"Chicago Tribune" editor Bill O'Connell O'Connell explores one of the most heinous but least publicized crimes in Illinois history: the 1968 abduction, sexual assault, and murder of fourteen-year-old David Stukel by fourteen-year-old bullies Billy Rose Sprinkle and James Perruquet. O'Connell-David Stukel's Little League teammate-recalls the victim's idyllic childhood and takes readers into the minds of the murderers and inside the homes, hearts, and photo albums of the victim's family, whose grief is palpable a generation after the crime. His research includes parole interviews, inmate psychological reports and conversations with the families of the murderers and the family of the victim.

"Fourteen" is a masterfully crafted, thoroughly insightful account of the years leading up to, and the four decades since, the unconscionable and unprovoked slaying of an innocent ninety-five-pound high school freshman.

The unremitting horror of the consequences of violent crime has never been depicted with such relentless honesty and anger as in "The Victim's Song". Eric Kaminsky, a twenty-two-year-old music student was robbed, stabbed in the back, and then thrown on the tracks of a New York City subway, where he died. In this book, Professor Alice R. Kaminsky, Eric's mother, gives a powerful account of this senseless tragedy. She describes the continuing pain she suffers from the loss of her only child and exposes the inadequacies of our flawed criminal justice system in her discussion of the trial of his murderers. This is a shocking book because the author expresses her anger honestly and without offering any of the palliatives of the bereavement books. No one who reads "The Victim's Song" will ever forget the torment experienced by the victims of crime in our increasingly violent society. Nor will anyone who reads "The Victim's Song" ever forget Eric Kaminsky.

Using the Peruvian internal armed conflict as a case study, this book examines wartime rape and how it reproduces and reinforces existing hierarchies. Jelke Boesten argues that effective responses to sexual violence in wartime are conditional upon profound changes in legal frameworks and practices, institutions, and society at large.

Previously published as Becky, this is the heartbreaking story behind the murder of 16-year-old Bristol schoolgirl Becky Watts, a crime that shocked the nation and tore a family in two. A vulnerable and shy girl, Becky Watts was brutally murdered and dismembered by her own step-brother on 19 February 2015. As her father Darren discovered the horrific details of what happened to his darling girl, his world fell apart. Writing about the darkest hours, Darren uncovers what Becky's relationship with her step-brother Nathan, a child he had raised as his own son, was really like. He recalls the devastation of discovering the truth about the depravity with which Becky was torn from him in the safety of her own home. And he recounts the torment of the legal battle to see his step-son sentenced to life behind bars. Both heartfelt and haunting, searingly honest and unflinching, this is the ultimate story of a family tragedy.

With an introduction by Neil Gaiman Before television and radio, before penny paperbacks and mass literacy, people would gather on porches, on the steps outside their homes, and tell stories. The storytellers knew their craft and bewitched listeners would sit and listen long into the night as moths flitted around overhead. The Moth is a non-profit group that is trying to recapture this lost art, helping storytellers - old hands and novices alike - hone their stories before playing to packed crowds at sold-out live events. The very best of these stories are collected here: whether it's Bill Clinton's hell-raising press secretary or a leading geneticist with a family secret; a doctor whisked away by nuns to Mother Teresa's bedside or a film director saving her father's Chinatown store from money-grabbing developers; the Sultan of Brunei's concubine or a friend of Hemingway's who accidentally talks himself into a role as a substitute bullfighter, these eccentric, pitch-perfect stories - all, amazingly, true - range from the poignant to the downright hilarious.

'I knew dogs could make a difference to the children's lives. I knew it the moment I watched a little boy, exhausted by pain and sickness, stretch out his hand to touch my dog's paw, and then...he smiled.' Lyndsey Uglow has endured and overcome mental health challenges and much personal pain, including her young son's battle with Leukaemia. Lyndsey knows only too well the emotional rollercoaster experienced by parents supporting their children through critical illness, but she also knows just how much the company of dogs can alleviate just some of their worry and pain. The healing bond with dogs that helped her, she now shares with others - in the shape of a dynasty of exceptional Golden Retrievers, including the incredible Leo. Since 2012, Lyndsey has made it possible for therapy dogs to visit more than 10,000 children, many critically ill, bringing smiles of simple joy and a sense of normality to lives ruled by pain, sadness and uncertainty in paediatric intensive care, cancer wards and palliative care. Leo has also faced his own battles. After suffering a serious injury on a beach run, he was saved by a pioneering technique which restored him to full health for the sake of the children who were missing him so much. This is Lyndsey and Leo's story and how they have brought the extraordinary healing powers of dogs to others; while sharing the stories of just some of the thousands of children for whom a soft paw or wet nose has brought comfort, care, laughter and joy at the darkest of times.

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.

Shawna was overcome by the claustrophobia, the heat, the smoke, the fire, all just down the canyon and up the ravine. She was feeling the adrenaline, but also the terror of doing something for the first time. She knew how to run with a backpack; they had trained her physically. But that's not training for flames. That's not live fire. California's fire season gets hotter, longer, and more extreme every year - fire season is now year-round. Of the thousands of firefighters who battle California's blazes every year, roughly 30 percent of the on-the-ground wildland crews are inmates earning a dollar an hour. Approximately 200 of those firefighters are women serving on all-female crews. In Breathing Fire, Jaime Lowe expands on her revelatory work for The New York Times Magazine. She has spent years getting to know dozens of women who have participated in the fire camp program and spoken to captains, family and friends, correctional officers, and camp commanders. The result is a rare, illuminating look at how the fire camps actually operate - a story that encompasses California's underlying catastrophes of climate change, economic disparity, and historical injustice, but also draws on deeply personal histories, relationships, desires, frustrations, and the emotional and physical intensity of firefighting. Lowe's reporting is a groundbreaking investigation of the prison system, and an intimate portrayal of the women of California's Correctional Camps who put their lives on the line, while imprisoned, to save a state in peril.

Sarah Heckford, born a Victorian lady in 1839, defied convention. Despite disability and the confines of upper-class expectations, she broke all boundaries; first to volunteer at a cholera hospital; then to start a children’s hospital in London’s East End with her husband. Newly widowed, she left first for Italy and India, and then for South Africa.

Arriving at Durban in 1878, Sarah set out for the Transvaal. Here she became a governess and then a farmer; later she became a transport-rider, trading goods with hunters and miners in the Lowveld. She made a life for herself in Africa despite considerable drawbacks, all the while trying to find ways of bettering the lives of those around her.

Author Vivien Allen has brought this remarkable woman to life in a riveting biography.