True stories from the files of an award-winning journalist and New York Times–bestselling author: “One of America’s finest true-crime writers” (Vincent Bugliosi).
 
Someone tries to pin a gruesome murder on a horse. Infamous serial killer Son of Sam shows us his true evil nature in a series of lost letters this psychopath never wanted you to see. Sesame Street’s Big Bird comes home to find a dead woman on his estate. These shocking stories and several others are collected in one volume for the first time, with added updates from the author.
 
One story involves a young man who believes he’s figured out the perfect way to commit a murder after binge-watching Forensic Files. In this opening tale, a Massachusetts man is stalked by a hired killer because of the information he holds in the case of insurance scam gone bad, resulting in savage murder. Next up is the story of a restaurant owner and her husband, enjoying a tranquil life in the Berkshires, until a bloody trail inside a barn leads to a gruesome discovery and a family’s deepest, darkest secrets are exposed.
 
As a bonus, Phelps takes readers behind the scenes of his hit Investigation Discovery series Dark Minds, revealing his investigative secrets with an intimate look at those serial-killer cold cases that still haunt Phelps today—and meets with forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee in a narrative interview that reveals Lee’s ingenious and humorous take on life, his crime-scene philosophy, and the ways in which he deals with the brutality of the work he does.