Hooked on True Crime

About the Book

Why unresolved stories hold our attention.

You finish a true crime episode, but one detail keeps bothering you. You look for the original report, compare a photograph, and find a discussion that has been going on for years. Soon you are following a case of your own.

Hooked on True Crime explores why unresolved stories hold our attention and how ordinary people become involved in the search for answers. Drawing on his work with Annette Nenner for Still Lost in Panama, historian and media scholar Christian Hardinghaus examines the fascination, persistence, and responsibility behind internet sleuthing.

From Maura Murray’s disappearance to the Isdal Woman and the proposed identification of the Somerton Man, the book follows cases that continue to attract public scrutiny. It also examines the contributions of private researchers to the Golden State Killer investigation and the consequences of online accusations aimed at innocent people.

Alongside these real cases, you will find:

• Research tools for checking sources, recovering webpages, tracing images, and building timelines
• A fictional detective exercise that lets you test evidence and spot a claim that has outrun its source
• Six manageable research projects based on cases discussed in the book
• A concise forensic glossary to help you read reports more carefully

For readers who keep searching after the episode ends, this book offers absorbing case narratives and a practical way to examine what they find.