I had never heard of some of these crimes before but I really shouldn’t have read them before bed time. I will definitely be buying this one.

this was actually really good!
Each true crime story ranges from 3-5 pages and it will hold your attention. In my many years of studying and researching criminals/serial killers many of these names were new to me. Love that i read this.

This was a really interesting book, i enjoyed that there were a lot of different cases that were straight to the point and not drawn out more than they had to be. I had heard about 50% of the cases before tho which was a little disappointing. I do think this is still a great book and will be perfect for those just getting into true crime.

Holy crap. This was written by a forensic psychologist and I very much appreciated that in both account and writing. I got the shocking, juicy bits, the why, and the aftermath without any purple prose getting in the way which is exactly how I like my bizarre true crime history. As a voyeur of these twisted tales I do wish images had been added of the killers to each chapter. I googled them at the end of every story.

My thanks to Books Go Social, Romeo Vitelli and Netgalley.
I enjoyed this one!
I read about many cases that I'd never heard of before...which left me scrambling to read more about what the author was writing about.
I've found that the true crime stories I like the most can send me into a computer frenzy! I'll spend as much time reading the rest of the story, as I did reading the original!

I hate dnfing arcs but not respecting pronouns is a hard no for me.

Thanks to netgalley and the author/publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This a great book with a lot of short stories that any true crime lover would appreciate. I found most of these to be new stories I hadn't heard before. Each chapter being a new story makes it easy to read even when you don't have a lot of time.

Some of these I already knew, some I didn't. This book covered stories from the 1800s to more modern times. It also included some very well known cases such as Ed Gein and the execution of 14 year old George Stinney.

Overall, I enjoyed the writing style and the short story approach. I can understand how some readers would prefer them to be much more in depth, but I felt it was just enough information to understand what happened and it made for a quick read.

A good 3.5 stars.

This book is what it says on the tin; a collection of lesser-popular true crime short stories, with the author taking a few pages to recall the quintessential facts of each case.

Whilst this book was an interesting concept and clearly put together by somebody who has a passion for the field (for learning about some of the lesser known cases was fascinating), I found it lacking in its writing style.

It read very simplistically, like a regurgitation of facts - a more detailed Wikipedia page, if you will. Whilst this is fine to educate, it did not make for the most compelling read of a true crime non fiction book I have read.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

For readers who enjoy true crime, this is a great book. There is a nice balance between well-known and less-known cases. I haven't checked them all out but it appears they are well researched. Overall, I enjoyed this read and would definitely recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I received a arc of this book from net galley. Interesting true stories some I have read before others I had not. Book didn’t go into a lot of details and told short stories of the events. Author kept readers attention. Reminded me of watching a investigation show

This is a disturbing read that features many brutal crimes that wouldn't be a book that everyone would love, but as I am fascinated with true crime and the dark side of humanity I loved it. There were many crimes in here that I hadn't heard off so that made it even more interesting for me.

What a fascinating book. Some of the stories were hard reading and gruesome, but credit to the author he stated that at the start of the book. I like that it details some lesser-known cases instead of focusing on cases that are well known, as I felt it added more depth to the book. For anyone interested in crime and why people commit some horrible crimes I honestly think you will enjoy this book. Can wait for more volumes of the book to be published.

A mesmerizing collection of true crimes, bizarre to brutal to unimaginable. From countries all over the world , from geishas to the murder inspiring the movie Psycho! Well worth the read.

ell written, interesting look at some true crime stories. Most are a bit obscure and less well known. A few are more common to true crime fans. I read quite a few stories here that I saw for the first time. But a couple of the more ‘rare’ ones I had already read about as well. Worth a read if the subject interests you. I received a review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is a perfect book for true crime readers. It has a nice mix of well known to not so well known cases. They seem well researched though I did not look all of them up.
Overall a very solid well written book!

True Crime Stories You Won’t Believe is the first book in a series of planned short story collections. This book contains a collection of 32 short true crime stories dating back to the late 1800’s. Most of the stories are pretty obscure and the only one that was familiar to me was the story of Ed Gein.

While I enjoyed most of the stories in the book, I would have preferred more stories from modern times. But it still was an interesting read, nonetheless.

Some readers may find the stories disturbing. I didn’t think they were and I actually wanted more graphic details. In comparison to other true crime novels, True Crime Stories is not at all gruesome and in my opinion, very mild in grisly elements.

Overall, True Crime Stories is a noteworthy read for true crime aficionados. Four stars.

I received a digital copy of the book from Books Go Social. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

Years ago there was an app on google that everyday would give a different story about a crime, serial killer or of the sorts, and there were different narrators, some more embezzled, some more scientific etc., and the way the stories were told were the right way for me, like a talk with a friend or in late night, this book had just enough about the stories, if there was rape, only rape was mentioned, nothing of the sick details, so it was kind of easy to read through, each story was only a couple of pages short, and as the author tells us, the stories in this book are mostly old ones, the details here are the ones that survived in journals, it was like a compilation of blog news stories.

I read mostly sci-fi, but sometimes I get tired and one way of relax of it, is reading something that has nothing to do with it, and true crime kind of fits the bill, but I must confess sometimes reality is weirder than fiction, while mostly of the stories were unknown for me, I did know a couple of these, I highly recommend this book it reminded me as well of the book lady killers, but in here you have stories from women, men, children, trans people etc., a bit of everything, and the author is promising to continue in other volumes I must say I want to read more of this tales…

Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

True Crime Stories You Won’t Believe by Romeo Vatellie is a great book for any true crime fans library. In a world of true crime books were copy and paste is the usual. It was so refreshing to not only read stories I hadn’t heard, but to say proof in every story that that was great research done and an effort to make this book worth reading. They have so many different stories with follow up on the aftermath of the victims in the accused. It is a rare day that you get a true crime book written with such care for detail and I can’t say how much I recommend this to other true crime fans. From a Cornell professor who resorting to violence to try and stop America joining World War I, to a 16-year-old African-American put to death in the electric chair in South Carolina for a crime that was barely investigated and a trial that was over much too soon. They have so many stories in this book and I could give little quotes about each, but I want anyone who read this book to be as pleasantly surprised as I was. I love historical true crime and this book has it all from cannibals to husband killers and as I said it’s a book I highly recommend. I was given this book by Net Gally and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Please forgive any grammar or punctuation errors as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pre-reading:
Trying to reset my brain from smooth brain material with some murder.

Thick of it:
Author’s an actual forensic psychologist. Nice! Love being told to bear with an author, before the stories even start.

Opening with a dick chopping geisha. I like it. Let’s call them clients, not lovers, bestie. Let’s stop choking each other. It always ends badly. This does read like a Wikipedia entry rather than an entertaining blog post or a compilation of essays. What magazine though? A judge admits he’s sexually aroused and not objective and that doesn’t generate a mistrial? Okay. Ah murder tourism. What a time to be alive. How was it displayed? How do you preserve something like that? Is it just like in a jar of fluid? Only six years for murdering someone that’s crazy. JK only 4 wow. No, we’re not calling her a pioneer, sorry. Cool motive still murder. But honestly not even a cool motive. Just sad. Woman sexually abused her whole life commits a murder due to mental instability. Shocker.

Lady says no to man, man shoots lady. Man is punished for one year. That sounds fair. Have we done genetic testing on any of these old preserved murderers yet? I think that be fascinating to look into.

Oh geez, old lady on old lady murder. Or I guess middle-aged lady on old lady murder. I was like man, a murder by hammer really would take some doing, but this other lady is almost 70, so one good whack on the head. Further update middle-aged man on old lady murder. Mr. author shouldn’t you maybe be using masculine pronouns then if that’s how they identified? By your own admission. Oh, they were definitely in love then. It would take a long time for these attitudes to change and you’re not helping by continuing to refer to him as her. Do better.

Caporegime should’ve been defined for the reader. I feel like this would make a good Netflix series. It’s got the name for it for sure. The odd father. I don’t like how this author is ending all these articles? chapters? as if these are admirable people. They’re criminals who commited awful crimes.

A nine year old is not a wife. That is a predator. Were painful periods seriously used as a court defense? That’s wild, but honestly should be valid. 80 and 40 yikes.

Orlibar is a name. Other people weighed in on the case and proposed theories but you don’t tell us any of the theories. Annoying.

Oh, Ed Gein. I still don’t understand how a shoebox of vaginas happens or what it looks like. I need to watch Psycho already.

The podcast Rotten Mango does a great episode about Leonarda. None of these cases are in-depth. It’s so disappointing. He’s giving us the most cursory information. She’s also a crazy good baker and one of her recipes is still the standard for cookies I think.

Rotten does an episode on this case too! The pictures online are awful. She was so pretty the poor girl. Feel like you should’ve defined enteritis for us, but maybe I’m just dumb. Bestie, how are you gonna cover this case and not talk about his weird vampire hands? You’re not gonna cover how sickos have paid him to be in porn and it was literally an assault on another girl because she didn’t know who he was? If you’re going to cover a case, cover the case.

I feel like this man is just a rotten Mango listener. But also Stephanie is so good about doing cases every week, so it’s not surprising that there’s a lot of overlap. I wonder if colonics will ever be debunked and outlawed. I was gonna say peritonitis should’ve been defined, and then I realized. Yuck.

You only had to be 10 years old to get executed. That’s wild. Poor boy. How could anyone even in 2014 oppose his exoneration? What is wrong with people? I’ll have to watch the movie 83 days. How bad institutional racism was back then, honey, it’s still around.

I’m sorry how have I never learned about this man? He bombed the capital??? Hold on the JP Morgan died by a bomb guy, or at the very least got shot. How did we not learn about this?

Ayyy a local crime. You convinced your wife to let you kill your child in the name of religion. Fuck. No one‘s responsible, bud, it was you. The mom is calling her child an it? Wtf.

Wow-what a quote. Oh man, I’ve heard the story. I think again rotten Mango did a podcast on it, and there’s like dark tourism out there. Nobody ever found out he escaped from jail? But you know now? How could they not know? Do you mean no one knows how he escaped? That would make more sense. Cannibalism is only explicitly illegal in Idaho. That’s wild. I just learned about the Donners in another book. That short story collection was so good. I love the word corpulent. They buried him in Littleton. Yeah, I feel like a murderer is a bad mascot to have.

How hot is Lizzie that she’s finding all these rich husbands? You’re not gonna tell us her motive or early life? What psychosexual motivations? You can’t just say that and not tell us what they were.

Just because someone shouldn’t have been convicted of a sentence that way doesn’t mean that a certain sentence shouldn’t exist.

Ayy more locals. Linnaean should’ve been defined or given context. That’s what’s odd to me about this book. All the information is so bare-bones, but then he throws in words that no layperson is ever going to know. You’re going to know the words if you do a deep dive on the case, but this isn’t a deep dive on the case so it’s confusing who the intended audience is. Because serious true crime fans are going to recognize that so much information is missing and casual readers are going to have to continuously pause to look up a word. So like Dr. Frankenstein shit. Cool. Why those spots, yikes. You say it was a success, but you didn’t tell us what he was trying to accomplish. The lack of details is getting very frustrating. It’s always the richest people who are the stingiest. Buy the horse, you fuck. The last name Littlefield is cute. Someone should do a twee rom-com with it. Where did he get that chemical from to even attempt suicide? Wouldn’t they have searched him? Oh my gosh imagine someone identifying you because you’re a hairy bastard.

I keep reading Josh Peck by mistake.

Very much sounds like he was innocent and just mentally ill.

That guy was 100% corpse fucking.

I do not think he was the ripper.

Brenda Spencer should absolutely be talked about during school shootings.

I’m sorry where’s the HBO show about the CIA pimping out Hollywood actresses to foreign dignitaries?

They always say people dress strangely, but never go on as to how it was strange. Was he walking around in a clown costume or like just a guy wearing pink? There are degrees here.

Post-reading:
This book doesn’t have enough detail for me. I think some of the language should be changed to be more respectful of the victims. You really need to use someone’s correct pronouns. I think a lot of the little ending asides can be removed since they feel like they were thrown in without much thought. They come across as a patronizing cute. That’s not really the tone you want when you’re talking about murder. I think it’s a little boring considering it’s just a cursory overview of all these cases. It kind of reads like a listicle rather than a book. Overall it’s fine, but it’s nothing I would recommend anyone read.

Who should read this:
People who like true crime

Do I want to reread this:
No

Similar books:
* American Predator by Maureen Callahan