The Killing Season


Alex French - 2016
    For Jim Fromm and Doug Rushing, the two young detectives assigned to the case, the investigation is a chance to earn their stripes and prove their mettle. At first, Fromm and Rushing peg the woman’s mercurial husband, a pipe-fitter who works outside of town, as the primary suspect. But as their case against Steve Benson unravels, the detectives find themselves short on leads—and running out of time. With the city on edge and anxious for answers, a notorious serial killer goes on the lam, and yet another young woman and her children turn up dead.In The Killing Season, acclaimed journalist Alex French traces the story of the Benson murders from the night Linda and Kelley’s bodies are found strewn across their second floor apartment, to an improbable discovery, made more than 30 years later, that enabled a new breed of detectives to crack the case and bring closure to those who'd watched justice slip away. Writing in taut, atmospheric prose, French has crafted a heart-pounding tale of tragedy, resilience, and redemption—set against the burning-red vistas of the American Southwest.Alex French is a freelance journalist. His reportage and oral histories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, BuzzReads, GQ, New York Magazine, Grantland, This American Life and a variety of other venues. He lives in Monmouth County, New Jersey, with his wife and two children.Cover design by Adil Dara.

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland


Patrick Radden Keefe - 2018
    They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville's children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress--with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes.Patrick Radden Keefe's mesmerizing book on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with. The brutal violence seared not only people like the McConville children, but also I.R.A. members embittered by a peace that fell far short of the goal of a united Ireland, and left them wondering whether the killings they committed were not justified acts of war, but simple murders.Patrick Radden Keefe writes an intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions.

The Dark Heart: A True Story of Greed, Murder, and an Unlikely Investigator


Joakim Palmkvist - 2017
    When a search yielded nothing, and all physical evidence had seemingly disappeared, authorities had little to go on—except a disturbing phone call five weeks later from Göran’s daughter Maria. She was sure that her sister, Sara, was somehow involved. At the heart of the alleged crime: Sara’s greed, her father’s land holdings, and his bitter feud with Sara’s idler boyfriend. With no body, there was no crime—and the case went as cold and dark as the forests of southern Sweden. But not for Therese Tang. For two years, this case was her obsession.A hard-working ex-model, mother of three, and Missing People investigator, Therese was willing to put her own safety at risk in order to uncover the truth. What she found was a nest of depraved secrets, lies, and betrayal. All she had to do now, in her relentless and dangerous pursuit of justice, was prove that it led to murder.

Un-Making a Murderer: The Framing of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey


Shaun Attwood - 2017
    Sometimes mistakes are made. But even more terrifying is when the authorities conspire to frame them. That's what happened to Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey, who were convicted of murder and are serving life sentences.Un-Making a Murderer is an explosive book which uncovers the illegal, devious and covert tactics used by Wisconsin officials, including: Concealing Other SuspectsPaying Expert Witnesses to LiePlanting EvidenceJury TamperingThe art of framing innocent people has been in practice for centuries and will continue until the perpetrators are held accountable; turning conventional assumptions and beliefs in the justice system upside down, Un-Making a Murderer takes you on that journey.The profits from this book are going to Steven and Brendan and to donate free books to schools and prisons. In the last two years, Shaun Attwood has donated 15,000 books.

The Feather Thief


Kirk Wallace Johnson - 2018
    Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin's obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins--some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin's, Alfred Russel Wallace, who'd risked everything to gather them--and escaped into the darkness. Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.

Murdered (KindleSingle)


Paul Alexander - 2011
    What had once seemed unthinkable, had suddenly become a reality. Nels Rasmussen, the victim's father, had, some twenty years prior, pleaded with LAPD to take a look at Lazarus as a possible suspect. His daughter had said that Lazarus had been "stalking" her, but Rasmussen was summarily dismissed by police and told that he should "Stop watching so much television." After five years, he simply gave up.The story here begins on the night of February 24, 1986 and involves three people, certainly one of them innocent; the victim--Sherri Rae Rasmussen--was bludgeoned, bitten, beaten, and then shot to death in what was made to look like a botched robbery. Yet the only thing missing from the scene was a marriage certificate.In 2009, the Cold Case squad in the same building as Officer Lazarus re-opened the Rasmussen case and examined the DNA swabbing from the bite-marks on Rasmussen’s arm. They discovered that the saliva could only have come from a woman. Then, they started to investigate Lazarus based on Rasmussen’s suspicions on record in the file.This is a book that one wishes were fiction. It is written point-of-fact, with all of the details of the case laid out neatly before the reader in police procedural style. The reader becomes the jury. The most shocking part of the story is the identity of the killer.ABOUT THE AUTHORIn true crime, Paul Alexander is the bestselling author of the Kindle Singles Murdered, Accused and Homicidal. A leading journalist for many years, Alexander has published eight widely praised books—among them Rough Magic, a biography of Sylvia Plath; the bestseller Boulevard of Broken Dreams: The Life, Times, and Legend of James Dean; and Salinger: A Life—and over one hundred major articles for publications ranging from The New York Times to Rolling Stone.

The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth


Josh Levin - 2019
    The detective who checked it out soon discovered she was a welfare cheat who drove a Cadillac to collect ill-gotten government checks. And that was just the beginning: Taylor, it turned out, was also a kidnapper, and possibly a murderer. A desperately ill teacher, a combat-traumatized Marine, an elderly woman hungry for companionship; after Taylor came into their lives, all three ended up dead under suspicious circumstances. But nobody--not the journalists who touted her story, not the police, and not presidential candidate Ronald Reagan--seemed to care about anything but her welfare thievery.Growing up in the Jim Crow South, Taylor was made an outcast because of her color. As she rose to infamy, the press and politicians manipulated her image to demonize poor black women. Part social history, part true-crime investigation, Josh Levin's mesmerizing book, the product of six years of reporting and research, is a fascinating account of American racism and an expose of the "welfare queen" myth, one that fueled political debates that reverberate to this day. The Queen tells, for the first time, the fascinating story of what was done to Linda Taylor, what she did to others, and what was done in her name.

Excerpts from the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica


Various - 2016
    We've gathered many of Audible's most popular narrators to bring to life some of the most extraordinary words ever written. 21 words, in fact, carefully selected and arranged alphabetically as in their original source: the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. We created this enlightening journey from AUDIENCE to LITERATURE because you asked for it. You said you could listen to your favorite narrators read the phone book, bookcase assembly instructions, or a restaurant menu. With this production we've proven that a truly talented narrator can, in fact, take any work and make it extraordinary. Enjoy!The full list of narrators includes:Nick Podehl - AUDIENCECJ Critt - BLACKBALLKaleo Griffith - BLACKMAILKaty Kellgren - BLUNDERBUSS and LEGERDEMAINKevin Pariseau - CHAOSTom Stechschulte - CHAPERONSebastian York - CHEESECassandra Campbell - CHICVictor Bevine - COBEric Michael Summerer - DECOYJohn Lee - ELIXIRSophie Eastlake - ENTHUSIASMTherese Plummer - EPHEBEUM and FIDUCIARYZachary Webber - EPISTAXISPeter Ganim - GERBILLuke Daniels - IMAGINATIONEric Dove - IMITATIONScott Brick - JEALOUSYGregory Salinas - LITERATUREPublic Domain (P)2016 Audible Studios

Room on the Sea


André Aciman - 2022
    Catherine was reading a novel. So begins Room on the Sea, André Aciman's scorching and elegiac love-story about a middle-aged man and woman who meet in the bullpen of jury selection and spend a sultry summer’s week trespassing ever further into each other's hearts.What begins as a flirtation quickly evolves into something deeper, something Paul and Catherine must carry on in secret—and with the understanding that anything more than a casual crush is out of the question. But as the week draws to a close, the end of their rendezvous comes into focus, and Paul and Catherine are forced to decide whether to act on their feelings or leave the fantasy of what could have been to the annals of the past.By turns scintillating and philosophical, Room on the Sea is a compulsively listenable story of love, fate, and last chances.©2022 Andre Aciman (P)2022 Audible Originals, Inc.

The Trial of Lizzie Borden


Cara Robertson - 2019
    Reporters flocked to the scene. Well-known columnists took up conspicuous seats in the courtroom. The defendant was relentlessly scrutinized for signs of guilt or innocence. Everyone—rich and poor, suffragists and social conservatives, legal scholars and laypeople—had an opinion about Lizzie Borden’s guilt or innocence.The popular fascination with the Borden murders and its central, enigmatic character has endured for more than a hundred years, but the legend often outstrips the story. Based on transcripts of the Borden legal proceedings, contemporary newspaper articles, previously withheld lawyer's journals, unpublished local reports, and recently unearthed letters from Lizzie herself, The Trial of Lizzie Borden is a definitive account of the Borden murder case and offers a window into America in the Gilded Age, showcasing its most deeply held convictions and its most troubling social anxieties.

Son


Jack Olsen - 1983
    In March 1981, luck and inspired police work at last produced an arrest, and Spokane shuddered. The suspect was clean cut and conservative…and Gordon Coe’s son.For eighteen months, Jack Olsen researched the cases of Fred and Ruth Coe to try to learn not only what happened within that family, but how and why. He interviewed more than 150 people and built up a portrait not only of that extraordinary family, but of the mind of a psychopath. And searching the memories of the women in Fred Coe’s life, he unearthed a most horrifying question: What is it like to love and live with a man for years—and then discover he is a psychopathic criminal?

JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters


James W. Douglass - 2008
    Kennedy was assassinated and why the unmasking of this truth remains crucial for the future of our country and the world.

The Bigamist: The True Story of a Husband's Ultimate Betrayal


Mary Turner-Thomson - 2007
    The woman on the other end of the line told her that Will Jordan, Mary's husband and the father of her two younger children, had been married to her for fourteen years and they had five children together. The Bigamist is the shocking true story of how one man manipulated an intelligent, independent woman, conning her out of £200,000 and leaving her to bring up the children he claimed he could never have. It's a story we all think could never happen to us, but this shameless con man has been doing the same thing to various other women for at least 27 years, spinning a tangled web of lies and deceit to cover his tracks. How far would you go to help the man you love? How far would he go to deceive you? And what would you do when you found out it was all a lie?