Ripped from the Headlines by Harald Schecter looks at a slew of movies inspired by actual crimes. As someone who has an abiding interest in true crime, I thought this would be right up my alley. I did find the true crime parts fascinating.

They were all much older cases though, as were the movies. Some of these crimes have more modern adaptations. Reading about movies I’ve never seen, and am unlikely to watch got rather boring after a while. There were a few modern ones, such as The Fugitive. The inclusion of a few more recent cases would have been nice. It’s not as if there aren’t plenty of options! It was interesting to revisit earlier cases though, such as that of Leopold and Loeb, and of course, Dr Sam Shepard, whose case inspired The Fugitive.

The writing and format become repetitive quite quickly. I had to stop and start due to this, so it took me much longer to finish. This is also a nonfiction book, given the true crime aspects. It’s listed as fiction, which might be a turn-off to people who might otherwise read Ripped from the Headlines for the true crime.

*****Many thanks to Netgalley and Little A for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.