To the young Cheryl Diamond, life felt like one big adventure, whether she was hurtling down the Himalayas in a rickety car or mingling with underworld fixers. Her family seemed like an unbreakable gang of five as they crossed continents and changed identities. What Diamond didn’t yet know was that she was born into a family of outlaws fleeing from the highest international law enforcement agencies— a family with secrets that would catch up to all of them. Wild, heart-wrenching, and unexpectedly funny, Nowhere Girl is an inspiring coming-of-age memoir about running for freedom against the odds. There are plenty of even unhealthier angles to the true crime phenomenon. The stories can be exploitative of victims. Sometimes authors romanticize criminals. Additionally, there are patterns regarding race, gender, and class predicting whose stories receive obsessive attention. And how crime stories intersect with systems of policing is thorny, to say the least. As with any problematic fave, some nuanced consideration can go a long way. That’s where memoirs about crime families come in.
Why Read Memoirs About Crime Families?
These memoirs about crime families can bring some mindfulness to the practice of consuming gripping narratives of violence and mayhem. They can provide deep insider knowledge to readers interested in organized crime. Or very disorganized crime, as the case may be. In addition, many memoirs demonstrate how families can be collateral damage in a criminal’s path of destruction. And for those of us who have complicated relationships with our families? Well, there’s certainly something to relate to when another family’s dysfunction is a matter of public record. I’ve rounded up some of the best memoirs about crime families. There’s a variety of kinds of crime, from mobs to cults to drug running. I’ve also taken a broad approach to the themes. Some of these memoirs provide perspective what behavior is criminalized and what isn’t. Some detail crimes that never resulted in prosecutions or even arrests. But they all tell compelling tales. Trigger warnings: mention of sexual assault, addiction, child abuse If you’re looking for more, we’ve got 50 recommendations in both true crime and memoir. Additionally, we’ve got novels about criminal families and more unique crime books across genres. Ultimately, the variety of books exploring crime and family available shows Tolstoy wasn’t kidding around about unhappy families.
