A New York Times Book of the Year, 2018 A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICK A dazzling love letter to a beloved institution - our libraries. After moving to Los Angeles, Susan Orlean became fascinated by a mysterious local crime that has gone unsolved since it was carried out on the morning of 29 April 1986: who set fire to the Los Angeles Public Library, ultimately destroying more than 400,000 books, and perhaps even more perplexing, why? With her characteristic humour, insight and compassion, Orlean uses this terrible event as a lens through which to tell the story of all libraries - their history, their meaning and their uncertain future as they adapt and redefine themselves in a digital world. Filled with heart, passion and extraordinary characters, The Library Book discusses the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives.

Could the courts really order the death of your innocent baby? Was there an illegal immigrant who couldn't be deported because he had a pet cat? Are unelected judges truly enemies of the people?

Most of us think the law is only relevant to criminals, if we even think of it at all. But the law touches every area of our lives: from intimate family matters to the biggest issues in our society.

Our unfamiliarity is dangerous because it makes us vulnerable to media spin, political lies and the kind of misinformation that frequently comes from loud-mouthed amateurs and those with vested interests. This 'fake law' allows the powerful and the ignorant to corrupt justice without our knowledge – worse, we risk letting them make us complicit.

Thankfully, the Secret Barrister is back to reveal the stupidity, malice and incompetence behind many of the biggest legal stories of recent years. In Fake Law, the Secret Barrister debunks the lies and builds a defence against the abuse of our law, our rights and our democracy that is as entertaining as it is vital.

With first-hand research among gang members, 'Young Guns' chronicles the new generation of violent gangstas in towns and cities around the UK. Steve Hackman is a reformed drug dealer who met many gang members in jail. He has since exchanged a pair of scales and a sealer bag for a pad and a pen and he is currently working on a number of true crime titles. Young Guns is his first book.

A definitive history of the Loomis Gang who terrorized central New York in the 1800's. Well-educated and from aristocratic New England families, George and Rhoda Loomis raised their children to be outlaws. Robbery, horse thieving, bribery, arson, counterfeiting, kidnapping, rape and murder-the Loomis Gang did it all until they were brought down by Constable Jim Filkins and United States Senator Roscoe Conkling.

When you think of serial killers throughout history, the names that come to mind are ones like Jack the Ripper and Ted Bundy. But what about Tillie Klimek, Moulay Hassan, Kate Bender? The narrative we're comfortable with is the one where women are the victims of violent crime, not the perpetrators. In fact, serial killers are thought to be so universally, overwhelmingly male that in 1998, FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood infamously declared in a homicide conference, 'There are no female serial killers'. Lady Killers, based on the popular online series that appeared on Jezebel and The Hairpin, disputes that claim and offers fourteen gruesome examples as evidence. Though largely forgotten by history, female serial killers such as Erzsebet Bathory, Nannie Doss, Mary Ann Cotton, and Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova rival their male counterparts in cunning, cruelty, and appetite for destruction. Each chapter explores the crimes and history of a different subject, and then proceeds to unpack her legacy and her portrayal in the media, as well as the stereotypes and sexist cliches that inevitably surround her. The first book to examine female serial killers through a feminist lens with a witty and dryly humorous tone, Lady Killers dismisses easy explanations (she was hormonal, she did it for love, a man made her do it) and tired tropes (she was a femme fatale, a black widow, a witch), delving into the complex reality of female aggression and predation. Featuring 14 illustrations from Dame Darcy, Lady Killers is a bloodcurdling, insightful, and irresistible journey into the heart of darkness.

Few women seek the profession of law enforcement and even less stay until retirement. In Crossing the Line, the eighth woman ever to retire from the Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia offers an in-depth glimpse into her life as a female police officer. When Connie Novak was hired by the Fairfax County Police in 1979, there were 700 sworn officers, of which just thirty were women. As Novak chronicles the good and the evil, the lighthearted and the insane, the humorous and the sad, she allows others to see what really goes on behind the yellow police tape. From boot camp where she was clobbered with a right hook and learned how to shoot a handgun and shotgun, to the bulletproof vest that made her look like Dolly Parton, to the gun belt that bruised her hips on a regular basis, Novak tells a fascinating story of how she balanced a shift-based career where personal sacrifice is expected with the demands of motherhood where little people depended on her for everything. Crossing the Line offers a compelling look into an honorable profession where officers must be lifesavers, marriage counselors, judges, and parents-all while keeping their emotions in check. This is real life.

DESCRIPTION: Elmore Leonard meets Franz Kafka in the wild, improbably true story of the legendary outlaw of Budapest. Attila Ambrus was a gentleman thief, a sort of Cary Grant--if only Grant came from Transylvania, was a terrible professional hockey goalkeeper, and preferred women in leopard-skin hot pants. During the 1990s, while playing for the biggest hockey team in Budapest, Ambrus took up bank robbery to make ends meet. Arrayed against him was perhaps the most incompetent team of crime investigators the Eastern Bloc had ever seen: a robbery chief who had learned how to be a detective by watching dubbed Columbo episodes; a forensics man who wore top hat and tails on the job; and a driver so inept he was known only by a Hungarian word that translates to Mound of Ass-Head. BALLAD OF THE WHISKEY ROBBER is the completely bizarre and hysterical story of the crime spree that made a nobody into a somebody, and told a forlorn nation that sometimes the brightest stars come from the blackest holes. Like The Professor and the Madman and The Orchid Thief, Julian Rubinsteins bizarre crime story is so odd and so wicked that it is completely irresistible.

As World War II ended, dancing broke out in the streets of victorious capitals. But in Washington and Moscow, menacing ultimatums soon replaced declarations of common purpose. The music stopped, the Grand Alliance crumbled, and the Soviet Union and the United States squared off against one another. The victor in this war would be determined by the outcome of a series of geo-strategic battles. Which side would capture the Persian Gulfs oilfield's, and who would seize the Congolese uranium essential for the manufacture of atomic bombs? And whose air and naval bases would dominate the globe's vital traffic lanes from the Black Sea Straits to the Pacific Islands? Three British diplomats, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, and Guy Burgess, did everything in their power to see to it that the Soviet Union prevailed in these clashes. The Cambridge Spies is the first book to detail their behind-the-scenes effort to sabotage America's national security apparatus during the crucial period between 1945 and 1951 when each, at various times, served at the British embassy in Washington. The book is the result of many years of digging through the State Department and Foreign Office records overlooked by previous scholars and undiscovered by government officials responsible for "purging" such files. For the first time in history the reader can follow the Soviet spies as they work behind enemy lines to sabotage the machinery of Western foreign policy. It is also the first book written by an American on these fabled British spies, and the first to chronicle their most effective period as allied diplomats and enemy agents. The Cambridge Spies reveals the story Washington managed to cover up for forty years. Telling it at a time the work is beginning to relive the fiftieth anniversary of many of the events described in these pages will only add to its explosive impact, and spark new historical debates on issues of abiding interest and contemporary concern.

The real story of the shocking Jeffrey Dahmer murders, as told by the Milwaukee Journal reporter who broke the story--from the dramatic scene when police first entered Dahmer's apartment to the lasting repercussions of the case today. One night in July 1991, two policemen saw a man running handcuffed from the apartment of Jeffrey Dahmer. Investigating, they made a gruesome discovery: three human skulls in Dahmer's refrigerator and the body parts of at least 11 more people scattered throughout the apartment. Shortly after, Milwaukee Journal reporter Anne E. Schwartz received a tip that would change her life. Schwartz, who broke the story and had exclusive access to the principals involved, details the complete, inside story of Dahmer's dark life, the case, and its aftermath: the horrific crime scene and the shocking story that unfolded; the forensics; the riveting trial; and Dahmer's murder in prison. With approximately 12 images.

Modern Day Slavery: Human Trafficking Revealed brings to light the reality of human trafficking in today's world. There are currently 600,000 to 800,000 persons being trafficked each year. The United States government estimates that human trafficking is close to tying with the second most common industry, arms dealing, which is just second to drug trafficking. Criminals are making billions of dollars each year on the blood, sweat, and tears of trafficking victims. Modern Day Slavery: Human Trafficking Revealed discusses the various laws, agencies, countries, and protocols dealing with human trafficking. Case studies have been included in this book, along with pertinent news items, and the latest information available from our government. Victims of human trafficking are enslaved, subjected to limited movement, isolation, or had their documents confiscated. Children are used for labor in sweatshops, migrant farming, construction, factories, fisheries, panhandling, janitorial jobs, hotel or tourist industries, restaurant services, domestic servitude, child camel jockeys, child soldiers, and for child sex tourism. Children who are victimized by human traffickers are often mistaken for prostitutes, runaways, migrant farm workers, or domestic servants. It can be difficult to pick up on the subtle signals, however, if you look closely and ask the right questions, you may uncover children who are being exploited. Children who are exploited for labor are usually hungry or malnourished to the extent that they are poorly developed and may never reach their full height or development. Children who are forced into the commercial sex trade may show signs of having sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, kidney problems, and urinary tract infections.

It began with a frantic 911 call from a woman in a dusty Arizona border town. A gang claiming to be affiliated with the Border Patrol had shot her husband and daughter. It was initially assumed that the murders were products of border drug wars ravaging the Southwest until the leader of one of the more prominent offshoots of the Minutemen movement was arrested for plotting the home invasion as part of a scheme to finance a violent antigovernment border militia. And Hell Followed With Her: Crossing to the Dark Side of the American Border is award-winning journalist David Neiwert's riveting account of the life and death of America's Minutemen- and the terrifying story and psychology of movement leader Shawna Forde. A compulsive and brilliant portrait of cold-blooded killers and true believers, And Hell Followed With Her is at once a horrifying crime story and a frontline report on America's nativist foot soldiers.

Ralph Daugherty is a computer programmer who was drawn to the Chandra Levy case based on coverage of the critical clues to her disappearance found on Chandra's computer. He has posted over 7,000 comments as rd on Chandra boards on the Internet and has set up his own board dedicated to Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, and missing women at www.justiceforchandra.com.

He has now pulled together the reported facts with his analysis and questions, honed by discussions with hundreds of other posters since Chandra's disappearance. This complex mystery is a compelling story, and "Murder On A Horse Trail" tries to do justice to that story.

The New York Times bestselling True Crime Files series continues with this haunting collection of the dangers lurking among those we trust the most-from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Stranger Beside Me. Doomed relationships and deadly betrayals are at the heart of this unputdownable collection of true cases from the personal files of Ann Rule, "America's best true-crime writer" (Kirkus Reviews). First is one of the most tragic unsolved crimes of the last twenty years: the disappearance of Susan Powell and the murder of her two young sons. With in-depth research and clear-eyed compassion, Rule leaves no stone unturned as she searches for the truth in this shocking story. Rule also chronicles the strange tale of a Coronado, California mansion that was the site of two horrifying deaths only days apart: a billionaire's son's plunge from a balcony and his girlfriend's hanging. Although the cases are quickly closed, baffling questions remain. In these and seven other riveting cases, Ann Rule exposes the twisted truth behind the facades of Fatal Friends, Deadly Neighbors.