The Appeal of True Crime via Book Riot and NoveList

True Crime has always been one of the most popular leisure reading nonfiction genres. Walk into any public library, today, 5 yers ago, 20 yers ago,  etc... and the 364.1523 Dewey section has always been large and well thumbed through.

But, like fiction, True Crime as genre has not stayed stagnant in all of that time. Today's True Crime stories are very different than the journalistic reports of a past generation, rather they are books where the investigator makes him or herself part of the story. This current version of true crime can be traced back to Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside Me, evolving from there into True Crime podcasts, beginning with Serial, Season 1 and hitting a high note with I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara.

You will notice that the current version of True Crime and its extreme popularity is marked by the presence of women, both as the writers and consumers. And these stories are told in multiple mediums.

A wide swath of readers are drawn to the genre and not all for the same reasons. And, even more confusingly, some people who like violent Crime Fiction and Horror, will not even touch True Crime because they cannot handle how "real" it is.

All of this makes it hard for us to match readers who may enjoy True Crime with the right book. Knowing the right questions to ask a potential True Crime reader will help you immensely. Understanding the wide array of reasons people would or would not like the genre is your key to helping readers.

Today I have two resources to help you do exactly that.

First, this recent essay in Book Riot entitled, "Why Do People Read True Crime?" It discusses why people like the genre, and it is written in a conversational style which you can use to ask a potential reader the right questions. It is both a conversation starter and an appeal resource.

Second, here are the slides from the 2021 NoveList/LibraryReads Crash Course in True Crime. The slides list appeal factors and includes many titles.

Whether or not you enjoy True Crime, you need to understand why others would like it and for their own wide array of reasons. That's why we need to use resources, not just our personal experience, to help leisure readers.