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

A New York Times New & 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 I’ll 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.

The acclaimed author of The Real Lolita and editor of Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s and Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives, Sarah Weinman, brings together an exemplary collection of recent true-crime tales. She culls some of the most refreshing and exciting contemporary journalists and chroniclers of crime working today. Michelle Dean’s “Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter to Be Sick” went viral when it was first published and is the basis for the TV show The Act, and Pamela Colloff’s “The Reckoning,” is the gold standard for forensic journalism. And with an introduction by Patrick Radden Keefe, bestselling author of Say Nothing, this collection showcases writing about true crime across the broadest possible spectrum, while also reflecting what makes crime stories so transfixing and irresistible to the modern reader.