Bibliography/Reference
Obviously, there are a million books about real-life crime out there that might help budding P.I. writers and fascinate readers.

This is just a start. I'm willing to hear any suggestions or recommendations. Writers, are there any books you've found particularly useful?.

Arranged chronologically

........

• Schechter, Harold, editor,
  True Crime: An American Anthology .. Buy this book
  Library of America, September 2008.
  Crime is evidently as American as apple pie, and this anthology goes out of its way to prove it, with a boffo selection of red, white and blue mayhem from a star-studded list of contributors that includes everyone from Abraham Lincoln to Jim Thompson.
  
  
• Roth, Randolph,
  American Homicide...Buy this book
  Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, October 2009.
  A wonk-heavy, stat-heavy look into one thing the U.S. certainly leads the world in: murder. History professor Roth comes to a staggering and surprising conclusion about why Americans are number one in killery: it ain't personal, it's political. And then he trots out enough data and meticulous research to back it up. Disturbing, provocative and in your face, this is one academic can of worms that deserves to be opened.
  
  
• Waller, S., editor,
  Serial Killers: Being and Killing....Buy this book
  Wiley-Blackwell, October 2010.
  Part of the popular "Philosophy for Everyone" series, this alternately fascinating and disturbing volume explores the existential, ethical and political questions that our culture's current obsession obviously raises, working its way through an examination of both real and fictional serial killers, including Ian Brady, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer , the Zodiac killer, Dexter and Hannibal Lecter , and serves up the often conflicting insights of philosophers, academics, crime writers and police officers. Best served with a nice bottle of Chianti.