No murderer should ever be the keeper of their victim's story …

On 1 February, 1910, vivacious music-hall performer, Belle Elmore, suddenly vanished from her north London home, causing alarm among her circle of female friends, the entertainers of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild who demanded an immediate investigation.

They could not have known what they would provoke: the unearthing of a gruesome secret, followed by a fevered manhunt for the prime suspect: Belle’s husband, medical fraudster, Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen.

Hiding in the shadows of this evergreen tale is Crippen’s typist and lover, Ethel Le Neve – was she really just ‘an innocent young girl’ in thrall to a powerful older man as so many people have since reported?

In this epic examination of one of the most infamous murders of the twentieth century, prizewinning social historian Hallie Rubenhold gives voice to those who have never properly been heard – the women.

Featuring a carnival cast of eccentric entertainers, glamorous lawyers, zealous detectives, medics and liars, STORY OF A MURDER is meticulously researched and multi-layered, offering the reader an electrifying snapshot of Britain and America at the dawn of the modern era.

From Deadwood to Aberdeen, Vermillion to Belle Fourche, the frontier towns of South Dakota were populated by some of the toughest and most dangerous characters in the West. Chief Two Sticks led a starving band of rebels on a desperate path of destruction. Bud Stevens's murder of a cattle king's son rang a death knell for an entire town. And bank robbers Stelle and Bennie Dickinson did their best to become South Dakota's very own Bonnie and Clyde. All these stories and more come to life in Outlaw Tales of South Dakota.

Farley is an elderly Dublin man, frail in body but sharp as a tack. Waking in the middle of the night, he finds himself lying paralyzed on the cold bathroom floor. And so his mind begins to move backwards, taking us with him.

As Farley unravels the warp and weft of his life, he relives its loves, losses and betrayals with the darkly comic wit of a true Dubliner. For this is also Dublin's story, the city Farley has seen through poverty and prosperity, boom and bust - each the other's constant companion during his seventy-five years.

The extraordinary story of the Afghan women judges who fought for their careers and their lives, and the international network of women who helped them to escape the Taliban

Combining moment-by-moment drama with an emotional story of friendship and bravery, The Escape from Kabul is also a searing insight into the captive fate of women in Afghanistan.

The fact that so many were betrayed by the speed and disorganisation of British and American retreat on the fall of Kabul is well known. What is less well known is that a collection of women judges from around the world operated a successful rescue mission for the majority of female Afghan judges, and their families.

In the twenty years since 2001, Afghan women had obtained legal degrees, became judges and set out to transform their country - tackling corruption, and reducing horrifying levels of violence against women and children. These educated women of power were clear targets for the Taliban. But their friends – and sister judges – from the UK, Poland, USA and ANZ were not prepared to abandon them, using WhatsApp and sheer bloody-minded persistence, they found escape routes and new homes for family after family.

This is a heart stopping story of rescue; but also a moving account of ambition, public service and the difficulties of having to build a new life abroad. Veteran, best-selling journalist Karen Bartlett's compelling account also celebrates the capabilities and global power of united, working women and of the bond of a career spent in service to justice. Individuals who are often the last and only check to unbridled power, influence and violence.

'Reads like a mashup of The Godfather and Chinatown, complete with gun battles, a ruthless kingpin and a mountain of cash. Except that it's all true.' Time In this thrilling panorama of real-life events, the bestselling author of Empire of Pain investigates a secret world run by a surprising criminal: a charismatic middle-aged grandmother, who from a tiny noodle shop in New York's Chinatown, managed a multimillion-dollar business smuggling people. In The Snakehead, Patrick Radden Keefe reveals the inner workings of Cheng Chui Ping aka Sister Ping's complex empire and recounts the decade-long FBI investigation that eventually brought her down. He follows an often incompetent and sometimes corrupt INS as it pursues desperate immigrants risking everything to come to America, and along the way he paints a stunning portrait of a generation of undocumented immigrants and the intricate underground economy that sustains and exploits them. Grand in scope yet propulsive in narrative force, The Snakehead is both a kaleidoscopic crime story and a brilliant exploration of the ironies of immigration in America.

Four lives... Two people... One question... What do you really know about the people around you? To the residents of leafy Acacia Avenue, Mr and Mrs Smith were like any other couple. Living a very ordinary life, in a very ordinary suburb, on the outskirts of a very ordinary city. But behind closed doors, Mr and Mrs Smith were at the heart of a world filled with deception and organised crime - and they were the good guys. Inspired by true events and detailing Mr and Mrs Smith's covert deployments, this is first in a series of gripping tales. 'Undercover Legends' is a fascinating insight into the double lives of two undercover officers. First as individuals and then as a couple, they had to balance the stresses and strains of their real lives, families and relationships, with the murky underworld they found themselves enmeshed in. In many ways, their legends, those false identities and lives that inhabited the criminal world, were no less real than the lives they were born into. That was a must as their lives may have depended on the robustness of their cover. Four lives... two people. One question... will you join them on their extraordinary story?

THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NONFICTION 2019
'An angry and important work of historical detection, calling time on the misogyny that has fed the Ripper myth. Powerful and shaming' GUARDIAN

Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers.

What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888.

Their murderer was never identified, but the name created for him by the press has become far more famous than any of these five women.

Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, historian Hallie Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, and gives these women back their stories.

WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS FOR HISTORY 2019

Across the world, HSBC likes to sell itself as 'the world's local bank', the friendly face of corporate and personal finance. And yet, a decade ago, the same bank was hit with a record US fine of $1.9 billion for facilitating money laundering for 'drug kingpins and rogue nations'. In pursuit of their goal of becoming the biggest bank in the world, between 2003 to 2010, HSBC allowed El Chapo and the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most notorious and murderous criminal organizations in the world, to turn its ill-gotten money into clean dollars and thereby grow one of the deadliest drugs empires the world has ever seen. Just how did 'the world's local bank' find itself enabling Mexico's leading drugs cartel, and the biggest drugs trafficking organization in the world, to launder cash through the bank's branch network and systems? How did a bank, which boasts 'we're committed to helping protect the world's financial system on which millions of people depend, by only doing business with customers who meet our high standards of transparency' come to facilitate Mexico's richest drug baron? And how did a bank that as recently as 2002 had been named 'one of the best-run organizations in the world' become so entwined with such a criminal, with one of the most barbaric groups of gangsters on the planet? Too Big to Jail is an extraordinary story brilliantly told by writer, commentator and former editor of The Independent, Chris Blackhurst, that starts in Hong Kong and ranges across London, Washington, the Cayman Islands and Mexico, where HSBC saw the opportunity to become the largest bank in the world, and El Chapo seized the chance to fuel his murderous empire by laundering his drug proceeds through the bank. It brings together an extraordinary cast of politicians, bankers, drug dealers, FBI officers and whistle-blowers, and asks what price does greed have? Whose job is it to police global finance? And why did not a single person go to prison for facilitating the murderous expansion of a global drug empire? Are some corporations now so big as to be above the law?

Based on a series of fascinating interviews, this extraordinary book relates real stories of conflict from the people who lived through it. In vivid detail, and genuinely moving accounts, this unique publication draws the reader into a hugely significant period of history; capturing surprising and emotional stories first hand, before they disappear forever. These are more than just memories, they are the events that marked the world and an entire generation.

Local prosecution associations were a method of controlling crime which was devised in the second half of the eighteenth century, fifty years before the introduction of police forces. They were a national phenomenon, and it is estimated that by the end of the 1700s around 4000 of them existed in England, but this book tells the story of one particular society: the Hathersage Association for the Prosecution of Felons and Other Offenders. Hathersage is a Peak District village which recently came top in a Country Living poll to determine the '20 best hidden gems in the UK'. The tourists who now visit the village in their thousands each year come as walkers, climbers, and cyclists. Its grimy history of wire and needle manufacturing is almost forgotten. In addition to telling the story of its ancient prosecution organisation, this book seeks to illuminate some of the less conspicuous aspects of Hathersage's social history by shining a light from the unusual direction of minor crime and antisocial behaviour. It also describes the lives of some of the residents of the village: minor gentry; industrialists; clergy; and farmers, in addition to the mill workers and labourers. With access to hand-written records going back to 1784 which had never been studied before, the author has drawn on contemporary newspaper articles and census returns to assemble a montage which depicts the life of the village, particularly during the 19th century. Many of these original records have been reproduced in order to offer reader an opportunity to interpret the old documents themselves. While striving for historical accuracy throughout, the author has produced a book which is both entertaining and informative. Any profits from the sale of this book will go to the Hathersage Association and will, in turn, be donated to the local charities which the Association supports. Those charities include Edale Mountain Rescue, the Air Ambulance, Helen's Trust, Bakewell & Eyam Community Transport, and Cardiac Risk in the Young.

Local prosecution associations were a method of controlling crime which was devised in the second half of the eighteenth century, fifty years before the introduction of police forces. They were a national phenomenon, and it is estimated that by the end of the 1700s around 4000 of them existed in England, but this book tells the story of one particular society: the Hathersage Association for the Prosecution of Felons and Other Offenders. Hathersage is a Peak District village which recently came top in a Country Living poll to determine the '20 best hidden gems in the UK'. The tourists who now visit the village in their thousands each year come as walkers, climbers, and cyclists. Its grimy history of wire and needle manufacturing is almost forgotten. In addition to telling the story of its ancient prosecution organisation, this book seeks to illuminate some of the less conspicuous aspects of Hathersage's social history by shining a light from the unusual direction of minor crime and antisocial behaviour. It also describes the lives of some of the residents of the village: minor gentry; industrialists; clergy; and farmers, in addition to the mill workers and labourers. With access to hand-written records going back to 1784 which had never been studied before, the author has drawn on contemporary newspaper articles and census returns to assemble a montage which depicts the life of the village, particularly during the 19th century. Many of these original records have been reproduced in order to offer reader an opportunity to interpret the old documents themselves. While striving for historical accuracy throughout, the author has produced a book which is both entertaining and informative. Any profits from the sale of this book will go to the Hathersage Association and will, in turn, be donated to the local charities which the Association supports. Those charities include Edale Mountain Rescue, the Air Ambulance, Helen's Trust, Bakewell & Eyam Community Transport, and Cardiac Risk in the Young.

This work provides readers with an authoritative resource for understanding the true extent and nature of gun violence in America, examining the veracity of claims and counterclaims about mass shootings, gun laws, and public attitudes about gun control. This work is part of a series that uses evidence-based documentation to examine the veracity of claims and beliefs about high-profile issues in American culture and politics. Each book in the Contemporary Debates series is intended to puncture rather than perpetuate myths that diminish our understanding of important policies and positions; to provide needed context for misleading statements and claims; and to confirm the factual accuracy of other assertions. This particular volume examines beliefs, claims, and myths about gun violence, gun laws, and gun rights in the United States. Issues covered in the book include trends in firearm violence, mass shootings, the impact of gun ownership on rates and types of crime, regulations and Supreme Court decisions regarding gun control and the Second Amendment, and the activities and influence of organizations ranging from the National Rifle Association to Everytown for Gun Safety. All of these topics are examined in individualized entries, with objective responses grounded in up-to-date evidence. Easy-to-navigate Q&A format Quantifiable data from respected sources as the foundation for examining every issue Extensive Further Reading sections for each entry providing readers with leads to conduct further research Examinations of claims made by individuals and groups of all political backgrounds and ideologies

Hazel Hendry is a remarkable woman. She worked tirelessly raising money for charities, and particularly for TEARFUND, including walking the form of a cross from John Oa Groats to Lands End and from Ramsgate to Fishguard in Wales. When the Croatian War began, the founder of TEARFUND, George Hoffman, told her, a Hazel, the people of Croatia need your helpa . So she raised money to send over 50 lorries, full of much needed supplies of food, furniture, medical equipment and toiletries, into Croatia. She travelled personally with many of them during and after the war. Hazel delivered aid right to the Front Line risking her life to help people who had lost their homes, livelihoods, and families. This book is about her experiences during those dangerous years, and the people who helped her and those that she helped. It is based on journals which she kept at the time and later recollections of particular people and events. As such, it is a vivid account of how the Croations in the War Zone suffered at the hands of the Chetniks who would attack their villages while leaving neighbouring villages in Croatia where Serbs lived unscathed. Some of the details that she recalls are not for the squeamish, but the way in which her faith supported her throughout this period shines through on every page.

Award-winning New York City Ballet soloist Georgina Pazcoguin, aka the Rogue Ballerina, gives readers a backstage tour of the real world of elite ballet - the gritty, hilarious, sometimes shocking truth you don't see from the orchestra circle. In this love letter to the art of dance and the sport that has been her livelihood, NYCB's first Asian American female soloist Georgina Pazcoguin lays bare her unfiltered story of leaving small-town Pennsylvania for New York City and training amid the unique demands of being a hybrid professional athlete/artist, all before finishing high school. She pitches us into the fascinating, whirling shoes of dancers in one of the most revered ballet companies in the world with an unapologetic sense of humour about the cutthroat, survival-of-the-fittest mentality at NYCB. Some swan dives are literal: even in the ballet, there are plenty of face-plants, backstage fights, late-night parties, and raucous company bonding sessions. Rocked by scandal in the wake of the #MeToo movement, NYCB sits at an inflection point, inching toward progress in a strictly traditional culture, and Pazcoguin doesn't shy away from ballet's dark side. She continues to be one of the few dancers openly speaking up against the sexual harassment, mental abuse, and racism that in the past went unrecognized or was tacitly accepted as par for the course - all of which she has painfully experienced firsthand. Tying together Pazcoguin's fight for equality in the ballet with her infectious and deeply moving passion for her craft, Swan Dive is a page-turning, one-of-a-kind account that guarantees you'll never view a ballerina or a ballet the same way again.

Follow the story of a dog named Skye, who really was found in a skip and after many adventures, her return home after six years. This heart warming true tale is a tribute to the power hope, and of the microchip!

The book contains stories on various subjects, starting with the contemplations of passengers in an airplane during a fictitious flight on various situations in their life, through the memories captured by ZS during his study and work, as well as stories based on pub talks and on the imagination of the author.