Truth Really Is Stranger Than Fiction

Some while ago, we wrote about Court TV’s “Next Great Crime Writer” competition (which, by the way, has a November 27 deadline for submissions, so anyone interested in participating had better get on the stick). Now comes Murder by the Book, a Court TV series set to debut next Monday, November 13, at 10 p.m.

As the cable channel explains:

Court TV has invited America’s top mystery fiction writers to recount their memories, speculations and personal connections to the true-life mysteries and headline-making crimes that haunt their dreams at night.

Using documentary footage, first-person accounts and the author’s own insights, each one-hour episode sheds new light on a particularly intriguing crime. With alarming new facts combined with suspenseful storytelling, riveting developments are the rule in each dramatic opening and every shocking conclusion.

First up is James Ellroy, who will undoubtedly talk about the unsolved, 1958 murder of his mother, which led him to write The Black Dahlia (1987). Future episodes of Murder by the Book will focus on Faye Kellerman, Jonathan Kellerman, Michael Connelly, and Lisa Scottoline.