Reading lists

Books based on true crime and real-life murder mysteries

There's something fascinating about a crime novel, but if it's based on a real-life murder mystery that adds an even more chilling dimension. Here are 8 of the best.

31 July 2018

The Manson girls (L-R) Leslie Van Houten, Susan (Sadie) Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkle, who were drawn upon for Emma Cline's bestselling novel The Girls.

Picnic At Hanging RockJoan Lindsay

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Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (1967)

In 1900's rural Australia, a group of schoolgirls embark on a picnic to a nearby cliff named Hanging Rock. Once there the schoolgirls lapse into a trance, climbing up the rock and disappearing from sight, provoking mass panic and fruitless search parties to recover them. Written as fact but widely accepted as fiction (the author never confirmed in interviews), there are still claims that utterly eerie murder mystery was inspired by real events. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, biographer Janelle McCulloch revealed the discovery of the disappearance of two schoolgirls in the area in the late 1800s, which would have been shortly after author Joan Lindsay had first visited Hanging Rock.

Books based on true crime and real-life murder mysteries

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