James Renner Books in Order

James Renner revisits the 1989 disappearance and murder of ten-year-old Amy Mihaljevic, a case that haunted his childhood. His investigative memoir follows leads, interviews, and unexpected connections while searching for answers to the Northeast Ohio crime.

Vintage photographs trace the changing histories of three northern Manhattan neighborhoods, from their role in the American Revolution to later immigrant communities. The book explores local institutions, notable residents, and the area's distinctive marble industry.

Thirteen investigative reports revisit Northeast Ohio crimes that remained unresolved when the collection was published. Renner examines disappearances, concealed identities, suspicious deaths, and a bank theft, focusing on puzzling evidence and the people connected to each case.

This nonfiction collection examines thirteen Ohio accounts involving unusual creatures, unexplained events, and secretive organizations. Renner investigates stories such as the Loveland Frog and a deputy's UFO pursuit, considering the histories behind the state's stranger legends.

Retired journalist David Neff investigates the bizarre murder of an isolated man in Akron, hoping to understand a disturbing cold case. The inquiry unexpectedly connects to his dead wife, blending a crime mystery with questions about time.

A young couple begins to suspect that their home exists within a computer glitch. This short science fiction story unsettles the familiar setting of domestic life by raising doubts about whether the world they inhabit is actually real.

Two young veterans return to Iraq searching for the souls they believe left their bodies during combat. Their journey gives a supernatural form to the struggle to recover what war has taken from their sense of themselves.

A woman who hoards possessions struggles to confront her husband’s disappearance. The challenge of choosing even one object to discard becomes entangled with her grief, turning a small practical decision into a reckoning with absence and attachment.

After his daughter is murdered in the Sandy Hook shootings, a grieving father retreats into writing fantasy. As his invented world develops, he begins to believe its pages may offer a chance to build a safer life for her.

Thirty-three nonfiction pieces collect Renner's reporting for Cleveland alternative newspapers, including profiles of artists, politicians, scientists, and other local figures. Separate sections explore public scandals and secretive groups, offering a varied portrait of Ohio's public and hidden worlds.

History teacher Jack Felter returns to Ohio to care for his father and learns that an old friend has disappeared. Joining the friend's troubled young patient, Jack follows clues toward secret facilities and a program manipulating collective memory.

Renner investigates the disappearance of college student Maura Murray after her 2004 New Hampshire car accident. This memoir also examines his growing fixation on the case and the personal consequences of a life devoted to pursuing true-crime mysteries.

In 1960s New England, a private investigator accepts a teenage writer's request to steal a box from H. P. Lovecraft's estate. The assignment becomes a supernatural mystery concerned with creative inspiration and the dangers surrounding it.

Renner revisits the 1990 murder of teenager Lisa Pruett in Shaker Heights, Ohio, drawing on records and interviews. His investigation examines how rumors, social pressures, and assumptions shaped the community's response and the prosecution of a fellow student.

James Renner returns to the Ohio Scout camp where he worked in 1995, investigating a counselor’s death and the culture surrounding it. His reporting intertwines personal memories with an examination of abuse, secret societies, and institutional silence.

James Renner investigates Amy Lynn Bradley’s disappearance from a Caribbean cruise ship in 1998. Interviews and competing accounts illuminate the uncertainty surrounding her fate, while his personal reflections explore the lasting effects of loss and the search for answers.