The Last Book on the Left; The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

There's a podcast I've never listed to called the Last Podcast on the Left (which of course is a pun on the classic horror film "Last House on the Left"), which looks at killers. I don't know how people have time to listen to so many podcasts. Friends are always recommending them to me. I don't have time to listen. Seriously. But if I did listen to any, this one would probably be right up there for me. The three hosts got together and compiled a kind of "greatest" serial killers of all time book. It was pretty good. I was familiar with all of them except for one: Richard Chase, the Vampire of Sacramento. I was surprised I had never heard of him. At any rate, it was a fun(ish) book (I feel guilty saying that, since it is after all about disgusting, vile monsters doing terrible things to innocent people). Some of their remarks were a little lame, but all in all it was a good introduction to some of the worst killers of all time.

And, coincidentally enough, "The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires" mentioned Richard Chase several times, too.
Spooky.
I love Grady Hendrix. He's so much fun. This book takes place mostly in the early '90s in Alabama. Five proper southern ladies have a book club where they get together and read true crime and other such "trash". James Harris moves into the neighborhood, and Patricia is immediately suspicious of him. Coming out in the daylight makes him sick and weak, and he has a bag of cash but no ID, so he needs her help opening a bank account. When children start killing themselves after acting oddly for a few weeks, Patricia convinces the rest of the ladies in her book club that he's a drug dealer. Unfortunately, that doesn't end well for them: when their husbands get wind that they're planning on taking their suspicions to the police, they intervene and put a stop to it, blaming the books they read on their "craziness". Fast forward three years later, and everyone's in business with Harris, and Patricia doubts her own sanity. It was really good with some truly disgusting scenes that really grossed me out. That's pretty hard to do.