Six of the best books based on true crimes

Megan Abbott's new novel is Give Me Your Hand.

One of her six favorite books based on true crimes, as shared at The Week magazine:

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Morrison based her stunning, Pulitzer Prize–winning novel on the story of Margaret Garner, a runaway slave who killed her baby daughter rather than surrender her to a life in bondage. "I think if I had seen what she had seen, and knew what was in store," Morrison said in a 1987 interview, "I would have done the same thing."

Read about the other entries on the list.

Beloved also appears on Melba Pattillo Beals's 6 favorite books list, Sarah Porter's list of five favorite books featuring psychological hauntings, Matthew Fellion and Katherine Inglis' list of ten books that were subject to silencing or censorship, Jeff Somers's list of ten fictional characters based on real people, Christopher Barzak's top five list of books about magical families, Ayelet Gundar-Goshen's ten top list of wartime love stories, Judith Claire Mitchell's list of ten of the best (unconventional) ghosts in literature, Kelly Link's list of four books that changed her, a list of four books that changed Libby Gleeson, The Telegraph's list of the 15 most depressing books, Elif Shafak's top five list of fictional mothers, Charlie Jane Anders's list of ten great books you didn't know were science fiction or fantasy, Peter Dimock's top ten list of books that challenge what we think we know as "history", Stuart Evers's top ten list of homes in literature, David W. Blight's list of five outstanding novels on the Civil War era, John Mullan's list of ten of the best births in literature, Kit Whitfield's top ten list of genre-defying novels, and at the top of one list of contenders for the title of the single best work of American fiction published in the last twenty-five years.

--Marshal Zeringue