Here are 20 books that Deviant fans have personally recommended if you like Deviant. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Tourist Trail

Mickey Mayhew Author Of The Romanovs Under House Arrest

From Mickey's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Historian Tudors Humorous Irreverent Different

Mickey's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Mickey Mayhew Why Mickey loves this book

A rarity in literature at present,, a book that really engages the reader about the eco struggle without being too preachy (not sure what's wrong with preaching on this particular topic, though) and without shying away from some of the less palatable aspects of human-too-animal exploitation and abuse

By John Yunker ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Tourist Trail as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A literary thriller about endangered species in the world's most remote areas, and those who put their lives on the line to protect them.

Biologist Angela Haynes is accustomed to dark, lonely nights as one of the few humans at a penguin research station in Patagonia. She has grown used to the cries of penguins before dawn, to meager supplies and housing, to spending most of her days in one of the most remote regions on earth. What she isn't used to is strange men washing ashore, which happens one day on her watch.

The man won't tell her his…


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Book cover of The High House

The High House by James Stoddard,

The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.

The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.

Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…

Book cover of Our Evenings

Mickey Mayhew Author Of The Romanovs Under House Arrest

From Mickey's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Historian Tudors Humorous Irreverent Different

Mickey's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Mickey Mayhew Why Mickey loves this book

Alan Hollinghurst always delivers top-notch highbrow fiction; the only fault with this book would be that the jumps in time in each section - sometimes several decades - left subsequent chapters a little baffling

By Alan Hollinghurst ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Our Evenings as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'The best novel that's been written about contemporary Britain in the past ten years. It's funny but desperately moving too' - The Sunday Times

Alan Hollinghurst, the Booker Prize-winning author of The Line of Beauty, brings us a dark, heartbreaking but wickedly funny portrait of England spanning six decades from 1962 to the present day. It is a story of race and class, theatre and sexuality, love and the cruel shock of violence, from one of the finest writers of our age.

Dave Win is thirteen years old when he first goes to stay with the sponsors of his scholarship…


Book cover of The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science

Katherine Ramsland Author Of The Serial Killer's Apprentice: The True Story of How Houston’s Deadliest Murderer Turned a Kid into a Killing Machine

From my list on true crime books that teach you about the minds of murderers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated with true crime since a serial killer operated in my hometown when I was a kid. I’m now an expert on criminal psychology, which I teach at DeSales University. I’ve appeared in more than 200 crime documentaries and was an executive producer on Murder House Flip (my idea) and A&E’s Confession of a Serial Killer: BTK. I’ve published more than 72 books, and over the past 12 years, I’ve penned a blog on the dark side of the human psyche for Psychology Today. Currently, I’m writing a fiction series based on a female forensic psychologist who runs a PI agency and consults on unique death investigations. 

Katherine's book list on true crime books that teach you about the minds of murderers

Katherine Ramsland Why Katherine loves this book

I was so excited to see a book that featured an innovative French pathologist, Alexandre Lacassagne, who invented the criminal autobiography during the 1890s.

Starr delves into the French records to show the insights Lacassagne derived about the criminal mind, which altered many notions in criminology. Starr also tells a compelling tale about an early serial killer, the French Ripper, who openly discussed his life history and even helped police find his victims.

During the age of Jack the Ripper, when the first behavioral profiles were used for linking crimes and understanding motives, the French Ripper demonstrated just how deranged a lust killer can be. This book expanded my awareness of early criminal psychology.   

By Douglas Starr ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Killer of Little Shepherds as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the Gold Dagger Award

A fascinating true crime story that details the rise of modern forensics and the development of modern criminal investigation.
 
At the end of the nineteenth century, serial murderer Joseph Vacher terrorized the French countryside, eluding authorities for years, and murdering twice as many victims as Jack The Ripper. Here, Douglas Starr revisits Vacher's infamous crime wave, interweaving the story of the two men who eventually stopped him—prosecutor Emile Fourquet and Dr. Alexandre Lacassagne, the era's most renowned criminologist. In dramatic detail, Starr shows how Lacassagne and his colleagues were developing forensic science as we…


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Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Book cover of Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men

Katherine Ramsland Author Of The Serial Killer's Apprentice: The True Story of How Houston’s Deadliest Murderer Turned a Kid into a Killing Machine

From my list on true crime books that teach you about the minds of murderers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated with true crime since a serial killer operated in my hometown when I was a kid. I’m now an expert on criminal psychology, which I teach at DeSales University. I’ve appeared in more than 200 crime documentaries and was an executive producer on Murder House Flip (my idea) and A&E’s Confession of a Serial Killer: BTK. I’ve published more than 72 books, and over the past 12 years, I’ve penned a blog on the dark side of the human psyche for Psychology Today. Currently, I’m writing a fiction series based on a female forensic psychologist who runs a PI agency and consults on unique death investigations. 

Katherine's book list on true crime books that teach you about the minds of murderers

Katherine Ramsland Why Katherine loves this book

For over a century, there’s been a mystery about the identity of one of the most notorious female serial killers of the twentieth century, Belle Gunness. Did she die in a fire, or did she fake her death and escape?

Schechter’s book-length study leaves no stone unturned. If anyone could fully address this mystery, I knew he could. He’s a foremost authority on true crime. For me, any book he writes is a must-read.

Although I knew this story well, Schechter brought more to it than I’d seen before. I was fascinated with the details of the reports from mental health experts, including criminal anthropologist Cesare Lombroso. He spotted Belle’s “super intelligence for doing evil,” making her “more terrible than any male criminal.” I found this page-turner to be both meticulous and gripping.

By Harold Schechter ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Hell's Princess as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Hell's Princess takes its place among Schechter's other true-crime classics as the definitive rendering of one of the most beguiling and brutal of all female serial killers. His gruesome page-turner, grounded in meticulous historical research, confirms his reputation as one of the top true-crime writers of our time." -Psychology Today

The chilling true account of one of the twentieth century's most prolific female serial killers. Now an Amazon Charts bestseller.

In the pantheon of serial killers, Belle Gunness stands alone. She was the rarest of female psychopaths, a woman who engaged in wholesale slaughter, partly out of greed but mostly…


Book cover of In Cold Blood

Paul J. Heald Author Of Courting Death

From my list on capital punishment from an insider perspective.

Why am I passionate about this?

I came to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1988 to serve as a law clerk for a prominent federal judge (played by Martin Sheen in the movie Selma). I was convinced that the death penalty could be justly administered, and seeing Ted Bundy’s final appeal did little to change my mind. Subsequent cases, however, slowly worked a change in my attitude as I saw an execution’s effect on everyone involved in the process. My passion comes from this behind-the-scenes look at capital punishment in America.

Paul's book list on capital punishment from an insider perspective

Paul J. Heald Why Paul loves this book

I was shaken to my core not only by Capote’s character study of two different yet partnered killers but also by his behind-the-scenes depiction of the death penalty process. For the first time, I began to see how capital punishment affects all those involved in its machinations.

By Truman Capote ,

Why should I read it?

21 authors picked In Cold Blood as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The chilling true crime 'non-fiction novel' that made Truman Capote's name, In Cold Blood is a seminal work of modern prose, a remarkable synthesis of journalistic skill and powerfully evocative narrative published in Penguin Modern Classics.

Controversial and compelling, In Cold Blood reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock, who, vividly…


Book cover of The Sadist

Katherine Ramsland Author Of How to Catch a Killer

From my list on single-case serial murder investigations.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been immersed in books about true crime investigation for nearly thirty years, as a writer, a blogger for Psychology Today, and a professor of forensic psychology. Of my 68 published books and over 1,500 articles, many are devoted to historical accounts of forensic science, investigation, and serial murder, so I’ve perused hundreds of books from different time periods. Around a dozen books stand out for the quality of research and narrative momentum, or for the dogged persistence of a real-life Sherlock Holmes. Those five that I picked effectively demonstrate how an investigation should proceed, no matter the odds.

Katherine's book list on single-case serial murder investigations

Katherine Ramsland Why Katherine loves this book

Berg’s groundbreaking study of Peter Kürten, a blood-drinking serial killer with a diverse variety of victims in Düsseldorf, Germany, became a classic criminology text during the 1940s. Because Berg, a pathologist, had performed the autopsies, he had a privileged perspective on the murders. He noticed the use of different weapons and did his own research as he hypothesized how the assaults were linked. Going beyond mere case analysis, Berg offered a means for other professionals to consider the psychological details in the development of extreme sexual cruelty. When Kürten was arrested, Berg spent many hours face-to-face with him in his cell, watching his excited manner as he recounted his deeds. The Sadist is one of the earliest attempts to penetrate the deviant mind of a repeat offender, told by the person with the most accurate knowledge of how the killer had treated each victim.

By Karl Berg ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Sadist as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Lang:- english, Pages 192. Reprinted in 2015 with the help of original edition published long back[1945]. This book is in black & white, Hardcover, sewing binding for longer life with Matt laminated multi-Colour Dust Cover, Printed on high quality Paper, re-sized as per Current standards, professionally processed without changing its contents. As these are old books, there may be some pages which are blur or missing or black spots. If it is multi volume set, then it is only single volume. We expect that you will understand our compulsion in these books. We found this book important for the readers…


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Book cover of Trusting Her Duke

Trusting Her Duke by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.

Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…

Book cover of The Holmes-Pitezel: Case a History of the Greatest Crime of the Century and of the Search for the Missing Pitezel Children

Katherine Ramsland Author Of How to Catch a Killer

From my list on single-case serial murder investigations.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been immersed in books about true crime investigation for nearly thirty years, as a writer, a blogger for Psychology Today, and a professor of forensic psychology. Of my 68 published books and over 1,500 articles, many are devoted to historical accounts of forensic science, investigation, and serial murder, so I’ve perused hundreds of books from different time periods. Around a dozen books stand out for the quality of research and narrative momentum, or for the dogged persistence of a real-life Sherlock Holmes. Those five that I picked effectively demonstrate how an investigation should proceed, no matter the odds.

Katherine's book list on single-case serial murder investigations

Katherine Ramsland Why Katherine loves this book

Geyer describes the painstaking work he did over two months in 1895 as the lone detective on a highly challenging case. He’d recently lost his wife and daughter in a fire, but he set out to find the missing children of Benjamin Pitezel, a man just murdered by the notorious serial killer, H. H. Holmes. The difficulty of this investigation lay not just in the killer’s clever maneuvers but also in the many places he’d taken the children and the different names he’d adopted to accomplish his dirty deeds. Holmes might have killed and discarded the children anywhere along his circuitous route. This book demonstrates the best work of a master detective. Geyer used the most tenuous leads to develop more. Some lead to dead ends, while others sent hm in a productive direction. Since reporters covered his journey from town to town, he enlisted them to elicit interest from…

By Frank P. Geyer ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Holmes-Pitezel as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?


Full Title:The Holmes-Pitezel Case A History of The Greatest Crime of The Century and of The Search for The Missing Pitezel Children

Description: The Making of the Modern Law: Trials, 1600-1926 collection provides descriptions of the major trials from over 300 years, with official trial documents, unofficially published accounts of the trials, briefs and arguments and more. Readers can delve into sensational trials as well as those precedent-setting trials associated with key constitutional and historical issues and discover, including the Amistad Slavery case, the Dred Scott case and Scopes "monkey" trial.Trials provides unfiltered narrative into the lives of the trial…


Book cover of The Blooding: The Dramatic True Story of the First Murder Case Solved by Genetic "Fingerprinting"

E.J. Wagner Author Of The Science of Sherlock Holmes: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear, the Real Forensics Behind the Great Detective's Greatest Cases

From my list on the beginning of crime.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a crime historian and storyteller. I study old crimes, particularly those of scientific interest, and present my findings in public presentations. Sometimes I write about them- in the NY Times, Smithsonian, Lancet, Ellery Queen. I’ve researched in autopsy suites, crumbling archives, and crime labs. I was the founder and moderator of the annual Forensic Forum at Stony Brook University. I’ve consulted on criminal matters for PBS, BBC, and commercial stations. I am fascinated by ancient crime because so much great literature derives from it - the sadly dysfunctional Oedipus family, the fraternal dispute between Cain and Abel- the unhappy Borden family of Fall River. All grist for my mill.

E.J.'s book list on the beginning of crime

E.J. Wagner Why E.J. loves this book

The Blooding recounts a gripping true tale of murders in the picturesque English countryside-but aside from its haunting atmosphere, it is a detailed account of the beginning of DNA as a crime-solving technique. We have come a long way since the mid-1980s, and we can get much more information from newer DNA methods, but the detailed explanation of exactly how this worked as a revolutionary method is invaluable. Reading this book puts the reader at the very beginning of a revolution.

By Joseph Wambaugh ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Blooding as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Fifteen-year-old Lynda Mann's savagely raped and strangled body is found along a shady footpath near the English village of Narborough.  Though a massive 150-man dragnet is launched, the case remains unsolved.  Three years later the killer strikes again, raping and strangling teenager Dawn Ashforth only a stone's throw from where Lynda was so brutally murdered.  But it will take four years, a scientific breakthrough, the largest manhunt in British crime annals, and the blooding of more than four thousand men before the real killer is found.


Book cover of Good Neighbors

Elle Mitchell Author Of Our Tragedy

From my list on the secrets your neighbors keep.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m drawn to stories about the human experience in the throes of extreme situations. When I was younger, I lived on a military base. I remember hearing snippets of life through the walls of our duplex, seeing things through open windows in our cul de sac. Of course, it wasn’t all sinister, but I was impacted. Secrets and how people cope with trauma are a common theme throughout my work, and I seek out stories with them as a focus. Books that deep-dive into characters and their lives will always make the top of my list!

Elle's book list on the secrets your neighbors keep

Elle Mitchell Why Elle loves this book

Sarah Langan tells you the story of a crime on Maple Street in layers, peeling back the lives of the residents there. While it may seem like a regular suburb, nothing is quite as it seems. Secrets are almost the lifeblood of the street. With news snippets, dissertations, and articles, along with the traditional narrative, the novel immerses the reader into the world Sarah Langan created. But the most impressive part is how trapped the temperature, the very environment itself, makes you feel. Unable to escape that, even the fairly benign secrets of Maple Street feel heavy.

By Sarah Langan ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Good Neighbors as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Named by Goodreads as One of the Most Anticipated Mysteries and Thrillers of 2021

"A modern-day Crucible....Beneath the surface of a suburban utopia, madness lurks." -Liv Constantine, bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish

"A sinkhole opens on Maple Street, and gossip turns the suburban utopia toxic. A taut teachable moment about neighbors turning on neighbors." -People

"One of the creepiest, most unnerving deconstructions of American suburbia I've ever read. Langan cuts to the heart of upper middle class lives like a skilled surgeon." -NPR

Celeste Ng's enthralling dissection of suburbia meets Shirley Jackson's creeping dread in this propulsive literary…


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Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Book cover of Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?

Clay McLeod Chapman Author Of Whisper Down the Lane

From my list on bad neighbors.

Why am I passionate about this?

Neighbors. We’ve all got ‘em, right? We believe we’re the good ones, and we pray we don’t live next door to the bad ones… but sometimes it’s inevitable that we share our property lines with those ill-suited for neighborly behavior. Horror books about bad neighbors are the perfect window into our own communities. We can peer into the lives of others without worry of getting caught. We can tiptoe through their rooms and rummage through their drawers… Who knows what we might find. Are they witches? Serial killers? Devil worshippers? Only their dirty laundry will tell. 

Clay's book list on bad neighbors

Clay McLeod Chapman Why Clay loves this book

So few books give me chills, but I could feel my temperature downright drop the deeper into this graphic novel I went. Certainly not for the weak-hearted, or stomached for that matter, Powell and Schechter plunge into one of the most depraved characters of the Midwest… none other than Ed Gein himself. There is an odd beauty to the madness at display here. It just goes to show you never know what’s going on behind the closed doors of your next-door neighbors.

By Harold Schechter , Eric Powell ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 16, and 17.

What is this book about?



“It is fantastic! Not only is Eric Powell's art on point, but Harold Schechter introduces some new ideas about Ed Gein that have never been heard.” - THE LAST PODCAST ON THE LEFT

“A natural choice for true-crime fans.”―BOOKLIST

“As extensively researched as the Alan Moore/Eddie Campbell Jack the Ripper graphic novel From Hell, ”Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?” is a masterpiece of the form, standing as the best possible dramatization of Ed Gein's tale in any medium.”―BLOODY DISGUSTING

“This is a new true crime comics essential.”―SYFY WIRE

One of the greats in the field of true crime…


Book cover of The Tourist Trail
Book cover of Our Evenings
Book cover of The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science

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