Harold Schechter Books In Order

Publication Order of Edgar Allan Poe Mystery Books

Publication Order of Bloodlands Collection Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Harold Schechter is a former professor of City University of New York’s Queen’s College. When he was active as a professor, he taught American culture and literature for more than four decades.

Over the years, his essays on media violence, psychopathy and crime have been featured in many magazines and newspapers including the International Herald Tribune, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal among others.

He has also been a true crime expert on many cable channels such as Court TV, Investigation Discovery and History Detectives on PBS.

Since he published “Outcry,” his debut novel in 1997, he has gone on to write more than 40 historical true crime stories exploring the life and times of the most infamous serial killers in the United States.

He is also the author of several encyclopedic works and an anthology of American True crime. His novels have been nominated for several awards over the years including an Edgar in 2015. He is also the author of several mystery novels that feature Edgar Allan Poe as the protagonist and narrator.

It was when Harold Schchter was in college that he started thinking of a career as a fiction author. However, he would get sidetracked in academia as he studied for his doctorate in American literature. Nonetheless, he still hoped that he would one day come back to fiction writing.

During the mid 1990s, he wrote several horror novels under a pseudonym and also dabbled in TV and film writing. It was while he was writing for prime time shows that he conceived the idea for “Nevermore,” the first of the “Edgar Allan Poe” mystery series.

Growing up, he had always been intrigued by human fascination with archetypal monsters. He wanted to explore how real life criminals awakened infantile fantasies of supernatural apparitions in the shadows that can turn adults into awestruck children.

As such, when he started writing he knew that was just the type of monster he needed and wanted to write about. When he initially started writing, he was so sure that he had invented a new genre of true horror rather than true crime.

His works are thus non fiction accounts of actual criminals that are some kind of incarnation of the monsters we see in folklore and myth.

Harold Schechter is known for using court records and newspaper clippings to create compelling stories and well fleshed out protagonists in his novels. In addition to his fiction works, Schechter is one of the leading authors on American popular culture.

In this capacity, he has written about modern contemporary entertainment as contrasted with traditional folklore narrative archetypes. He has also explored everything from nineteenth century productions, Victorian murder ballads and violence in popular entertainment.

He has been credited with inventing the now popular figurative meaning of porn in “Kali on Main Street” in his 1973 article. He has also received credit for writing teleplays for the likes of “Law & Order.”

For his work, he has been praised as a deft writer and serial killer expert who has an exceptional ability to bring to life the perspective and thoughts of infamous and legendary figures from the past.

“The Pirates” by Harold Schechter is a gripping narrative set in 1763 New York. At the opening of the story, the first oyster restaurant just opened in New York catering to every social class in the city. As oyster cellars empty and oyster beds in New York Harbor dry up, the EA Johnson a charter sloop sails down to Chesapeake.

On the ship are George Hanford Burr the ship captain, 19 and 24 year old brothers Smith and Olver Watts, and a knowledgeable, smart, physically imposing sailor and ship’s mate William Johnson.

Captain Burr had penned a letter to his wife a month after they set sail and a day later the sloop was found adrift. There was no one aboard and a search of the cabins and deck found blood spatter and blood soaked planks.

The silver in the captain’s custody that was to be used to pay for oysters in Chesapeake Bay is also gone alongside the yawl.
Making use of court documents and newspaper clippings, Harodl Schechter tells the story of William Johnson, real name Albert Hicks. He was probably the last man to be executed for pirate acts in the United States.

Harold Schechter’s work “Little Slaughterhouse on the Prairie” is a fascinating story set in the Wild West. It tells of the Bender family of the Kansas prairie that ran a hospitality business. They used to offer many weary travelers a place to sleep and hot food but sometimes also offered up robbery and murder as well.

They were responsible for killing many guests whose heads they smashed in before robbing them of their valuables and disposing of their bodies. They would sometimes kill for fun while other times they did it for the money.

It was a dangerous family that made traveling alone in the Kansas prairie a terrifying prospect. Schechter writes a factual story in narrative fashion that explores the crimes of the Bender family and how they disappeared when their crimes came to light.

What happened to them remains a mystery even though speculation is that they could have escaped into the night or have been quietly executed by vigilantes. All told, none of the Benders was ever seen again following the discovery of their debauchery.

“The Pied Piper” by Harold Schechter is a work set in 1960 Tucson when Elvis was the man of the moment. Marlon Brando and James Dean’s bad boy and punk charisma had captured the imagination of many of America’s youth. It was a time before the rock roll, drug and sex of the hippes movement.

The protagonist is a man in his early twenties named Charles Schmid. He molds himself on the persona of these Hollywood greats, complete with cosmetically enhanced skin pallow, fake beauty marks and pouting lips. For some unknown reason, the youth of Tucson Arizona thinks he is the coolest kid ever.

But What people do not know is that he is an evil serial killer who kills teenage girls including his girlfriend and a neighbor. The strange thing is that he brags about his crimes and he is not turned in, until one of his most ardent followers becomes unstable and blabs.