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Books > Fiction > True stories
'John Douglas is the FBI's pioneer and master of investigative
profiling' Patricia Cornwell GET INSIDE THE MINDS OF PSYCHOPATHS
WITH THE GODFATHER OF CRIMINAL PROFILING In The Killer Across the
Table, legendary FBI criminal profiler and number one bestselling
author John Douglas delves deep into the lives and crimes of four
complex predatory killers, offering never-before-revealed details
about his profiling process and divulging the strategies used to
crack some of his most challenging cases. In this riveting work of
true crime, Douglas spotlights four very different criminals he's
confronted over the course of his career, and explains how they
helped him to put together the puzzle of how psychopaths and
predators think. Taking us inside the interrogation room and
demonstrating the unique techniques he uses to understand the
workings of the most terrifying and incomprehensible minds, The
Killer Across the Table is an unputdownable journey into the
darkest reaches of criminal profiling and behavioural science from
a man who knows serial killers better than anyone else. As Douglas
says: 'If you want to understand the artist, look at his art.' If
you want to understand what makes a murderer, start here.
MONEY, MURDER, AND MACHIAVELLIAN MAYHEM ... CONTAINS A NEW EPILOGUE
Mafia Prince is the first person account of one of the most brutal
eras in Mafia history, Little Nicky" Scarfo's reign as boss of the
Philadelphia family in the 1980s,written by Scarfo's underboss and
nephew, Crazy Phil" Leonetti.The youngest-ever underboss at the age
of 33, Leonetti was at the crux of the violent breakup of the
traditional American Mafia in the 1980s when he infiltrated
Atlantic City after gambling was legalized, and later turned
state's evidence against his own. His testimony led directly to the
convictions of dozens of high-ranking men including John Gotti,
Vincent Gigante, and the downfall of his own uncle, Nick
Scarfo,sparking the beginning of the end of La Cosa Nostra (the
insiders' term for the Mafia, translated as This Thing of Ours").
Homage to Catalonia remains one of the most famous accounts of the Spanish Civil War. With characteristic scrutiny, Orwell questions the actions and motives of all sides whilst retaining his firm beliefs in human courage and the need for radical social change.
Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by Helen Graham, a leading historian on the Spanish Civil War.
When George Orwell arrived in Spain in 1936, he signed up to fight with the Republican army against Fascism. Homage to Catalonia is his bracing personal account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War. From the front line he describes, with brutal honesty, the frustrations and inefficiencies of battle; he is caught up in vicious street fighting in Barcelona and must flee for his life when Republican factions turn on each other.
*The story that inspired the film Brian Banks* Discover the
unforgettable and inspiring true story of a young man who was
wrongfully convicted as a teenager and imprisoned for more than
five years, only to emerge with his spirit unbroken and determined
to achieve his dream of playing in the NFL. At age sixteen, Brian
Banks was a nationally recruited All-American Football player,
ranked eleventh in the nation as a linebacker. Before his
seventeenth birthday, he was in jail, awaiting trial for a heinous
crime he did not commit. Although Brian was innocent, his attorney
advised him that as a young black man accused of rape, he stood no
chance of winning his case at trial. Especially since he would be
tried as an adult. Facing a possible sentence of forty-one years to
life, Brian agreed to take a plea deal-and a judge sentenced him to
six years in prison. At first, Brian was filled with fear, rage,
and anger as he reflected on the direction his life had turned and
the unjust system that had imprisoned him. Brian was surrounded by
darkness, until he had epiphany that would change his life forever.
From that moment on, he made the choice to shed the bitterness and
anger he felt, and focus only on the things he had the power to
control. He approached his remaining years in prison with a
newfound resolve, studying spirituality, improving his social and
writing skills, and taking giant leaps on his journey toward
enlightenment. When Brian emerged from prison with five years of
parole still in front of him, he was determined to rebuild his life
and finally prove his innocence. Three months before his parole was
set to expire, armed with a shocking recantation from his accuser
and the help of the California Innocence Project, the truth about
his unjust incarceration came out and he was exonerated. Finally
free, Brian sought to recapture a dream once stripped away: to play
for the NFL. And at age twenty-eight, he made that dream come true.
Perfect for fans of Just Mercy, I Beat the Odds, and Infinite Hope,
this powerful memoir is a deep dive into the injustices of the
American justice system, a soul-stirring celebration of the
resilience of the human spirit, and an inspiring call to hold fast
to our dreams.
In the spring of 1939, with the Second World War looming, two
determined twenty-four-year-olds, Heather Jenner and Mary Oliver,
decided to open a marriage bureau. They found a tiny office on
London's Bond Street and set about the delicate business of
match-making. Drawing on the bureau's extensive archives, Penrose
Halson - who many years later found herself the proprietor of the
bureau - tells their story, and those of their clients. We meet a
remarkable cross-section of British society in the 1940s: gents
with a 'merry twinkle', potential fifth-columnists, nervous
spinsters, isolated farmers seeking 'a nice quiet affekshunate
girl' and girls looking 'exactly' like Greta Garbo and Vivien
Leigh, all desperately longing to find 'The One'. And thanks to
Heather and Mary, they almost always did just that. A riveting
glimpse of life and love during and after the war, Marriages Are
Made in Bond Street is a heart-warming, touching and thoroughly
absorbing account of a world gone by.
This huge and complex operation is almost unbelievable, the bravery
and courage, the risks, the challenges - it creates an epic tale
that would rival any fictional thriller or detective novel. -
NetGalley UK Review Meet the real Line of Duty (TM) undercover team
in this previously untold and gripping story of how a Northern
Irish terrorist and murderer and one of his followers, were caught
in an audacious and brilliantly executed undercover sting on the
English mainland, codenamed, Operation George. In 2006 at Belfast
Crown Court, William James Fulton, a principal in the outlawed
Loyalist Volunteer Force, was jailed for life and sentenced to a
minimum of 28 years after the longest trial in Northern Ireland's
legal history. Fulton was an early suspect in the Rosemary Nelson
killing. Following the murder of the prominent human rights lawyer,
he fled to the United States and, with help from the FBI in
collusion with the British police, he was deported. On his arrival
at Heathrow, Fulton 'walked through an open door,' a Lewis
Carrol-like euphemism for an invitation created by the covert team,
only to disappear 'down the rabbit hole' on accepting the
invitation. That 'rabbit hole' led to an alternative world: an
environment created and controlled by the elite covert team and
only inhabited by the undercover officers and their targets. The
subterfuge encouraged the terrorist targets into believing Fulton
was working for a Plymouth-based 'criminal firm' over a period
spanning almost two years. In that time, over fifty thousand hours
of conversations between the 'firm' members were secretly recorded
and used to bring the killer to justice. This unique story is told
by former undercover officer Mark Dickens who was part of an elite
team of undercover detectives who took part in 'Operation George,'
one of the most remarkable covert policing operations the world has
ever known. You won't know him under that name nor the many aliases
he adopted as an undercover police officer infiltrating organised
crime gangs. Together in 'Operation George,' with pioneering
Operation Julie undercover officer and bestselling author, Stephen
Bentley, they have written a gripping account of a unique story
reminiscent of the premise of 'The Sting' film, and the
'Bloodlands' setting, combining a true-crime page-turner with a
fascinating insight into early 21st-century covert policing. The
publisher wishes to make clear by using the Line of Duty (TM),
there is no implied association with the Line of Duty series nor
World Productions Ltd and the trademark is attributed to World
Productions Ltd.
"'The Diary of Lt. Melvin J. Lasky' offers not only a panoramic
view of a country poised between devastation and an uncertain
future but a gripping self-portrait of a man poised between
unresolved youthful bewilderment and a mature clarity of
conviction." * Wall Street Journal In 1945 Melvin J. Lasky, serving
in one of the first American divisions that entered Germany after
the country's surrender, began documenting the everyday life of a
defeated nation. Travelling widely across both Germany and post-war
Europe, Lasky's diary provides a captivating eye-witness account
colored by ongoing socio-political debates and his personal
background studying Trotskyism. The Diary of Lt. Melvin J. Lasky
reproduces the diary's vivid language as Lasky describes the
ideological tensions between the East and West, as well as
including critical essays on subjects ranging from Lasky's life as
a transatlantic intellectual, the role of war historians, and the
diary as a literary genre.
In the early 1950s, the Berkshire Constabulary finally opened its
ranks to more women. And WPC Crockford was one of those early
pioneers... When 21-year-old Gwendoline Crockford signed up to join
the Berkshire Constabulary in 1951, she had little idea of what she
was getting herself into. Whether carrying a human skeleton out of
the woods, finding a missing child, investigating thefts, or
chasing an escaped zebra, every day brought fresh adventures. In
this nostalgic, tender and honest account of post-war British
society, we follow a bright, determined woman navigating a man's
world, serving as many people as she can. From performing traffic
duties to unravelling a dark secret at the heart of an impoverished
family, WPC Crockford's career was full of joy, thrills - and
heartbreak. Written by her daughter Ruth, this is the story of a
real-life woman police constable as she embarks on her police
career.
A riveting collection of thirty-eight narratives by American
soldiers serving in Afghanistan, "Outside the Wire" offers a
powerful evocation of everyday life in a war zone. Christine
Dumaine Leche--a writing instructor who left her home and family to
teach at Bagram Air Base and a forward operating base near the
volatile Afghan-Pakistani border--encouraged these deeply personal
reflections, which demonstrate the power of writing to battle the
most traumatic of experiences.
The soldiers whose words fill this book often met for class with
Leche under extreme circumstances and in challenging conditions,
some having just returned from dangerous combat missions, others
having spent the day in firefights, endured hours in the bitter
cold of an open guard tower, or suffered a difficult phone
conversation with a spouse back home. Some choose to record
momentous events from childhood or civilian life--events that
motivated them to join the military or that haunt them as adults.
Others capture the immediacy of the battlefield and the emotional
and psychological explosions that followed. These soldiers write
through the senses and from the soul, grappling with the impact of
moral complexity, fear, homesickness, boredom, and despair.
We each, writes Leche, require witnesses to the narratives of
our lives. "Outside the Wire" creates that opportunity for us as
readers to bear witness to the men and women who carry the weight
of war for us all.
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.
The International No. 1 Bestseller 'Cuts to the heart of who we
are' Sunday Times 'A book that begs discussion' Vanity Fair All
Lina wanted was to be desired. How did she end up in a marriage
with two children and a husband who wouldn't touch her? All Maggie
wanted was to be understood. How did she end up in a relationship
with her teacher and then in court, a hated pariah in her small
town? All Sloane wanted was to be admired. How did she end up a
sexual object of men, including her husband, who liked to watch her
have sex with other men and women? Three Women, which was nearly a
decade in the making, is a staggering work of non-fiction for our
times. *The book Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Alexa Chung, Jodie Comer,
Reese Witherspoon, Harry Styles, Fearne Cotton, Caitriona Balfe,
Gwyneth Paltrow, Sharon Horgan, Zoe Ball, Rosie
Huntington-Whiteley, Davina McCall, Gemma Chan, Christine and the
Queens and Gillian Anderson are all reading* 'I will probably
re-read it every year of my life' Caitlin Moran 'Will have millions
nodding in recognition' The Times 'As gripping as the most gripping
thriller' Marian Keyes 'When I picked it up, I felt I'd been
waiting half my life to read it' Observer 'The kind of bold,
timely, once-in-a-generation book that every house should have a
copy of, and probably will before too long' New Statesman The No. 1
Sunday Times Bestseller The No. 1 New York Times Bestseller Foyles
Non-Fiction Book of the Year A Stylist Book of the Decade The
Most-Picked Book of the Year of 2019
What really happened before, during and just after the sensational,
Prohibition era murder of the police chief by the town's most
admired physician has been saved from oblivion by this book by
retired newspaper editor Wint Capel, "The Good Doctor's Downfall."
The author dug up the facts and has arranged them to show in great
detail how brilliant Dr. J. W. Peacock ambushed the young, arrogant
police chief, John Taylor, on a busy downtown street in
Thomasville, a small North Carolina factory town. The doctor
finished him off with a World War I souvenir, a German Luger. The
doctor, also a city councilman, and the chief began feuding after
the chief decided to crackdown on those, like the doctor, who
ignored the laws against gambling and drinking. The feud became
unbelievably bitter and explosive. By the time of the attack
downtown, the doctor had been convinced, "It's either him or me."
In a trial that featured the best legal minds in North Carolina,
the doctor barely escaped the electric chair. Then, a year later,
he escaped a prison for the criminally insane. He managed to outrun
them all. Only a horrible accident in California could rob him of
his freedom.
The boss of New York's infamous Lucchese crime family, Anthony
"Gaspipe" Casso's life in the Mafia was preordained from birth. His
rare talent for "earning"--concocting ingenious schemes to hijack
trucks, rob banks, and bring vast quantities of drugs into New
York--fueled his unstoppable rise up the ladder of organized crime.
A mafioso responsible for at least fifty murders, Casso lived
large, with a beautiful wife and money to burn. When the law
finally caught up with him in 1994, Casso became the thing he hated
most--an informer.
From his blood feud with John Gotti to his dealings with the
"Mafia cops," decorated NYPD officers Lou Eppolito and Stephen
Caracappa, to the Windows case, which marked the beginning of the
end for the New York Mob, Gaspipe is Anthony Casso's shocking
story--a roller-coaster ride into an exclusive netherworld that
reveals the true inner workings of the Mafia, from its inception to
the present time.
This book provides a concise and engaging examination of the
subculture of the Crips and Bloods-the notorious street gangs that
started in Los Angeles, but have now spread throughout the United
States. Despite the dangers and harsh realities intrinsic to street
life and criminal activity, the no-holds-barred lifestyle of gangs
continues to interest mainstream America. This provocative book
provides an insider's look into the subculture of two of the most
notorious street gangs-the Crips and the Bloods. Crips and Bloods:
A Guide to an American Subculture traces the evolution of the two
gangs, covering their origins in South Central Los Angeles to the
organizations' current presence throughout the United States. The
author analyzes the ways in which the gang subculture is created,
promoted, and perpetuated; shows how the groups currently recruit
their members; and explores the ways Crip and Blood culture has
expanded beyond the gangs into the larger mainstream society.
Includes a timeline of significant events related to the
counterculture Offers a bibliography of print and non-print
resources for student research Describes the symbols, objects,
words, colors, and images used to represent the gangs Provides a
comprehensive glossary of street literacy terms
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