Lock Your Doors: A True Crime Book Club

Whether you're a long-time true crime reader, a devoted ID television channel watcher, or you just discovered the genre recently through podcasts, Lock Your Doors is the book club for you. Join us for a discussion of some fascinating and disturbing crimes in this quarterly book club. The Lock Your Doors True Crime Book Club meets at 7pm during the months of February, June, August, and December. Meetings are held in the Conference Room at the library and online via Zoom. The August meeting will be held in the Community Room. People can join a book club at any time and do not have to attend previous book club meetings to participate. We are happy to have you whenever you can attend!

Those wishing to attend via Zoom need to register in order to receive the Zoom link. Those attending in person do not need to register. Upcoming book club meetings are listed to the right. Click on the date you would like to attend to register online. You may also register by calling 309.590.6168 or by visiting us in person at the library Help Desk on the second floor.

The Library receives extra print copies of book club books leading up to the date of the meeting. To reserve one of the extra print copies of the next title to be discussed, contact the Help Desk by phone at 309.590.6168 or by email to reference@bloomingtonlibrary.org. Digital copies of each title (eBook or eAudiobook) may also be available through the Libby or Hoopla Apps. 

February 24, 2025

 Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers by Frank Figliuzzi

Based on the author's own on-the-ground research and drawing on his 25-year career as an FBI special agent, this book recounts crime happening on America's highways and interstates where at least 850 homicides have been linked to long-haul truck drivers, which caused the FBI to open a special unit, the Highway Serial Killings initiative.

June 23, 2025

 Liliana's Invincible Summer: A Sister's Search for Justice by Cristina Rivera Garza

In the early hours of July 16, 1990, Liliana Rivera Garza was murdered by her abusive ex-boyfriend. A life full of promise and hope, cut tragically short, Liliana's story instead became subsumed into Mexico's dark and relentless history of domestic violence. With Liliana's case file abandoned by a corrupt criminal justice system, her family, including her older sister Cristina, was forced to process their grief and guilt in private, without any hope for justice.

August 5, 2025

 Reasonable Doubt: A Shocking Story of Lust and Murder in the American Heartland by Steve Vogel

In 1983 in Bloomington, IL, a mother and her three children are found hacked to death in their beds. The apparent weapons, an ax and butcher knife, are found nearby. The husband and father, David Hendricks, was away on a business trip when the bodies were found. Police believe Hendricks murdered his family before he left. Hendricks has the total support of his extended family. Police paint a darker picture, and prosecutors face the daunting task of convicting him. Author Steve Vogel will join us at this discussion.

December 15, 2025

 The league of Lady Poisoners: Illustrated True Stories of Dangerous Women by Lisa Perrin

This lavishly illustrated book introduces more than 25 infamous women poisoners, exploring the circumstances and skill sets that led them to lives of crime. Learn about popular poisons throughout history and their deadly effects, and explore the common motives that drove these women to commit their dastardly deeds.

February 23, 2026

 In Light of All Darkness: Inside the Polly Klaas Kidnapping and the Search for America's Child by Kim Cross

On October 1, 1993, a 12-year-old girl was kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom in Petaluma, California, during a sleepover with two friends, while her mother slept soundly in the room next door. This rarest of all kidnappings—a stranger abduction from the home—triggered one of the largest manhunts in FBI history. The emotional gravity of Polly’s story touched every agent, police officer, and forensic technician who worked on her case. Many of these investigators have never shared their stories—until now.

April 27, 2026

  When the Night Comes Falling: A Requiem for the Idaho Student Murders by Howard Blum

Timed for a trial that will capture national attention, When the Night Comes Falling examines the mysterious murders of the four University of Idaho students. Having covered this case from its start, Edgar award winning investigative reporter Howard Blum takes readers behind the scenes of the police manhunt that eventually led to suspected killer, Bryan Christopher Kohberger, and uncovered larger, lurid questions within this unthinkable tragedy.

July 27, 2026

  Raised by a Serial Killer: Discovering the Truth About My Father by April Balascio

One evening in 2009, April Balascio was searching online, as she had been every night, for unsolved murders in the towns her family had lived growing up, when she stumbled across the latest investigations into the “Sweetheart Murders” cold case. All at once, the buried memories of her father’s dark history were awakened, and she knew she had to take action. She picked up the phone to call a detective and the rest is infamous true crime history. In her unflinching memoir, Balascio bravely reveals an astonishing tale of a lifetime of manipulation, unexplained upheavals, and silent fear. Some part of her had always known what her father was capable of, but the full truth of how she came to these revelations is as riveting as it is quietly terrifying.

October 26, 2026

  The Borden Tragedy by Rick Geary

The account presented in these pages of 19th Century America's most famous murder case is excerpted and adapted from the unpublished memoirs of a (thus far) unknown lady of Fall River, Massachusetts. Since the typewritten, unedited manuscript came to light at a 1990 estate sale, its provenance has been established to a satisfying degree. As part of the contents of an unopened trunk, it resided since the turn of the century in the basement of a private archive in Boston.