First true-crime book

The earliest surviving example of English-language true-crime writing is The Triumphs of God's Revenge Against the Crying and Execrable Sinne of (Wilful and Premeditated) Murther, published in six instalments (and a collected edition) between 1621 and 1635. The books were the work of Englishman John Reynolds (c.1588–1655), who penned sensational and lurid stories of murder and violence under the pious pretext of illustrating the terrible wages of sin.

As was common for books of this era, the full title was extremely long, covering the modern roles of both a book's title and its back-cover description. What's actually written on the title page is the following:

The Triumphs of God's Revenge Against the Crying and Execrable Sinne of (Wilful and Premeditated) Murther: With His miraculous discoveries, and severe punishment thereof: in thirty severall tragical histories; ... Never published or imprinted in any other language. Histories which contain great variety of mournful and memorable accidents, historical, moral, and divine: very necessary to restrain and deter us from the bloody sin which in these our daies makes so ample and large a progression. With a table, of all the severall letters and challenges contained in the whole six books written by John Reynolds. The fourth edition. Whereunto are added the lively pourtaictures of the severall persons, and resemblances of other passages mentioned therein, engraven in copper plates

Although the factual basis of these stories is questionable, Reynolds maintains in his preface that they are all true, saying "I must further advertise thee, that I have purposely fetched these Tragical Histories from forreign parts […] For mine own part, I have illustrated and polished these Histories, yet not framed them according to the Model of mine own fancies".

The books were popular best-sellers during Reynolds' lifetime, and their graphic descriptions of betrayal, violence and death were an important influence on the notoriously bloody theatre of the early- to mid-17th century. The Changeling, a 1622 tragedy by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, was an adaptation of one of Reynolds' first Tragical Histories. It was also an important early influence on what would become the English "Murder Pamphlet" and "Broadside Ballad", cheaply printed, sensationalized accounts of prominent crimes.