A three-year-old boy dies, having apparently fallen while trying to reach a bag of sugar on a high shelf. His grandmother stands accused of second-degree murder. Psychologist Susan Nordin Vinocour agrees to evaluate the defendant, to determine whether the impoverished and mentally ill woman is competent to stand trial. Vinocour soon finds herself pulled headlong into a series of difficult questions, beginning with: was the defendant legally insane on the night in question? As she wades deeper into the story, Vinocour traces the legal definition of insanity back nearly two hundred years, when our understanding of the human mind was in its infancy. "Competency" and "insanity", she explains, are creatures of legal definition, not psychiatric reality, and in criminal law, "insanity" has become a luxury of the rich and white. With passion, clarity, and heart, Vinocour examines the troubling intersection of mental health issues and the law.

A TIME TO BETRAY
This exhilarating, award-winning memoir of a secret double life reveals the heart-wrenching story of a man who spied for the American government in the ranks of the notorious Revolutionary Guards of Iran, risking everything by betraying his homeland in order to save it.
Reza Kahlili grew up in Tehran surrounded by his close-knit family and friends. But the enlightened Iran of his youth vanished forever, as Reza discovered upon returning home from studying computer science in the United States, when the revolution of 1979 ushered in Ayatollah Khomeini's dark age of religious fundamentalism. Clinging to the hope of a Persian Renaissance, Reza joined the Ayatollah's elite Revolutionary Guards. As Khomeini's tyrannies unfolded, as fellow countrymen turned on each other, and after the deeply personal horrors he witnessed firsthand inside Evin Prison, a shattered and disillusioned Reza returned to America to dangerously become "Wally," a spy for the CIA.
In "A Time to Betray," Reza not only relates his razor's-edge, undercover existence from moment to heart-pounding moment as he supplies vital information from the Iran-Iraq War, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, the Iran-Contra affair, and more; he also documents a chain of incredible events that culminates in a nation's fight for freedom that continues to this very day, making this a timely and vital perspective on the future of Iran and the fate of the world.

Bestselling true-crime author M. William Phelps, star of the new investigative television series "Dark Minds," takes readers to his own backyard in these eight bloodcurdling murder cases. Think New England is all bucolic landscapes and Robert Frost poems? Think again. In Murder, New England, Phelps explores different motives, themes, and community reactions to horrific crimes: ** Murder by Blood: The Strange Death of Rebecca Cornwell (1673, Narragansset Bay, RI). A 73-year-old widow burned to death in front of her bedroom fireplace...** William Beadle: Husband, Father, Murderer (1782, Wethersfield, CT). A man murders his wife and kids before taking his own life... ** The Angry Man: Murder in Manchester (1821, Manchester, NH). A poor widow killed in her home by a "ruffian" looking for food and drink...** Better Off in Heaven: John Kemmler Kills His Three Children (1879, Holyoke, MA). After losing his mill job, a man kills his daughters because he fears they will become prostitutes... ** Birth of the "Big Seven": Gaspare Messina's Mafioso (1917, Boston). An ol' fashioned Mafia murder tale...** Electronic Kill Machine: "Forensic Files" Murder (2001, Somerville, MA). Teenage slackers, the show "Forensic Files," and the murder of a grandmother blamed on TV, youth, drugs, sex, money, and rock-n-roll...** Sings of Life (2006, Lanesborough, MA). A woman employs the help of her cocaine-snorting daughter and Goth son to help her get rid of their step-father.** Sesame Street Murder: Death on Big Bird's Estate (2008, Woodstock, CT). A young woman out for a jog murdered by the groundskeeper of an estate owned by the puppeteer who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. [Page Two of spread] A chilling scene unfolds on the Woodstock, Connecticut, estate of the Sesame Street puppeteer who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch: Near the end of the access road was a picnic area with a large pagoda-like structure topped by an A-framed roof. Two paddle boats were stored under the ceiling of the open-air building. The pagoda had that sacred, spiritual look one would expect of a place to relax and meditate. Here was a haven separated from the main living space where one could retreat and disconnect from the world. What upset the serenity of the scene was the trail of blood. It lead from the roadway directly to the pagoda-and yet stopped in the center of the ground under the ceiling. The paddle boats, investigators noticed, had blood spatter and smudge marks on them. But what did it mean that the trail of blood just stopped? As they continued to search, troopers looked above them and spied a set of pull-down stairs. There was a storage area or attic within the pagoda's A-frame. The blood trail had stopped directly beneath the pull-down stairs.

After barely making it through Rutgers Law School, George Baxter practiced law from his 1975 Oldsmobile, bouncing from court to court taking per diem work from any lawyer who would give it to him. Then he met Bill Snyder who desperately needed a lawyer because he'd been infected with AIDS from a transfusion he received during heart surgery. Racing against time and poorly financed, George began a six-year legal battle against the billion-dollar-a-year blood industry that infected his client- as well as 29,000 other people - with AIDS. EVERY LAST DROP is written in the first person as the plaintiff's lawyer in the landmark trial Snyder v. American Association of Blood Banks. The trial exposed how the United States blood industry disseminated false information, hyjacked the FDA, and conspired to delay AIDS testing to save money, which resulted in the most devastating public health disaster in U.S. history. George's personal struggle surfaces throughout this narrative, alongside the stories of patients who suffered from AIDS but fought to stay alive for their exhausting trials. The case fueled a congressional investigation into dangerous blood industry practices and Federal Food And Drug Administration conflicts of interest that allowed this to happen. EVERY LAST DROP has a David and Goliath paradigm that centers on the universal themes of persistence, friendship, and the importance of trust over money, especially in the wake of a disaster. Dr. Donald P. Francis, formerly with the Centers for Disease Control AIDS Task Force and Dr. Marcus Conant, two of the country's leading Public health and AIDS experts, have written the introductions.

In the late 1970s and early '80s, a cadre of freewheeling, Southern pot smugglers lived at the crossroads of "Miami Vice" and a Jimmy Buffett song. These irrepressible adventurers unloaded nearly a billion dollars worth of marijuana and hashish through the eastern seaboard's marshes. Then came their undoing: Operation Jackpot, one of the largest drug investigations ever and an opening volley in Ronald Reagan's War on Drugs. In "Jackpot," author Jason Ryan takes us back to the heady days before drug smuggling was synonymous with deadly gunplay. During this golden age of marijuana trafficking, the country's most prominent kingpins were a group of wayward and fun-loving Southern gentlemen who forsook college educations to sail drug-laden luxury sailboats across the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the Caribbean. Les Riley, Barry Foy, and their comrades eschewed violence as much as they loved pleasure, and it was greed, lust, and disaster at sea that ultimately caught up with them, along with the law. In a cat-and-mouse game played out in exotic locations across the globe, the smugglers sailed through hurricanes, broke out of jail and survived encounters with armed militants in Colombia, Grenada and Lebanon. Based on years of research and interviews with imprisoned and recently released smugglers and the law enforcement agents who tracked them down, "Jackpot" is sure to become a classic story from America's controversial Drug Wars. "The adventures, the long-gone economy, and the sting that ultimately brought them down and changed US drug policy are meticulously documented and lucidly spun.... Part "New Yorker" feature-part Jimmy Buffet song. . . . The result is adventuresome, lavish, informative fun." --"GQ" " A] rollicking story, Ryan manages to pack in one amusing tale after another.... "Jackpot" is a rip-roaring good read." --"Charleston"" City"" Paper" "High times on the high seas: Investigative reporter Ryan recounts the glory days of dope smuggling and their terrible denouement.... A well-told tale of true crime that provides a few good arguments for why it should not be a crime at all."" --Kirkus Reviews """ "Reads like an international thriller. . . . chock-a-block with hilarious and hair-raising anecdotes of fast times." --"New York"" Journal of Books" " A] thoroughly researched account of Operation Jackpot, the drug investigation that ended the reign of South Carolina's 'gentlemen smugglers, '.... Ryan recreates the era with a vivid, sun-drenched intensity." --"Publishers Weekly" ""

In February 2021, Joe Biden released the CIA report that concluded the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia 'was responsible' for the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi secret service lured him into the Saudi diplomatic mission in Istanbul on 2 October 2018, dismembered him, and packed him into five suitcases. Crime writer Owen Wilson has forensically gathered all the known facts about the slaughter, what we know happened exactly, and what prompted the most demonic conspiracy of the twenty-first century. Chilling to the core and informative about Middle Eastern politics.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A COP AND KEVIN MAHER? KEVIN DOESN'T HAVE A BADGE. AND HE DOESN'T PLAY BY THE RULES.
"Cop Without a Badge" tracks confidential informant Kevin Maher as he helps the NYPD, the FBI, and many other law enforcement agencies solve cases that range from robbery to extortion to homicide. In the process, Kevin becomes the highest paid CI the DEA ever had.
But Kevin's motives are more complicated than simply money. Having been arrested for Grand Theft Auto at the age of sixteen, his felony conviction prevents him from being what he always wanted to be: a police officer. So now he's out to prove to himself he truly is what he could've been. A cop. Even without a badge.

Amidst the turbulence and gaiety existing in American society during the last decade of the 20th century, the paths of two young men and a young woman merge. Each is inexorably drawn to a midnight rendezvous on a lonely road in northern Kentucky, and ghastly and fatal consequences result.

THE TRUE STORY OF A YOUNG METH DEALER WHO GREW UP AND BECAME A MERCENARY DEA INFORMANT. You will be taken into the underworld drug business dominated by the California Hells Angels. Joe Clark graduates from high-school wondering where his path to adulthood will take him. He sees his peers driving expensive cars with expensive women sitting next to them. He is envious and wonders why he cannot be a part of the life that he sees. A life of money, respect, beautiful women and expensive homes. He makes a decision that will affect his future. He soon has what his peers have.....Suddenly the DEA is in his life.

In November of 1982, Katherine Ann Longo's life changed forever. Her daughter disappeared. It was a mother's worst nightmare. When the authorities failed to solve the case, Kathy didn't take "we don't know" for an answer. She began her own investigation. In her opinion, she gathered strong supporting evidence that pointed to a viable suspect for the police. But even with what Kathy considered to be proof, the authorities refused to cooperate. The person she deemed responsible for her daughter's disappearance went unquestioned. Even after she supplied them with photographic evidence, she couldn't get anyone to listen to her. What she was forced to endure in the course of her own personal investigation is chilling. Kathy was jailed, fired, and threatened. She was faced with sexual blackmail by those in authority, just for trying to get them to do their jobs. Hers was a terrifying descent into a world of deceit, pornography, child trafficking, and suicide. And for her efforts, she received a trip negotiated by the FBI into a state penitentiary. Her family was threatened, her friends were harassed, and a newscaster actually lost his job for airing her story on TV. Police officials didn't appreciate the bad publicity they received and actively tried to discredit Kathy. But throughout this entire nightmarish event, the residents of Tampa, Florida, assisted Kathy in every possible way imaginable. This book is her thank-you to those people who didn't give up on her-or Jennifer.

NOW IN PAPERBACK

""A Peculiar Tribe of People" is the sort of true crime that has wings... This is one of those stories that, in many ways, truly is stranger than fiction. I simply could not put it down." --"January magazine, "naming" A Peculiar Tribe "one of the twelve best non-fiction books of 2010 "Rick Hutto's book--a fascinating tale of murder and deception--provides a sobering glimpse into the prejudices and corruption of pre-Civil Rights Georgia."--President Jimmy Carter "A southern grotesque that comes complete with stately mansions, murder most vile, forbidden sex, a pot-boiling trial, and a denouement worthy of a Greek tragedy. . . . But wait, there's more After being acquitted of murder, but convicted of sodomy and somehow finding another wife (18 years his senior), Burge stumbled into an ending that even Sophocles wouldn't wish on his worst enemy." --"Atlanta"" Journal-Constitution""" "The 1960 murder of the wife of a Macon, Georgia, slumlord eager to climb the social ladder propels Hutto's real-life Southern gothic tale. . . . T]he story and its eccentric cast make this solid book worth the read." --"Publishers Weekly" "A stunning glimpse into a world lost to the pages of history. With characters so deceptive, it takes a sleuth to identify pure evil. Hutto's book is a race to the finish "--Nancy Grace "A rich, insightful narrative with people straight out of a Flannery O'Conner novel, Richard Jay Hutto's "A Peculiar Tribe of People" is both compelling and brilliantly executed." --M. William Phelps, award-winning author of fifteen books, including "The Devil's Rooming House"