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Unsettled Ground
King of Rabbits
Find You First
Just Work: Get it Done, Fast and Fair
The World at My Feet
Tap to Tidy: Organising, Crafting & Creating Happiness in a Messy World
Many Different Kinds of Love: A story of life, death and the NHS
Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind
A Touch of Ruin
A History of What Comes Next: The captivating speculative fiction for fans of The Man in the High Ca
The most common triggers for homicide are fear, rage, revenge, money, lust, and, more rarely, sheer madness. This isn't an exact science, of course. Any given murder can have multiple triggers. Sex and revenge seem to be common partners in crime. Rage, money, and revenge make for a dangerous trifecta of triggers, as well. This book offers my memories of homicide cases that I investigated or oversaw. In each case, I examine the trigger that led to death. I chose this theme for the book because even though the why of a murder case may not be critical in an investigation, it can sometimes lead us to the killer. And even if we solve a case without knowing the trigger, the why still intrigues us, disrupting our dreams and lingering in our minds, perhaps because each of us fears the demons that lie within our own psyche-the triggers waiting to be pulled.
Show moreJoseph Wambaugh's Echoes in the Darkness and its subsequent TV dramatization have made household words of both Susan Reinert, the murder victim, and Dr. Jay Smith, a high school principal and her accused killer. The naked body of Susan Reinert, a suburban, Philadelphia school teacher was found jammed into the hatchback of a car. Her two young children were missing and never found. Thus began one of the most prominent murder cases Pennsylvania history, and one that would grip the nation. Now the defense attorney for the main suspect of the murders-Jay Smith, the principal of the school where Reinert taught-takes you inside the cover-ups and corruption that dramatically affected the outcome of the case. Did Jay Smith do it? Did he deserved the death penalty? It is you who must decide. Contains mature themes.
Show moreThe Detroit True Crime Chronicles sets forth the rich history of criminal activity in the Motor City. Using information from declassified federal documents and many firsthand accounts, the book focuses on the city's local Mafia, key mobsters, drug kingpins, serial killers, and unsolved crimes. Included in this comprehensive account of criminal life in Michigan's great border city are the stories of 'Ernie the Greek' Kanakis, Henry 'Blaze' Marzette, Eddie Jackson, 'Baby Ray' Peoples, Demetrius Holloway, Butch Jones, Leroy Buttrum, 'Frank Nitti' Usher, 'Maserati Rick' Carter, 'Rocking Reggie' Brown, 'Wonderful Wayne' Davis, Young Boys Inc. (YBI), Murder Row, Best Friends, Pony Down, John Wolfenbarger, 'Billy Wadd' Smith, Harry 'Taco' Bowman, 'Tony Jack' Giacalone, 'Frankie the Bomb' Bommarito, 'Singing Sam' Cattalanotte, the Purple Gang and the Burnstein Brothers, 'Black Bill' Tocco, Joseph 'Legs' Laman, Christopher Busch, the Chaldean Mafia, the Chambers brothers, 'Joe Uno' and 'Tony Z' Zerilli, 'Black Jack' Tocco, 'Papa John' Priziola, 'Machine Gun Pete' Corrado, 'Jimmy Q' Quasarano, 'Gentleman John' Claxton, Carmine 'The Doctor' Lombardozi, Angelo 'The Chairman' Meli, 'Frankie Three Fingers' Coppola, 'Cockeyed Joe' Catalanotte, the Badalamenti Group, Benedetto Evangelista, Bobby 'The Animal' La Puma, and, of course, Jimmy Hoffa.
Show moreBeginning in the 1920s, an all-star team of goons, gunmen and garrotters transformed America's criminal landscape. Its membership was diverse; the mob recruited men from all ethnicities and religious backgrounds. Most were natives of the Big Apple, handpicked from the city's toughest neighborhoods: Brownsville, Ocean Hill, Flushing. So prolific were their exploits that the media soon dubbed this bevy of hired hands Murder, Incorporated. The brainchild of aging mob bosses, including Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel, this ruthless hit squad quickly captured America's attention, making headlines coast to coast for over two decades. As for who these men were and how their partnership came to be, join author Graham Bell as he sheds light on this dark history of the Mafia's most notorious crime syndicate.
Show moreFor weeks, the body count of sexually violated, brutally murdered young women escalated. With increasing alarm, Los Angeles newspapers headlined the deeds of a serial killer they named the Hillside Strangler. The city was held hostage by fear. But not until January 1979, more than a year later, would the mysterious disappearance of two university students near Seattle lead police to the arrest of a security guard-the handsome, charming, fast-talking Kenny Bianchi-and the discovery that the strangler was not one man but two. Compellingly, O'Brien explores the symbiotic relationship between Bianchi and his cousin Angelo Buono, their lust for women as insatiable as their hate, before examining the crimes they remorselessly perpetrated and the lives of the unsuspecting victims they claimed. Equally riveting is O'Brien's account of the trial-one of the longest and most controversial criminal court cases in American history-with the defense team parading, one after another, expert witnesses who had been effectively duped by Bianchi's impersonation of a man suffering multiple personality disorder. It's one way a man might contrive to get away with murder. Darcy O'Brien weds the narrative skill of an award-winning novelist with the detailed observations of an experienced investigator to unravel this chilling true-crime story.
Show moreLate-seventies Los Angeles was rampant with killers and shady characters, but all the go-getters at Space Matters saw was possibility. Richard Kasparov was handsome and charismatic; his younger associate, Jerry Schneiderman, brilliant and nerdy. When the pair hired a veteran contractor to oversee construction, the space planning firm they operated out of a hip mansion in LA's Miracle Mile district appeared poised to transform the boundless skyline into their jackpot. After the promising team imploded, however, the orderly lines on their blueprints succumbed to treachery and secrets. To get even, one of the ex-partners launched a murder-for-profit corporation using, among other peculiar sorts, a bantam-sized epileptic with a deadeye shot. The hapless criminals required a number of attempts to execute their first target. Once they did, on a rainy night in the San Fernando Valley, the surviving founder of Space Matters was thrown into a pressure cooker existence out of a Coen Brothers movie. Threatened for money he didn't have, he donned a disguise, survived a heart-pounding encounter at the La Brea Tar Pits, and relied on an ex-Israeli mercenary for protection. In the end, he had to outfox a glowering murderer, while asking if you can ever really know anyone in a town where dirty deals send men to their graves.
Show moreHe had a license to prescribe and a motive to kill. A prominent New Jersey doctor and members of a notorious outlaw motorcycle gang transform the doctor's office into a drug ring pumping thousands of highly addictive opioid pain pills onto the streets in exchange for cash. Everything was going smoothly until one person discovered their plan: the doctor's wife. When she threatened to divorce him, the doctor's unholy alliance with his partners in crime turned deadly and the doctor hired a hitman to kill her. The Doctor, The Hitman, and The Motorcycle Gang is the true story of the murder of April Kauffman, a beloved and vivacious local radio personality and veterans' advocate who was found shot to death in the bedroom of her home in Linwood, the affluent town just outside Atlantic City, New Jersey, in May of 2012. In the months leading up to her death, she had uncovered a tangled web of deceit surrounding her husband. She feared he was trying to kill her and that he may harm her family. Contains mature themes.
Show moreLove & Murder A successful young mother, Kelsey Berreth, vanishes on Thanksgiving Day 2018. Kelsey, a pilot so good she taught the military how to fly, goes shopping at a Safeway store, and simply disappears. Her fiance, Patrick Frazee, says he doesn't have a clue. In fact, he says they broke up just a few days before. He's as mystified as everyone else. But Kelsey's mother, Cheryl, is afraid she knows what happened to her daughter. A task force of FBI and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents believe they also know what happened to Kelsey. They have cell phone records and more, including surveillance video and DNA. But they have run into a roadblock. The agents have to get someone close to the killer to flip and turn state's evidence. Are they going to have to do a deal with the devil to find justice for Kelsey Berreth? Contains mature themes.
Show moreThe Woman: She was a beautiful, gifted descendant of Lady Astor. But Elizabeth Haysom was also a spoiled, willful daughter of privilege. The Lover: He was the brilliant young son of a German diplomat. But his love for Elizabeth would draw Jens Soering into a web of madness and murder. The Murder: When Elizabeth's parents were found savagely butchered in their elegant Virginia country home, she and Jens fled to Europe-igniting an international manhunt that spanned three continents. The Trial: The sensational courtroom drama that followed painted a twisted portrait of two golden youths consumed by hatred and perverse fantasies. Elizabeth's startling testimony-and intimations of acts and desires that went beyond mere murder-would reveal a tangled web of dark secrets and deadly obsession. Contains mature themes.
Show moreBrought to you by Penguin. ***NOW THE SUBJECT OF A MAJOR TV SERIES *** DISCOVER THE INCREDIBLE TRUE CRIME STORY OF SERIAL KILLER, CHARLES SOBHRAJ, AND THE RACE TO BRING HIM TO JUSTICE Charles Sobhraj remains one of the world's great con men, and as a serial killer, the story of his life and capture endures as legend. Born in Vietnam to a Vietnamese mother and Indian father, Sobhraj grew up with a fluid sense of identity, moving to France before being imprisoned and stripped of his multiple nationalities. Driven to floating from country to country, continent to continent, he became the consummate con artist, stealing passports, smuggling drugs and guns across Asia, busting out of prisons and robbing wealthy associates. But as his situation grew more perilous he turned to murder, preying on Western tourists dropping out across the 1970s hippie route, leaving a trail of dead bodies and gruesome crime scenes in his wake. First published in 1979, but updated here to include new material, On the Trail of the Serpent draws its readers into the story of Sobhraj's life as told exclusively to journalists Richard Neville and Julie Clarke. Blurring the boundaries between true crime and novelisation, this remains the definitive book about Sobhraj - a riveting tale of sex, drugs, adventure and murder. © Julie Clarke 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2021
Show moreWill a serial killer soon walk the streets again? Don Miller was quiet and reserved. As a former youth pastor, he seemed a devout Christian. No one would have ever suspected that the recent graduate of the Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice was a serial killer. However, when Miller was arrested for the attempted murder of two teenagers in 1978, police quickly realized he was probably responsible for the disappearances of four women. Offered a still-controversial plea bargain, he led police to the bodies of the missing women. Now, after forty years in prison, Miller has served his time and is due to be released into an unsuspecting population. In Killing Women, author Rod Sadler examines the crimes, the "justice" meted out, and the impending freedom of a man nationally renowned psychiatrist Dr. Frank Ochberg described as "a member of a small, deadly, dangerous population: murderers who stalk, capture, torture, and kill; murderers who derive sexual and narcissistic gratification from their predation; murderers who maintain a 'mask of sanity' appearing normal and harmless."
Show moreBrought to you by Penguin. THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A LITERARY HIGHLIGHT FOR 2021 IN THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN AND OBSERVER. From the best-selling author of A Very English Scandal, the jaw-dropping life story of the notorious business tycoon Robert Maxwell. In February 1991, the media mogul and former MP Robert Maxwell made a triumphant entrance into Manhattan harbour aboard his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, to complete his purchase of the ailing New York Daily News. Crowds lined the quayside to watch his arrival, taxi drivers stopped their cabs to shake his hand and children asked for his autograph. But just 10 months later, Maxwell disappeared from the same yacht off the Canary Islands, only to be found dead in the water soon afterward. Maxwell was the embodiment of Britain's post-war boom. Born an Orthodox Jew, he had escaped the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, fought in World War II and was decorated for his heroism with the Military Cross. He went on to become a Labour MP and an astonishingly successful businessman, owning a number of newspapers and publishing companies. But on his death, his empire fell apart, as long-hidden debts and unscrupulous dealings came to light. Within a few days, Maxwell was being reviled as the embodiment of greed and corruption. No one had ever fallen so far and so quickly. What went so wrong? How did a war hero and model of society become reduced to a bloated, amoral wreck? In this gripping book, John Preston delivers the definitive account of Maxwell's extraordinary rise and scandalous fall. 'Preston is a natural storyteller' The Times © John Preston 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021
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