Best of
Crime

2005

The Millennium Trilogy (Millennium Trilogy, #1-3)


Stieg Larsson - 2005
    All these years later, her aged uncle continues to try to discover what happened to her. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist recently sidelined by a libel conviction, to investigate. Blomkvist is aided by the pierced and tattooed computer prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption on their way to discovering the truth of Harriet Vanger’s fate. The Girl Who Played with Fire Mikael Blomkvist, now the crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation of the murders. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest Lisbeth Salander lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She’s fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she’ll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders. With the help of Mikael Blomkvist, she will not only have to prove her innocence, but also identify and denounce those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. On her own, she will plot revenge—against the man who tried to kill her, and against the corrupt government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life.

The Power of the Dog


Don Winslow - 2005
    This novel of the drug trade takes you deep inside a world riddled with corruption, betrayal, and bloody revenge. Art Montana is an obsessive DEA agent. The Barrera brothers are heirs to a drug empire. Nora Hayden is a jaded teenager who becomes a high-class hooker. Father Parada is a powerful and incorruptible Catholic priest. Callan is an Irish kid from Hell’s Kitchen who grows up to be a merciless hitman. And they are all trapped in the world of the Mexican drug Federaci. From the streets of New York City to Mexico City and Tijuana to the jungles of Central America, this is the war on drugs like you’ve never seen it.

Jane: A Murder


Maggie Nelson - 2005
    Though officially unsolved, Jane’s murder was apparently the third in a series of seven brutal rape-murders in the area. Nelson was born a few years after Jane’s death, and the narrative is suffused with the long shadow her murder cast over both the family and her psyche.Jane explores the nature of this haunting incident via a collage of poetry, prose, and documentary sources, including newspapers, related "true crime" books, and fragments from Jane’s own diaries written. Each piece in Jane has its own form that serves as an important fissure, disrupting the tabloid, "page-turner" quality of the story, and eventually returning the reader to deeper questions about girlhood, empathy, identification, and the essentially unknowable aspects of another’s life and death. Part elegy, part memoir, detective story, part meditation on violence, and part conversation between the living and the dead, Jane’s powerful and disturbing subject matter, combined with its innovations in genre, expands the notion of what poetry can do—what kind of stories it can tell, and how it can tell them.

The Dying Hour


Rick Mofina - 2005
    At The Seattle Mirror, he is competing for the single full-time job being offered through the paper's intense intern program. But unlike the program's other young reporters, who attended big name schools and worked at other big metro dailies, Wade put himself through community college, and lacked the same experience. Wade struggles with his haunting past as he pursues the story of Karen Harding, a college student whose car was found abandoned on a lonely stretch of highway in the Pacific Northwest. How could this beloved young woman with the altruistic nature simply vanish? Wade battles mounting odds and cut-throat competition to unearth the truth behind Karen Harding's disturbing case. Her disappearance is a story he cannot give up, never realizing the toll it could exact from him. The Dying Hour is a bone-chilling, mesmerizing page-turner that introduces readers to an all-too-human young hero who journeys into the darkest regions of the human heart to confront a nightmare. The International Thriller Writers (ITW), selected The Dying Hour as a finalist for a Thriller Award for Best Paperback Original, 2006. Rick Mofina is a former journalist who has interviewed murderers on death row, flown over L.A. with the LAPD and patrolled with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near the Arctic. He's also reported from the Caribbean, Africa and Kuwait's border with Iraq. His books have been published in nearly 30 countries, including an illegal translation produced in Iran. His work has been praised by James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Jeffery Deaver, Sandra Brown, James Rollins, Brad Thor, Nick Stone, David Morrell, Allison Brennan, Heather Graham, Linwood Barclay, Peter Robinson, Håkan Nesser and Kay Hooper. The Crime Writers of Canada, The International Thriller Writers and The Private Eye Writers of America have listed his titles among the best in crime fiction. As a two-time winner of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award, a three-time Thriller Award finalist and a two-time Shamus Award finalist, the Library Journal calls him, “One of the best thriller writers in the business."

Goodbye, Dearest Holly: Ten Years On


Kevin Wells - 2005
    On August 4 2002, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman disappeared. For the next thirteen days, their families, the police, and the local community searched for them, while the nation watched in horrified suspense.Holly was a talented ten-year-old girl. Her parents, Kevin and Nicola, were certain she would be the first member of their family to go to university. Almost two weeks after Holly and Jessica went missing, their bodies were found – dumped in a ditch and badly burned. Two days later, Ian Huntley was charged with their murders.In the terrible weeks that followed, Kevin started to make notes, fearful that he might forget important details. Goodbye, Dearest Holly tells the story of the nightmare that began on August 4th, from the moment it became clear that Holly and Jessica were missing, through the long investigation and its aftermath. An unflinching tale of surviving tragedy, Kevin’s diaries tell of battles with the media, police bureaucracy and the legal system. The book includes a gripping account of the trial and convictions of Huntley and Maxine Carr. Above all, Goodbye, Dearest Holly is a loving final act of fatherhood.In this updated edition of Kevin Wells’ best-selling book, which includes a new chapter, he tells how his family continue with their lives ten years on from Holly’s death. It is the moving and emotional story of one family’s battle to regain some semblance of normality.Praise for Goodbye, Dearest Holly:'A brutally honest account of what happens when innocence meets evil. Kevin Wells’ book is about a father’s love, a family’s loss and a nation’s horror. If you want to know the true story of Soham then read it.’ Mail on Sunday

For Laci: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Justice


Sharon Rocha - 2005
    She spoke to her mother, Sharon Rocha, at 8:30 p.m. that night. This would be the last time anyone from her immediate family ever spoke to her.A search began which lasted an agonizing four months. Sadly, Laci Peterson and her son Conner were found dead on the shores of San Francisco Bay on April 18, 2003.Her husband, Scott, was eventually arrested and charged with the murder of Laci and Connor. After a sensational, media-saturated trial, Peterson was found guilty of capital murder and was sentenced to death on March 16, 2005.This book deals with the story in three separate sections: first, Sharon describes the ordinary, loving life her daughter led, including fond memories of her childhood and adolescence. Second, it covers her marriage, disappearance, the community's moving search for her, and her and Connor's eventual recovery from San Francisco Bay. Third, it tells the story of the trial in detail not before revealed. Sharon will also talk about victim's rights, a subject on which she now campaigns regularly.From the Hardcover edition.

The Lincoln Lawyer


Michael Connelly - 2005
    But what he should have been on the watch for was evil.Haller is a Lincoln Lawyer, a criminal defense attorney who operates out of the back seat of his Lincoln Town Car, traveling between the far-flung courthouses of Los Angeles to defend clients of every kind. Bikers, con artists, drunk drivers, drug dealers — they’re all on Mickey Haller’s client list. For him, the law is rarely about guilt or innocence — it’s about negotiation and manipulation. Sometimes it’s even about justice.A Beverly Hills playboy arrested for attacking a woman he picked up in a bar chooses Haller to defend him, and Mickey has his first high-paying client in years. It is a defense attorney’s dream, what they call a franchise case. And as the evidence stacks up, Haller comes to believe this may be the easiest case of his career.Then someone close to him is murdered and Haller discovers that his search for innocence has brought him face-to-face with evil as pure as a flame. To escape without being burned, he must deploy every tactic, feint, and instinct in his arsenal — this time to save his own life.

Solomon vs. Lord


Paul Levine - 2005
    Steve Solomon makes up his own. They'll either end up in ruin, in jail or in bed. Steve barely graduated from Key West School of Law. Victoria is fresh from Yale, toiling for an ambitious DA, before Steve gets her fired. Katrina Barksdale is a sexy former figure skater charged with killing her very wealthy, very kinky husband in Miami.

The Take


Martina Cole - 2005
    He's done his time, made the right connections, and now he's ready to use them. His wife Jackie just wants her husband home, but she's forgotten the rows, the violence, and the girls Freddie can't leave alone. Bitter, resentful, and increasingly unstable, Jackie watches her life crumble while her little sister Maggie's star rises. In love with Freddie's cousin Jimmy, Maggie is determined not to end up like her sister.Families should stick together, but behind closed doors, jealousy and betrayal can fester until everyone's life is infected. And for the Jacksons, loyalty cannot win out. Because in their world you can trust no one. In their world everyone is on the take.

Hunter's Way


Gerri Hill - 2005
    But even after having six different partners in seven years, Tori isn't prepared when she's forced to team up with the hot-tempered Samantha Kennedy.Samantha, on the other hand, is trying to juggle a new job, a demanding boyfriend, and now finds herself with an even greater challenge -- being partnered with the most difficult detective in the entire squad.After a brief terrorist scare disrupts their serial killer investigation, the two women find themselves growing closer. Samantha begins to question the relationship with her longtime boyfriend, and Tori, never one to allow anyone to get close, begins to feel her defenses slipping in Sam’s presence.A serial killer and drug deals gone bad; the two detectives struggle with their feelings, trying to maintain their professional relationship while keeping their nearly flammable physical relationship in check.With Hunter’s Way, Gerri Hill masterfully blends suspense and intrigue with her unique style of romance.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo


Stieg Larsson - 2005
    All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.

All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye


Christopher Brookmyre - 2005
    Then her son Ross, a researcher working for an arms manufacturer in Switzerland, is forced to disappear before some characters cut from the same cloth as Blofeld persuade him to part with the secrets of his research. But they are not the only ones desperate to locate him. Bett, his staff have little in common apart from total professionalism and a thorough disregard for the law. Bett believes the key to Ross's whereabouts is his mother, and in one respect he is right, but even he is taken aback by the verve underlying her determination to secure her son's safety as she learns the black arts of quiet subterfuge and violent attack. The teenage dreams of fast cars, high-tech firepower and extreme action had always promised to be fun and games, but in real life it's likely someone is going to lose an eye ... Visit the author's website at www brookmyre.co.uk

Fell


Warren Ellis - 2005
    Dumped in this collapsing urban trashzone, Richard Fell is starting all over again. In a place where nothing seems to make any sense, Fell clings to the one thing he knows to be true: everybody's hiding something.

The Last Coyote / Trunk Music (Harry Bosch, #4, #5)


Michael Connelly - 2005
    A two-in-one, this volume includes The Last Coyote in which suspended LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch investigates the unsolved murder of his mother, and Trunk Music which finds Harry returning to the force to investigate the murder of a movie producer with Mafia ties.

The Game


Mandasue Heller - 2005
    Her new friend Lynne is older, more sophisticated. She has a taste for cocaine and isn't above walking the streets for extra cash to pay for it.Mary sticks to a straighter path, until the night Lynne brings Ali and Raiz back to their flat. The women don't know that their sexy new friends are small-time criminals, desperate for alibis for a drug-dealer's murder.All too soon, Mary is in more trouble than she can handle. Can her old friend Jane's risky scheme save Mary? Or has her fate been sealed by falling for the wrong man? 'A cracking read that will chill you to the bone' Sun on Two-Faced'Mandasue has played a real blinder with this fantastic novel' Martina Cole on Forget-Me-Not

The Punisher MAX, Vol. 1: In the Beginning


Garth Ennis - 2005
    But first, he's got an offer for Frank that he'd better not refuse. Get ready for blazing bullets, bloodbaths, and bold beginnings! Collects Punisher MAX #1-6.

No Country for Old Men


Cormac McCarthy - 2005
    The time is our own, when rustlers have given way to drug-runners and small towns have become free-fire zones. One day, Llewellyn Moss finds a pickup truck surrounded by a bodyguard of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back. When Moss takes the money, he sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic violence that not even the law–in the person of aging, disillusioned Sheriff Bell–can contain.As Moss tries to evade his pursuers–in particular a mysterious mastermind who flips coins for human lives–McCarthy simultaneously strips down the American crime novel and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning’s headlines. No Country for Old Men is a triumph.

Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America's Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang


William Queen - 2005
    When a "confidential informant" made contact with his boss at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, offering to take an agent inside the San Fernando chapter of the Mongols (the scourge of Southern California, and one of the most dangerous gangs in America), Queen jumped at the chance, not realizing that he was kicking-starting the most extensive undercover operation inside an outlaw motorcycle gang in the history of American law enforcement.Nor did Queen suspect that he would penetrate the gang so successfully that he would become a fully "patched-in" member, eventually rising through their ranks to the office of treasurer, where he had unprecedented access to evidence of their criminal activity. After Queen spent twenty-eight months as "Billy St. John," the bearded, beer-swilling, Harley-riding gang-banger, the truth of his identity became blurry, even to himself.During his initial "prospecting" phase, Queen was at the mercy of crank-fueled criminal psychopaths who sought to have him test his mettle and prove his fealty by any means necessary, from selling (and doing) drugs, to arms trafficking, stealing motorcycles, driving getaway cars, and, in one shocking instance, stitching up the face of a Mongol "ol' lady" after a particularly brutal beating at the hands of her boyfriend.Yet despite the constant criminality of the gang, for whom planning cop killings and gang rapes were business as usual, Queen also came to see the genuine camaraderie they shared. When his lengthy undercover work totally isolated Queen from family, his friends, and ATF colleagues, the Mongols felt like the only family he had left. "I had no doubt these guys genuinely loved Billy St. John and would have laid down their lives for him. But they wouldn't hesitate to murder Billy Queen."From Queen's first sleight of hand with a line of methamphetamine in front of him and a knife at his throat, to the fearsome face-off with their decades-old enemy, the Hell's Angels (a brawl that left three bikers dead), to the heartbreaking scene of a father ostracized at Parents' Night because his deranged-outlaw appearance precluded any interaction with regular citizens, Under and Alone is a breathless, adrenaline-charged read that puts you on the street with some of the most dangerous men in America and with the law enforcement agents who risk everything to bring them in.

Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires


Selwyn Raab - 2005
    For decades these Five Families ruled New York and built the American Mafia (or Cosa Nostra) into an underworld empire. Today, the Mafia is an endangered species, battered and beleaguered by aggressive investigators, incompetent leadership, betrayals and generational changes that produced violent and unreliable leaders and recruits. A twenty year assault against the five families in particular blossomed into the most successful law enforcement campaign of the last century. Five Families is the vivid story of the rise and fall of New York's premier dons from Lucky Luciano to Paul Castellano to John Gotti and more. The book also brings the reader right up to the possible resurgence of the Mafia as the FBI and local law enforcement agencies turn their attention to homeland security and away from organized crime.

A Flicker in the Night


John Dean - 2005
     Yet despite the culprit, Reginald Morris, being safely behind bars in a high-security mental hospital, a new series of attacks occurs. Blizzard is flummoxed. Has Morris found someone to do his bidding on the outside? Is this a personal vendetta? A copycat? The only clue to the killer’s identity is obscure poetry that is being sent to Hafton police station. But is it just the work of a deranged mind who enjoys taunting the police, or someone hell-bent on revenge? Will Blizzard piece together the puzzle before there is another flicker in the night? A FLICKER IN THE NIGHT is the seventh murder mystery by John Dean to feature hard-hitting crime solver John Blizzard. The full list of previous books is as follows: 1. THE LONG DEAD 2. STRANGE LITTLE GIRL 3. THE RAILWAY MAN 4. THE SECRETS MAN 5. A BREACH OF TRUST 6. DEATH LIST All of these books are FREE with Kindle Unlimited and available in paperback.

She Wanted It All


Kathryn Casey - 2005
    in a second conspiracy to commit murder.

The Color of Law


Mark Gimenez - 2005
    Former college football star Scott Fenney has worked his way to the top of the heap at the Dallas firm of Ford Stevens. But when Clark McCall, wayward son of a Texas politician, gets himself murdered after a night of booze, drugs, and rough sex, Scott is assigned to defend the prime suspect, a heroin-addicted hooker named Shawanda Jones. The powers that be want her convicted—and Scott’s future at the firm may depend on it. But unfortunately for Scott, Shwanada claims she’s innocent, and he believes her.

Almost Home: My Life Story


Damien Echols - 2005
    It is a message from a 12-foot by 9-foot cell in a cinderblock building surrounded by coils of razor wire in the middle of a dirt field in Arkansas. It was written by a young man named Damien Echols and it chronicles his life and his experiences in a way that clearly illuminates him, not as a monster, but as a human being. For over 10 years Damien has been an inmate on death row for a crime he did not commit. He, along with Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley have become known as The West Memphis Three, and though the story of their arrest and conviction is widely known, most people don't know the real people behind the sound bites and the TV news segment clips. Damien has spent much of his time behind bars diligently maintaining his integrity and his sanity by writing. Almost Home is the product of that self-discipline, and in it you will meet someone who has survived an ordeal many of us would find impossible to live through. killer, but as time passes and more facts rise to the surface, it becomes even more clear that he is the victim of a peculiar species of hysteria. Read this book and know the truth about him. It is an urgent message from death row; the whole story of who Damien Echols really is.

Cold Granite


Stuart MacBride - 2005
    Winter in Aberdeen: murder, mayhem and terrible weather! It's DS Logan McRae's first day back on the job after a year off on the sick, and it couldn't get much worse. Four-year-old David Reid's body is discovered in a ditch, strangled, mutilated and a long time dead. And he's only the first. There's a serial killer stalking the Granite City and the local media are baying for blood. Soon the dead are piling up in the morgue almost as fast as the snow on the streets, and Logan knows time is running out. More children are going missing. More are going to die. And if Logan isn't careful, he could end up joining them!

Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated


Dave Eggers - 2005
    They were wrongfully convicted because of problems that plague many criminal proceedings: inept defense lawyers, overzealous prosecutors, deceitful and coercive interrogation tactics, bad science, snitches, and eyewitness misidentification. The lives of these victims of the U.S. criminal justice system were effectively wrecked. Finally free, usually after more than a decade of incarceration, they re-enter society with nothing but the scars from a harrowing descent into prison only to struggle to survive on the outside.The thirteen men and women portrayed here, and the hundreds of others who have been exonerated, are the tip of the iceberg. There are countless others (thousands by all estimates) who are in prison today for crimes they did not commit. These are the stories of some of the wrongfully convicted, who have managed, often by sheer luck, to prove their innocence. Their stories are spellbinding, heartbreaking, unimaginable, and ultimately inspiring. After reading these deeply personal accounts, you will never look at the criminal justice system the same way. (from the publisher's website)

The Camel Club


David Baldacci - 2005
    Led by a mysterious man known as "Oliver Stone," they study conspiracy theories, current events, and the machinations of government to attempt to discover the "truth" behind the country's actions.Their efforts bear little fruit --- until the group witnesses a shocking murder, and becomes embroiled in an astounding, far-reaching conspiracy. Now the Club must join forces with a Secret Service agent to confront one of the most chilling spectacles ever to take place on American soil --- an event that may trigger the ultimate war between two different worlds. All that stands in the way of this apocalypse is five unexpected heroes.Librarian's note: this is one of five volumes in the author's Camel Club series.

Dead Simple


Peter James - 2005
    While out celebrating with a group of friends a few nights before the wedding, Michael suddenly and unexpectedly finds himself enclosed in a coffin equipped only with a flashlight, a dirty magazine, a walkie-talkie, and a tiny breathing tube. It's all in good fun — payback for the grief his mates suffered due to his own penchant for tomfoolery — that is until the four are killed in a drunk driving accident just moments after leaving Michael completely alone and buried alive.Detective Superintendent Grace—himself dealing with the pain of losing his wife—is brought on to the case when Ashley reports Michael missing. Suspicions are raised when Michael's only friend not at the bachelor party refuses to cooperate, and Ashley's faithfulness—not to mention her increasingly mysterious past—are suddenly thrown in to question. As Superintendent Grace soon discovers, one man's disaster is another man's fortune.

The Charmer


Mandasue Heller - 2005
    An orphan since 11, she thought she would never again have a family or security. Then she meets handsome, charming Joel Parry, and he just happens to need a place to stay. Before long, Joel has moved into Maria’s new house and has begun spending her money. But Joel is deep in Manchester’s drug scene, and his terrifying past is about to catch up with him—and the naïve girl who trusts him.

Stray Bullets, Vol. 2: Somewhere Out West


David Lapham - 2005
    Here, two young lovers on the run from the Mob will learn that love is more than just another four-letter word. A once-beautiful, now-broken woman will let the demons of her past pull her down into a thick soup of depravity and death. A betrayed little girl running from everything will decide to help someone and be scarred forever. And a big lug with big dreams will achieve fame and glory and then throw it all away. These are just some of the people whose tales will stick in your gut for the rest of your days.

While She Slept: A Husband, a Wife, a Brutal Murder


Marion Collins - 2005
    Six months later, she was dead. Jeff and Jill Cahill seemed to have it all. Two kids, a dog, a nice house of the picket fence variety. But their relationship wasn't as happy as it seemed. Jeff and Jill had been having serious financial problems and were headed towards divorce, legally separated but living in the same house until Jill could afford to move out. But on April 21, 1996 Jeff and Jill had a torrid argument while their kids were upstairs sleeping. In the aftermath, Jeff claimed that his wife had started stabbing him with a kitchen knife - and that was the reason for his taking a Louisville slugger straight to her head. She lay in a coma for nearly six months, and just as she started to show signs of coming out of it.... she received a visitor.On October 27th of that same year, staffers at the University Hospital in Syracuse New York, noticed a strange-looking guy lurking in the hallway wearing a wig and outdoor boots. When Jill's nurse went to check on her patient, she found her gasping for air, with bruises around her mouth, and white powder (later to be determined as cyanide) flecked across her chest.

The Complete Patricia Cornwell Companion


Glenn L. Feole - 2005
    The Complete Patricia Cornwell Companion features:Book-by-book synopses with excerpts and little-known factsAn examination of Cornwell's life, writing accomplishments, and forensic expertiseCharacter portraits of both good guys and bad guys-from Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, and Andy Brazil to the cold-hearted killersA handy in-depth chronology of all her novelsThe many connections between the author's life history and her fascinating fictionA comprehensive list of settings-from Tangier Island to ParisForensic detection "shop talk" and procedures

The Prey


Allison Brennan - 2005
    Then a killer made it real.Rowan Smith is living in a borrowed Malibu beach house while her bestselling novel is made into a Hollywood movie. A former FBI agent with a haunted past, Rowan thinks she has outrun her demons. But fiction and reality collide when a dismembered body is found in Colorado: the real-life victim had the same name, occupation, and looks as a character in Rowan’s novel. By the time the FBI, the LAPD, and her own private bodyguard gather around her, another person is killed–again, the murder ripped from the pages of Rowan’s book.In the company of a former Delta Force officer with secrets of his own, Rowan faces an excruciating dilemma: the only way to chase down the tormenting killer is by revisiting the darkness of her past–and by praying for some way out again.After the prey is chosen, the hunt is on and the kill is certain.From the author's website:Each book stands alone. The story is complete (no continuing mystery) and there is a separate hero, heroine and villain. However, I do have recurring characters throughout my books, so someone may be introduced as a minor or major secondary character in one book, then come back as the hero or a secondary character in another book.THE PREY (12/27/05)Setting: Malibu, CaliforniaHero: John Flynn, former Delta Force turned mercenary/DEA drug informantHeroine: Rowan Smith, former FBI agent turned crime fiction writer

A Deadly Game: The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson Investigation


Catherine Crier - 2005
    Drawing on extensive interviews with key witnesses and lead investigators, as well as secret evidence files that never made it to trial, Crier traces Scott's bizarre behavior; shares dozens of transcripts of Scott's chilling and incriminating phone conversations; offers accounts of Scott's womanizing from two former mistresses before Amber Frey; and includes scores of never-before-seen police photos, documents, and other evidence.The result is thoroughly engrossing yet highly disturbing -- an unforgettable portrait of a charming, yet deeply sociopathic, killer.

Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town


Nate Blakeslee - 2005
    The operation, a federally-funded investigation performed in cooperation with the local authorities, was based on the work of one notoriously unreliable undercover officer. At trial, the prosecution relied almost solely on the uncorroborated, and contradictory, testimony of that officer, Tom Coleman. Despite the flimsiness of the evidence against them, virtually all of the defendants were convicted and given sentences as high as ninety-nine years. Tom Coleman was named a Texas Lawman of the Year for his work.Tulia is the story of this town, the bust, the trials, and the heroic legal battle that ultimately led to the reversal of the convictions in the summer of 2003. Laws have been changed in Texas as a result of the scandal, and the defendants have earned a measure of bittersweet redemption. But the story is much bigger than the tale of just one bust. As Tulia makes clear, these events are the latest chapter in a story with themes as old as the country itself. It is a gripping, marvelously well-told tale about injustice, race, poverty, hysteria, and desperation in rural America.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes / His Last Bow


Arthur Conan Doyle - 2005
    Arthur Conan Doyle provides a rich and fascinating set of mysteries to challenge his sleuth in the new stories. As before, Watson is the superb narrator, and the magic remains unchanged and undimmed.This fascinating volume also includes the collection His Last Bow. In the title story, we are told how Sherlock Holmes is brought out of retirement to help the government fight the German threat at the approach of the First World War. Here are two sparkling sets of stories featuring the greatest detective of them all.

Every Move You Make


M. William Phelps - 2005
    Evans, a career criminal, master of disguise, prolific thief, and serial killer.

The Number: One Man's Search for Identity in the Cape Underworld and Prison Gangs


Jonny Steinberg - 2005
    

Far Horizon


Tony Park - 2005
    But just a year ago, the former Australian Army officer had endured the brutal death of his girlfriend at the hands of ivory hunters in Mozambique.Now the South African Police are on the murderers' trail and need Mike's help. But he has a truckload of tourists who have no idea what has been asked of him . . . although one passenger has her suspicions.Following a chase through some of Africa's most spectacular locations, Mike gets his shot at revenge . . . but at what cost?"

Serial Murderers and Their Victims


Eric W. Hickey - 2005
    The coverage is supported by extensive data and research, and it profiles some of the most prominent murderers of our time. Author Eric Hickey examines the lives of over 400 serial murderers, analyzing the cultural, historical, and religious factors that influence our myths and stereotypes of these individuals. He then describes the biological, psychological, and sociological reasons for serial murder, offering his own Trauma-Control model for explaining serial murder behavior.

The Rosary Girls


Richard Montanari - 2005
    Now Montanari has written an astounding novel that pits two besieged detectives against a fiercely intelligent serial killer.Sprawling beneath the statue of William Penn, Philadelphia is a city of downtrodden crack houses and upscale brownstones. Somewhere in this concrete crazy quilt, one teenage Catholic girl is writing in her diary, another is pouring her heart out to a friend, and yet another is praying. And somewhere in this city is a man who wants these young women to make his macabre fantasy become reality. In a passion play of his own, he will take the girls–and a whole city–over the edge.Kevin Byrne is a veteran cop who already knows that edge: He’s been living on it far too long. His marriage failing, his former partner wasting away in a hospital, and his heart lost to mad fury, Byrne loves to take risks and is breaking every rule in the book. And now he has been given a rookie partner. Jessica Balzano, the daughter of a famous Philly cop, doesn’t want Byrne’s help. But they will need each other desperately, since they’ve just caught the case of a lifetime: Someone is killing devout young women, bolting their hands together in prayer, and committing an abomination upon their otherwise perfect bodies.Byrne and Balzano spearhead the hunt for the serial killer, who leads them on a methodically planned journey. Suspects appear before them like bad dreams–and vanish just as quickly. And while Byrne’s sins begin to catch up with him, and Balzano tries to solve the blood-splattered puzzle, the body count rises. Meanwhile, the calendar is approaching Easter and the day of the resurrection. When the last rosary is counted, a madman’s methods will be revealed, and the final crime will be the one that hurts the most.Relentlessly paced and vividly told, The Rosary Girls is a smart, emotionally complex, fiercely gripping thriller from an author who takes chances, breaks new ground, and leaves readers haunted and moved long after the last page is turned.

Rectangle of Sins


Nurit Folkes - 2005
    Natalia's life is full of more drama than she can handle and she ironically longs for the boredom she once despised. She is confronted with unexpected temptation from her past, and over whelmed with delectable cravings from the present. Forbidden lust supersedes all reasoning and sparks a trail of fatal consequences. Natalia is seduced by sin, which only elicits more chaos into her already trivial existence. Now, she's intoo deep and is forced to face her demonds head on. Are you ready for more sex, murder, and mayhem?

Framed!


Malcolm Rose - 2005
    He barely has time to celebrate his final exams when Malc, his Mobile Aid to Law and Crime, calls him to their first case. A fellow student has been mysteriously shot dead with an arrow. Two more grisly on-campus murders follow, and all the evidence points to Luke himself. The stakes are high as Luke sets out to prove his innocence and show that he has the talent to crack any crime.

A Quiet Vendetta


R.J. Ellory - 2005
    But the case gets strange when her bodyguard turns up mutilated and when Catherine's kidnapper calls he doesn't want money: he wants time alone with a minor functionary from a Washington-based organised crime task force.

Busted Flush


Brad Smith - 2005
    Renovating the home, Dock stumbles upon a treasure trove of Civil War memorabilia squirreled away in an old root cellar, including pictures and possibly even a recording of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg. As he's forced to defend his new find from the onslaught of collectors, history buffs, and media hounds, Dock discovers that, much like Honest Abe himself, he's the right man for the fight--independent, funny, loyal, and stubborn as a Missouri mule. When the scallywags and opportunists--including an easy-on-the-eyes television reporter with one hell of an attitude--start crawling out of the woodwork, he'll need all of that and a bit more.

Controlled Burn: Stories of Prison, Crime, and Men


Scott Wolven - 2005
    Scott Wolven is such a talent, and his raw, blistering tales of hard-bitten convicts, dodgy informers, and men running from the law make for "the most exciting, authentic collection of short stories I have read in years," says George Pelecanos. Brooding, edgy, and sometimes violent, Controlled Burn's loosely linked stories are each in some way a distillation of hard time -- spent either in prison, the backwoods of Vermont, or the badlands of the American West. Peopled by boxers, drunks, truck drivers, murderers, bounty hunters, drifters traveling under assumed names, and men whose luck ran out a thousand miles ago, these stories feel hard-won from life, and if they are moody and stark, so too are they filled with human longing. Controlled Burn is divided into two sections: "The Northeast Kingdom" and "The Fugitive West." In each, Scott Wolven reveals a broken world where there is no bottom left to hit. In the haunting "Outside Work Detail," convicts stoically dig graves for their fellow prisoners yet reserve their deepest grief for the senseless death of a deer. "Crank" introduces Red Green, a maniacally brilliant addict who brews his own crystal meth in a backwoods lab, and whose high-energy antics inspire both cautious admiration and mortal fear in his business associates. In "Ball Lightning Reported," Red Green's ultimate fate is revealed. In "Atomic Supernova," a revenge-obsessed sheriff deputizes a known cop-killer to help him hunt down a counterfeiter and drug lord. The unexpectedly tender and heartbreaking "The Copper Kings" concerns a father facing the dark truth behind his son's disappearance. And in "Vigilance," a hunted man struggles to escape his past, always yearning for an honorable yet perhaps unreachable future. Powered by a spare, ruminative prose style that recalls the best of Denis Johnson and Thom Jones, Controlled Burn is an unforgettable debut.

Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster


T.J. English - 2005
    In Paddy Whacked, bestselling author and organized crime expert T. J. English brings to life nearly two centuries of Irish American gangsterism, which spawned such unforgettable characters as Mike "King Mike" McDonald, Chicago's subterranean godfather; Big Bill Dwyer, New York's most notorious rumrunner during Prohibition; Mickey Featherstone, troubled Vietnam vet turned Westies gang leader; and James "Whitey" Bulger, the ruthless and untouchable Southie legend. Stretching from the earliest New York and New Orleans street wars through decades of bootlegging scams, union strikes, gang wars, and FBI investigations, Paddy Whacked is a riveting tour de force that restores the Irish American gangster to his rightful preeminent place in our criminal history -- and penetrates to the heart of the American experience.

Poirot: The Complete Ariadne Oliver, Vol. 1 (Hercule Poirot & Ariadne Oliver Omnibus, #1)


Agatha Christie - 2005
    world-famous detective who dealt with fact and a prolific crime writer who dealt with fantasy. But their paths crossed six times, and Mrs Oliver was to become one of Poirot's staunchest allies. when they attend a bridge party in which the host is silently murdered in full view of a roomful of guests. old widow is murdered in the parlour of her cottage. into the real thing when Poirot and Mrs Oliver have to face up to their first case of a child murder.The Case of the Discontented Soldier and The Case of the Rich Woman are two bonus stories in which Mrs Oliver makes an appearance alongside the private eye Christopher Parker Pyne.

No One Can Hurt Him Anymore


Carol J. Rothgeb - 2005
    But how could he have drowned when the water level was only four feet deep? And why was his body covered with cuts and bruises from head to toe?Wicked StepmotherSuspicion soon fastened on the dead boy's stepmother, Jessica Schwarz, who boastfully described herself as "loud and crude." She was a brute and a bully--but was she a torturer and child killer? Investigators unearthed a pattern of nightmarish physical and mental abuse that she had inflicted on the boy, one that left even hardened police sleuths sickened.Day Of ReckoningDuring her trials, Jessica Schwarz was smugly defiant, until convictions for criminal child abuse and second degree murder wiped the smirk off her face. She is now serving a seventy-year prison term. Carol J. Rothgeb, author of Hometown Killer, and Scott H. Cupp, the prosecutor who successfully convicted Jessica Schwarz, now tell the riveting inside story of how a brutal killer's reign of terror was finally brought to an end.

Sick Puppy / Skin Tight


Carl Hiaasen - 2005
    All books checked carefully for damage before listing.EXCELLENT value for money and ready for dispatch using Amazons fufillment service.We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible

Executed on a Technicality: Lethal Injustice on America's Death Row


David R. Dow - 2005
    He changed his position as the men on death row became real people to him, and as he came to witness the profound injustices they endured: from coerced confessions to disconcertingly incompetent lawyers; from racist juries and backward judges to a highly arbitrary death penalty system.It is these concrete accounts of the people Dow has known and represented that prove the death penalty is consistently unjust, and it's precisely this fundamental-and lethal-injustice, Dow argues, that should compel us to abandon the system altogether.

The Goon Fancy Pants Edition - Volume 1


Eric Powell - 2005
    

Prisoners' Inventions


Joel Score - 2005
    How do inmates in prisons like this throughout the United States make such lives bearable? In 2001, the artists' collective Temporary Services asked an incarcerated artist named Angelo to share with them the ways in which inmates adapt to their confinement. Angelo responded with over one hundred pages of meticulously detailed ink drawings and text. The resulting compilation, Prisoners' Inventions, is a unique guide to prison life, covering subjects ranging from how to cook a grilled cheese sandwich in a locker to how to chill a soda using a toilet. Many of the documented items—such as cigarette lighters, condoms, even alarm clocks—are considered contraband, and Angelo includes anecdotes describing their creation and use. Already featured in Playboy, Harper's, Le Monde, and on This American Life, Prisoners' Inventions provides powerful testimony to life "on the inside" as it is endured by over two million individuals in the United States alone.

Poirot: The Complete Ariadne Oliver, Vol. 2


Agatha Christie - 2005
    Poirot and Mrs Oliver continue their sleuthing in the 1960s in four uncharacteristically 'modern' novels with an added twist of danger! Third Girl Poirot finally admits he is growing old as a perplexed girl thinks she may have killed someone. Here Christie dragged Poirot into the swinging 60s and effectively squared him up against a world featuring sex, drugs and hippies. Hallowe'en Party A teenage murder witness is drowned in a tub of apples. This was only the second time Christie wrote about the death of a child, and is all the more engrossing for it. Elephants Can Remember An old husband and wife double murder has never been solved - until now. This was the very last Poirot story that Agatha Christie wrote, and garnered good reviews. The Pale Horse A priest's death leads to sinister goings-on in an old country inn. This bonus novel featured Mrs Oliver for once without Poirot and was one of Christie's darkest stories, blending witchcraft and murder.

Dissecting Death: Secrets of a Medical Examiner


Frederick T. Zugibe - 2005
    Now one of our most respected forensic pathologists gives a behind-the-scenes look at eleven of his most notorious cases, cracked by scientific analysis and Sherlock Holmesian deduction.As chief medical examiner of Rockland County, New York, for almost thirty-five years, Dr. Frederick Zugibe literally wrote the book on the subject—his widely used textbook is considered the definitive text. Over the years he has pioneered countless innovations, including the invention of a formula to soften mummified fingers—enabling fingerprinting, and thus identification, of a long-deceased victim. He has appeared as an expert hundreds of times in the media and in the courtroom—and not once has a jury failed to accept his testimony over opposing expert witnesses. And now, in Dissecting Death, he has opened the door to the world of forensic pathology in all its gruesome and fascinating mystery. Dr. Zugibe takes us through the process all good pathologists follow, using eleven of his most challenging cases. With him, we visit the often grisly—though sometimes shockingly banal—crime scene. We inspect the body, palpate the wounds, search for clues in the hair and skin. We employ ultraviolet light, strange measuring devices, optical instruments. We see how a forensic pathologist determines the hour of death, the type of weapon used, the killer’s escape route. And then we enter the lab, the world of high-tech criminal detection: DNA testing, fingerprinting, gunshot patterns, dental patterns, X-rays.But not every case ends in a conviction, and in a closing chapter Dr. Zugibe examines some recent high-profile cases in which blunders led to killers going free, either because the wrong party was brought to trial or because the evidence presented didn’t do the trick—including Jon-Benet Ramsey’s murder and, of course, the O.J. Simpson trial.

Rise of the Iron Eagle


Roy A. Teel Jr. - 2005
    “The Iron Eagle” appears to only hunt and capture serial killers. Time is of the essence as with each passing day “The Eagle” gets more brazen. The deeper O’Brian and Hoffman dig into profiling the killer, the more they realize that this is more than a race against time – it’s a race laden with the realization that the killer may be one of their own. From the inside flap: The city of Los Angeles is no stranger to violence. It has both a colorful and grotesque history with it. Sheriff’s Homicide Detective Jim O’Brian and FBI Profiler Special Agent Steve Hoffman are also no strangers to the violence of the sprawling metropolis, but in the past decade something has changed. There’s a serial killer preying on other serial killers – some known by law enforcement, others well off radar. “The Iron Eagle,” a vigilante, extracts vengeance for the victims of Los Angeles’ serial killers. His methods are meticulous and his killings brutal. With each passing day, “The Iron Eagle” moves with impunity through the streets of Los Angeles in search of his prey. O’Brian and Hoffman create an elite task force with the sole purpose of catching “The Eagle” and bringing him to justice. But the deeper they delve, the more apparent it is that he may very well be one of their own. As the two men stare into the abyss of their search, the eyes of “The Iron Eagle” stare back.

Poirot: The Post War Years


Agatha Christie - 2005
    But human nature remains the same whatever the decade, and Poirot can console himself in the knowledge that he is still an expert of human nature, of greed, jealousy -- and murder. After the Funeral The Master of a Victorian mansion dies suddenly -- and his sister thinks it was murder... Hickory Dickory Dock Odd things are happening in a London youth hostel... Cat Among the Pigeons Unpleasant things are going on in an exclusive school for girls... The Clocks A typist discovers a man's body behind a sofa...

The Long Firm Trilogy


Jake Arnott - 2005
    

Partner-Protector


Julie Miller - 2005
    Merle Banning vowed to conduct the Holiday Hookers homicide investigation based on cold, hard evidence, not psychobabble from the department's "crackpot" consultant. So, despite their smoldering attraction, he scoffed at Kelsey Ryan's unsettling visions of one of the murders. But even he couldn't discount the truth when Kelsey provided a break in the case that had stymied the Fourth Precinct for years. As their pursuit of the twisted killer led them down the seedy back alleyways of Kansas City, the flamboyant beauty bewitched T's battle-scarred heart...and propelled him to breach her isolated world. Could these partners in passion unravel the killer's web of darkness before it ensnared them both?

True Crime Detective Magazines


Eric Godtland - 2005
    With texts by magazine collector Eric Godtland, George Hagenaur and True Detective editor Marc Gerald, True Crime Detective Magazines is an informative and entertaining look at one of the strangest publishing niches of all time.

Living Justice: Love, Freedom, and the Making of The Exonerated


Jessica Blank - 2005
    An artistic journey. A matter of life and death... In 2000, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen embarked on a tour across America -- one that would give them a glimpse of the darker side of the justice system and, at the same time, reveal to them just how resilient the human spirit can be. They were a pair of young actors from New York who wanted to learn more about our country's exonerated -- men and women who had been sentenced to die for crimes they didn't commit, who spent anywhere from two to twenty-two years on death row, and who were freed amidst overwhelming evidence of their innocence. The result of their journey was The Exonerated, New York Times number one play of 2002, which was embraced by such acting luminaries as Ossie Davis, Richard Dreyfuss, Danny Glover, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, and Robin Williams. Living Justice is Jessica and Erik's fascinating, behind-the-scenes account of the creation of their play. A tale of artistic expression and political awakening, innocence lost and wisdom won, this is above all a story about two people who fall in love while pursuing their passion and learn -- through the stories of the exonerated -- what freedom truly means.

The Second Bill Slider Omnibus


Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - 2005
    In Dead End, a call-out to murder saves DI Bill Slider from having to finish his canteen lunch, but it presents him with the problem of a dead conductor. In life, Sir Stefan Radek was seriously famous and terminally unpleasant, but neither of these facts seem reason enough to gun him down in a neo-Byzantine church in Shepherd’s Bush. In Blood Lines, a celebrated music critic seems to have committed suicide just before appearing on a live television show, but Slider suspects it’s murder when he learns that the victim had quarreled violently with his fellow panelists. In Killing Time, only half-recovered from an assault from the last villain he encountered, Slider is forced to investigate the murder of an erotic dancer, finding himself having to question lap dancers, prostitutes, pimps, and cabinet ministers.

Collected Works of Max Haines Volume 5


Max Haines - 2005
    From Martin Luther King to Nicole Brown Simpson, from Marilyn Monroe to Errol Flynn, from John F. Kennedy to Charlie Chaplin: the most celebrated personalities in the annals of true crime are featured in the first part of this collection.In the second part, Haines offers a fascinating compendium of some of the strangest murderers imaginable: killers who boil their victims, strangle them with upholstery cord, or slash their chests with a cross.In the third part, originally published as Murder Most Foul, Haines showcases more than fifty murderers from eleven countries. Jerry Rosenberg earned a law degree while serving a forty-year sentence and went on to enjoy a lively practice representing other prisoners. Armed robbery convict Norman “Red” Ryan so reformed himself that Canadian parole laws were changed to enable his early release. These are among the many weird and wacky criminal cases included in this volume.The Collected Works of Max Haines, Volume 5, is a testament to the author's skill at giving new life to old crimes and a reminder that truth is always stranger than fiction.

Mercy


Jean Brashear - 2005
    The story once shocked the world: the son of renowned Shakespearean actor martin Gerard, murdered while defending his twin sister Tansy from assault by Lucas Walker, the juvenile delinquent once taken under the wing of Gerard’s wife Juliette. Gerard’s triumphant return to the stage after a ten-year absence brings the old case to light. When Tansy is kidnapped, Lucas can’t leave New York as he’d planned, no matter how badly he wants to—not until he lives up to a promise to her dying mother to protect her. Lucas goes after her, risking imprisonment once more to face the person responsible for the night that forever altered all their lives. WILL THE TRUTH SAVE HER…OR DESTROY HER? “A compelling family drama of heartache, murder and mystery.” ~New York Times bestselling author JoAnn Ross “Jean Brashear will knock your socks off!” ~New York Times bestselling author Stella Cameron “Jean Brashear’s unique writing style gifts readers with marvelous love stories filled to the brim with high drama, full-bodied characters and heated sensuality.” ~Romantic Times “Jean Brashear writes a fascinating story, a book that is engrossing from beginning to end. She is definitely an author to watch.” ~The Best Reviews “Jean Brashear is a writer of rare talent.” ~Affaire de Coeur “There are many adjectives that describe Ms. Brashear's writing, but in a word, Mercy is brilliant.” ~Goodreads review “This was a powerful and emotional read. I'm not sure I've read anything quite like it before, which is a nice change of pace since typical romances have seemed stale to me lately.” ~Goodreads review

No Place for Children: Voices from Juvenile Detention


Steve Liss - 2005
    Most are nonviolent offenders. Many have mental health or substance abuse problems. All have been failed by some combination of their families, schools, churches, and communities. But instead of addressing these young people’s needs for treatment, rehabilitation, and basic nurturing, we lock them away in an overburdened juvenile justice system that can do little more than warehouse troubled children. This courageous work of photojournalism goes inside the system to offer an intimate, often disturbing view of children’s experiences in juvenile detention. Steve Liss photographed and interviewed young detainees, their parents, and detention and probation officers in Laredo, Texas. His striking photographs reveal that these are vulnerable children—sometimes as young as ten—coping with a detention environment that most adults would find harsh. In the accompanying text, he brings in the voices of the young people who describe their already fractured lives and fragile dreams, as well as the words of their parents and juvenile justice workers who express frustration at not having more resources with which to help these kids. As Marian Wright Edelman asks in the foreword, “What does it say about us that the only thing our nation will guarantee every child is a costly jail or detention cell, while refusing them a place in Head Start or after-school child care, summer jobs, and other needed supports?” In the best tradition of photojournalism, No Place for Children is a call to action on behalf of America’s at-risk youth.

Forensic Psychologists Casebook: Psychological Profiling and Criminal Investigation


Laurence Alison - 2005
    It asks the question 'What do practitioners actually do when they provide advice for the police and the courts and how do they do it?'The contributors to the book are all experts in the field of offender profiling and behavioural investigative advice. The chapters provide valuable insights into particular case details, the ethical and legal consequences of advice, coverage of the relevant theoretical context, explanations for conclusions drawn, practical difficulties in preparing reports, potential pitfalls, and an account of how cases are resolved.

Principles of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis: Theory and Practice


Stuart H. James - 2005
    As a result, substantiation of this evidence is crucial to those on either side of the courtroom aisle. The challenge is to obtain an authoritative reference that provides the latest information in a comprehensive and effective manner.Principles of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis: Theory and Practice presents an in-depth investigation of this important subject matter. A multidisciplinary approach is presented throughout the book that uses scene and laboratory examinations in conjunction with forensic pathology, forensic serology, and chemical enhancement techniques. Emphasis is on a thought process based on taxonomic classification of bloodstains that takes into account their physical characteristics of size, shape, and distribution, and the specific mechanisms that produce them.Individual chapters analyze case studies, with two chapters specifically discussing the details of legal issues as they pertain to bloodstain pattern analysis. Information highlighted throughout the book includes an examination of bloodstained clothing and footwear and information on bloodstain interpretation for crime scene reconstruction. Dramatic color images of bloodletting injuries, bloodstains, and crime scenes are also presented to compliment the technical content of this resource.Features� Provides 500 full color photographs - the first bloodstain pattern book presenting dramatic full color images of bloodletting injuries, bloodstains, and crime scenes� Contains appendices with scientific data that includes trigonometric tables and metric equivalents, as well as crime scene and laboratory check lists, and biohazard safety precautions� Discloses court decisions relating to bloodstain pattern analysis and presumptive blood testing� Written by authors with many years of experience in the field, and features chapters contributed by qualified and respected forensic scientists and attorneys

The Innocent


Harlan Coben - 2005
    Now, nine years later, he’s an ex-con who takes nothing for granted. His wife, Olivia, is pregnant, and the two of them are closing on their dream house. But all it will take is one shocking, inexplicable call from Olivia’s phone to shatter Matt’s life a second time….An electrifying thrill ride of a novel that peeks behind the white picket fences of suburbia, The Innocent is at once a twisting, turning, emotionally charged story and a compelling tale of the choices we make and the repercussions that never leave.

The Cromwell Street Murders: The Detective's Story


John Bennett - 2005
    This book tells for the first time the story from a police perspective. For ten years, the officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Superintendent John Bennett QPM, has refused to tell his story. Now, together with BBC journalist Graham Gardner, he reveals the full story of how the West's were caught, how the case was prepared and how it nearly failed to come to court. This book chronicles the roles of those who brought down two of Britain's most infamous killers, shedding light on the real heroes of one of the saddest chapters of criminal history. It explores the court processes, the complications of Rose West's trial, her unsuccessful appeal and the difficulty of dealing with witnesses in such a traumatic case. On one level, this is a story of the triumph of good over evil; on another it is a detailed documentation of how a murder investigation really works - the pressures, the commitment and the physical and emotional drain on those who carry out this work.

To Live and Die in Harlem


Relentless Aaron - 2005
    His parents were murdered when he was young, and he's spent much of his adulthood in prison. Now there's only one thing left in the world worth fighting for: his home.    Harlem has been undermined by rascal slumlords, grimy politicians, and crooked cops.  The corruption shouldn't be any of Push's business--until he stumbles onto one of the biggest, most ruthless criminal enterprises he's ever seen. Now it's up to him to clear the streets of one of the most ruthless gangs in history. Because if Push can't do it, no one else can…and this time, it's personal.

The Tin Collectors / The Viking Funeral


Stephen J. Cannell - 2005
    Or was his mind playing tricks? Shane's lover, Alexa Hamilton, herself a lauded LAPD officer, happens to think so. But Shane knows what he saw. And for a rogue cop with nothing left to lose, the search for Dean has become more than an investigation. It's become an obsession.The first clue to Dean's secret lifeand suspicious deathis murder. The victim is Dean's former commanding officer. The connection taps into a corrupt, high-level conspiracy among L.A.'s finest that will put Shane and everyone he loves in harm's way. It will cut deep into the heart of betrayal and the meaning of friendship. And it will dare one cop already on the brink of madness to take on step further into darkness...

Kane Volume 4: Thirty Ninth


Paul Grist - 2005
    following a six-month suspension in the wake of shooting and killing his partner, his fellow police officers gave him a welcome back gift: a couple of bullets with his name on them. Now, a sniper is taking pot shots at the police. An ex-cop is looking to take revenge on the cop who turned him in. There's rioting in the streets and the Mayor's been kidnapped again. It's another typical week for the police in New Eden's Precinct 39!

Kane Volume 5: Untouchable Rico Costas and Other Stories


Paul Grist - 2005
    His fellow police officers give Kane a welcome-back gift: a couple of bullets with his name on them. Rico Costas is only a two-bit villain, but he's managed to make himself the target of The Blind Man, a legendary hitman who tracks down his victims by listening to their heartbeats. The only safe place for Rico now is inside the cells of the 39th Precinct of New Eden. Only problem is, Rico's got a court order preventing the police from coming within six feet of him!

Muzzlers, Guzzlers, and Good Yeggs


Joe Coleman - 2005
    He is best known for his rich oil paintings, but what many don't know is that he has also created an impressive body of sequential, black-and-white art, which this volume collects. As with his paintings, Coleman is obsessed with violence and dementia, particularly in regard to cultural antiheroes and serial killers. Muzzlers, Guzzlers, and Good Yeggs collects the best of his true crime tales. Like a blend of Breughel and the EC horror comics of the 1950s, Coleman's character studies are dripping with lurid imagery and a pulp sensibility, rendered with careful draughtsmanship and dense with information. Coleman is obsessed with fear, the fear that inspires the horrible acts of the people he writes about, as well as the fear that their acts inspire. Muzzlers features five stories: "You Can't Win," which adapts the memoir of the same name by Jack Black, the notorious early 20th century con-man, thief, opium addict, convict and author; "Boxcar Bertha," which is about the depression-era female hobo who is driven to prostitution, only to be led to salvation by an unwanted pregnancy; "Carl Panzram, #31614," which depicts the life of the notorious serial killer and rapist who declared, "I hate the whole damned human race, including myself" and who expressed his thirst for murder right up to his own execution; "The Final Days of John Paul Knowles," a.k.a. "The Final Days of the Boston Strangler," which is equally a story about Sandy Fawkes, the woman who narrowly escaped being Knowles' seventeenth victim; the last story in the collection is "The Wages of Sin,"a brief manifesto on human suffering and the people and institutions that perpetuate it (priests, scientists and military, e.g.). With the exception of "The Wages of Sin," which serves as a kind of coda to the other four stories presented, each piece is written in the first person, putting the reader into the minds of each subject. Muzzlers, Guzzlers, and Good Yeggs is presented in a handsome, compact format that resembles a Big Little Book, though one strictly for grown-ups.

After Capone: The Life and World of Chicago Mob Boss Frank The Enforcer" Nitti"


Mars Eghigian Jr. - 2005
    This book gives a warts and all portrayal of the gangster."

Strange Attractor Journal Two


Mark Pilkington - 2005
    And antennae, branches, tentacles etc.Dr Price's Final Transmutation Guy OgilvyHow the Royal Society found, then lost, the secrets of alchemyLife from Earth: The Golem and Homunculi Gary LachmanThe mystical origins of artificial life. Photography by Maud LarssonRobot Power, Robot Pride Ken HollingsHow the robot found its selfShould they Live: on the Use of Dead Babies Don MaderThe hidden meaning of a sinister 19th century religious printMould Art Discovered by Doug HarveyBeauty grows in unexpected placesThe Court of Lust John BranstonWaldo Sabine: parapsychologist, poet, feminist, martyrSandoz in the Rain: The Life and Art of Wilfried Satty John Coulthart on a lost visionary hero of the psychedelic revolutionBoris Vian for Anglophones Doug SkinnerThe scandalous oeuvre of the man who shocked his worldRichard Jefferies and the Agitated Pool of Life Neil Mortimer introduces this early, apocalyptic ecologistAnagrams for Maya Deren Kevin JacksonArtist, film maker, voodoo priestessChange in a Parallel World: CFRussell, Louis Culling and the Book of Changes Steve Moore presents an eccentric history and a new I ChingSpirits of Place: Strange Encounters of an Anglican Kind Alan WalkerHow the Church of England answered The ExorcistOne More Nightmare calling... the Heathen Robert J WallisLoki the 'pervert god', Seidrsorcery and the Left Hand Path.Illustrations by Arik Roper and Carina Thor'nTerror by Night: the Sleeping Partner Roger DobsonMemoirs of a hag-ridden manFolklore of Underground London Antony ClaytonWhat rumours lie beneath the city's streets?Cesare Thodol Mark SamuelsOn brain fungus and other horrors. Illustrated by Betsy Heistand

American Orphan-The Life And Times Of Roger Dean Kiser


Roger Dean Kiser - 2005
    The pain, suffering and mental anguish is not easy to read. These stories tell of my feelings. How I took that suffering boldly and how I tried, as best I could, to ease the pain of others. The abuse, hurt and pain I suffered as a child has never left my mind and I feel it as strongly today as I did when I was a child. Forever these memories live with me as a reminder of where I came from and who I am. If the quote above is indeed true, then why I did not turn out to be an abuser. Many who read my stories of my abusive childhood marvel at how I could become a contributing member of society. How I can become a published author with only a 6th grade education, how I can focus on the horrible abuse, and how I earnestly strive, through my books and my media coverage, to seek public and government reform. How can I help others when so much in me goes unhealed? So, why did I not turn out to be an abuser myself ? It is because I could no longer stand to see the pain abuse causes in the hearts and mind of my fellow man. I know the desperation very well. I was there and it happened to me. I cannot recall even one instance where I physically abused my children. I suppose this is because the abuse, the hurt and the pain that I suffered as a child has left such a devastating effect on me I promised myself I would never do this to my children. I find I make that conscious decision everyday. My children are grown and have children of their own. Now, I reaffirm my decision for my grandchildren s sake. I choose not to abuse. It is a decision that I make every day of my life. I help others because I have no choice. When I see the pain of others, my own past reappears and it hurts me so badly. I see myself in their faces, I understand their mental torture, and I know their hopelessness. I need to let them know that I am here and I am a friend. I understand because I have been wh

Sabbath Night in the Church of the Piranha


Edward Falco - 2005
    Those who haven’t yet read him don’t want to miss this chance. That’s why we’re so excited to offer the very best of his work, gathered together for the first time, to a wider readership.Falco’s stories are unforgettable, dangerous as a high-wire act without a net, filled with dramatic action, and peopled with believable characters challenged by events into making risky moral choices, so emotionally true that readers will carry them around for a long time. His prose is tense, sharp, and beautifully, wonderfully rich. In story after story, Falco’s characters find the comfortable order of their lives ambushed by an upswelling of dark forces beyond their control. In order to protect the lives of family—lovers, wives, and especially children—from a catastrophe, they often must summon up the personal courage to climb back from their own monsters, to set aside old, private scars. The decisions they make reveal their bonds, the set of their hearts, and the harsh nature of the culture we all live in today.If someone out there could write the contemporary counterpart to Flannery O’Conoor’s classic “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” it would be Falco. His are good, old-fashioned, hard-to-find stories set way out there on the edge.

On the Beat


Mary T. O'Connor - 2005
    A womans Life in the Garda Siochana

Spiritual Survival for Law Enforcement: Practical Insights, Practical Tools


Cary A. Friedman - 2005
    Jam-packed with exercises, tools, and insights, this practical guide restores inner peace and clarity.

Sex Crimes and Paraphilia


Eric W. Hickey - 2005
    Examining a wide range of sex crimes ranging from non-violent offenses such as exhibitionism, voyeurism and obscene telephone calls to serial rapes and lust murders, Sex Crimes and Paraphilia looks to uncover the roots and causes of these behaviors to aid in the understanding of sex offenders and their crimes.

Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Criminal Courthouse


Steve Bogira - 2005
    Here we see the system through the eyes of the men and women who experience it, not only in the courtroom but in the lockup, the jury room, the judge's chambers, the spectators' gallery. From the daily grind of the court to the highest-profile case of the year, Steve Bogira's masterful investigation raises fundamental issues of race, civil rights, and justice in America.

Dear People: Remembering Jonestown


Denice Stephenson - 2005
    In DEAR PEOPLE: REMEMBERING JONESTOWN, The heartbreaking tragedy of Jonestown — and the idealistic community movement that preceded it — are presented in text and photos from the Peoples Temple Archive. In November of 1978 the world recoiled in shock when the news first spread from Jonestown that more than nine hundred people were dead in a horrendous mass suicide. Over twenty-five years later, the tragedy and appeal of the Peoples Temple still puzzles us. Using letters, oral histories, poems, and newsletters, researcher Denise Stephenson has compiled a sensitive account of the community's growth and self-destruction, chronicling the Reverend Jones's move from progressive Christianity to paranoid utopianism. These documents provide moving insight not just into this historic event but into the larger issues of human yearning, of our capacity for hope and delusion, of the willingness of people to submerge themselves into a movement or charismatic leader that they give up freedom.

Understanding Homicide


Fiona Brookman - 2005
    The author combines original analysis with a lucid overview of the key theories and debates in the study of homicide and violence. In introducing the broad spectrum of different features, aspects and forms of homicide, Fiona Brookman examines its patterns and trends, how it may be explained, its investigation and how it may be prevented. The book is unique in its focus, coverage, and style and bridges a major gap in criminological literature. While focused in several respects upon the UK experience of homicide, the text necessarily draws upon and makes a significant contribution to international literature, research and debate.

Black Market: Inside the Endangered Species Trade in Asia


Ben Davies - 2005
    Following in the footsteps of celebrity advocates Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, and Angelina Jolie, Black Market exposes the unsettling truth about the cruel exploitation and bureaucratic indifference surrounding the multibillion-dollar underground industry that drives wildlife exploitation. Includes over 100 gripping black and white and color photographs with never-before-seen aspects of the illegal trade, up-close photojournalism uncovering illegal activities of poachers, traders and wildlife enforcement agencies, heroic tales of impassioned conservation efforts and the valiant individuals and organizations battling to save the world’s precious wildlife heritage.

Defrauding America: Encyclopedia of Secret Operations by the CIA, DEA, and Other Covert Agencies, Vol. One


Rodney Stich - 2005
    One. Numerous CIA and other government agents describe a half century of covert activities, some of them against the United States and the American people. Written by former federal agent Rodney Stich.

The Man Who Got Away: The Bugs Moran Story: A Biography


Rose Keefe - 2005
    Author uses recently discovered information in this book to present a new view of Moran.

Jackie Leven Said


Ian Rankin - 2005
    Ian tells the story in short chapters which are illustrated by musical interludes and complete songs performed by Jackie and keyboard player Michael Cosgrave. The story evokes the suffering (and healing) of a Scottish family coming back together for a funeral in Fife on the east coast of Scotland. Although a work of fiction, the story resonates strongly with the life experiences of both Ian and Jackie who are themselves both from this part of the world. It sparkles with humour. At the end of the storytelling, Ian and Jackie then have a wildly funny knockabout discussion of what it means to come from Fife, with Jackie departing from the subject in his uniquely crazy way. The songs sung by Jackie reflect and blend the lives of Ian and Jackie, but also touch on the inner life of Ian's acclaimed fictional hero cop, the haunted genius that is Detective Inspector John Rebus, himself a Fifer.

Dutch Schultz: The Brazen Beer Baron of New York


Nate Hendley - 2005
    A treat for fans of true-crime and bizarre mob stories. Nate Hendley brings to the lexicon of gangster profi les a meticulously researched, very human examination of this legendary figure.

Portals to Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War


Lonnie R. Speer - 2005
    Now Lonnie R. Speer has brought to life the least-known men in the great struggle between the Union and the Confederacy, using their own words and observations as they endured a true “hell on earth.” Drawing on scores of previously unpublished firsthand accounts, Portals to Hell presents the prisoners’ experiences in great detail and from an impartial perspective. The first comprehensive study of all major prisons of both the North and the South, this chronicle analyzes the many complexities of the relationships among prisoners, guards, commandants, and government leaders.

Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder


James Alan Fox - 2005
    Throughout the book, renowned experts James Alan Fox and Jack Levin examine the theories of criminal behavior and apply them to a multitude of well-known and lesser-known multiple homicide cases from around the world. The book shows readers the commonalities and variations among multiple murders; addresses the characteristics of both killers and their victims; and, in the concluding chapter, discusses the special concerns of multiple murder victims and their survivors.

A Random Act


Cindi Broaddus - 2005
    

Body Of Truth


Deirdre Savoy - 2005
    But when she is wounded in a drive-by shooting, she finds her desire for justice tempered by her desire for the handsome cop who saved her life.

Packing Death


Lachlan McCulloch - 2005
    Two sons of the notorious Kath 'Granny Evil' Pettingill had been acquitted of killing two young policemen in the Walsh Street outrage, and so any attempt to pursue them would not only be dangerous but easily portrayed as persecution.Along comes undercover cop Lachlan McCulloch. Through a chance encounter with an underworld insider who knew the drug-pushing Pettingill crew, Lachlan McCulloch had the opportunity to infiltrate them. Senior officers knew they were sending him into danger - but the chance was too good to miss.Lachlan McCulloch spent months befriending the people who had killed his comrades, knowing they would kill him without compunction. But he lived to tell the tale. Finally, he can tell it!

Miss Marple All 20 Stories


Agatha Christie - 2005
    It contains "The Thirteen Problems" and "Miss Marple's Final Cases" which gather together all 20 Miss Marple short stories.Described by her friend Dolly Bantry as 'the typical old maid of fiction', Miss Marple has lived almost her entire life in the sleepy hamlet of St Mary Mead. Yet, by observing village life she has gained an unparalleled insight into human nature - and used it to devastating effect. As her friend Sir Henry Clithering, the ex-Commissioner of Scotland Yard has been heard to say: 'She's just the finest detective God ever made.' - and many Agatha Christie fans would agree.Appearing for the first time in "The Murder at The Vicarage" (1930) her crime-fighting career spanned over forty years when she solved her final case in 1977 in "Sleeping Murder". With every tale flawlessly plotted by the Queen of Crime herself, these short stories provide a feast for hardened Agatha Christie addicts as well as those who have grown to love the detective through her many film and television appearances.The stories are: 1. The Tuesday Night Club; 2. The Idol House of Astarte; 3. Ingots of Gold; 4. The Bloodstained Pavement; 5. Motive v. Opportunity; 6. The Thumbmark of St Peter; 7. The Blue Geranium; 8. The Companion; 9. The Four Suspects; 10. A Christmas Tragedy; 11. The Herb of Death; 12. The Affair at the Bungalow; 13. Death by Drowning; 14. Miss Marple Tells a Story; 15. Strange Jest; 16. The Case of the Perfect Maid; 17. The Case of the Caretaker; 18. Tape-Measure Murder; 19. Greenshaw's Folly; and 20. Sanctuary.Librarian's note: this entry is for "Miss Marple All 20 Stories". Each of the individual stories can be found elsewhere on Goodreads.

Sophie and Crystal Carter and The Unexpected Secret


Kelly Cairns - 2005
    She's a witch, they are witches and their grandad is a wizard. They fly on a magic cloud, go to a magic world and fight against an evil wizard.

The Search for Saint Valeria


William L. Biersach - 2005
    In The Search for Saint Valeria, the third entry in the series, cop-turned-priest Fr. John Baptist and his faithful sidekick, gardener and chronicler, Martin Feeney, are once again on the trail of the unusual and strange. Why is someone stealing discarded religious objects - relics, altars, chalices - from the city's antique shops? And why on earth would modern-day grave robbers want to steal the remains of a 4th century Saint from New Golgotha Cemetery? In this fast-paced story, replete with a cast of memorable characters, a healthy dose of red herrings, and a generous helping of humour, there is always more than meets the eye, whether in means, motives, or methods. What with the hallowed history of the mystery genre, some readers might be tempted to suppose that it has all been done. In his Father Baptist series, William Biersach disproves this notion with a vengeance. These stories are fresh, intricate, vibrant, and a heck of a lot of fun! The Search for Saint Valeria is indeed a noble addition to the canon.

Executioner


Stewart P. Evans - 2005
    Stewart Evans here takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the world of Victorian crime and punishment. Berry was a man of mystery. He took a genuine interest in his 'victims' and the crimes they had committed. As an amateur criminologist he built his own black museum and kept scrapbooks relating to his activities. He was also something of a showman, and not averse to publicity, whose press coverage caused the government acute embarrassment. was often too upset before and after one of his 200 executions to be able to speak. One of his most famous (non) jobs was the strange case of John Lee ('The man they could not hang'). When Berry pulled the lever on the gallows nothing happened. After three attempts, Lee was reprieved. There were also a few horrific incidents on the gallows and his job evidently had its effect on him as, in retirement, Berry became so depressed that he took steps to commit suicide.

Suicide Terrorism


Ami Pedahzur - 2005
    Drawing on a variety of sources, Suicide Terrorism explores the use of human bombs in Lebanon, Israel, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Chechnya and Iraq and the ostentatious attacks of Al-Qaeda and the global jihad. It is the only book to offer such an in-depth, up-to-date, cross-cultural analysis of suicide terrorism in the twenty-first century."--Jacket.

Framed in Guilt/My Flesh is Sweet


Day Keene - 2005
    The dead woman had been killed in his car--shot through the chest--and he didn't have an alibi. Several people were there at the club when Grace Turner had called him that evening. She had asked to meet him. But he hadn't kept the meeting. Or had he? After his drinking binge of the night before, he didn't really remember. But Inspector Treech is convinced that Stanton is guilty and is out to prove it. The murdered girl was English; Stanton had served in London during World War II. And new information suggests that he had been married to Grace's best friend, Eve. Now on the eve of his Hollywood marriage to movie star Joy Parnell, Grace could have ruined his plans. It all made sense--except that Stanton had never heard of Eve!MY FLESH IS SWEETAd Connors is a down-on-his-luck pulp writer living in Mexico. But the day he witnesses Eleana Hayes run into General Estaban's car changes everything. It's not bad enough that Connors thinks he's killed the general defending Eleana's honor. It gets worse when he tries to help her find the Mexican lawyer who's been sending her money from her fugitive father--only to find his murdered body instead. Connors is in over his head fast, but there's something about Eleana that convinces him that she needs his help. Once he and Eleana escape back to America, the real mystery of just what she was really doing down in Mexico begins to haunt Connors--that and the fact that he's about to be extradited for murder! Is Eleana a damsel in distress, or is Connors just a pawn in her game?

The Coming of the Queen


Iain McLaughlin - 2005
    But her sixteenth year will bring Erimem and her brothers into contact with war, death, treachery, assassins and tragedy, and will lead her to a destiny she had never imagined… or wanted.