Singapore, 1942. As Japanese troops sweep down Malaysia and into Singapore, a village is ransacked. Only three survivors remain, one of them a tiny child.

In a neighbouring village, seventeen-year-old Wang Di is bundled into the back of a troop carrier and shipped off to a Japanese military rape camp. In the year 2000, her mind is still haunted by her experiences there, but she has long been silent about her memories of that time. It takes twelve-year-old Kevin, and the mumbled confession he overhears from his ailing grandmother, to set in motion a journey into the unknown to discover the truth.

Weaving together two timelines and two life-changing secrets, How We Disappeared is an evocative, profoundly moving and utterly dazzling novel heralding the arrival of a new literary star.

Teachers are the vital life bloods of our school, inspiring, nurturing and motivating their students. Never has this been more evident than during the Covid-19 pandemic, where teachers have risked their own health and wellbeing to ensure that no child was left behind, either face to face or online. Yet teachers do not live at school. They have rich and exciting lives that their students may know nothing about. This book explores the human side to educators, by revealing their experiences and their personal stories; what has made them into the teachers they are today. From the tragic to the exciting, teachers have such amazing stories to share and their passion and commitment shines out from every page. With contributions from a daughter of the teacher who lost her life at Dunblane to the first black head teacher in Inner London Yvonne Connolly as well as the amazing Rita Pierson from the US who has inspired so many teachers. By reading their stories we can appreciate how extraordinary their lives and their contributions to education are. With contributions from Kierna Corr, Kyle Kiser, Marco Cimino, Toni Charlesworth, Ash Lucas, Julie Cassiano, Drew Povey, Bretta Townend-Jowitt, Brett Bigham, Allen Tsui, Michelle Alker, Dan Whittaker, FreakyHoody, Natalie Scott, Adam Henze, Jess Mahdavi-Gladwell, Luke Haisell, Lesley Douglas, Gwen Mayor, Debbie Buchanan, Maureen McDevitt, James Atkin, Katherine Birbalsingh, Hugh Ogilvie, Victoria Hewett, Penny Rabiger, Joe Gibbs, Helena Jockel, Yolana Wassersug, Caroline Riggs, Rachael Maddocks, Christine Owen, Sue Rogers, Kate McAllister, John Clifford, Dan Morrow, Rita Pierson, Sarah Dearden, Caroline Spalding and Mathew Milburn.

Imprisoned in a remote Turkish POW camp during the First World War, two British officers, Harry Jones and Cedric Hill, cunningly join forces. To stave off boredom, Jones makes a handmade Ouija board and holds fake seances for fellow prisoners. One day, an Ottoman official approaches him with a query: could Jones contact the spirits to find a vast treasure rumoured to be buried nearby? Jones, a lawyer, and Hill, a magician, use the Ouija board - and their keen understanding of the psychology of deception-to build a trap for their captors that will lead them to freedom. The Confidence Men is a nonfiction thriller featuring strategy, mortal danger and even high farce - and chronicles a profound but unlikely friendship.

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.

In 1932, the city of Natchez, Mississippi, reckoned with an unexpected influx of journalists and tourists as the lurid story of a local murder was splashed across headlines nationwide. Two eccentrics, Richard Dana and Octavia Dockery - known in the press as the "Wild Man" and the "Goat Woman" - enlisted an African American man named George Pearls to rob their reclusive neighbor, Jennie Merrill, at her estate. During the attempted robbery, Merrill was shot and killed. The crime drew national coverage when it came to light that Dana and Dockery, the alleged murderers, shared their huge, decaying antebellum mansion with their goats and other livestock, which prompted journalists to call the estate "Goat Castle." Pearls was killed by an Arkansas policeman in an unrelated incident before he could face trial. However, as was all too typical in the Jim Crow South, the white community demanded "justice," and an innocent black woman named Emily Burns was ultimately sent to prison for the murder of Merrill. Dana and Dockery not only avoided punishment but also lived to profit from the notoriety of the murder by opening their derelict home to tourists. Strange, fascinating, and sobering, Goat Castle tells the story of this local feud, killing, investigation, and trial, showing how a true crime tale of fallen southern grandeur and murder obscured an all too familiar story of racial injustice.

Against the frightening backdrop of World War II, a young Scottish woman took ten children by ship through the waters of the Atlantic from Scotland to South Africa, where she set up a home for them called Bairnshaven. An unusual portrayal of motherhood, nuclear family and love, Marjorie's story comes to life through diary pages, letters, telegrams and photographs. This true story is a fresh take on the role that women played during the war, highlighting the strength and courage shown, and focusing on hope and unconditional kindness.

Twenty-three-year-old Brooke Taylor is still trying to come up with her own definition of normal. The doctors at Westside Mental Institution call her cold-blooded and insane. Brooke prefers to think of herself as a healthy mix of insane and genius. Recently released from the psychotherapy sessions to begin a new life, the strikingly beautiful Brooke is headed to Louisiana to visit friend. Now all she can do is wonder whether she will ever have anything positive to contribute to society or whether her high-octane, remorseless lifestyle will kill her before her next birthday, It is 2001.

A few days later Brooke enters a grocery store in Independence, Louisiana, a black cowboy hat perched on her head and icy-blue eyes that reveal nothing. She immediately finds herself caught in the middle of a dramatic robbery. As a man in a ski mask waves an AK-47 and demands the customers follow his orders, Brooke wages was against the gunman, and uncovers a deadly conspiracy.

In this novel based on true events, a young woman with a shadowy past puts her shrewd attitude and intuitive skills to work as she gives the two deadly perpetrators a night they will never forget. Louisiana is never the same again. " "A masterpiece of suspense intrigue. Brooke Taylor is one of the most complex and bizarre characters ever. Once again, Fuller does a great job."" -Rigwood Village Book Club

A broadly interdisciplinary work, this handbook discusses the best and most enduring literature related to the major topics and themes of World War II. Military historiography is treated in essays on the major theaters of military operations and the related themes of logistics and intelligence, while political and diplomatic history is covered in chapters on international relations, resistance movements, and collaboration. The volume analyzes themes of domestic history in essays on economic mobilization, the home fronts, and women in the military and civilian life. The book also covers the Holocaust.

This handbook approaches each topic from a global viewpoint rather than focusing on individual national communities. Except for nonprint material, the literature, research, and sources surveyed are primarily those available in English. The volume is aimed at both experts on the war and the general academic community and will also be useful to students and serious laymen interested in the war.

"In my state of shock and dismay, I asked God over and over again, "Why?" Always, before closing my eyes at night, I prayed for my sons, asking God to keep them healthy, happy, and safe. I never dreamed that a horrific crime would take one of their lives. This nightmare was indeed unbelievable. I was unable to focus. I kept thinking that there had been a mistake; I kept trying to convince myself that it wasn't James who had been killed. I found myself rambling on and on in an attempt to comprehend the reality that I had lost my oldest son. The situation was hopeless. "

Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, The Hillside Strangler . . . serial murderers are the most horrific of all criminals. Kate Kray, whose marriage to gangster Ronnie Kray offered her access to a gruesome underworld few would dare to enter, peers into the minds of the worst killers to reveal the awful truth of their abominable acts. The extreme nature of their violence and their shocking lack of remorse makes for uncomfortable yet fascinating reading. From obsessive sexual predators and extreme sadists to cannibals and head hunters, each type of psychopath is examined, their crimes told with grim frankness. Kate's connections allow her to ask uncomfortable questions few would dare to ask such men. Offering extraordinary insight into the motivations of violent perpetrators often portrayed as monsters, this book begs the question of whether such individuals can themselves be viewed as victims of a troubled past, or merely as exponents of pure evil.

From the author of King of Heists and The Big Policeman, comes the third book of history and crime in Gilded Age New York City--this time focused on the sensational grave robbery, ransom, and return of the remains of A. T. Stewart, a.ka. "The Merchant Prince of Manhattan," one of the wealthiest men in the world. The third in the New York City Gilded Age Crime Trilogy by J. North Conway.

On July 2, 1970, tourists in Australia spotted a smashed car, teetering precariously on a cliff edge, overlooking the raging ocean below. It seemed the car would fall into the water at any moment, but the car lingered ... as did a mystery, revealed when police traced the license plate to the Crawford household. Here, the police discovered the shocking truth: a mother and her three children had been murdered, with the husband and father-now missing-the main suspect.

The quadruple homicide sent a wave of panic through Australia. Where was the husband? And what would make a father kill his own children? There was much speculation but few answers, as the Crawford patriarch remained missing. Forty years passed-forty years of "Australia's Most Wanted," police dead ends, and silence ... until an unidentified body appears in a Texas morgue.

"Almost Perfect" is the firsthand look at a terrible crime from the perspective of Greg Fogarty-a neighbor to the Crawford family and later a member of the Victoria Police Force, Australia. Using his skills of observation and investigation, Fogarty has put together a tragic and detailed crime narrative with a shocking conclusion. Could a morgue in San Angelo, Texas, hold the body of Australia's most sought-after murderer ... or will the Crawford homicide remain unsolved forever?

On the evening of July 7, 2016, protesters gathered in cities across the nation after police shot two black men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling. As officers patrolled a march in Dallas, a young man stepped out of an SUV wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a high-powered rifle. He killed five officers and wounded eleven others. It fell to a small group of cops to corner the shooter inside a community college, where a fierce gun battle was followed by a stalemate. Crisis negotiator Larry Gordon, a 21-year department veteran, spent hours bonding with the gunman - over childhood ghosts and death and racial injustice in America - while his colleagues devised an unprecedented plan to bring the night to its dramatic end. Thompson's minute-by-minute account includes intimate portrayals of the negotiator, a surgeon who operated on the fallen officers, a mother of four shot down in the street, and the SWAT officers tasked with stopping the gunman. Their stories go to the heart of the deeply pressing issue of race and policing in the USA, and reflect America's divide over how to view the men and woman assigned to protect us.

Gianni Russo was a handsome twenty-five-year-old mobster with no acting experience when he walked onto the set of The Godfather and entered Hollywood history. He played Carlo Rizzi, the husband of Connie Corleone, who set up her brother Sonny, played by James Caan, for a hit. Russo didn't have to act - he knew the Mob inside and out, from his childhood in Little Italy, to Mafia legend Frank Costello who took him under his wing, to acting as a messenger to New Orleans Mob boss Carlos Marcello during the Kennedy assassination, to having to go on the lam after shooting and killing a member of the Colombian drug cartel in his Vegas club (he was acquitted of murder when the court ruled this as justifiable homicide). Along the way, Russo befriended Frank Sinatra, who became his son's godfather, and Marlon Brando, who mentored his career as an actor after trying to get Francis Ford Coppola to fire him from The Godfather. Russo had passionate affairs with Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minelli and scores of other celebrities. He went on to star in The Godfather: Parts I and II, Seabiscuit, Any Given Sunday and Rush Hour 2, among many other films in which he also acted as producer. Hollywood Godfather is his no-holds-barred account of a life lived on the edge. It is a story filled with violence, glamour, sex - and fun.

Henry Reid Farley is just twenty-eight years old on November 8, 1898, when he is elected Sheriff of Monterey County. Less than a year later, Sheriff Farley lay in his grave. Now the citizens of Salinas are out for revenge. Immediately after the sheriff's murder, local gun stores open their doors in the dark of the night to hand out weapons to several people intending to hunt down George Suesser, the man responsible for the death of the youngest sheriff ever in the history of the State of California. As cries for his lynching echo throughout the streets of Salinas, Suesser is discovered in a crawl space only eighteen inches wide deep in his cellar. The angry citizens of Salinas demand swift justice. The case against the accused is about to begin. Murder, Salinas Style: Book Three shares a unique glimpse into the lives of both a murderer and his victim while revealing the compelling history of a California town, its citizens, and the violence that would become its legacy.