Plot Twist

This week, we're trying something a little different with a true crime book recommendation.

Before true crime was a cultural phenomenon, before the podcasts and Netflix documentaries, Michelle McNamara was already there. Writing obsessively. Researching relentlessly. Chasing a killer no one had named yet.

She called him the Golden State Killer. And she spent years trying to find him.

She never got to see what happened next.

This week on Plot Twist, we're stepping back from the case files to talk about the woman behind one of the most important true crime books ever written and why her story matters just as much as the one she was telling.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Someone was stealing manuscripts. Not published books... unpublished ones. Unreleased novels from Margaret Atwood, Sally Rooney, a Pulitzer Prize winner. Works that didn't exist yet, in anyone's hands but the author's.

For five years, nobody knew who it was. Or how they were doing it.

The method turned out to be almost embarrassingly simple. And the motive? Even stranger than anyone expected.

This week on Plot Twist, we go inside the publishing industry's most bizarre crime and the one question that nobody could quite agree on an answer to: what exactly did the Spine Collector want?

For 25 years, one of Pittsburgh's most trusted librarians walked into one of the most secure rooms in the city — and walked back out with $8 million worth of history tucked under his arm.

No disguises. No accomplices with technical skills. No elaborate plan.

Just a man, a manila folder, and a little red stamp.

This week on Plot Twist, we go inside the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh — and the slow-motion heist that nobody noticed until it was almost too late.

Listen to Plot Twist wherever you get your podcasts.

#PlotTwist #TrueCrime #BookCrime #CarnegieLibrary #RareBooks #LibraryHeist #LiteraryCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #BookTok #PodcastRecommendation #NewPodcast #BooksAndCrime #CulturalTheft #HeistStory #PittsburghHistory #BookmarkProductions #BecauseBooksMatter

She wrote a children's book to help her kids cope with losing their father.

She was the one who killed him.

In March 2023, Utah mom Kouri Richins published Are You With Me? — a tender picture book about a little boy searching for signs of his late father. She appeared on local television, soft-spoken and composed, talking about grief and healing and the power of a bedtime story.

One month later, she was arrested for murder.

This week on Plot Twist, we dig into one of the most disturbing true crime cases in recent memory — a story of fentanyl, financial ruin, a secret affair, and a children's book that may have been the most calculated move of all. We'll take you inside the marriage that was quietly falling apart, the investigation that took years to build, and the trial that left a courtroom speechless.

Three little boys lost their father. What they didn't know — what none of us knew — was who really took him.

In this episode: The real estate empire built on debt. The secret boyfriend. The housekeeper who became the prosecution's star witness. The internet searches prosecutors say prove everything. And the children's grief book at the centre of it all.

New to Plot Twist? This is the show for true crime fans who love books. Subscribe so you never miss a case.

Content Note: This episode discusses the murder of Eric Richins, fentanyl poisoning, and includes victim impact statements from minor children. Listener discretion is advised.

#TrueCrime #KouriRichins #PlotTwist #TrueCrimePodcast #FentanylMurder #MurderTrial #CrimePodcast #BookCrime #UtahMurder #AreYouWithMe #LiteraryMurder #BookMarkProductions #PodcastRecommendations #TrueCrimeCommunity #NewPodcast

A robbery. A fire. A life lost for $200. Two brothers went to prison — and one of them wrote a great book. When his secret came to light, the publishing world was forced to ask a question they weren't ready for: can talent exist without redemption? And does it even matter?

This week on Plot Twist.

Chef and instructor Daniel Brophy was shot twice at close range on June 2, 2018, at the Oregon Culinary Institute, where he taught, and investigators ultimately arrested his wife, romance suspense writer Nancy Crampton Brophy, who had previously written an essay titled “How to Murder Your Husband.”

KGW News - Nancy Brophy Cross Examination: https://www.youtube.com/live/SwRF8ddWWbg?si=ATs52eFTAyqybzQH

Music: paolaargento

This episode of Plot Twist tells the story of bestselling mystery author Anne Perry, born Juliet Hulme in 1938, whose teenage past was exposed in 1994. After a childhood marked by tuberculosis, isolation, and repeated illness, Juliet formed an intense bond with Pauline Parker in New Zealand. When Juliet’s family planned to return to England and Pauline was refused permission to join them, the girls committed a shocking act. Convicted and imprisoned, Juliet reinvented herself as Anne Perry in the UK, becoming a religious, award-winning writer of Victorian detective series centered on themes of amnesia and redemption. Her secret unraveled after a surprising connection to the film Lord of the Rings.

Plot Twist is produced by Book Mark Productions and hosted by Mark Brooks.

Instagram: @bookmarkproductions

YouTube: @bookmarkprod

Beginning Audio from interview with Anne Perry conducted by Ian Rankin.

Music: ⁠

Denis-Pavlov-Music

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