the longest-tenured detective in the Illinois Bureau of Judicial Enforcement, puts the rest of the team to shame. Ruthless and riddled with vices, Czarcik always gets his man. And fast. Until now...

A double slaying isn't the open-and-shut case of urban crime he's used to. Connecting it to a high-profile Texas judge, Czarcik realizes something bigger is going on. It's the work of a serial killer for whom Chicago is just the beginning. Now he's inviting Czarcik to play catch-me-if-you-can on a…


Book cover of Ask for Andrea

Mads Rafferty Author Of Deadly Occupants

From my list on spooky books for the season.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated with the paranormal since I was a little girl and used to talk to the old lady on the edge of my bed. That old lady turned out to be my grandma, who had passed when I was in my mother’s womb. My entire family is touched by the curiosity and love that comes with the paranormal, so much so my mother is a working psychic medium. For years, I have spent every birthday attending haunted houses with a paranormal team to “investigate.” For some strange reason, I love to be terrified, and I fear I will never stop chasing the thrill. 

Mads' book list on spooky books for the season

Mads Rafferty Why did Mads love this book?

I read this within 12 hours; no one could pry this book from my hands.

There is something so truly shocking and morbid about how as women we love to read books on true crime, I personally believe it’s because we know that the possibility for this terror to become our reality is a possibility. 

And with Noelle’s brilliant writing, I truly couldn’t put the book down. Three women are brutally murdered by the same serial killer, and the story follows their perspectives as they haunt their killer and become ghosts.

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in murder, murder mystery, and prostitutes?

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