Sarah Weinman Book order (chronological)

From Sarah Weinman, the award-winning editor of Unspeakable Acts, a groundbreaking new anthology showcasing the future of the true crime genre True crime, as an entertainment genre, has always prioritized clear narrative arcs: victims wronged, police detectives in pursuit, suspects apprehended, justice delivered. But what stories have been ignored? In Evidence of Things Seen, fourteen of the most innovative crime writers working today cast a light on the cases that give crucial insight into our society. Wesley Lowery writes about a lynching left unsolved for decades by an indifferent police force and a family's quest for answers. Justine van der Leun reports on the thousands of women in prison for defending themselves from abuse. May Jeong reveals how the Atlanta spa shootings tell a story of America. Edited by acclaimed writer Sarah Weinman, and with an introduction by attorney and host of the Undisclosed podcast Rabia Chaudry, this anthology pulls back the curtain on how crime itself is a by-product of America's systemic harms and inequalities. And in doing so, it reveals how the genre of true crime can be a catalyst for social change. These works combine brilliant storytelling with incisive cultural examinations--and challenge each of us to ask what justice should look like. Evidence of Things Seen introduces the new classics of true crime.

In the 1960s, Edgar Smith, sentenced to death for murdering teenager Victoria Zielinski, corresponded with William F. Buckley, founder of National Review. Buckley, unable to believe that a supporter of the neoconservative movement could commit such a crime, advocated for Smith's life and sentence to be overturned. This sets the stage for a bizarre and tragic narrative of mid-century America. Sarah Weinman's exploration reveals the twists of fate that led Smith to freedom, fame, and ultimately another attempted murder. Smith emerges as a psychopath who gained public acclaim and acceptance before his eventual downfall. Weinman examines the individuals he deceived—Buckley, a book editor, friends, and romantic interests—alongside the American public that bought into his fabrications. The narrative questions who is granted innocence and how society becomes complicit in the stories we share. With clarity and sympathy for those affected by Smith's actions, the work illustrates how he manipulated well-meaning individuals and the American criminal justice system. It uncovers a neglected chapter of American history at the intersection of justice, prison reform, and civil rights, highlighting the profound impact of one man's misguided efforts to liberate another at the expense of Smith's victims.

A brilliant, lost feminist classic that is equal parts domestic drama and international intrigue. Shirley and Coenraad’s affair has been going on for decades, but her longing for him is as desperate as ever. She is a Toronto housewife; he works for an international organization known only as the Agency. Their rendezvous take place in Tangier, in Hong Kong, in Rome and are arranged by an intricate code based on notes slipped into issues of National Geographic. He recognizes her by her costume: a respectable black dress and string of pearls; his appearance, however, is changeable. But something has happened, the code has been discovered, and Coenraad sends Shirley (who prefers to be known as “Lola Montez”) to Toronto, the last place she wants to go. There the trail leads her through the sites of her impoverished immigrant childhood and sends her, finally, to her own house, where she discards her pearls and trades in her basic black for a dress of vibrant multicolored silk. Helen Weinzweig published her first novel when she was fifty-eight. Basic Black with Pearls, her second, won the Toronto Book Award and has since come to be recognized as a feminist landmark. Here Weinzweig imbues the formal inventiveness of the nouveau roman with psychological poignancy and surprising humor to tell a story of simultaneous dissolution and discovery.