Criminal Mind

Let's see: Authorities in an Eastern European country interrogate, and ultimately convict, an author of a grisly murder, using as primary evidence the author's violent, disturbing last novel. It's Martin McDonagh's play The Pillowman, right? No, it's a slightly mind-boggling true story. As sprawling, circumspect New Yorker true-crime pieces go, it's at least as good as this but nowhere near as weirdly compelling as this.

(Photo of Krystian Bala in a cage at his trial; Witczak / East News / SIPA.)