Journalist. Palindrome. Writer.
March 22 – North Canton, Ohio Barnes & Noble – Book Signing, 1 – 3 p.m.
April 12 – Stark Library Local Author Fair – Book Signing, 2 – 4
April 17 – Crete, Illinois – Author Presentation and Signing , 6 p.m.
June 7th and 8th – London, England – CrimeCon UK
June 28 and 29th – Medina, Ohio – Signings and Fireside Chat, Big Ohio Book Con
My newest true crime book, Scout Camp: Sex, Death, and Secret Societies Inside the Boy Scouts of America is finally here! Find it at your local bookstore or online here.
If you live in Cleveland and would like a signed copy, drop by Loganberry Books or order directly from them here.
In this timely and deeply personal true crime memoir, acclaimed journalist, author, creator of the True Crime This Week podcast, and former Boy Scout James Renner, explores the dark side of an American institution, its pervasive culture of sexual abuse, and the traumatic—even deadly—repercussions of its long-buried secrets.
In the summer of 1995, at the largest Boy Scout camp in Ohio, a night of sexual violence ended with one counselor dead and another hospitalized. The death was ruled “accidental.” It wouldn’t be the last death associated with Seven Ranges Reservation.
James Renner, too, was a counselor at Seven Ranges that year. He was always sure there must be more to the story of Mike Klingler’s death, because Renner also knew firsthand that the 900-acre camp was not the safe getaway it was portrayed to be. On Friday nights the boys were ushered into the woods for a frightening ceremony in which they learned the rules for becoming good young men—and, above all, that keeping secrets was a scout’s duty. No matter how dark the secrets were.
Determined to face his demons, Renner embarks on a journey back to that tumultuous summer and exposes a clandestine society that left indelible scars on the scouts and the staff who were there. For Renner himself, it meant opening up about his twisted upbringing, his issues with trust and sexuality, and a lifetime of self-medication. The result is a deeply personal, no-holds-barred, and vitally important true crime memoir.
I’m traveling around the Midwest and signing copies of my new true crime book, Scout Camp soon. Come see me!
Also, you can order or pick up signed copies from Loganberry Books in Shaker Heights, Ohio whenever you’d like!
Friday, February 28: Official Book Launch at Barnes & Noble, Fairlawn, Ohio. 7 p.m.
March 1 & 2: The Loveland Frogman Festival.
Tuesday, March 4: Signing at the Jordan Creek Barnes & Noble in Des Moines, Iowa. 6 – 8 p.m.
Thursday, March 6: Reading & Signing at Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Missouri. 6 p.m.
Friday, March 7: Signing at Magic City Books, Tulsa, Oklahoma. 6 – 8 p.m.
Saturday, March 8: Signing at New Market Square Barnes & Noble in Wichita, Kansas . 2- 4 p.m.
Publishers Marketplace just released their Buzz Books picks for Winter/Spring 2025. These are the books they’re excited to read this year and it’s an honor to have Scout Camp featured in the new edition. They excerpt the first 20 pages and you can download their book here.
You have to wait until Feb 25 to read the rest! But you can preorder today!
My collection of unsolved true crime stories, The Serial Killer’s Apprentice, is now available as an audiobook for the first time! Get it on Audible here.
Investigative reporter James Renner reopens cold cases that have baffled Clevelanders for years, including:
● Murder—Beverly Jarosz, just sixteen years old, felt a dark foreboding in the months before she was stabbed to death in her quiet Garfield Heights home. It all started with an anonymous gift.
● Stolen Identity—Joseph Newton Chandler was not who he claimed to be. Some think he was the Zodiac killer; others say he was D. B. Cooper, or even Jim Morrison.
● Suicide or murder?—Joseph Kupchik hid gambling problems from friends and family until he was found at the bottom of a nine-story parking deck in downtown Cleveland—with multiple stab wounds.
● Heist—In 1969, Lakewood bank employee Ted Conrad nabbed $215,000 from the vault one day after his twentieth birthday. The FBI still shows up at his high school reunions.
● Controversy—Jeffrey Krotine was thrice tried for the grisly 2003 murder of his wife and ultimately acquitted, to the frustration of prosecutors, detectives, and jurors.
These stories venture into dark alleys and strip clubs, as well as suburbs and small towns, where some of the region’s most horrendous crimes have occurred.
My horror novella, Muse, is now available in paperback through Cemetery Dance! Click here to order.
Muse tells the story of a private detective hired by a young writer to steal an old box from the estate of H.P. Lovecraft. Mayhem ensues.
“This is a horror-filled book about creativity and storytelling and compulsion, not metaphorical but literal… Muse is now far and away my favorite Renner work.” – ScifiAndScary.com
“Renner’s spin on the Lovecraft-go-round is a dark-ass supernatural detective thriller speculating about the source of inspiration for two of America’s gloomiest, murkiest writers. It is a bloody, and clever and slick-noir journey through a criminal underbelly of east coast gangsters and cultists and amorous boy scout leaders and ambitious teenage novelists and it is creepy and rewarding and HIGHLY EFFABLE. like, ‘we are all effed-able.’ Finally, a Lovecraft i could love.” – Karen Brissette.
My next true crime book comes out February 25, 2025 but you can preorder today! This one is quite personal and serves as a kind of autobiography, too.
Here’s the writeup.
In this timely and deeply personal true crime memoir, acclaimed journalist, author, creator of the True Crime This Week podcast, and former Boy Scout James Renner, explores the dark side of an American institution, its pervasive culture of sexual abuse, and the traumatic—even deadly—repercussions of its long-buried secrets.
In the summer of 1995, at the largest Boy Scout camp in Ohio, a night of sexual violence ended with one counselor dead and another hospitalized. The death was ruled “accidental.” It wouldn’t be the last death associated with Seven Ranges Reservation.
James Renner, too, was a counselor at Seven Ranges that year. He was always sure there must be more to the story of Mike Klingler’s death, because Renner also knew firsthand that the 900-acre camp was not the safe getaway it was portrayed to be. On Friday nights the boys were ushered into the woods for a frightening ceremony in which they learned the rules for becoming good young men—and, above all, that keeping secrets was a Scout’s duty. No matter how dark the secrets were.
Determined to face his demons, Renner embarks on a journey back to that tumultuous summer and exposes a clandestine society that left indelible scars on the Scouts and the staff who were there. For Renner, it meant opening up about his twisted upbringing, his issues with trust and sexuality, and a lifetime of self-medication. The result is a deeply personal, no-holds-barred, and vitally important true crime memoir.
I’m happy to report that this week I met Shaker Heights police detectives to talk about a potential link between the unsolved murder of Lisa Pruett and the 1985 double-homicides of Philip and Dorothy Porter (the subject of my book, Little, Crazy Children.) The meeting went well and they are at least cracking open the old files for another look. Fingers crossed!
My new podcast, Syynth Sleuths, premieres January 23 on all podcast platforms. It’s the first true crime podcast to feature an A.I. cohost. Follow James and Sky as they contemplate the nature of consciousness and explore the world’s most confounding unsolved mysteries.
Come see me this fall!
September 2 – Bouchercon, San Diego!
September 11 – Rodman, Ohio Public Library 6:30 p.m.
September 21 – Music Box Supper Club, Cleveland, Ohio: Doors at 5, Presentation at 7 p.m.
September 27 – Willoughby-Eastlake, Ohio Public Library 7 p.m.
October 11 – Mogadore, Ohio Library 6 p.m.
October 17 – Castle Shannon, PA Public Library
November 4 – Wooster, Ohio: Buckeye Book Fair
November 5 – Akron, Ohio Comic Con 1 p.m.
November 6 – Mentor, Ohio Public Library – 6:30 p.m.
November 18 – Cincinnati, Ohio: Books by the Banks
© 2025 James Renner
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