Crime Culture

Rachel Monroe, author of the true crime investigation Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime and Obsession, recommends three superlative examples of the genre

FILM THE THIN BLUE LINE

"Genius documentarian Errol Morris tells the story of a police officer's murder in 1976 and the man wrongfully convicted of the crime. Morris—who briefly worked as a private detective in the '80s—made an unforgettable, troubling film that helped free an innocent man."

BOOK THE RED PARTS BY MAGGIE NELSON

"Poet and critic Maggie Nelson's aunt, Jane, was murdered in 1969, thought to be a victim of a serial killer. Nelson had never met her, but death preoccupied her; she took baths, she writes, 'with coins placed over my eyes.' In 2004, DNA evidence implicated a new suspect. A probing look at how it feels to be caught up in a court case and a media frenzy."

PODCAST IN THE DARK, SEASON 1

"Over nine episodes, this show digs into the 1989 kidnapping of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling and expands outward to show how a crime can have lasting impact on a family, a community, and an entire society. I admire host Madeleine Baran's refusal to settle for easy answers."