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Ron Franscell

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

https://www.ronfranscell.com

Twitter

ronfranscell

Genre

Nonfiction, Mysteries & Thrillers, Memoir

Member Since

April 2008

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/ronfranscell

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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 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. ...more

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Ron Franscell’s books

Average rating: 3.98 · 11,428 ratings · 1,306 reviews · 33 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Darkest Night: The Murder of Innocence in a Small Town 3.94 avg rating — 2,640 ratings — published 2006 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shadowman: An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of FBI Profiling 4.13 avg rating — 1,717 ratings — published 2022 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story 4.02 avg rating — 1,280 ratings — published 2019 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Delivered from Evil: True Stories of Ordinary People Who Faced Monstrous Mass Killers and Survived 3.77 avg rating — 611 ratings — published 2011 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Deaf Row 4.31 avg rating — 349 ratings — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Deadline (Jefferson Morgan, #1) 4.35 avg rating — 300 ratings — published 1999 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Obituary (Jefferson Morgan, #2) 3.94 avg rating — 245 ratings — published 2010 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Angel Fire 3.98 avg rating — 127 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Southern Fried Crime: Notorious USA Box Set by Ron Franscell (Goodreads Author), Gregg Olsen (Goodreads Author), Rebecca Morris (Goodreads Author) 3.81 avg rating — 129 ratings — published 2015 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nightmare at Noon (Notorious USA: Texas) by Ron Franscell (Goodreads Author), Gregg Olsen (Goodreads Author) 3.84 avg rating — 111 ratings — published 2015 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Ron’s Recent Updates

Ron Franscell wrote a new blog post The Allure of Nowhere: Where the Roads Ends, Mystery Begins There’s something seductive about the edge of the map. We talk about remote places the way earlier generations spoke of monasteries or islands—as if d Read more of this blog post »
Mar 15, 2026 04:07AM · like

More of Ron's books…

Quotes by Ron Franscell (?)

“Some journeys take you farther from where you come from, but closer to where you belong.”
― Ron Franscell, Sourtoe Cocktail Club: The Yukon Odyssey Of A Father And Son In Search Of A Mummified Human Toe ... And Everything Else

tags: belonging, growth, home, journey-of-life, life-and-living, maturity, roads, roads-less-traveled

16 likes

“Houses, like faces, hide all kinds of memories.”
― Ron Franscell, Angel Fire

2 likes

“Are there girls in this movie?'

'Sure. There are always girls in movies. There aren't any movies without girls.”
― Ron Franscell, Angel Fire

1 likes

See all Ron Franscell's quotes »

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