One life changing moment of madness... Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty, Shari Lapena and Lisa Jewell It was supposed to be a fresh start. A move to a new town for me and my family. I'd been offered the perfect position, teaching English at the local high school but then I met sixth form student Nicky Stevens. Initially flattered by his attention, I let my guard down. But I had no idea of the monster I'd let into my life or just how far his obsession would go. Nothing could prepare me for the devastating consequences caused by my one moment of weakness. Praise for Gemma Rogers: 'Unputdownable. a nail-biting thriller that grips to the very last page.' Keri Beevis 'A beautifully written edge-of-your-seat thriller that had me guessing right until the end'Dreda Say Mitchell, 'A brilliant thriller from an exciting new voice. Stalker it had me on the edge of my seat' Kerry Barnes, 'An atmospheric, taut thriller which keeps you hooked from the first page' Jacqui Rose, 'A cracking read. Brilliantly written characters and a gripping plot. Highly recommended.' Caz Finlay 'A page-turning must-read. It will have you hooked from the first page until the last' Stephanie Harte 'An intense thriller - it's a must-read' Sam Michaels 'An incredible read that had me engrossed from the first page. A five-star read' Alex Kane 'A real page turner, full of sinister secrets'Casey Kelleher What people are saying about The Teacher:'An intense thriller - it's a must-read.' Sam Michaels 'An incredible read that had me engrossed from the first page. A five-star read.' Alex Kane 'Gemma Rogers has a talent for weaving mystery and suspense into Reckless that had me finishing the book in mere hours.' 'Brilliant thriller from a brilliant author.' 'It was fast paced scandalous read that kept me on my toes. My mouth was hanging open several times, going no way what is going to happen next.' 'Such a good book keeping me on the edge of my seat.' 'This is an intense and immersive story well-paced and believable.' 'A gritty and gripping tale of fatal obsession and forbidden attraction, Gemma Rogers' Reckless is one emotional rollercoaster ride readers won't forget in a hurry!'

In the early hours of an August morning a gunfight broke out in an Italian restaurant in Duisburg; in less than five minutes over seventy shots were fired into the bodies of six men. Both victims and assassins were members of the 'Ndrangheta crime organization; Calabria's Mafia had extended the savage tentacle of its influence outside Italy for the first time. For the men of the 'Ndrangheta, time is still measured in hour-glasses and honour may only be washed with blood. Petra Reski dispels the Hollywood romance surrounding the Mafia to reveal the huge and menacing force lurking everywhere - from street corner to parliament offices, construction site to corporate headquarters - and involved in everything from petty extortion to the disposal of nuclear waste. Reski's searing portrait of the criminals who have come to control not only Italy but vast swathes of Europe, is a journalistic tour de force.

This book critically examines the security-development nexus through an analysis of organised crime responses in post-conflict states. As the trend has evolved, the security-development nexus has received significant attention from policymakers as a new means to address security threats. Integrating the traditionally separate areas of security and development, the nexus has been promoted as a new strategy to achieve a comprehensive, people-centred approach. Despite the enthusiasm behind the security-development nexus, it has received significant criticism. This book investigates four tensions that influence the integration of security and development to understand why it has failed to live up to expectations. The book compares two case studies of internationally driven initiatives to address organised crime as part of post-conflict reconstruction in Sierra Leone and Bosnia. Examination of the tensions reveals that actors addressing organised crime have attempted to move away from a security approach, resulting in incipient integration between security and development, but barriers remain. Rather than discarding the nexus, this book explores its unfulfilled potential. This book will be of much interest to students of war and conflict studies, development studies, criminology, security studies and IR in general.

This book argues that it is witnesses who are the targets of terrorism and that the question of whose witnessing counts, and which stories are the most legitimate, is of vital importance for understanding the meanings and consequences of contemporary terrorism.

Innocence can be deadly... Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty, Shari Lapena and Lisa Jewell It was supposed to be a summer party for my friends like no other to celebrate our last year of high school. I'd planned everything to perfection but as the night got underway, I never could have predicted how it ended... Twenty years later, we are thrown back together when my 'partner' from that night is killed in a suspicious car accident. It turns out we are all being hunted. Someone is picking us off, one by one, for what we did that night. Someone knows our secret, and they won't let us forget it... Praise for Gemma Rogers: 'Unputdownable. a nail-biting thriller that grips to the very last page.' Keri Beevis 'A beautifully written edge-of-your-seat thriller that had me guessing right until the end'Dreda Say Mitchell, 'A brilliant thriller from an exciting new voice. Stalker it had me on the edge of my seat' Kerry Barnes , 'An atmospheric, taut thriller which keeps you hooked from the first page' Jacqui Rose, 'A cracking read. Brilliantly written characters and a gripping plot. Highly recommended.' Caz Finlay 'A page-turning must-read. It will have you hooked from the first page until the last' Stephanie Harte 'An intense thriller - it's a must-read' Sam Michaels 'An incredible read that had me engrossed from the first page. A five-star read' Alex Kane 'A real page turner, full of sinister secrets' Casey Kelleher What readers are saying about The Secret: 'An excellent novel, full of believable characters and an entertaining plot' 'Superbly written, very pacy and just the right length' 'A well written gritty thriller from Gemma Rogers that races along at a good speed and with a surprise ending this really is' 'Another 5 star winner from Gemma Rogers.' 'It had drama, suspense, friendships, sadness and a whole lot of mystery.' 'This book had me hooked from the outset' 'Twisting and turning with thrill after chilling thrill' 'Gave me massive feelings of nostalgia with the flashbacks to 1997 and genuinely struggled to put it down. Please read this book!' 'Storyline draws you right in and I couldn't stop reading. Needed to know how it ended but at the same time didn't want it to end.'

This Brief studies the important role that tattoos play in prison culture, and examines its unique manifestation among minority inmates. This work aims to provide a better understanding of prison group culture, particularly among social marginal groups, through the lens of Russian immigrants in Israeli prisons. Russian immigrants currently represent approximately 25% of the total Israeli prison population, and this book examines how tattoos show an important form of rebellion amongst this group. As tattoos are forbidden in some forms of Islam and Judaism, and the Israeli prison service confiscates over 200 homemade tattoo devices per year, this is a significant phenomenon both before and during incarceration. This work examines how despite the transition to Israel, the main social codes of Russian prisoners are still dominant and help segregate this group from the larger prison population. It provides a lens to understand Russian criminal activity in Israel, and in a larger context, the modes of social cohesion and criminal activity of organized crime groups operating in prison systems. This work will be of interest to researchers studying the organized crime and the criminal justice system, Russian organized crime in particular, as well as related studies of immigration, demography, and social cohesion.

"Queen of Thieves" is the gritty, fast-paced story of Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum, a poor Jewish woman who rose to the top of her profession in organized crime during the Gilded Age in New York City. During her more than twenty-five-year reign as the country's top receiver of stolen goods, she accumulated great wealth and power inconceivable for women engaged in business, legitimate or otherwise. The "New York Times" called Mandelbaum "the nucleus and center of the whole organization of crime in New York City."
Having emigrated from Germany in 1850, she began her climb to the top of the crime world as a peddler on the rough-and-tumble, crowded streets of the city. By 1880, she had amassed a fortune estimated at more than $1 million. Mandelbaum was known for running an orderly criminal enterprise. She enlisted the services of an extensive network of criminals of every ilk and bribed police officials, politicians, and judges. If someone wanted to move stolen goods, needed protection from the law, or sought money to finance a caper, Marm was the person to see.
In 1884, Mandelbaum escaped from the clutches of Pinkerton detectives, who were casing her house, and fled to Canada. Mandelbaum lived out the rest of her life in luxury on a small farm with her family and ill-got fortune. Hundreds of people turned out for her funeral. Dozens of people later reported to police that they had their pockets picked at the service.

Human trafficking is consistently featured on the global political agenda. This book examines the trafficking of adult female victims for sexual exploitation, and specifically the understanding of consent and its influence in the identification and treatment of trafficking victims. Jessica Elliott argues that when applied to situations of human trafficking, migration and sexual exploitation, the notion of consent presents problems which current international laws are unable to address. Establishing the presence of 'coercion' and a lack of consent can be highly problematic, particularly in situations of human trafficking and exploitative prostitution; activities which may be deemed inherently coercive and problematically clandestine. By examining legal definitions of human trafficking in international instruments and their domestic implementation in different countries, the book explores victimhood in the context of exploitative migration, and argues that no clear line can be drawn between those who have been smuggled, trafficked, or 'consensually trafficked' into a situation of exploitation. The book will be great use and interest to students and researchers of migration law, transnational criminal law, and gender studies.

The story of Irish-American racketeer Danny Greene and his war with the Mafia. Basis for the film Kill the Irishman starring Ray Stevenson, Vincent D'Onofrio, with Val Kilmer and Christopher Walken.

Refusing to cast gangs in solely criminal terms, Robert J. Dur?n, a former gang member turned scholar, recasts such groups as an adaptation to the racial oppression of colonization in the American Southwest. Developing a paradigm rooted in ethnographic research and almost two decades of direct experience with gangs, Dur?n completes the first-ever study to follow so many marginalized groups so intensely for so long, revealing their core characteristics, behavior, and activities within two unlikely American cities.

Dur?n spent five years in Denver, Colorado, and Ogden, Utah, conducting 145 interviews with gang members, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and other relevant individuals. From his research, he constructs a comparative outline of the emergence and criminalization of Latino youth groups, the ideals and worlds they create, and the reasons for their persistence. He also underscores the failures of violent gang suppression tactics, which have only further entrenched these groups within the barrio. Encouraging cultural activists and current and former gang members to pursue grassroots empowerment, Dur?n proposes new solutions to racial oppression that challenge and truly alter the conditions of gang life.

Lush Life: Constructing Organized Crime in the UK opens 'the box marked do not open, too difficult to deal with', in the words of one Assistant Chief Constable, to explore the contested notion of British organized crime. The first book to trace the history and policing of British organized crime, it addresses how the interlocking processes of de-industrialisation, globalisation and neo-liberalism have normalised activity that was previously the exclusive domain of professional criminals. With both historical and sociological analyses, informed by the author's long term connection to an ethnographic site called 'Dogtown', a composite of several overlapping neighbourhoods in East London, this book critically addresses cliches such as criminal underworlds and the notion of the criminal firm. It considers the precursors to British organized crime, as well as the careers of famous crime families such as the Krays and the Richardsons, alongside the emergence of specialised law enforcement institutions to deal with this newly discovered threat. It also focuses on the various ways in which violence functions within organised crime, the role of rumour in formulating order within crime networks, the social construction of organised crime, the development of the cosmopolitan criminal and the all-inclusive nature of the contemporary criminal community of practice. Permeating throughout is a discussion of the flexible nature of the criminal market, the constructed nature of the notion of organised crime, and the normalisation of criminality. Underpinned by rich, context-specific examples, case studies, stories, and other qualitative evidence based on ethnographic research and interviews, Lush Life follows on from the author's work on normal crime (Doing the Business), and professional crime (Bad Business).

This book examines community-based approaches to counter-terrorism through an analysis of the notions of community, partnership, engagement, gender and religion in order to shed new light on the potential of, and drawbacks to these approaches. Dr. Spalek stresses the need for policy makers and practitioners to reflect on the effectiveness of the initiatives that they are engaged with, particularly in relation to how community-targeted or community-focused they are.

You are born into it or marry in. Loyalty is absolute, bloodshed revered and you kill or go to your grave before betraying The Family. This code of omerta is how the 'Ndrangheta became the world's most powerful mafia. The Good Mothers is the story of the women who broke the silence. We live in their buildings, work in their companies, shop in their stores, eat in their restaurants and elect politicians they fund. Founded more than 150 years ago by shepherding families in the toe of Italy, the 'Ndrangheta is today the world's most powerful mafia, with a crushing presence in southern Italy, a market-moving size in global finance and a reach that extends to fifty countries around the world. And yet, remarkably, few of us have ever heard of it. The 'Ndrangheta's power rests on a code of silence, omerta, enforced by a claustrophobic family hierarchy and murderous misogyny. Men and boys rule. Girls are married off as teenagers in arranged clan alliances. Beatings are routine. A woman who is 'unfaithful' - even to a dead husband - can expect her sons, brothers or father to kill her to erase the 'family shame'. In 2009, when abused wife Lea Garofalo 'disappears' after giving evidence against her mafiosi husband, prosecutor Alessandra Cerreti realises the 'Ndrangheta's bigotry may be its great flaw. The key to bringing down this criminal empire is to free its women and allow them to speak out and testify. When Alessandra finds two collaborators inside Italy's biggest crime families, she must persuade them to cooperate, and save themselves and their children. The stakes could not be higher. Alessandra is fighting to save a nation. The mafiosi are fighting for their existence. The women are fighting for their lives. Not all will survive.