Was this a sign of overwhelming guilt? Was West criminally insane or merely a sexual sadist of the worst kind? Brian Masters sets out to answer these questions.Attending the Rosemary West trial on a daily basis, Masters has come up with a penetrating study of the sexual obsession that led to the measured killing of twelve women and girls. In the wake of the horrific detail of murder, sadism and torture that has come to light in the last few months, Masters, from his privileged courtroom vantage point, looks closely at how and why ordinary human beings were driven to serial killing of the most devious kind, and how an evil psychopath was able to ensnare so many in a web of unseeing complicity. He unravels with particular precision the legal means used to bring the whole matter to trial and weighs the evidence coolly and objectively.Brian Masters has established his reputation as an authority on the criminal and psychopathic mind. This is his highly reasoned and psychologically acute look at what has become Britain's serial-killer trial of the century.

    In the last fifty years, we've zoomed through radically different forms of communication, from typewriters to tablet computers, text messages to tweets. We generate more and more words with each passing day. Hiding in that deluge of language are amazing insights into who we are, how we think, and what we feel.In The Secret Life of Pronouns, social psychologist and language expert James W. Pennebaker uses his groundbreaking research in computational linguistics-in essence, counting the frequency of words we use-to show that our language carries secrets about our feelings, our self-concept, and our social intelligence. Our most forgettable words, such as pronouns and prepositions, can be the most revealing: their patterns are as distinctive as fingerprints.Using innovative analytic techniques, Pennebaker X-rays everything from Craigslist advertisements to the Federalist Papers-or your own writing, in quizzes you can take yourself-to yield unexpected insights. Who would have predicted that the high school student who uses too many verbs in her college admissions essay is likely to make lower grades in college? Or that a world leader's use of pronouns could reliably presage whether he led his country into war? You'll learn why it's bad when politicians use "we" instead of "I," what Lady Gaga and William Butler Yeats have in common, and how Ebenezer Scrooge's syntax hints at his self-deception and repressed emotion. Barack Obama, Sylvia Plath, and King Lear are among the figures who make cameo appearances in this sprightly, surprising tour of what our words are saying-whether we mean them to or not.

    In a lab filled with curiosities--beakers, microscopes, Bunsen burners, and hundreds upon hundreds of books--sat an investigator who would go on to crack at least two thousand cases in his forty-year career. Known as the "American Sherlock Holmes," Edward Oscar Heinrich was one of America's greatest--and first--forensic scientists, with an uncanny knack for finding clues, establishing evidence, and deducing answers with a skill that seemed almost supernatural.Heinrich was one of the nation's first expert witnesses, working in a time when the turmoil of Prohibition led to sensationalized crime reporting and only a small, systematic study of evidence. However with his brilliance, and commanding presence in both the courtroom and at crime scenes, Heinrich spearheaded the invention of a myriad of new forensic tools that police still use today, including blood spatter analysis, ballistics, lie-detector tests, and the use of fingerprints as courtroom evidence. His work, though not without its serious--some would say fatal--flaws, changed the course of American criminal investigation.Based on years of research and thousands of never-before-published primary source materials, American Sherlock captures the life of the man who pioneered the science our legal system now relies upon--as well as the limits of those techniques and the very human experts who wield them.

    Never before has such specialized information been so thoroughly compiled and easily accessible to writers Each book is written by a professional in their respective field, providing the inside details that writers need to weave a credible -- and salable -- story.

    Never before has such specialized information been so thoroughly compiled and easily accessible to writers Each book is written by a professional in their respective field, providing the inside details that writers need to weave a credible -- and salable -- story.

    While the "war of chaos" rages in the skies above London, an unending fight against violence, murder and the criminal underworld continues on the streets below. One ordinary day, in an ordinary courtroom, forensic pathologist Dr. Keith Simpson asks a keen young journalist to be his secretary. Although the "horrors of secretarial work" don't appeal to Molly Lefebure, she's intrigued to know exactly what goes on behind a mortuary door. Capable and curious, "Miss Molly" quickly becomes indispensible to Dr. Simpson as he meticulously pursues the truth. Accompanying him from somber morgues to London's most gruesome crime scenes, Molly observes and assists as he uncovers the dark secrets that all murder victims keep. With a sharp sense of humor and a rebellious spirit, Molly tells her own remarkable true story here with warmth and wit, painting a vivid portrait of wartime London.

    is the first deep-dive investigation of a hazardous and illicit industry that has created a worldwide epidemic, ravaging communities and overwhelming and confounding government agencies that are challenged to combat it. "A whole new crop of chemicals is radically changing the recreational drug landscape," writes Ben Westhoff. "These are known as Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) and they include replacements for known drugs like heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana. They are synthetic, made in a laboratory, and are much more potent than traditional drugs"--and all-too-often tragically lethal. Drugs like fentanyl, K2, and Spice--and those with arcane acronyms like 25i-NBOMe-- were all originally conceived in legitimate laboratories for proper scientific and medicinal purposes. Their formulas were then hijacked and manufactured by rogue chemists, largely in China, who change their molecular structures to stay ahead of the law, making the drugs' effects impossible to predict. Westhoff has infiltrated this shadowy world, becoming the first journalist to report from inside an illicit Chinese fentanyls lab and providing startling and original reporting on how China's vast chemical industry operates, and how the Chinese government subsidizes it. He tracks down the little-known scientists who invented these drugs and inadvertently killed thousands, as well as a mysterious drug baron who turned the law upside down in his home country of New Zealand. Poignantly, Westhoff chronicles the lives of addicted users and dealers, families of victims, law enforcement officers, and underground drug awareness organizers in the U.S. and Europe. Together they represent the shocking and riveting full anatomy of a calamity we are just beginning to understand. From its depths, as Westhoff relates, are emerging new strategies that may provide essential long-term solutions to the drug crisis that has affected so many.

    Peterson comes a creative guide to language construction for sci-fi and fantasy fans, writers, game creators, and language lovers. Peterson offers a captivating overview of language creation, covering its history from Tolkien’s creations and Klingon to today’s thriving global community of conlangers. He provides the essential tools necessary for inventing and evolving new languages, using examples from a variety of languages including his own creations, punctuated with references to everything from Star Wars to Michael Jackson. Along the way, behind-the-scenes stories lift the curtain on how he built languages like Dothraki for HBO’s Game of Thrones and Shiväisith for Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World, and an included phrasebook will start fans speaking Peterson’s constructed languages. The Art of Language Invention is an inside look at a fascinating culture and an engaging entry into a flourishing art form—and it might be the most fun you’ll ever have with linguistics.

    In many circles this disease, still known as Yuppi Flu, is dismissed as a psychological aberration. For the nearly two million people who have endured its traumatic and very real debilitating physical effects, however, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is no joke.

    It can be slipped into a drink, smeared onto the tip of an arrow or the handle of a door, even filtered through the air we breathe. But how exactly do these poisons work to break our bodies down, and what can we learn from the damage they inflict?In a blend of popular science, medical history, and true crime, Dr. Neil Bradbury explores the morbidly captivating method of murder from a cellular level. Alongside real-life accounts of murderers and their crimes—some notorious, some forgotten, some still unsolved—are the stories of the poisons involved: eleven molecules of death that work their way through the human body and, paradoxically, illuminate the way in which our bodies function.Drawn from historical records and current news headlines, A Taste for Poison weaves together the tales of spurned lovers, shady scientists, medical professionals and political assassins to show how the precise systems of the body can be impaired to lethal effect through the use of poison. From the deadly origins of the gin & tonic cocktail to the arsenic-laced wallpaper in Napoleon’s bedroom.

    As gripping as CSI and as eye-opening as Mary Roach’s Stiff, Carney’s The Red Market sheds a blazing new light on the disturbing, billion-dollar business of trading in human body parts, bodies, and child trafficking, raising issues and exposing corruptions almost too bizarre and shocking to imagine.

    Lyle, M.D., takes each area of forensics--from fingerprint analysis to crime scene reconstruction--and discusses its development, how the science works, how it helps in crime solving, and how you as a writer might use this technique in crafting your plot. This comprehensive reference guide includes:Real-life case files and the role forensic evidence played in solving the crimesA breakdown of the forensics system from its history and organization to standard evidence classification and collection methodsDetailed information on what a dead body can reveal--including the cause, mechanism, and manner of deathThe actual steps taken to preserve a crime scene and the evidence that can be gathered there, such as bloodstains, documents, fingerprints, tire impressions, and moreForensics is the ultimate resource for learning how to accurately imbue your stories with authentic details of untimely demises.

    Drugs. Danger. Death. This is the adrenaline-pumping, true crime story of the world's most audacious drug runners and the true life police hunt, 'Operation Playboy', to track them down.These drug-running criminals travel the globe: they ski in Europe, surf in Bali, hook up with celebrity models and live in five-star hotels. They are 24/7 party boys with brass balls, steely nerves and reckless ambitions. They pay for their high-risk, hedonistic lifestyle by trafficking cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana on international flights and through the world's biggest airports.But to ride the wave you have to roll the dice. And in this game a bust means prison - or even a firing squad. A Brazilian cop is watching closely, determined to close the net. With a small team, he battles corrupt colleagues and bent judges to learn the secrets of the criminal playboys' gang and bring about their downfall.If you love true crime or organised crime thrillers, drug bust stories, espionage, murder and mayhem, mafia films, international mystery and crime, heists and biographies featuring a real police operation and a real criminal gang, then this is the true crime biography for you . . . a page-turning, white-knuckle thriller - the true story of a mafia-style manhunt codenamed OPERATION PLAYBOY.Perfect for fans of true crime stories and authors like Rusty Young, James Phelps, Chopper Read and Underbelly.| True Crime | Mafia | Organised Crime | Hoaxes & Deceptions | Murder & Mayhem |Available at all etailers and in audiobook.Grab Your Copy NOW . . .PRAISE FOR KATHRYN BONELLA'[A] graphic insight into the hidden world of Bali's top western criminal cocaine bosses . . . With unprecedented access into their lives author Kathryn Bonella charts their rise to incredible wealth and power . . . [and] also follows many to the depths of hell when they are busted.' Tracks on Snowing in Bali'. . . an insightful and sharply observed account of life inside Indonesia's most notorious prison. Bonella casts a cool journalistic eye over some horrific true life events . . .' Sun Herald on Hotel Kerobokan'Bonella's portrayal of the jail . . . will make readers flinch with its graphic descriptions of violence and debauchery taking place under the eyes of bent guards.' South China Morning Post on Hotel Kerobokan

    Did Ken do it? Six stories of miniature crimes illustrated in colour reveal real CSI techniques. Each of the six miniature crime scene dioramas contains clues to preliminarily determine the cause of death. A large photo of the dollhouse scene including murder weapons, victims, and more introduces each crime.

    Would you know one if you held it in your hand?In Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom seeks out the historic and scientific truths behind anthropodermic bibliopegy--the practice of binding books in this most intimate covering. Dozens of such books live on in the world's most famous libraries and museums. Dark Archives exhumes their origins and brings to life the doctors, murderers, innocents, and indigents whose lives are sewn together in this disquieting collection. Along the way, Rosenbloom tells the story of how her team of scientists, curators, and librarians test rumored anthropodermic books, untangling the myths around their creation and reckoning with the ethics of their custodianship.A librarian and journalist, Rosenbloom is a member of The Order of the Good Death and a cofounder of their Death Salon, a community that encourages conversations, scholarship, and art about mortality and mourning. In Dark Archives--captivating and macabre in all the right ways--she has crafted a narrative that is equal parts detective work, academic intrigue, history, and medical curiosity: a book as rare and thrilling as its subject.