Claire Booth

Claire Booth is a former true crime writer, ghostwriter, and reporter. She lives in California. The Branson Beauty, featuring Sheriff Hank Worth, is her first novel.

Booth's new novel is Another Man's Ground, the second Sheriff Hank Worth Mystery.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

Right now, I’m reading Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America, by Jill Leovy. Frankly, I’m embarrassed that I missed this when it first came out in 2015. It is an absolutely phenomenal piece of reporting. Leovy spent years covering South Central LA, and she turns her reporting into a tour de force indictment of how the system fails communities like South Central. She argues that law enforcement needs to concentrate on solving and prosecuting homicides. Lip service to community policing isn’t making anything better for the people who live in these areas. She profiles both families who’ve lost young men to gun violence, and dedicated detectives who spend every waking hour trying to solve the crimes. It’s a must-read.

And I just finished a terrific YA thriller, City of Angels, by Kristi Belcamino. It’s also set in Los Angeles, but a bit further back – during the 1992 riots. It’s a perfect backdrop for the story of a teenager who flees trauma in the Midwest only to get swept up in a movie director’s twisted child porn ring. Nikki Black rescues a twelve-year-old and they land in a residential hotel in LA’s gritty downtown. The whole novel has a fantastic sense of place and a great mystery as well. I loved it.

Visit Claire Booth's website.

My Book, The Movie: Another Man's Ground.

The Page 69 Test: Another Man's Ground.

--Marshal Zeringue