Unspeakable Acts : True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession

Unspeakable Acts
Author(s): Sarah Weinman

An NPR Best Book of the Year

ANew York TimesNew & Noteworthy Book

A brilliant anthology of modern true-crime writing that illustrates the appeal of this powerful and popular genre, edited and curated by Sarah Weinman, the award-winning author of The Real Lolita

The appeal of true-crime stories has never been higher. With podcasts like My Favorite Murder and In the Dark, bestsellers like Ill Be Gone in the Dark and Furious Hours, and TV hits like American Crime Story and Wild Wild Country, the cultural appetite for stories of real people doing terrible things is insatiable.

Acclaimed author ofThe Real Lolita and editor ofWomen Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s(Library of America) andTroubled Daughters, Twisted Wives(Penguin), Sarah Weinman brings together an exemplary collection of recent true crime tales. She culls together some of the most refreshing and exciting contemporary journalists and chroniclers of crime working today. Michelle Deans Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick went viral when it first published and is the basis for the TV showThe Act andPamela Colloffs The Reckoning, is the gold standard for forensic journalism. There are 13 pieces in all and as a collection, they showcase writing about true crime across the broadest possible spectrum, while also reflecting what makes crime stories so transfixing and irresistible to the modern reader.

Review(s):
Irresistible.
This spine-tingling true crime anthology....[looks] beyond killers and victims and at systemic and institutionalized depravity.
Superb . . . one of the best true crime books of the year.
An excellent anthology . . . Weinman has done more than create entertainment . . . she challenges the reader to use true crime as a lens to explore the world around us.
Moves the needle closer to a version of the genre where crime is systemic abuse, baked into the work of institutions designed to protect us.
Thoughtful and wide-ranging. . . . The superior quality of these essays begs for future volumes.
With nuance and sensitivity, Weinman curates essays that consider the explosion of interest in true crime, stories from the perspectives of victims, and tales that present new information about notorious killers. . . . This enthralling volume insists that there can and should be humanity within true crime.
"Essential reading for all true crime fans."



ISBN:9780062839886