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Books > Fiction > True stories
What happens when the President of the United States engages in
criminal activity? He runs for re-election. Donald Trump's campaign
chairman went to jail. So did his personal lawyer. His long-time
political consigliere was convicted of serious federal crimes, and
his National Security Advisor pleaded guilty to several more.
Multiple Russian spies were indicted in absentia. Career
intelligence agents and military officers were alarmed enough by
his actions as President that they alerted senior government
officials and ignited the impeachment process. Yet despite all
this, a years-long inquiry led by Robert Mueller, and the third
Presidential impeachment trial in American history, Donald Trump
survived to run for presidency again. Why? Jeffrey Toobin's highly
entertaining, definitive account of the Mueller investigation and
the impeachment of the President takes readers behind the scenes of
the epic legal and political struggle to call Trump to account for
his misdeeds. Toobin recounts the mind-boggling twists and turns in
the case - Trump's son met with a Russian operative promising
Kremlin support; Trump paid a porn star $130,000 to hush up an
affair; Rudy Giuliani and a pair of shady Ukrainian-American
businessmen got the Justice Department to look at Russian-created
conspiracy theories. Toobin shows how Trump's canny lawyers used
Mueller's famous integrity against him, and how Trump's bullying
and bluster cowed Republican legislators into ignoring the clear
evidence of the impeachment hearings. Based on dozens of interviews
with prosecutors in Mueller's office, Trump's legal team,
Congressional investigators, White House staffers, and several of
the key players, including some who are now in prison, True Crimes
and Misdemeanours is a revelatory narrative that makes sense of the
seemingly endless chaos of the Trump years. Filled with
never-before-reported details of the high-stakes legal battles and
political machinations, the book weaves a tale of a rogue President
guilty of historic misconduct, and how he got away with it.
'Many of the world's great leaders request to come to Mar-a-Lago in
Palm Beach. They like it. I like it. We're comfortable.' - Donald
Trump A bit too comfortable, perhaps. Donald Trump's opulent Palm
Beach club Mar-a-Lago has thrummed with scandal since the earliest
days of his presidency. Long known for its famous and wealthy
clientele, the resort's guest list soon started filling with
political operatives and power-seekers. Meanwhile, as Trump
re-branded Mar-a-Lago "the Winter White House" and began spending
weekends there, state business spilled out into full view of the
club's members, and vast sums of taxpayer money and political
donations began flowing into its coffers, and into the pockets of
the president. The Grifters' Club is a breakthrough account of the
corruption, intrigue, and absurdity that has been on display in the
place where the president is at his most relaxed. In these pages, a
team of prizewinning Miami Herald journalists reveal the activities
and motivations of the strange array of charlatans and tycoons who
populate its halls. Some peddle influence, some look to steal
government secrets, and some just want to soak up the feeling of
unfettered access to the world's most powerful leaders. With the
drama of an expose and the edgy humor of a Carl Hiaasen novel, The
Grifters' Club takes you behind the velvet ropes of this exclusive
club and into its bizarre world of extravagance and scandal. _____
An astonishing look inside the gilded gates of Mar-a-Lago, the
palatial resort where President Trump conducts government business
with little regard for ethics, security, or even the law. This
ground-breaking and shocking expose reads like a thriller. Perfect
for fans of Fire and Fury, Team of Vipers and Fear.
A #1 Wall Street Journal, Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington
Post bestseller. #1 New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen's
shocking and empowering true-crime story of three sisters
determined to survive their mother's house of horrors. After more
than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the
word mom, it claws like an eagle's talons, triggering memories that
have been their secret since childhood. Until now. For years,
behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington,
their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable
abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all,
Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far
less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn
into their mother's dark and perverse web, the sisters found the
strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that
culminated in multiple murders. Harrowing and heartrending, If You
Tell is a survivor's story of absolute evil-and the freedom and
justice that Nikki, Sami, and Tori risked their lives to fight for.
Sisters forever, victims no more, they found a light in the
darkness that made them the resilient women they are today-loving,
loved, and moving on.
The shocking first-hand account of one man's remarkable fight for
freedom; now an award-winning motion picture. 'Why had I not died
in my young years - before God had given me children to love and
live for? What unhappiness and suffering and sorrow it would have
prevented. I sighed for liberty; but the bondsman's chain was round
me, and could not be shaken off.' 1841: Solomon Northup is a
successful violinist when he is kidnapped and sold into slavery.
Taken from his family in New York State - with no hope of ever
seeing them again - and forced to work on the cotton plantations in
the Deep South, he spends the next twelve years in captivity until
his eventual escape in 1853. First published in 1853, this
extraordinary true story proved to be a powerful voice in the
debate over slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War. It is
a true-life testament of one man's courage and conviction in the
face of unfathomable injustice and brutality: its influence on the
course of American history cannot be overstated.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'The farewell calls from the
planes... the mounting terror of air traffic control... the mothers
who knew they were witnessing their loved ones perish... From an
author who's spent 5 years reconstructing its horror, never has the
story been told with such devastating, human force' Daily Mail This
is a 9/11 book like no other. Masterfully weaving together multiple
strands of the events in New York, at the Pentagon, and in
Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Fall and Rise is a mesmerising,
minute-by-minute account of that terrible day. In the days and
months after 9/11, Mitchell Zuckoff, then a reporter for the Boston
Globe, wrote about the attacks, the victims, and their families.
After further years of meticulous reporting, Zuckoff has filled
Fall and Rise with voices of the lost and the saved. The result is
an utterly gripping book, filled with intimate stories of people
most affected by the events of that sunny Tuesday in September: an
out-of-work actor stuck in an elevator in the North Tower of the
World Trade Center; the heroes aboard Flight 93 deciding to take
action; a veteran trapped in the inferno in the Pentagon; the fire
chief among the first on the scene in sleepy Shanksville; a team of
firefighters racing to save an injured woman and themselves; and
the men, women, and children flying across country to see loved
ones or for work who suddenly faced terrorists bent on murder. Fall
and Rise will open new avenues of understanding for everyone who
thinks they know the story of 9/11, bringing to life - and in some
cases, bringing back to life - the extraordinary ordinary people
who experienced the worst day in modern American history. Destined
to be a classic, Fall and Rise will move, shock, inspire, and fill
hearts with love and admiration for the human spirit as it triumphs
in the face of horrifying events.
Tilly hates her stepfather, Dave. He abuses her mother, but she
refuses to leave him. Frightened for her own safety, Tilly asks to
go into foster care and is placed with Cathy. Tilly arrives with a
graze on her cheek and Cathy becomes increasingly concerned by
Dave's behaviour, especially when she learns he has been showering
Tilly with gifts. While she's busy looking after Tilly and trying
to keep her safe, Cathy is also worried about her own daughter,
Lucy. She has a very difficult decision to make that will affect
the rest of her life, and Cathy hopes she makes the right choice.
Perfect for fans of Maggie Hartley, Lisa Stone and Ann Cusack!
'Both inspiring and disturbing, Sex Cult Nun unravels Jones'
complicated upbringing, the trauma she endured as a result and her
eventual path to liberation.' TIME 'A moving story about family,
courage, religious oppression, and more, and readers will have
their heads spinning.' SHONDALAND 'Her gripping memoir-like
Educated-takes you inside a disturbing childhood and leaves you
marvelling at the resilience of the human spirit' PEOPLE MAGAZINE
Faith Jones was raised to be part of an elite army preparing for
the End Times. Isolated on a farm in Macau, she practised devotions
and read letters of prophecy written by her grandfather, the leader
of the now infamous cult, The Children of God. A direct decedent of
the founding family, Faith featured in international media coverage
- she was celebrated as extraordinary and then published doubly as
a sharp reminder that she was not. With indomitable grit, Faith
created a world of her own, pilfering books and educating herself
in secret. At the age of 23, she escaped, abandoning her history,
her inheritance and her legacy. While her childhood friends
succumbed to addiction, suicide and prostitution, Faith fought her
way into Georgetown University and went on to establish a
successful career in law. Sex Cult Nun is an enthralling
coming-of-age story that gives fascinating insight into the closed
and complex world of extreme belief. Exploring the issues of
psychological and physical control, Faith draws on her hard-won
insight to interrogate the binaries of good and evil, and shed
light on the insidiousness of oppression. At its heart, this
extraordinary story is a stark warning about the consequences of
surrendering our rights and responsibilities.
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.
On May 24, 1977, Trudy Resnick Farber was abducted from her home by
a masked, armed intruder, taken to a remote wooded mountainside and
buried alive! A million dollar ransom demand was made for her
release. The Day the Catskills Cried is the complete and true story
concerning a horrific crime that shook the Catskill region of New
York.
Hollywood Confidential is the first truly in-depth look at the
sexy, humorous, violent, and tragic history of the mob in Hollywood
from the 1920s, when Joe Kennedy decided to buy a motion picture
company, to the 1980s when the last vestiges of mob influence were
revealed through investigations of former Screen Actors Guild
President Ronald Reagan and his union backers. The revelations
continue into the 1980s when the major studios were no longer
important, the independents were on the rise, and it was no longer
possible to buy, bribe, or blackmail in a meaningful way. There
were deals and bad guys, but the mob as it existed was finished in
Hollywood.
'If deaths are not investigated, then the authorities cannot be
held to account and democracy is threatened. And if deaths are not
investigated, we are not a society that values human life.'
Inspired from a young age to help the marginalised and voiceless,
Leslie Thomas KC has dedicated his career to fighting for the
underdog and holding the State to account. This intimate and
personal record of some of the most significant, controversial and
disturbing legal cases of the last fifty years lays bare the very
heart of the law enforcement and judicial process. It's an
unforgettable account of an idealistic and outspoken lawyer's
coming of age as a Black man in London, and a powerful portrait of
the lives of those he has fought for. From the Grenfell Tower
Inquiry, to the deaths of Christi and Bobby Shepherd by carbon
monoxide poisoning, the Birmingham Pub Bombings and the police
shooting of Mark Duggan, Do Right and Fear No One present a
blistering argument for a level playing field in the pursuit of
justice.
THE FINAL WORD FROM THE LAST KING OF GANGLAND WITH A FOREWORD BY
MARTINA COLE 'We couldn't, we wouldn't, let anyone take a liberty.
That was never an option at that time.' Eddie Richardson is the
last brand-name gangster. Say the name and the world of violent
criminality grabs you by the throat. The Richardson brothers, Eddie
and Charlie, and their infamous 'Torture Gang', made money while
their rivals Ronnie and Reggie Kray made fatal mischief. They
fought each other, but now, in 2018, Eddie Richardson says: 'They
tell me blood is thicker than water, but with Charlie it wasn't so.
He was evil.' With his brother dead, Eddie Richardson feels free to
detail the story of a vicious family feud that provoked extravagant
acrimony. No Handcuffs unravels the mysteries of decades of crime
and political incident. The story of a turbulent era, it rivals the
most imaginative fiction in its portrayal of gangland life with all
its chanciness and rawness and careless disregard for any obstacle
on the way to its target, the big money. In an inspired
collaboration with bestselling author Douglas Thompson, the mature
Eddie Richardson is given a voice to reflect on his journey from
the scrapyards of South London to the glitz and glamour of the West
End nightclubs, to the flesh and tease of Soho, down Downing Street
and through the door of Number 10 to the perils of espionage and
international intrigue, and his elevation to demigod status in
hard-men territory - and finally as a high-security inmate at Her
Majesty's pleasure, but with a personal fridge kept well stocked
with gourmet food. No Handcuffs resonates today for, if anything,
greed and corruption are more perverse, more rampant. As Eddie
Richardson points out: 'We wrote the handbook for them.'
The Dartford Crossing: a vital transport hub connecting Kent and
Essex, the busiest river crossing in Europe, and the site of some
of the most vicious organised crime today... For the last decade,
there has been a intense turf war in the south-east of England
between two sets of criminal gangs: On one side, there's the
'Establishment' - the old-school firms that have operated for
decades and weaved their way into all areas of their communities.
On the other, 'The New Kids on the Bloc' - mainly Eastern European
gangs who have muscled in, boasting they'll crush anyone in their
way and dominate the British underworld. The Dartford Crossing, due
to its location between London and the ports of the south-east, has
become the epicentre of these battles. Since Brexit began, the war
has become even bloodier as both gangs try to claim new territory
before the borders close. In an already terrifying and volatile
world of drug smuggling, people trafficking, prostitution and money
laundering, all rules are out and the body count is rising... With
research and interviews from both sides conducted by one of true
crime's most established names, The Crossing is a ground-breaking
and fascinating look inside the UK's newest crime phenomenon.
A haunting ode to those who paid the ultimate price-through the
prism of the Maoist insurgency, Ashutosh Bhardwaj meditates on
larger questions of violence and betrayal, love and obsession, and
what it means to live with and write about death. From 2011 to
2015, Ashutosh lived in the Red Corridor in India wherein the
Ultra-Left Naxalites, taking inspiration from the Russian
revolution and Mao's tactics, work to overthrow the Indian
government by the barrel of the gun. He made several trips
thereafter reporting on the insurgents, on police and governmental
atrocities, and on the lives caught in the crossfire. Ashutosh
chronicles his experiences and bears witness to the lives and
deaths of the unforgettable men and women he meets from both sides
of the struggle, bringing home the human cost of conflict with
astonishing power. Narrated in multiple voices, the book is a
creative biography of the region, Dandakaranya, that combines the
rigour of journalism, the intimacy of a diary, the musings of a
travelogue, and the craft of a novel. The Death Script is one of
the most significant works of non-fiction to be published in recent
times, bringing often overlooked perspectives and events to light
with empathy. Praised by India's topmost scholars and critics, the
book has already won various awards.
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