Killer Shorts: Murderers Among Us Books in Order

Killer Shorts: Murderers Among Us is Stacy Green’s compact true-crime series. These are not novels, and they do not follow a fictional detective. Instead, Green uses short nonfiction pieces to dig into real or alleged murder cases that connect to the same dark questions she explores in her thrillers: who kills, why people miss warning signs, and how a story becomes legend.

The format is simple and direct.

Martha Beck looks at the life and crimes of Martha Beck, one half of the Lonely Hearts Killers pair with Raymond Fernandez. Beck and Fernandez used lonely-hearts ads to find victims, and their crimes ended with convictions and executions at Sing Sing in 1951. Green’s short focuses on the mix of sex, manipulation, lies, and violence that made the case so disturbing.

Jack the Ripper connects with Green’s fictional Erin Prince book Killing Jane. Rather than retelling the Ripper murders as fiction, this short looks at the long-running theory that the killer might have been a woman, sometimes called Jane the Ripper. Green had already shown an interest in how famous murder cases are remembered, misunderstood, and reshaped. This piece gives readers a quick look at one of the ideas behind her modern crime story.

The Smiley Face Killer turns to a more recent and disputed subject. The alleged Smiley Face Killer cases involve theories that some drowning deaths of young men were connected by smiley-face graffiti found near certain locations. The claims remain controversial, which makes the short less about a tidy answer and more about evidence, pattern-seeking, and the unease that comes when official explanations do not satisfy everyone.

These pieces work best for readers who want a brief true-crime detour between Green’s novels. They are short, focused, and closer to case notes than sweeping narrative nonfiction. You do not need to read them in order, though publication order gives a nice sense of Green’s interests, from historical killers to modern crime theories.

They also show one reason her fiction often feels so case-driven. Green is clearly interested in the real-world shadows behind fictional suspense, especially when myth, motive, and public fear all collide.