During the 1990's Boston was a world leader in arts, culture, higher education, and medicine. It was also a world leader in organized crime. In this exciting account, former FBI supervisory special agent David Nadolski tells the story of an unlikely alliance between two diametrically opposed people-the con and the FBI agent. While investigating a break-in at the Stone Library in Quincy, MA that houses the personal book collection of John Quincy Adams, the FBI gets a call from prison inmate, Anthony (Tony) Romano, requesting to meet with the case agent on the burglary. Romano provides a helpful tip that leads to the apprehension of the thief and the recovery of four priceless, historically significant books. Recognizing Tony's potential as an informant, Nadolski begins to cultivate a relationship in hopes of recruiting Romano as a criminal informant. Nadolski recruits Romano to play a very dangerous game-infiltrate the Merlino gang, controlled by Carmello Merlino, a career criminal who specialized in bank robberies, armored car robberies, and home invasions. The Merlino gang also became suspects in the largest art theft in history which took place at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston and remains unsolved to this day. Romano, a former armed robber, agrees. With sights set on the Loomis Fargo Armored Car Company money vault, located south of Boston, the Merlino gang gets to work. Little did they know, Romano, at great personal risk, was a wearing a wire and recording their planning sessions. After two years of being joined at the hip and learning to trust each other unconditionally, special agent Nadolski and Romano run a successful criminal investigation and undercover sting operation to catch four dangerous criminals poised to launch one of the biggest armed robberies of the twentieth century.

Collecting these excerpts from Wallace Chambers' Vancouver diary and World War I letters has been a labour of love for author John Gillis. The result is an extraordinary record of one ordinary young man's life just after the turn of the century. Wallace Chambers kept a diary from 1907 to 1913 while he lived in Vancouver. He filled each day with as much as he could, especially outdoors activities. Wallace was also passionate about cultural and social activities and enjoyed many of the events and venues Vancouver offered. His diary gives a rare glimpse into the world of middle-class young people in Vancouver of the early 1900s. Over the years a tender love story unfolded in Wallace's diary as he gradually fell in love with Cecie, the woman he hadn't seen since 1905. When Wallace went off to war in 1914, he and Cecie were briefly reunited in England before he left for the front. His letters home were graphic and poignant. Wallace was killed in 1915 at the age of 29.

Horrific, horrendous, unspeakable, The Whitechapel Murderer, Jack the Ripper, stalked the streets of East London in 1888, slaughtering prostitutes and bewildering the police who were hunting him. They never succeeded in apprehending him, and to this day the mystery of his identity remains an enigma. But he did leave clues to his identity, and numerous theories have been entertained throughout the one hundred and twenty years since he held London's East End in his grip of terror. This book looks at the evidence left by the murderer and the reports and investigative papers which recorded the atrocities that the Ripper performed. It takes time to analyse the existing information and evaluate the letters sent to the police. It is the strongest and most powerful book ever written on the murders. It dispels a lot of myths attached to the Ripper, and eliminates a lot of the previously conjectured perpetrators, leaving only those who realistically could have been...Jack the Ripper.

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.

On the afternoon of August 19, 1997, John Harrigan-owner and publisher of the News and Sentinel newspaper in Colebrook, New Hampshire-arrived at his building to find the woman he loved lying dead in the parking lot. Lawyer Vickie Bunnell had been shot and killed by an itinerant carpenter wielding an assault rifle. By then, three more people were already dead or dying. More mayhem was to ensue in an afternoon of plot twists too improbable for a novel. The roots of the incident stretch back twenty-five years, with tendrils deep in the history of New England's North Country. These bloody events shocked America and made headlines across the world. Hundreds of local citizens became unwilling players in the drama-friends and colleagues of the dead, men and women who were themselves real or potential targets, along with their neighbors in law enforcement-but the town and its inhabitants were never passive victims. From the first shot fired that day, they remained courageously determined to survive. This is the story of that town, those people, and that day. In the Evil Day is a moving portrait of small-town life and familiar characters forever changed by sudden violence.

When Maximilian Potter went to Burgundy to report for Vanity Fair on a crime that could have destroyed the Domaine de la Romanee Conti-the tiny, storied vineyard that produces the most expensive, exquisite wines in the world-he soon found a story that was much larger, and more thrilling, than he had originally imagined. In January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, the famed proprietor of the DRC, received an anonymous note threatening the destruction of his priceless vines by poison-a crime that in the world of high-end wine is akin to murder-unless he paid a one million euro ransom. Villaine believed it to be a sick joke, but that proved a fatal miscalculation; the crime was committed and shocked this fabled region of France. The sinister story that Potter uncovered would lead to a sting operation by top Paris detectives, the primary suspect's suicide, and a dramatic trial. This botanical crime threatened to destroy the fiercely traditional culture surrounding the world's greatest wine. Like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, SHADOW IN THE VINEYARD takes us deep into a captivating world full of fascinating characters, small town French politics, an unforgettable narrative, and a local culture defined by the twinned veins of excess and vitality and the deep reverent attention to the land that run through it.

When news of Sir Harry Oakes' murder in the Bahamas broke to the world on the morning of July 8,1943, one man was more concerned than most. He was the Duke of Windsor, then Governor of the British colony, whose job it was to ensure that the killer was caught and brought to justice. However, the Duke's actions in the aftermath of the 20th. century's greatest murder mystery raised more questions than answers, and cast doubt on his own intentions in calling in two Miami investigators of dubious worth. Was the Duke a conspirator in a gigantic cover-up? Did he try to excecute an innocent man in an attempt to protect himself and his friends? In this compelling tale, John Marquis presents an alternative view to the one generally accepted in the Bahamas, which is that the Duke was a bungler who mishandled the case. He believes the evidence strongly suggests that the Duke was a plotter with something to hide, and a cruel mission to condemn an innocent man. More than 60 years later, the story retains the power to mesmerise all those with a taste for intrigue in high places at a time when the western world faced its greatest peril. It is an electrifying tale of high society chicanery in a tropical paradise during wartime, with the hangman's noose providing a grusome backdrop. As a murder mystery, Blood and Fire has everything...

From an author praised by the Wall Street Journal for his "eye for a good story" comes an account of the Herbert Fuller tragedy of 1896, a tragedy that occurred on the high seas and involved the senseless slaughter of three of the twelve souls on board. Stunned by this act of random violence, and in sure knowledge that one or more of their own was the murderer, the living turn the vessel to shore, 750 miles distant. In the nightmarish days and nights of suspense that follow, first one and then another of the remaining nine is seized by others as the culprit. Upon reaching port, however, all are under suspicion--until the man most likely to have committed the act is, for reasons having to do with race, exonerated and the man most likely to be innocent, prosecuted. At the center of this gripping and gruesome story is the first mate, Thomas Bram, whose subsequent murder trials became as widely followed by the press and public as was the famous trial of Lizzie Borden just a few years before. Unlike the Borden case, remembered today in books, movies, and children's rhymes, the Bram case was almost lost to the collective memory. Fortunately, C. Michael Hiam, in the manner of Erik Larson, now brings it to life.

From the Sunday Times bestselling author, Carl Chinn The Peaky Blinders as we know them, thanks to the hit TV series, are infused with drama and dread. Fashionably dressed, the charismatic but deeply flawed Shelby family have become cult anti-heroes. Well-known social historian, broadcaster and author, Carl Chinn, revealed the true story of the notorious gang in his bestselling Peaky Blinders: The Real Story and now in this follow-up book, he explores the legacy they created in Birmingham and beyond. What happened to them and their gangland rivals? In Peaky Blinders: The Legacy we revisit the world of Billy Kimber's Peaky Blinders, exploring their legacy throughout the 1920s and 30s, and how their burgeoning empires spread across the UK. Delve into the street wars across the country, the impact of the declaration of War on Gangs by the Home Secretary after The Racecourse War in 1921, and how the blackmailing of bookmakers gave way to new and daring opportunities for the likes of Sabini, Alfie Solomon and some new faces in the murky gangland underworld. Drawing on Carl's inimitable research, interviews and original sources, find out just what happened to this incredible cast of characters, revealing the true legacy of the Peaky Blinders.

During his 20-year career as a federal prosecutor, the author worked hundreds of criminal cases, from a botched attempted bank robbery to high profile death penalty cases. In this collection of stories, the author recounts tales of trauma, drama and criminal minds. While many prosecutors might share their reflections on the details and operations of legal proceedings, the author instead focuses this collection on the human aspects of the criminals and their trials. The book ruminates on human nature, contemplating the motivations of the featured criminals and assessing the impact their crimes had on victims, family members and others. Some of the stories are light-hearted and humorous, while others are heartbreaking, but all provide unique and compelling insight into the all too human world of federal crime.

'America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.' - Abraham Lincoln Is the story of the United States that of George Washington, John Adams and Barack Obama? Or of slave rebel Nat Turner, of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King? Or Sitting Bull and Al Capone? Or Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and OJ Simpson? Of course, it is the story of all these, of both civil war and world war, of gold rush and dust bowl, of the Pilgrim Fathers and religious cults, of Prohibition and the Mafia, of the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy-era witch-hunts. From the Iroquois and early European settlers to the Revolutionary War and Civil War, from slavery to segregation, from the frontier to the Reservations, The History of America is a chronological examination of the United States through politics, labour, big business, crime and culture. Featuring such varied characters as Thomas Jefferson and John Brown, Bugsy Siegel and J P Morgan, Calamity Jane, Chuck Berry and Bonnie & Clyde, it tells the story of the first 'new nation', the first major colony to revolt successfully against colonial rule, and how it became the world's most powerful country. Extensively researched and illustrated with 180 black-&-white artworks and illustrations, The History of America is a lively and fascinating account of the darker side of the story of the United States.

His name conjures images of the Wild West, of gunfights and gambling halls and a legendary friendship with the lawman Wyatt Earp, and he is probably most famous for his time in Tombstone. But Doc Holliday's story is a much richer than that one sentence summary allows. His was a life of travel across the west-from Georgia to Texas, from Dodge City to Las Vegas, across Arizona and from New Mexico to Colorado and Montana. Revealed from contemporary newspaper accounts and records of interviews with Doc himself and the people who knew him, The World of Doc Holliday offers a real first-hand accounting of his life of adventure.

In Food and Feast in Premodern Outlaw Tales editors Melissa Ridley Elmes and Kristin Bovaird-Abbo gather eleven original studies examining scenes of food and feasting in premodern outlaw texts ranging from the tenth through the seventeenth centuries and forward to their cinematic adaptations. Along with fresh insights into the popular Robin Hood legend, these essays investigate the intersections of outlawry, food studies, and feasting in Old English, Middle English, and French outlaw narratives, Anglo-Scottish border ballads, early modern ballads and dramatic works, and cinematic medievalism. The range of critical and disciplinary approaches employed, including history, literary studies, cultural studies, food studies, gender studies, and film studies, highlights the inherently interdisciplinary nature of outlaw narratives. The overall volume offers an example of the ways in which examining a subject through interdisciplinary, cross-geographic and cross-temporal lenses can yield fresh insights; places canonic and well-known works in conversation with lesser-known texts to showcase the dynamic nature and cultural influence and impact of premodern outlaw tales; and presents an introductory foray into the intersection of literary and food studies in premodern contexts which will be of value and interest to specialists and a general audience, alike.

'There is always hope, even when we cannot seem to seek it within ourselves.' From the best advice you'll ever get to the joy of crisps, the brilliant contributors to The Book of Hope will help you to find joy whenever you need it most. These 101 key voices in the field of mental health - including the likes of Lemn Sissay, Dame Kelly Holmes, Hussain Manawer, Frank Turner, Joe Wicks and Elizabeth Day - share not only their experiences with anxiety, psychosis, panic attacks and more, but also what helps them when they are feeling low. Award-winning mental health campaigner Jonny Benjamin, MBE, and co-editor Britt Pfluger bring together people from all walks of life - actors, musicians, athletes, psychologists and activists - to share what gives them hope. This joyful collection is a supportive hand to anyone looking to find light on a dark day and shows that, no matter what you may be going through, you are not alone. Jonny Benjamin is known for his book and documentary film, The Stranger on the Bridge, which fought to end stigma around talking about mental health, suicidal thoughts and schizoaffective disorder. When his campaign to find the man who prevented him from taking his own life went viral, Jonny was one of a wave of new figures lifting the lid on mental health struggles. In this book, he brings together a range of voices to speak to the spectrum of our experiences of mental health and the power of speaking up and seeking help.

Detectives and CSI crews may work for weeks, months, sometimes years searching and piecing together forensic evidence to find the vital clues in solving a crime. With the use of planetary positions, houses, fixed stars and Arabic parts, forensic astrology gives investigators a head-start in discovering valuable information that can hasten crime solving.

In "Forensics by the Stars," author B. D. Salerno, an astrologer for more than twenty years, provides insight into the fascinating world of solving crimes and understanding both natural and manmade disasters by applying astrological science to interpreting event charts and revealing the clues they contain.

Providing interesting insights, "Forensics by the Stars" analyzes the murder of Marilyn Monroe, the Lindbergh kidnapping, several missing persons cases, and a number of natural and manmade disasters. Salerno explains how to interpret the event horoscopes and astrologic charts to help understand the outcome of certain events. Like threads of carpeting, blood spatter, or fingerprints, forensic astrology can reveal an astonishing amount of detail about an event.

After college, Martin Sommerville joined the Royal Marines; Great Britain's premier naval force. During the Falkland Islands War with Argentina, he was a lieutenant, assigned to naval intelligence. When the War was over he returned to England to start a career as a ship designer.

Some time later, at the urging of his mentor, he packed up and left for greener pastures. First he journeyed to the United States. While there he worked as a designer, and met his fi ancee, Betsy Kilmer. Sadly, Betsy was killed in an auto accident 3 weeks before their wedding. Grief stricken, he left the States for employment in the shipyards of China and Russia. Several years later he returned to England.

Once back in the U.K. he meets a new love, Dr. Cybil Simpson, M.D. She and her Father thrust him into an unexpected career as a university teacher, and an agent for the secretive MI 5.

In his newly found occupation he is assigned to a terrorism investigative unit, and given the code name 'The Sparrow.' In this capacity, he and his new paramour, 'The Wren, ' fi t well together, always seeming to know what the other is thinking. Using this unusual gift, they soon become an indispensable force within MI 5.

'Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible'In equal measure famous and infamous, Janet Malcolm's book charts the true story of a lawsuit between Jeffrey MacDonald, a convicted murderer, and Joe McGinniss, the author of a book about the crime. Lauded as one of the Modern Libraries "100 Best Works of Nonfiction", The Journalist and the Murderer is fascinating and controversial, a contemporary classic of reportage.