David A. Taylor's favorite books on nature that read like true crime

Even before A Civil Action became a Hollywood film, the book’s characters pulled me into the true story of a whole town and the question of how so many families there were poisoned.

I loved the book because it told a real underdog story in a totally gripping way, through a main character I didn’t expect to like. I’ve given this book to friends.

I picked up this book for its firsthand account of a young anthropologist in California who decides to go through the rigorous training to become a wildfire fighter.

But I kept on reading because the author’s vivid storytelling showed what it felt like to test yourself to your physical limits, interspersed with the history of fire traditions and fire suppresion. The author nearly died in a wildfire while working through one of the most devastating wildfire seasons in California’s history.

For days until I finished, I really couldn’t put this book down.

It’s a stretch to call this true crime, but I found this a compelling detective story, wrapped in geological and human mystery. It felt like true crime.

Iconic author John McPhee tags along with geologist Eldridge Moores on field research trips, searching the rocks of the disruptive San Andreas fault for clues to where geological history and human history collide. I was driving through California myself while I was reading the book, and the chapters alternated deep geological time with the march of human time—the frenzy of the Gold Rush, the Donner Party disaster. McPhee pulls these together.

The story reaches a climax with a vivid, hair-raising account of one of the great earthquakes of our time and the overwhelming power of nature.

I love graphic memoirs and the scope they give for visualizing life and entire movements. 

I was surprised and thrilled to pick up Craig Thompson’s book Ginseng Roots. Craig grew up in the ginseng farming area of Wisconsin. His family and others—including some I interviewed myself two decades before—give a rich picture of the ups and downs. He tells a story of connections with that tradition from boyhood, and the dreams and mishaps that inspired.

His drawings are rich, imaginative, and precise at the same time. I found this to be a gripping account of life, death, nature, and connection.

This graphic history is a short, beautiful book that features the spectacular wildlife in the Sea of Cortez off the shore of Mexico.

I loved how artist Ava Salzman shows conservation workers piecing together clues of what’s causing endangered sea creatures there to disappear. The book shifts nimbly to the viewpoint of an investigative team going undercover to solve the mystery and find and convict wildlife traffickers. I found the story and images so dramatic—the inky drawings of the night stakeouts, the painstaking analysis.

It’s a story I could not find in film or photographs due to sensitive legal issues. I’m gobsmacked by how well Salzman worked with the team to tell this important story in such a cinematic way.