In the case of these 5 true-crime courtroom drama books, real life is stranger, and more interesting, than fiction.

1. Pretty Jane and the Viper of Kidbrooke Lane: A True Story of Victorian Law and Disorder: The Unsolved Murder that Shocked Victorian England by Paul Thomas Murphy

via pinterest.com

“In April 1871, a British policeman patrolling a deserted footpath comes upon a hideously wounded woman. It took several days for the unidentified woman to die and several more for her to be identified. After the autopsy revealed that Jane Maria Clouson, who was working as a maid at the time of her death, was pregnant, Jane’s relatives disclosed that she had spoken of a relationship with Edmund Pook, the son of her employer. The court case ushered in the birth of modern forensics.”

2. Justice and Vengeance: Scandal, Honor, and Murder in 1872 Virginia by Arwen Bicknell

via open-bks.com

“In August 1872, a Virginia scion and hellraising drunkard walked into a jail cell in broad daylight and shot a former Commonwealth’s Attorney who was awaiting trial for running off with the drunkard’s 16-year-old sister. The trial that followed featured two Confederate generals and a former Virginia governor, and the verdict was a commentary on the concepts of honor and justice in Reconstruction-era Virginia.”

3. The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars by Paul Collins

via pinterest.com

“The scene is set with a duck pond full of blood, a human torso wrapped tightly in oilcloth on the Lower East Side, neatly severed limbs in an overgrown ditch near Harlem—but no witnesses and no suspects. In June 1897, the baffling murder mystery became a circus in the hands of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, and ended in a capital case hinging on circumstantial evidence around a victim police couldn’t identify with certainty and who the defense declared was still alive.”

4. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

via pinterest.com

“On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by shotgun blasts. Truman Capote’s writing evokes suspense and empathy as he reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers.”

5. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi

via pinterest.com

“In the summer of 1969, a famous actress (and her unborn child), an heiress to a coffee fortune, a supermarket owner and his wife were among the seven victims viciously murdered in Los Angeles. A thin trail of circumstances eventually tied the Tate-LaBianca murders to Charles Manson and his ‘family.’ This book, written by the prosecutor, describes how he built his case, resulting in a true-crime classic.”

Receive top book recommendations directly in your inbox.