Author's top five book list from @underthecover.books

Author and investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe stands in a bookstore and presents his curated list of five essential narrative non-fiction books. He sequentially introduces each book—'In Cold Blood,' 'People Who Eat Darkness,' 'News of a Kidnapping,' 'Killers of the Flower Moon,' and 'Random Family'—providing a brief summary of its story and explaining its significance, while the video intersperses his commentary with title cards and illustrative B-roll footage.

Creator: @underthecover.books on Instagram

Video format

Talking Head Edit

Video outline

  1. Establish Authority & Premise
  2. Present Item & Premise
  3. Provide Expert Justification
  4. Showcase Thematic Variety

Hook overview

The Authoritative Frame: An expert introduces themselves and their credentials, then clearly states the video's value proposition: a curated list of recommendations on a specific topic.

Title hook

five books to get you into narrative non-fiction

Verbal hook

My name is Patrick Radden Keefe, and here's my list of five books to get you into narrative nonfiction.

Visual hook

The speaker is positioned in a well-lit, aesthetically pleasing bookstore with large, arched windows in the background, creating an inviting and scholarly atmosphere.

Hook strategies

  1. credibility
  2. secrets-shortcuts

Payoff

The Curated Pathway: The video concludes, having provided the viewer with a complete, varied, and credible list that serves as a clear and compelling starting point for exploring the topic further.

Narrative framework

The Expert's Canon

Narrative framework logic

An established authority figure presents a curated list of exemplary items within their field of expertise, justifying each selection to provide a guided entry point for newcomers.

Narrative framework breakdown

  • frameworkName: The Expert's Canon
  • frameworkType: List-Style Narrative
  • coreLogic: An established authority figure presents a curated list of exemplary items within their field of expertise, justifying each selection to provide a guided entry point for newcomers.
  • confidence: 95
  • pendingStatus: created

Topics: Reading Lifestyle, Journalism, True Crime

Concepts: Rapid Fire Listicle, Expert Rate/Rank, Buying List

Formats: Talking Head Edit

Elements: B-Roll Cutaway, Graphic Overlay, Archival Footage, Text Overlay

Account types: Brand, Personal Brand

Transcript excerpt

My name is Patrick Radden Keefe, and here's my list of five books to get you into narrative nonfiction. No the first would be In Cold Blood best Truman Capote. It's about a terrible series of murders in the High Plains of Kansas, and Capote goes and investigates and then writes about the killers. I think it's a really interesting meditation on evil. And it started in the New Yorker, which is where I write, and so I feel a particular connection to that book. People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry. Another book about a terrible crime. This one in Japan. It's got a kind of immersive, almost hallucinogenic quality at tier. All these kind of strange, subcultural highways and byways. The next book is one that was very influential on me called News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which is a nonfiction book about a series of kidnappings in Colombia. It's using all of the kind of tools of a novelist, but also his background as a reporter to tell a very vivid, gripping story. Killers of the Flower Moon, completely extraordinary about a series of murders in a Native American community. In its kind of deeper preoccupations about resource extraction and the way in which nativ

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