Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession

Written by Sarah Weinman

Narrated by Gabra Zackman and Graham Halstead

A brilliant anthology of modern true-crime writing that illustrates the appeal of this powerful and popular genre, edited and curated by Sarah Weinman, the award-winning author of The Real Lolita

The appeal of true-crime stories has never been higher. With podcasts like My Favorite Murder and In the Dark, bestsellers like I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and Furious Hours, and TV hits like American Crime Story and Wild Wild Country, the cultural appetite for stories of real people doing terrible things is insatiable.

Acclaimed author ofThe Real Lolita and editor of Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s (Library of America) and Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives (Penguin), Sarah Weinman brings together an exemplary collection of recent true crime tales. She culls together some of the most refreshing and exciting contemporary journalists and chroniclers of crime working today.  Michelle Dean’s “Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick” went viral when it first published and is the basis for the TV showThe Act and Pamela Colloff’s “The Reckoning,” is the gold standard for forensic journalism.  There are 13 pieces in all and as a collection, they showcase writing about true crime across the broadest possible spectrum, while also reflecting what makes crime stories so transfixing and irresistible to the modern reader.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jul 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9780063005440

Sarah Weinman

Sarah Weinman is the author of Scoundrel and The Real Lolita and, most recently, is the editor of Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning. She was a 2020 National Magazine Award finalist for reporting and a Calderwood Journalism Fellow at MacDowell, and her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, the Atlantic, Esquire, and New York magazine. Weinman is the Crime & Mystery columnist for the New York Times Book Review and lives in New York City.

Reviews for Unspeakable Acts

[Pegi Johnson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Good book. Very informative.
As a member of the LGBTQ community, it's good to know what has to be done for our people to get attention when missing
Some of the cases in this book I'd never heard of and I have been studying serial killers and killers in general since the age of sixteen. Thank you and keep up the good work.

[S. Jill O'Roark · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A lot of this book was very interesting, but the repeated left wing political slant was distracting and annoying.

[Michael Parker · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This "book" is a collection of new stories about crime. Many seem to be more opinion pieces then factual reporting. Most are very interesting. Only some truly informative

[loraineo_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

this is a nice collection of 13 true crimes stories. I read a lot of true crime and was familiar with all but one story, but each one was interesting and offered new information i wasn't aware of.

[katehonig · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a terrific anthology of True Crime writing comprised of 13 previously published articles. The essays were varied and well written. The best was the story of a woman who survived the first school shooting and how it changed her life. Other interesting ones were about two girls who killed another because of Slenderman & a girl who got her boyfriend to kill her mother who suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

[salsabrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Narrated by Gabra Zackman and Graham Halstead. This is a collection of previously published essays. Among the most intriguing to me: the Asian girl who built an elaborate lie to her parents about her college education, the legal overreach within the Customs and Border Patrol, the surgeon who treats gunshot victims, the romantic con man, and Sage, a Black transgender female who went missing after going to meet a man.

[dcoward_6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

These short articles, some of them previously published, take a deeper look at criminal stories and our obsession with them. Highly recommended for true crime enthusiasts.

[ridgewaygirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sarah Weinman's latest project has been to gather together a collection of long-form journalism articles about crime. she has assembled some of the best non-fiction crime writing published today, from well-known crimes like the story of Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blancharde, and the two girls who stabbed their friend to please Slenderman, to the story of the first woman shot by the sniper in the tower of the University of Texas in 1967, long before mass shootings became ordinary, and how an untested forensic procedure became accepted in criminal trials. Each article is fascinating and different from the others.

If you have any interest in long-form journalism, I highly recommend this book.

[jnmegan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The editor’s note for Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession (Sarah Weinman, introduction by Patrick Radden Keefe) proposes some potential causes for the recent obsession with true crime stories and the extensive articles devoted to them. The advent of streaming services and podcasts in recent years has stoked existing interest, and any tales that address order vs. chaos become relevant during times of upheaval. As our world becomes more subject to uncertainty, vicarious experiences become internalized and can cause increasing empathy or panic. This anthology is a collection of 13 articles published in the past 10 years and the editor hopes that these writings will “go a long way to make the world a more just, more empathetic place.” A highly ambitious goal for any book, and this one falls far short of its objective. The three sections of the book are meant to separate the articles into groupings that create some overall cohesive message, but the contents of each are too dissimilar and varying in tone and topic to evoke a sense of common purpose. The first section contains investigative (and in some cases sensationalistic) journalism of actual true crime cases. Here can be found descriptions of the infamous Gypsy Rose case, a lurid tale of Munchausen-by-Proxy; the UT tower shooting spree as seen from one survivor’s point of view; a contract killing arranged by a young woman as recompense for a restrictive upbringing; and the Derek Allred story of repetitive predatory relationship fraud. The second section is intended to act as a commentary on the contemporary cultural moment and the way crime stories are viewed as a result of its influence. This part has articles on topics as wide-ranging as the Slender Man case and an old 1970’s movie director whose film was influenced by true events. The final section of Weinman’s book is dedicated to writings about criminal justice and society. The articles in this portion cover the improper use of searches by immigration agents, gun violence and its physical effects, gender and race biases in policing and prosecution, and the use of questionable methods in crime scene analysis. While the partitions of the book make it easier for the reader to switch gears, the overall effect is disjointed, and the selection of the included pieces appears random. Unspeakable Acts could have been three distinct volumes, thereby providing more substance and content for its wide-ranging topics rather than trying to address them all in one. Each of the issues covered deserve more attention than they receive here, and there is certainly a plethora of talented authors continually contributing their voices to choose from.

Thanks to the authors, Ecco and Edelweiss Plus for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.