Evidence of things seen : true crime in an era of reckoning

Evidence of things seen True crime in an era of reckoning

Book - 2023

"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. 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"--

Saved in:
Place a Hold Save to List Email this

2nd Floor Show me where

364.1/Evidence
1 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor 364.1/Evidence Checked In
Subjects
Crime.
Crime > Case studies.
True crime stories > Social aspects.
Crime and the press > Social aspects.
Case studies.
Essays.
True crime stories.
Genres
Case studies
Essays
True crime stories
Published
New York, NY : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers [2023]
Language
English
Other Authors
Rabia Chaudry (writer of introduction), Wesley Lowery, 1990- (-), Justine Van der Leun, Michael Hobbes, Brandi Morin, May Jeong, Amanda Knox, Diana Moskovitz, R. F. Jurjevics, Lara Bazelon, 1974-, Amelia Schonbek
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xxiii, 276 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-267).
ISBN
9780063323926
9780063233928
  • Introduction
  • Editor's Note
  • Part I. What We Reckon with
  • A Brutal Lynching. An Indifferent Police Force. A 34 -Year Wait for Justice.
  • The Short Life of Toyin Salau and a Legacy Still at Work
  • "No Choice but to Do It": Why Women Go to Prison
  • The Golden Age of White-Collar Crime
  • Picturesque California Conceals a Crisis of Missing Indigenous Women
  • How the Atlanta Spa Shootings-the Victims, the Survivors-Tell a Story of America
  • Part II. The True Crime Stories We Tell
  • Who Owns Amanda Knox?
  • Tie a Tourniquet on Your Heart: Revisiting Edna Buchanan, America's Greatest Police Reporter
  • The True Crime Junkies and the Curious Case of a Missing Husband
  • Has Reality Caught Up to the 'Murder Police"?
  • Part III. Shards of Justice
  • Will You Ever Change?
  • The Prisoner-Run Radio Station That's Reaching Men on Death Row
  • To the Son of the Victim
  • Three Bodies in Texas
  • Acknowledgments
  • Other Notable Crime Stories
  • Contributors
  • Permissions
Review by Booklist Review

Journalist Weinman, author of the excellent Scoundrel (2022), serves as editor of this collection of 14 true-crime essays. Here's a story about a lynching that went unsolved for decades because the police didn't give a damn; a very interesting reappraisal of the writings of true-crime writer and novelist Edna Buchanan; a piece written by Amanda Knox, wrongly convicted of murder, who discusses the way her name and story are frequently used (or abused) without her permission; and an examination of the way amateur sleuths can bring justice when law enforcement cannot. While the writing styles vary, the focus does not: this is a book about finding justice in a system that can frequently be unjust. These are stories about inequality, victims who must fight to be heard, and the tendency of the legal system to marginalize, or ignore, entire groups of people. Although the essays are for the most part objective and dispassionate, the book still engenders frustration at the injustices perpetrated by the legal system. A valuable addition to the ever-growing genre of crime nonfiction.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A collection of previously published essays on crime. Weinman--a crime writer and the editor of a previous anthology, Unspeakable Acts--compiles some of the past few years' best reporting on crime and crime media, previously published in outlets including Vice and the Atlantic. Some of the essays offer explicit critiques of crime discourses (both true and fictional), from a True Crime Junkies Facebook group to The Wire. Others use the format to tell underreported stories. In an exemplary piece, Justine van der Leun employs both data and human-focused storytelling to reveal the pipeline that pushes women from poverty and childhood abuse to sex work, violence, and prison, often as punishment for "acts of survival" or self-defense. Many essays are well worth reading, but most of them have been widely circulated already, so readers may wonder about the purpose in reprinting them. Both Rabia Chaudry's introduction and Weinman's editor's note make claims about true crime--a phrase that generally conjures murder-mystery podcasts and serial-killer documentaries--without defining it or distinguishing between the genre of voyeuristic entertainment and the systems-focused crime writing that comprises the volume. Chaudry confusingly writes that the recent rise in public consciousness about the injustices of policing and criminal-legal systems can "nearly all…be attributed to true crime media." However, as some contributors note, sensationalized crime stories can do as much harm as rigorous ones do good. The middle section of the book contains critiques of popular crime media, which Amanda Knox, in a chapter rebuking her own story's relentless misrepresentation in the media, calls "a voracious content mill." Weinman sought "to hold the true crime genre to higher ethical standards," but most of these essays surmount the genre altogether. Other contributors include Wesley Lowery, May Jeong, and Diana Moskovitz. An up-and-down anthology of important perspectives on injustice within the legal system and crime media alike. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Similar Items