Top 10 True Crime Books for July 2022

Last Updated on August 2, 2022 by Ben Oakley

Here, we list the top 10 true crime books as of July 2022 that are real true crime books and not fictional ones. The top 10 true crime book list is compiled from various booksellers including Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, and independent stores. The list applies mainly to eBooks but generally the print copy list is the same.

1. All the Lies They Did Not Tell

By Pablo Trincia

Bound to be caught up in controversy due to its subject nature, All the Lies They Did Not Tell, has jumped straight to the top of the top 10 true crime books for July 2022. This is the true story of the Devils of the Bassa Modenese—the most notorious Satanic Panic investigation in the history of Italy.

In 1997 a six-year-old boy questioned by authorities relayed disturbing stories of abuse. The more he talked, the more people were implicated in his shocking revelations. And he was only the first child to come forward.

Within a year, fifteen more children with similar tales were transferred out of the Bassa region of Italy to protected locations. Their parents were accused of belonging to a satanic sect that performed sex rituals under the aegis of beloved local priest Don Giorgio Govoni. With each child’s confession, the network of monsters grew. Families were torn apart. Lives were forever destroyed—and some ended—as allegations of kidnapping, torture, sacrifice, and murder escalated beyond comprehension.

But what was really happening in the Bassa Modenese?

In this gripping account of the Satanic Panic of the 1990s, investigative journalist Pablo Trincia returns to the scene of the crimes to find the answer. And the truth he uncovers is as terrifying as the lies.

2. The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe

By David Leigh & Tony Hutchinson

Pushed to the top 10 true crime books of July 2022 list by the TV adaptation of the same name. How did the most ordinary of couples pull off one of the most outrageous frauds of modern times? And why did they carry on with the lie for so long?

Drowning in debt and facing almost certain bankruptcy, John Darwin did the unthinkable – he paddled out to sea in his red canoe and disappeared. After a massive search and rescue operation failed to find his body, he was assumed dead, lost in the bleak North Sea.

Nearly six years later, after John miraculously returned from the dead with a strange tale of ‘amnesia’ and sporting a suspicious golden tan, the police and the Press were desperate to discover the truth behind his remarkable resurrection.

The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe is the definitive behind-the-scenes account of this true story of audacious deception and coercion, offering an unprecedented insight into a mind-boggling story that gripped the nation – and into the inscrutable minds of ‘Canoe Man’ John and Anne Darwin, his long-suffering partner in crime.

3. The Psychopath: A True Story

By Mary Turner Thomson

The top holdover from the top 10 true crime books of June 2022 is Thomson’s The Psychopath with 10,000 ratings on Amazon and a highly respectable 4/5 across the board.

In 2006, Mary Turner Thomson’s world shattered when she discovered her husband Will was a bigamist, con man and convicted sex offender. Unbeknownst to her, this would be the start of a bold new chapter in her life, fighting to protect other women from his heartless gaslighting campaigns—and putting a stop to his endless deception.

Mary thought her story would end with the revelation that Will in fact had several families—and numerous children. But when she discovered that he had continued to prey on new victims, she vowed to turn his betrayal into a force for good. On her mission to protect these women and others, Mary also learned more about the psychopathy behind Will’s duplicitous behaviour.

Teaming up with his newest fiancée in the US, Mary attempts to put an end to Will’s devastating activities. But will she and her fellow victims succeed in their ultimate goal: to bring down Will Jordan forever?

Mary Turner Thomson began telling her story in her first book, The Bigamist. Now, in The Psychopath, she delves deeper into Will’s betrayal, telling an entirely new true crime story of how she moved on, and helped others do the same.

4. Broken: The most shocking childhood story ever told

By Shy Keenan

Just missing out on the highest holdover spot is Shy Keenan’s Broken, falling in just behind The Psychopath, but an impressive hold nonetheless and proves that Broken is continuing to smash true crime records.

The Sunday Times Bestseller “I was born and broken in Birkenhead, abused from infancy by a network of every kind of pervert from ‘thinks it’s love’ to ‘show it hurts’. I was unwanted, beaten, sold, swapped, photographed, filmed, left for dead, corrupted, blamed, betrayed, ignored and orphaned.

But I was also born with a fire inside me. I call it my Phoenix Fire. I am no victim – that word only describes what happened to me. Nor am I a survivor because that implies I am over it. I am a Phoenix – a work in progress. This is my story…”

5. Red Notice: A True Story of Corruption, Murder and One Man’s Fight for Justice

By Bill Browder

Another hold over from June, Red Notice moves up the list to No. 5 for the top 10 true crime books of July 2022.

In November 2009, the young lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was beaten to death by eight police officers in a freezing cell in a Moscow prison. His crime? Testifying against Russian officials who were involved in a conspiracy to steal $230 million of taxes.

Red Notice is a searing exposé of the whitewash of this imprisonment and murder. The killing hasn’t been investigated. It hasn’t been punished. Bill Browder is still campaigning for justice for his late lawyer and friend. This is his explosive journey from the heady world of finance in New York and London in the 1990s, through battles with ruthless oligarchs in turbulent post-Soviet Union Moscow, to the shadowy heart of the Kremlin.

With fraud, bribery, corruption and torture exposed at every turn, Red Notice is a shocking political roller-coaster.

6. Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

By Patrick Radden Keefe

Proving that the secrets and lives of the richest people on Earth continue to fascinate, Empire of Pain carries on it bestselling run.

The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions – Harvard; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Oxford; the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations in the arts and the sciences.

The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing Oxycontin, a blockbuster painkiller that was a catalyst for the opioid crisis-an international epidemic of drug addiction which has killed nearly half a million people.

In this masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, Patrick Radden Keefe exhaustively documents the jaw-dropping and ferociously compelling reality. Empire of Pain is the story of a dynasty: a parable of 21st century greed.

7. If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood

By Gregg Olsen

If You Tell drops out of the Top 5 after a hugely successful run. After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word mom, it claws like an eagle’s talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now.

For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn into their mother’s dark and perverse web, the sisters found the strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that culminated in multiple murders.

Harrowing and heartrending, If You Tell is a true crime survivor’s story of absolute evil—and the freedom and justice that Nikki, Sami, and Tori risked their lives to fight for. Sisters forever, victims no more, they found a light in the darkness that made them the resilient women they are today loving, loved, and moving on.

8. The Dark Side of the Mind: True Stories from My Life as a Forensic Psychologist

By Kerry Daynes

Making its first appearance on the True Crime Lists Top 10 is Kerry Dayne’s bestselling memoir The Dark Side of the Mind. Welcome to the world of the forensic psychologist, where the people you meet are wildly unpredictable and often frightening.

The job: to delve into the psyche of convicted men and women to try to understand what lies behind their often brutal actions. Follow in the footsteps of Kerry Daynes, one of the most sought-after forensic psychologists in the business and consultant on major police investigations.

Kerry’s job has taken her to the cells of maximum-security prisons, police interview rooms, the wards of secure hospitals and the witness box of the court room. Her work has helped solve a cold case, convict the guilty and prevent a vicious attack.

Spending every moment of your life staring into the darker side of life comes with a price. Kerry’s frank memoir gives an unforgettable insight into the personal and professional dangers in store for a female psychologist working with some of the most disturbing men and women.

9. The Hospital: How I survived the secret child experiments at Aston Hall

By Barbara O’Hare & Veronica Clark

Barbara O’Hare was just 12 when she was admitted to the psychiatric hospital, Aston Hall, in 1971. From a troubled home, she’d hoped she would find sanctuary there.

But within hours, Barbara was tied down, drugged with sodium amytal – a truth-telling drug – and then abused by its head physician, Dr Kenneth Milner.

A shocking expose of the appalling abuse and experimentation carried out on vulnerable children at Aston Hall Hospital, Derbyshire, in the 60s and 70s.

10. The Filth: The explosive inside story of Scotland Yard’s top undercover cop

By Duncan MacLaughlin & William Hall

Despite being released over two years ago, The Filth jumps back into the top 10 true crime books list. Duncan MacLaughlin was an elite officer at London’s New Scotland Yard. The best of the best.

In this explosive book, he breaks the code of silence among senior detectives and undercover agents to reveal the brutal, stark truth of life on the front-line of the war on crime. Even with training in covert techniques from the SAS he walked a dangerous line, with his life in constant danger.

The legendary cases he was involved with include the investigation of Kenneth Noye, the pursuit of kidnap victim Stephanie Slater and the slaying of PC Keith Blakelock. He also infiltrated countless global drugs cartels, bringing their terrifying bosses to justice.

With humour, insider insight, and non-stop drama, The Filth is a roller-coaster read that takes you straight into the heart of one of the toughest police jobs in the world. Filled with gritty slang and investigative detail that only an ex-copper could reveal, MacLaughlin’s story is a riveting insight into the world of serious crime that is both thrilling and frightening.