True Crime Audiobooks | Mystery, Thriller & Horror

It's 1971 and seventeen-year-old Christine is about to give birth to her son. When her family throw her out, Christine has the biggest fight of her life to bring up her son safe on the infamous Canterbury Estate in Bradford, rife with crime, alcohol and drugs, a place where family is everything and nothing.It's Friday evening on the Canterbury Estate in Bradford and Christine, who's been rushed to hospital by her friend, Josie, is on the maternity ward giving birth. She's 17 and terrified. Not just of the pain, which is ripping her in two, but because she knows that once the baby arrives, her family is never going to speak to her again.Her beautiful baby boy is about to start a chain of events that will lead to tragedy - and only her own family can save her.

Julie Shaw (Author), Nigel Peever (Narrator)

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BAD BLOOD

From a childhood of gothic proportions in a vicarage on the Welsh borders, through adolescence, leaving herself teetering on the brink of the 1960's, Lorna Sage vividly and wittily brings to life a vanished time and place and illuminates the lives of three generations of women.Lorna Sage's memoir of childhood and adolescence is a brilliantly written bravura piece of work, which vividly and wickedly brings to life her eccentric family and somewhat bizarre upbringing in the small town of Hanmer, on the border between Wales and Shropshire.The period as well as the place is evoked with crystal clarity: from the 1940s, dominated for Lorna by her dissolute but charismatic vicar grandfather, through the 1950s, where the invention of fish fingers revolutionised the lives of housewives like Lorna's mother, to the brink of the 1960s, where the community was shocked by Lorna's pregnancy at 16, an event which her grandmother blamed on 'the fiendish invention of sex'.Bad Blood is often extremely funny, and is at the same time a deeply intelligent insight by a unique literary stylist into the effect on three generations of women of their environment and their relationships.

Lorna Sage (Author), Jenny Agutter (Narrator)

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Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of Theranos, the multibillion-dollar biotech startup, by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end, despite pressure from its charismatic CEO and threats by her lawyers. 'Crime thriller authors have nothing on Carreyrou's exquisite sense of suspenseful pacing and multifaceted character development in this riveting, read-in-one-sitting tour de force....Carreyrou's commitment to unraveling Holmes' crimes was literally of life-saving value.' -Booklist In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup 'unicorn' promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood testing significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes's worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. There was just one problem: The technology didn't work. A riveting story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron, a tale of ambition and hubris set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley.

John Carreyrou (Author), Will Damron (Narrator)

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Bad Girls

The crime stunned quiet Mineral Wells, Texas: 49-year-old Bob Dow shot execution-style in his own bed, his invalid mother locked in the next room — and a cache of homemade porn starring the town’s underage girls. The two accused killers — teen lovers Bobbi Jo Smith and Jennifer Jones — were on the run, intent on going out in a cross-country blaze of glory. M. William Phelps exposes a gripping tale of sexploitation, lust, and betrayal, while questioning the court’s fateful verdict in a tantalizing forensic puzzle. Were both girls equally guilty of murder? Or was one merely a pawn in the other’s dainty, blood-stained hands? “One of America’s finest true-crime writers.” —Vincent Bugliosi

M. William Phelps (Author), J. Charles (Narrator)

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Bad Girls from History: Wicked or Misunderstood?

You wont be familiar with every one of the huge array of women featured in this book, but all, familiar or not, leave unanswered questions behind them. The range is extensive, as was the research, with its insight into the lives and minds of women in different centuries, different countries, with diverse cultures and backgrounds, from the poverty stricken to royalty. Mistresses, murderers, smugglers, pirates, prostitutes, and fanatics with hearts and souls that feature every shade of black (and grey!). From Cleopatra to Ruth Ellis, from Boudicca to Bonnie Parker, from Lady Caroline Lamb to Moll Cutpurse, from Jezebel to Ava Gardner. Less familiar names include Mary Jeffries, the Victorian brothel-keeper, Belle Starr, the American gambler and horse thief, La Voisin, the seventeenth-century Queen of all Witches in France but these are random names, to illustrate the variety of the content in store for all those interested in women who defy law and order, for whatever reason. The risque, the adventurous and the outrageous, the downright nasty and the downright desperate all human (female!) life is here. From the lower strata of society to the aristocracy, class is not a common denominator. Wicked? Misunderstood? Nave? Foolish? Predatory? Manipulative? Or just out of their time? Listen and decide.

Dee Gordon (Author), Naomi Madelin (Narrator)

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Ballad of the Anarchist Bandits: The Crime Spree that Gripped Belle Epoque Paris

For six terrifying months in 1911-1912, the citizens of Paris were gripped by a violent crime streak. A group of bandits went on a rampage throughout the city and its suburbs, robbing banks and wealthy Parisians, killing anyone who got in their way, and always managing to stay one step ahead of the police. But Jules Bonnot and the Bonnot Gang weren't just ordinary criminals; they were anarchists, motivated by the rampant inequality and poverty in Paris. John Merriman tells this story through the eyes of two young, idealistic lovers: Victor Kibaltchiche (later the famed Russian revolutionary and writer Victor Serge) and Rirette Maîtrejean, who chronicled the Bonnot crime spree in the radical newspaper L'Anarchie. While wealthy Parisians frequented restaurants on the Champs-Élysées, attended performances at the magnificent new opera house, and enjoyed the decadence of the so-called Belle Époque, Victor, Rirette, and their friends occupied a vast sprawl of dank apartments, bleak canals, and smoky factories. Victor and Rirette rejected the violence of Bonnot and his cronies, but to the police it made no difference. Victor was imprisoned for years for his anarchist beliefs, Bonnot was hunted down and shot dead, and his fellow bandits were sentenced to death by guillotine or lifelong imprisonment. Fast-paced and gripping, Ballad of the Anarchist Bandits is a tale of idealists and lost causes-and a vivid evocation of Paris in the dizzying years before the horrors of World War I were unleashed. **Contact Customer Service for Additional Material**

John Merriman (Author), Peter Ganim (Narrator)

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Because of the Hate: The Murder of Jerry Bailey

Because of the Hate is the true story about the murder of Jerry Bailey, a beloved high school football coach in Oklahoma. In 1976, Jerry Bailey had resigned as the Sapulpa High School head football coach but was murdered by his assistant Paul Reagor Jr. The book goes into detail about the day the coaches went missing, the murder, the trial and the fall out from it. Five years removed from winning a state championship in Nowata, Jerry Bailey had ended his run as the head coach at Sapulpa and was ready to move on to another high school and another football team. However, Bailey and his assistant, Reagor, left school on a January morning and never returned. An exhaustive search eventually found both coaches the next day but only one was still alive. Reagor was found inside of an abandoned farmhouse several towns away from Sapulpa and Bailey was dead inside of the truck of Reagor's car. Why did Reagor kill Bailey? Why did they leave the school that day? The town of Sapulpa has never really discussed the murder out of respect for Bailey's wife and children. It left nothing but rumor, speculation and questions, but now, over forty years later, every question can be answered.

Kirk Mccracken (Author), Stephen Bel Davies (Narrator)

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Because You Loved Me

A LIFE TAKEN Jeanne Dominico's fiancé found her body on her kitchen floor. More than forty stab wounds and blows to her head with a blunt instrument had cut her life short. What monster had struck in the heart of a peaceful New England town? A TRUST BETRAYED Jeanne was a hard-working single mother. Nicole, her fourteen-year-old daughter was on the honor-roll and head over heels in love - with an eighteen-year-old man she'd known only through the Internet. Once the lovers met in person, Jeanne's motherly instincts sensed trouble. If only she'd known that the life in danger was her own. IN THE NAME OF LOVE With a history of psychological trouble and family misfortune, Billy Sullivan's obsessive and controlling power over Nicole contributed to the brutal slaying of her mother. But it was Nicole's stunning confession and guilty plea that led to Billy's sensational trial, where a sordid tale of love, loss, betrayal and murder finally took a cold-blooded killer offline - and on line for justice. "Phelps is a first-rate investigator." - Dr. Michael M. Baden

M. William Phelps (Author), J. Charles (Narrator)

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Before He Wakes: A True Story of Money, Marriage, Sex and Murder

She led an almost perfect life, and committed an almost perfect crime. Barbara Stager appeared to be a devoted mother, loving wife, and dedicated church leader in her Durham, North Carolina community. When she "accidentally" shot her husband, popular high school coach Russ, the police were inclined to believe her-until they found out ten years earlier her first husband had died in a strangely similar way. Detective Rick Buchanan's relentless investigations into Stager's life revealed a stunning vortex of compulsive lying, obsessive spending, and sexual promiscuity. With every shocking new discovery, more of Barbara's impeccable image unraveled. But the greatest shock-a damning piece of evidence Russ Stager left behind-revealed the nightmare truth about Barbara. New York Times bestselling author Jerry Bledsoe takes us deep into one of the most spellbinding cases of double life, lethal lust, and almost perfect murder.

Jerry Bledsoe (Author), Kevin Stillwell (Narrator)

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Behind the Door: The Dark Truths and Untold Stories of the Cecil Hotel

The disturbing true story of the notorious Cecil Hotel in downtown LA, by its general manager for a decade and star of the controversial Netflix documentary series Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel. When Amy Price took a temporary design job at an Art Deco hotel in Los Angeles to help a friend, she had no idea the path it would lead her down. Before long, she would become manager of the Cecil Hotel, seeking to make it more welcoming and correct its notoriety, not helped by sitting at the foot of Skid Row, or the fact that since its opening in 1927, there had been any number of deaths by suicide, and residents such as serial killers Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterweger. She cared about guests and residents alike, though she faced challenges on many fronts, with over eighty people dying during her decade of service. Among them was Elisa Lam, whose tragic death became the subject of a Netflix documentary series that captivated millions and led to its own controversies and unwarranted personal attacks on Amy. For the first time, Amy delves into her experiences at the Cecil Hotel. Equal parts memoir, true-crime, and cultural history, Behind the Door is essential to understanding one of America’s most enigmatic hotels.

Amy Price (Author), Andi Arndt (Narrator)

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Behind the Horror: True stories that inspired horror movies

Uncover the twisted tales that inspired the big screen's greatest screams. Which case of demonic possession inspired The Exorcist? What horrifying front-page story generated the idea for A Nightmare on Elm Street? Which film was inspired by an 18th-century Japanese folktale? Unearth the terrifying and true tales behind some of the scariest Horror movies to ever haunt our screens, including the Enfield poltergeist case that was retold in The Conjuring 2 and the serial killer who inspired Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs. Behind the Horror dissects these and other bizarre tales to reveal haunting real-life stories of abduction, disappearance, murder, and exorcism. Lee Mellor, Ph.D. is a criminologist, lecturer, musician, and the author of seven books on crime. He received his doctorate from Montreal's Concordia University after specializing in abnormal homicide and sex crimes. As the chair of the American Investigative Society of Cold Cases' academic committee, he has consulted with police on cold cases in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Ohio, and London, Ontario. He resides in Ontario, Canada. © 2020 Dr Lee Mellor © 2020 DK Audio

Lee Mellor (Author), Adam Sims (Narrator)

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Betrayal in Blood: The Murder of Tabatha Bryant

'Mommy . . . won't be with us anymore.' That's what attorney Kevin C. Bryant, forty-five, told his two young sons in the spring of 2003. At the time, blond, pretty, twenty-six-year-old Tabatha Bryant was alive and well in an upscale suburb of Rochester, New York. But that was about to change-because Bryant knew his wife was cheating, and he intended to end the affair by ending her life. On June 14, 2003, he called 9-1-1 to report Tabatha slain by an unknown intruder who'd shot her in the eye with a .22 and repeatedly stabbed her in the neck and upper body. Soon, a drug bust led to Cassidy Green's confession that she'd driven the getaway car. She fingered boyfriend Cyril Winebrenner as the killer. Winebrenner and Kevin Bryant were buddies who'd regularly gone on cocaine-fueled sex binges with hookers. Astoundingly, Winebrenner was also the victim's half-brother-but Bryant's offer of $5,000 had convinced him that money is thicker than blood. In a trial that shook 'Country Club Row,' prosecutors would present evidence and testimonies that revealed even more sordid details, bringing the lawyer who tried to get away with murder to justice.

Michael Benson (Author), Charles Constant (Narrator)

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True Crime Audiobooks in Mystery, Thriller & Horror