Publisher: Mango Publishing Group

ISBN: 978-1-64250-568-9

The Best New True Crime Stories: Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues & Criminals, edited by the award-winning Mitzi Szereto, is a collection of crime stories spanning both the globe and the centuries. Written by an amazing assemblage of authors, all expert writers and raconteurs in their own way, the tellers of these tales each has their own predilection for delighting their readership with adventures woven around the vagabond criminal who has us all in their thrall through their mannerly conduct of their otherwise nefarious deeds. With many of the authors being American-based, there are also those from parts as far apart as Australia, India and Italy.

The international and time-spanning nature of the stories is, at least in part, what makes them so intriguing. Ranging from piracy on the South China Sea (headed by a woman, Ching Shih, what’s more), which was surprisingly ethical in the nineteenth century and ruled by a strict moral code, to such globe-trotting fraudsters as Charles Ernest Chadwick, who married ten women in his lifetime while hoaxing his way across the planet, the range of these stories, albeit only fourteen in number, is immense and should be enough to intrigue any reader who is even vaguely interested in the criminal fraternity. The depth and well-roundedness of the descriptions of the exploits of the major protagonists of crime as revealed here makes their adventures real and accessible―in fact, they are so credible that one tends to start seeing their traits reflected in those around one! 

The editor, Mitzi Szereto, is a master of her craft and has carefully edited and compiled this work in such a way as to make the stories all read fluently and seamlessly, despite being from such disparate authorship. The care that she has taken with the text is clearly reflected in her insightful introduction and by her inclusion of neat biographical overviews of each of the contributors.

Those whose appetites are stimulated by what they read here are encouraged to read more of the authors’ works, to which they are directed in the closing snippets. The Best New True Crime Stories: Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues & Criminals is a well-edited and well-written collection of true tales that should keep any reader hooked. Szereto has also, in the same series, compiled and edited The Best New True Crime Stories: Small Towns, The Best New True Crime Stories: Serial Killers, The Best New True Crime Stories: Partners in Crime and The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge. They are all worth a read and should inspire many a budding crime profiler, even those who are only of the armchair kind!