December is here, which means you’re being bombarded with best of lists upon best of lists. Here’s another one you can add to the list: true crime. There’s no stopping the true crime phenomenon sweeping over the culture these last few years, and why would you want to? Here are our top five picks for the best non-fiction crime books of 2018.
![I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by [McNamara, Michelle]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51mqAQYYSTL.jpg)
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
by Michelle McNamara
4.5 stars 1,202 reviews
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The haunting true story of the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California during the 70s and 80s, and of the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case—which was solved in April 2018.
“A brilliant genre-buster…. Propulsive, can’t-stop-now reading.” —Stephen King
![Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found by [King, Gilbert]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-tX8oSqPL.jpg)
Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found
by Gilbert King
4.9 stars – 52 reviews
“Compelling, insightful and important, Beneath a Ruthless Sun exposes the corruption of racial bigotry and animus that shadows a community, a state and a nation. A fascinating examination of an injustice story all too familiar and still largely ignored, an engaging and essential read.” –Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy
From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller Devil in the Grove, the gripping true story of a small town with a big secret.
![Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime by [Stallworth, Ron]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41os-gksOZL.jpg)
Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime
by Ron Stallworth
4.2 stars – 157 reviews
The extraordinary true story and basis for the major motion picture BlacKkKlansman, written and directed by Spike Lee, produced by Jordan Peele, and starring John David Washington and Adam Driver.
When detective Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, comes across a classified ad in the local paper asking for all those interested in joining the Ku Klux Klan to contact a P.O. box, Detective Stallworth does his job and responds with interest, using his real name while posing as a white man. He figures he’ll receive a few brochures in the mail, maybe even a magazine, and learn more about a growing terrorist threat in his community.
![Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster by [Carter, Stephen L.]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51CdjbshB7L.jpg)
by Stephen L. Carter
4.6 stars – 32 reviews
The bestselling author delves into his past and discovers the inspiring story of his grandmother’s extraordinary life
She was black and a woman and a prosecutor, a graduate of Smith College and the granddaughter of slaves, as dazzlingly unlikely a combination as one could imagine in New York of the 1930s—and without the strategy she devised, Lucky Luciano, the most powerful Mafia boss in history, would never have been convicted. When special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey selected twenty lawyers to help him clean up the city’s underworld, she was the only member of his team who was not a white male.
![City of Devils: The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Old Shanghai by [French, Paul]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51aY0kDEmQL.jpg)
City of Devils: The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Old Shanghai
by Paul French
3.7 stars – 43 reviews
From Paul French, the New York Times bestselling author of Midnight in Peking—winner of both the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction—comes City of Devils, a rags-to-riches tale of two self-made men set against a backdrop of crime and vice in the sprawling badlands of Shanghai.
Shanghai, 1930s: It was a haven for outlaws from all over the world: a place where pasts could be forgotten, fascism and communism outrun, names invented, and fortunes made—and lost.