The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge

by Mitzi Szereto

Overview

Obsession, Unrequited Love, Jealousy, Revenge, and Violence Collide in this Page-Turning Anthology

#1 New Release in Forensic Science Law and Hoaxes & Deceptions

Crimes of passion are both eerie and strangely tantalizing. How can someone you hold dear become someone you fear? This riveting anthology explores the question through some of the most compelling true crime accounts and stories of obsession and vengeance.

Crimes fueled by emotions. Love, passion, obsession, jealousy, and betrayal. When it comes to the emotions, people can react in strange and unexpected ways. Whether it’s a heart hurt by unrequited love, or a lover so passionate they’ll stop at nothing to get their way—even the most mild-mannered soul can suddenly flip, becoming a vengeful spirit with dark intentions. From the ancient Greek myth of Jason and Medea to Shakespeare’s Othello, themes dealing with deeply felt emotions have persisted. But unlike mythology or fiction, The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge contains stories from real life.

A special selection of stories written exclusively for this book. The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge includes stories from around the world and from different times. As with all titles in the popular The Best New True Crime Stories series, this volume contains original nonfiction accounts penned by writers from across the literary spectrum. Dive into these twisted true tales of passion and unrequited love turned violent. Examine why some have fully embraced their dark side, resorting to crime to achieve their own special brand of satisfaction and retribution.

If you enjoyed Mitzi's last book in her series, The Best New True Crime Stories: Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues & Criminals, and books like You Love Me, and The Big Book of Serial Killers Volume 2, then you’ll love The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781642506495
Publisher:	Mango Media
Publication date:	07/22/2022
Series:	The Best New True Crime Stories
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	189
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Mitzi Szereto (mitziszereto.com) is an acclaimed author and anthology editor whose books encompass multiple genres including true crime and crime fiction, gothic fiction, cozy mystery, satire, parody, horror, sci-fi/fantasy, paranormal romance, erotic fiction, and general fiction and nonfiction. Her many popular titles include the anthologies in her true crime franchise The Best New True Crime Stories, and her novels Florida Gothic and Pride and Prejudice: Hidden Lusts. She has appeared at major international literature festivals and taught creative writing around the world, including several universities in the United Kingdom. She has the added distinction of editing the first anthology of erotica to include a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Mitzi has produced and presented the London-based web TV channel Mitzi TV, and also plays herself in the pseudo-documentary British film Lint: The Movie. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @MitziSzereto.

Read an Excerpt

From: “Because I Loved Him” by Iris Reinbacher

What was meant to be a single tryst on the afternoon of April 23 turned into an extended sex spree that led the two lovers to three different tea houses over the next sixteen days. They spent copious amounts of money, engaged geisha for entertainment, and had food and alcohol brought into their rooms. But most of all, they had sex—two, three, or more times a night, and often during the day as well. When the money Kichizō had taken from his restaurant ran out at the end of April, Sada went to Nagoya to ask Gorō Ōmiya for spending money, all the while pining for Kichizō and worrying about what he might do in her absence. Sada and Gorō met again in Tokyo on May 5, when he gave her more cash, unaware that she would turn around and immediately spend it with another man. Once that money was gone as well, Kichizō returned to his restaurant on May 7 and the lovers parted, promising to meet again in a few days.

While Kichizō went home to make amends with his wife and get an infusion of new cash, Sada went out on her own, going about her business. By now, she had developed deep feelings for Kichizō. She had finally found someone who treated her exactly as she desired. Not that she could put into words what exactly was so special about him, but it was as if she had found a soulmate, a perfect partner for life. Because of this, Sada was also jealous for the first time in her life. She couldn’t bear the thought that he might be at home sleeping with his wife, and the prospect of having to share him with someone else in the future enraged her. Fleeting thoughts of killing Kichizō to make him hers forever entered her mind. They solidified into vague plans when she saw a play in which a geisha attacked her lover with a knife. Sada was resolved to never let Kichizō leave her. And before they saw each other again, she bought a large kitchen knife.

From: “Facebookmoord” by Mitzi Szereto

Polly W. and Wesley C. spent several weeks planning Winsie’s murder. Polly initially wanted Winsie to be killed before Christmas so that she would no longer be bothered by her once school was back in session after the new year. Wesley, who was by all accounts crazy in love with Polly, was clearly willing to do anything to make her happy as well as defend her tarnished honor—even if that anything included the revenge killing of her former best friend. Whether Polly returned the intensity of her boyfriend’s feelings is open to question; some who knew her claimed she did not.

What the couple needed now was a hit man to do the job. Wesley recruited Jinhua, a young hanger-on who looked up to the older teen and desperately wanted to be a part of his group. Jinhua was allegedly offered a sum that started out high, then dropped to twenty euros a month, and then to a flat fee of one-hundred fifty euros. Free drinks were also included in the deal. Considering the paltry financial reward on offer, one can only conclude that Jinhua agreed to murder Winsie for the glory and acceptance it would bring.

Communication between the parties took place via Facebook, Skype, and text message. The teenage hit man was provided with Winsie’s address as well as the times she was most likely to be at home. A detailed description of the Hau residence was also provided, all the way down to the Snow White, Little Mermaid, and other cartoon stickers on the glass panel by the front door. Jinhua was given the bus number he’d need to take from the train station in order to reach her house. Everything seemed to have been meticulously planned. All that remained was the date in which to carry out the hit.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“True crime fans hungering for juicy tales of hot-blooded murder will gobble up the offerings in this irresistibly page-turning collection.”
—Harold Schechter, author of Hell’s Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men

“A grand sweep through tales of an abused wife’s murderous revenge in Victorian-era Canada; a 1980 Brink’s robbery in San Francisco by an unfailingly polite, gay thief who adopts a new identity and squanders his fortune in a sybaritic lifestyle in New York before being arrested; a husband’s revenge murder of his adulterous wife in sexually licentious postwar England, leading to an unusual appeal to the House of Lords before he is hanged; the sensational 2012 ‘Facebook Murder’ in the Netherlands signaled by the online post ‘A Girl Dies Today At 3 p.m.’; and the sordid tale of Evelyn Nesbit, gorgeous salesgirl turned famed actress, and her role in a love triangle with a prominent New York architect and the railroad scion who murders him in a rage on the rooftop theater of Madison Square Garden. Headlines in the sensationalist New York newspapers scream of the ‘Trial of the Century’—but of course it’s only 1906, and the century is still quite young.”
—Joe Sharkey, author of Above Suspicion

“Szereto and her contributors’ dark stories and clean writing styles combine for a gripping read. Wonderful!”
—Liza Rodman, author of The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer

“What motivates people to kill and commit heinous crimes? Is it a snap decision or calculated, plotted, and sinister? There’s a whole lot of reasons, hence our endless intrigue about what goes on in the minds of criminals. This volume of crime cases edited by true crime queen Mitzi Szereto is a fascinating look at crimes where perpetrators let their rage and bad judgment take over. With historical crimes and more contemporary ones featured, it’s also interesting to see how our understanding of violence has evolved over the years.”
—Emily Webb, co-host of Australian True Crime podcast and author of Angels of Death: Doctors and Nurses Who Kill

“The true heart of darkness is in true crime. Crime fiction authors are an inventive bunch, but rarely have they created stories of passion, obsession, and revenge as compelling as these true accounts of what the passionate human heart and obsessive mind can make a person do. You may pity some of the killers in this collection; you may loathe others. But I guarantee you won’t forget them.”
—Peter Guttridge, critic and crime fiction author

“The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge is Mitzi Szereto's most thoughtfully constructed and fully stacked collection I've yet to read. There's no filler. Everyone writes something deeper and also scratches that true crime itch that you came for. Even if you didn't know it needed scratching until now."
—Get On My Damn Level