true crime Archives

If You Really Loved Me

Like Daughter, Like Father? Author: Ann Rule California, 1985. A 17-year-old woman (Julia Brown) calls the police, weeping. She thinks her sister, Linda Brown, who is sleeping in the next room, has been shot. The police arrive and Linda’s husband, David Brown, opens the door. In the background, they see Julia in the living room cradling her sister’s baby. Neither Julia nor David had gone into the room to check and see if Linda was indeed shot. Both, however, instantly accuse David’s missing fourteen-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, of the crime. Fast forward – Cinnamon has confessed to killing her stepmother and is [...]

Frances Carden2025-11-02T16:37:12-07:00November 2nd, 2025|Tags: ann rule, book review, Cinnamon Brown, David Brown, murder, read, reading, true crime|

Helter Skelter

"You can convince anybody of anything if you just push it at them all of the time." Author: Vincent Bugliosi After claiming to too tasteful to fall for true crime, I read a random Ann Rule book and discovered that true crime books are both addictive and amazing. Since then, I’ve been slowly but surely reading some of the more well-known books and following the exploits of famous killers such as John Wayne Gacy and Jeffery Dahmer. Despite my new addiction, which went from a temporary guilty pleasure to a years’ long interest, I’d never read anything about the famed Charles [...]

Frances Carden2025-06-09T10:03:43-07:00June 9th, 2025|Tags: helter skelter, manson, true crime|

After the Eclipse: A Mother’s Murder, a Daughter’s Search

"Grief requires imagination: mental images of the one you've lost, of the world that would have been." Author: Sarah Perry Sarah Perry’s life is divided into the before and after. There was her childhood, imperfect but still eclipsed by love, and then there was her mother’s brutal murder and everything that came afterwards. After the Eclipse is Sarah’s memoir in which she relives the murder, the trauma, the blame and suspicion, and seeks answers. It’s not fiction – so don’t expect the gumshoeing aspect, the grand payoff, the whodunnit that ties everything together into a neat bow. Instead, expect the poignant, [...]

Frances Carden2025-05-06T09:51:39-07:00May 6th, 2025|Tags: memoir, read, reading, true crime|