About

Carla Norton is an award-winning novelist and best-selling true crime writer. Her career began in earnest when she covered of a shocking case of kidnapping and prolonged captivity. After the trial, Carla researched and wrote PERFECT VICTIM in collaboration with the prosecutor. To her surprise, an instructor with the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit made it required reading, and PERFECT VICTIM hit #1 on the New York Times Nonfiction Best Sellers list.

That true crime story haunted her, and now it fuels her fiction. Her novel, THE EDGE OF NORMAL, has been adapted to film, with Chloe Grace Moretz starring as a Reeve, a survivor of kidnapping, and Rupert Friend as her psychiatrist. The movie is now titled FOUND ALIVE.

The novel's sequel, titled WHAT DOESN'T KILL HER, takes the lead character from California up to Seattle. The settings are inspired by places Carla has called home.

Carla also also wrote DISTURBED GROUND, a California true crime about a female serial killer, Dorothea Puente, a Sacramento landlady who murdered her tenants and buried them in her garden.

For more, visit CarlaNorton.com or find Carla Norton: Novelist & True Crime Writer on Facebook.

Featured Work

The Edge of Normal

2013
The Edge of Normal by Carla Norton

The Edge of Normal, a crime novel inspired by true events, has been adapted to film. Filming is complete and the movie, starring Chloe Grace-Moretz and Rupert Friend, should be released in 2026. The heroine is a survivor of kidnapping and prolonged captivity, a young woman who’s flawed but fierce. (Think Elizabeth Smart meets Clarice Starling.) She’s damaged and psychologically unbalanced, but she has a hot sense of justice. And when called upon, she’s absolutely fearless. The Edge of Normal is inspired by the criminal case portrayed in Norton’s #1 NYT nonfiction best seller, Perfect Victim.

Other Works

  • What Doesn't Kill Her

    2015

  • Disturbed Ground

    2013

  • Perfect Victim

    1988

Awards and Recognition

  • Nancy Pearl Award for Best Book, Genre Fiction, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, 2016
  • President's Award Gold Medal for Best Book, Suspense/Thriller, Florida Authors and Publishers Association, 2016
  • Thriller Award Finalist, Best First Novel, 2014
  • Royal Palm Literary Award Winner, Best Unpublished Mystery, 2012
  • #1 New York Times Best Seller, Nonfiction Paperback: Perfect Victim (1989)

Press and Media Mentions