7 Haunting Crime Fiction Books to Read If You Loved ‘True Detective ’

Johnna LaGrange photographs death. She never dreamed that might one day include her younger sister. When she finds out Ori has vanished from their small hometown, she goes back to find her family is barely keeping it together.

The only person willing to help is Shannon, Johnna’s ex turned detective. But as they dig into Ori’s disappearance, memories of the past Johnna is running from come rushing back.

And when Johnna wakes up covered in blood and dirt after people start dying, she realizes that the truth is far more horrifying than she ever imagined.

Former NYPD detective Charlie “Bird” Parker is haunted and tortured by the unsolved case of his wife and daughter. When his former partner asks him to track down a missing girl, the search sparks the thing he’s been trying to bury ever since he lost his family: the need for revenge.

Going to the bayous of Louisiana, Parker becomes bait in a trap meant to lure a killer out of hiding. There’s only one way out of the hell his life has become.

A final confrontation with the man who took everything from Parker—even if that means only one of them walk away.

On a quiet evening in a small Dublin town in 1984, three children go missing in the nearby woods. When the police arrive, they only find one child. He’s wearing blood-soaked sneakers and trembles in terror, but no matter how much they try, he doesn’t remember a thing.

Twenty years later, that boy grew up to become a detective. He keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is murdered in the same woods, he’s forced to face a case that is eerily similar.

And if he can’t remember what happened, the chance to solve both cases might slip out of his hands forever.

It’s winter 1974, and Ed Dunford has just landed the job of his dreams as the crime correspondent for the Evening Post. Or so he thinks. But this season is anything but merry.

When a dead little girl is found with swan’s wings stitched on her back, it leads back to a trail of missing cases followed by just as much corruption.

As Dunford digs, he finds himself trapped in a nightmare as violence, blackmail, and obsession force him down a path he may never return from.

Reporter Camille Preaker just got sent to her hometown to cover an unsolved case. A girl was murdered, and another disappeared. It should be easy enough.

Except she hasn’t spoken to her mother or half-sister in years, and she’s fresh out of a psychiatric hospital. As Camille investigates the two girls, she can’t help but identify with them. Even if she shouldn’t.

Camille knows there’s a story there. But to find it, she has to face the ghosts of her own twisted past. Otherwise, it isn’t just the story she risks losing—it might also be her life.

It isn’t easy being the first Black sheriff in Charon County, Virginia, but Titus Crown is up for the task. He worked for years as an FBI agent, and he knows his hometown—ugly secrets and all—better than anyone.

But when a teacher is killed by a student exactly one year after Titus was elected, and the student is shot by one of Titus’ deputies, all of those secrets threaten to tear the town apart.

To make matters worse, Titus stumbles on a serial killer responsible for horrific crimes hiding in plain sight. It’s all connected to the town’s harrowing past—a history one a local group would rather keep alive.

And if Titus can’t keep his town under control, his own secrets might lead to his undoing.

As a Black man and Texas Ranger, Darren Matthews knows that East Texas often plays by its own rules. Born and raised in the Lone Star state, Darren fled at the first chance he got.

Now, duty brings him back. But when the murder of a Black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman in small-town Lark threatens to explode into a storm of racial tension, Matthews goes to solve the case.

He’s looking for absolution, possibly redemption. And if he can’t solve the case, he risks losing both and more.