The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories That Define Us

"Over the course of the past decade, alongside the post-Serial boom of true crime, John J. Lennon has emerged as our country’s leading prison journalist, writing for outlets like The New Yorker from inside New York state prisons, where he is serving a 28-year-to-life sentence for second-degree murder. In The Tragedy of True Crime, Lennon reflects on his own crime and time spent in prison alongside the intimately reported stories of three other guilty men whom he has served alongside. This revelatory, challenging book asks readers to grapple with how true crime narratives flatten victim and perpetrator alike, and to consider what it might mean to allow admitted violent criminals to be given second chances."