Ron Franscell

Ron has written 19 books. His writing has been compared to Truman Capote, Charles Frazier and Robert Olen Butler—diverse, poetic, evocative and muscular. His new DEAF ROW—a mystery—proves it.


He burst onto the crime scene with THE DARKEST NIGHT (also titled FALL in a 2007 hardcover), which continues to be a bestselling true crime. This intensely personal nonfiction about a monstrous crime that touched his life as a child has been hailed by authors such as Ann Rule and Vincent Bugliosi, as well as critics, as a direct literary descendant of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood."

His widely acclaimed 2016 true crime, MORGUE: A LIFE IN DEATH (co-authored with renowned medical examiner Dr. Vincent Di Maio) was nominated for an Edgar in 2017.

His most recent true crime, "ALICE & GERALD: A HOMICIDAL LOVE STORY" (Prometheus Books) explores a grisly, real-life case of murder and perverse devotion. "Alice & Gerald" features a femme fatale whose manipulative, cold-blooded character rivals Lady Macbeth, this page-turner revisits a shocking cold case that was finally solved just when the murderers thought they'd never be caught.

Over the years, Ron's books have earned high praise from bestselling authors such as Ann Rule, John Lescroart, Vincent Bugliosi, C.J. Box, Howard Frank Mosher, and Warren Adler. His writing has been compared to Truman Capote, Robert Olen Butler, Norman McLean, Cormac McCarthy and Charles Frazier. Now, meet the author, who now lives in northern New Mexico.

But Ron's books aren't confined to true-crime. THE SOURTOE COCKTAIL CLUB is the true story of an extraordinary -- if slightly macabre -- road trip with his teenage son to the Yukon in search of a mummified human toe .. and a father's reassurance that he hasn't become irrelevant to his son.

His CRIME BUFF'S GUIDE books are quirky travel guides that take true-crime and history-trippers to some 400 outlaw- and crime-related sites all over the USA. Editions include Los Angeles, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Washington DC, and Maryland.

His debut novel, ANGEL FIRE, was published by Laughing Owl in 1998, and reprinted by Berkley (Penguin/Putnam) in 2000. His popular mystery, THE DEADLINE, was re-published in 2014 by WildBlue Press, followed by a sequel, THE OBITUARY. His book reviews and essays are regularly published in many of America's biggest and best newspapers, such as the Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, San Jose Mercury-News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and others.

DELIVERED FROM EVIL (2011) explores the entangled lives of mass-murderers and their victims, tracing the lives of 10 ordinary people who survived some of America's worst massacres. Auspiciously, it debuted on the day a deranged young gunman killed six and wounded 13 at a Tucson supermarket in one of the most shocking crimes of our day.

Books by Ron Franscell