RCMP Superintendent "Scotty" Gardiner's captivating memoir reveals what truly goes on behind the scenes in local and international criminal and civil investigations - from solving small-town break-ins to busting multi-national drug operations, and from foiling historical coin counterfeiting to making a controversial money-for-bodies deal with serial killer Clifford Olson.

IN THE MIND OF A MOUNTIE provides deep insight into the thought processes, self-discipline and integrity required to be an exemplary policeman. "There is no LUCK in investigation," Gardiner emphasizes. "Instead you must focus on PREPARATION, so you will recognize OPPORTUNITY."

With masterful storytelling, Scotty Gardiner's IN THE MIND OF A MOUNTIE brings vividly to life the role of a policeman and investigator in late 20th-century Canadian society.

-- ENDORSEMENTS FROM EXPERTS --
"A refreshing page-turner as Scotty leads from one crime investigation to the next, while offering shrewd insights into the nature and habits of career criminals and RCMP officers alike. His is a broadly sympathetic view of the human condition, seen through the eyes of a very smart and experienced RCMP officer."
- Geoff Machin, MD, PhD, FRCPC, Emeritus Prof. of Pathology, U. of Alberta

"A remarkably rich and personal memoir, full of stories that illustrate both the routine and complex in police work. The book is also a testament to how a combination of hard work, intellectual imagination, integrity, and self-discipline served Scotty well as a Mountie in postings across this vast country. It is an account of a life's work that needs to be told, especially in these times when the Force seems in disarray and those values compromised."
- John McLaren, Emeritus Prof. of Law, U. of Victoria

"A compelling story told in a most readable manner. Highly recommended for all ages - Scotty's life is the stuff of legends and deserves to be read widely."
- Hamish Simpson, former head of Glenlyon School, Pearson College, and Upper Canada College Preparatory School

Many people express shock and horror when they hear of a wealthy or famous person killing another person. As a society, we seem to expect the rich and famous to behave better, to commit fewer crimes, to be immune to the passions that inspire other, less prominent people to kill. After all, the rich and famous have everything--why would they need to murder? But the rich and famous kill for the very same reasons other do: love, power, money, jealousy, greed, revenge, and rage. Here, Scott takes us on a tour of murders committed by the rich and famous during the last century, looking at the motives, the responses of the community and local law enforcement, the media, and the outcomes. She argues that the rich and famous may kill for the same reasons as others, but they receive vastly different treatment and are often able to get away with murder. Homicide by the rich and famous is not new in this country, nor is fascination with the crimes committed by our most revered citizens. But being among the upper echelon of society does afford such suspects with a greater ability to escape punishment. They have greater access to better respresentation, they have the means to flee the country, they have influential friends in high places willing to put themselves on the line, and they are generally treated better by law enforcement and the criminal justice system. This book profiles the many ways in which homicides committed by the rich and famous are similar to other murders in their motives, but differ from those committed by everyday citizens in their outcomes. Scott provides readers with a showcase of crimes that will infuriate and fascinate readers.

Independence Day weekend, 1960: a young police officer is murdered, shocking his close-knit community in Stamford, Connecticut. The killer remains at large, his identity still unknown. But on a beach not far away, a young Army doctor, on leave from his post at a research lab in a maximum-security prison, faces a chilling realisation. He knows who the shooter is. In fact, the man—a prisoner out on parole—had called him only days before. By helping his former charge and trainee, the doctor, a believer in second chances, may have inadvertently helped set the murder into motion. And with that one phone call, may have sealed a policeman’s fate. Alvin Tarlov, David Troy and Joseph DeSalvo were all born of the Great Depression, all with grandparents who’d left different homelands for the same American Dream. How did one become a doctor, one a police officer and one a convict? In Genealogy of a Murder, journalist Lisa Belkin traces the paths of each of these three men—one of them her stepfather. Her canvas is large, spanning the first half of the 20th century: immigration, the struggles of the working class, prison reform, medical experiments, politics and war, the nature/nurture debate, epigenetics, the infamous Leopold and Loeb case and the history of motorcycle racing. It is also intimate: a look into the workings of the mind and heart. Following these threads to their tragic outcome in July 1960, and beyond, Belkin examines the coincidences and choices that led to one fateful night. The result is a brilliantly researched, narratively ingenious story, which illuminates how we shape history even as we are shaped by it.

1969, Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard: Mary Jo Kopechne is the unsuspecting victim of a fatal car accident. The driver is Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy. This is a story that details the investigation, inquest,and grand jury deliberations into the young woman's untimely death. Leslie H. Leland, jury foreman, gives his own account of how the entire grand jury was stymied in seeking evidence relating to the accident caused by Senator Ted Kennedy and the threats made on his and his family's lives. A never before reported analysis of how the grand jury was denied its own legal rights, Left to Die is one example of how power and corruption can override America's justice system. Upon hearing the details, one judge stated, "That was not only intimidation, that was tampering with the grand jury." The grand jury attempted to investigate the accident but was stymied by the DA and judge unwilling to cross the Kennedys. "The rich and powerful can change the outcome of justice and they did in this case." - The Boston Globe The story that really needs to be told...fascinating stuff! - WQXA-FM If you ever thought you knew the story pick up this book and be prepared to learn a whole lot more! Wow! - K.E. Amazon.com The American justice system is responsible for maintaining social control, deterring crime, and sentencing those who violate laws with penalties. The American justice system protects and services the American people, or does it? Based on true events, Left to Die is a powerful vindication of one man's witness to the 1969 Chappaquiddick case against Senator Ted Kennedy. A blockbuster new book - Left to Die - Jerry Shaffer and Leslie H. Leland blow wide open the untold scandal surrounding the drowning of Mary Jo. - National Enquirer Jerry Shaffer was born and raised in Chicago; he received a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Illinois and served in the U.S. Navy. After working for a trade magazine and several advertising agencies, he started his own company. In 1982,he founded a marketing services company that specialized in co-op advertising programs, which became an industry leader. During his career, he wrote advertising copy and articles for trade magazines. Mr. Shaffer is currently retired and lives in southeast Florida. Leslie H. Leland was born and raised in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He graduated from Mass College of Pharmacy in 1963 and then moved to Chappaquiddick Island to work for his grandfather, later buying Leslie's Pharmacy from his grandmother after his grandfather's death. He owned and ran the pharmacy for 43 years, retiring several years ago. Mr. Leland served as a captain on the Tisbury Volunteer Fire Department, also for 43 years, and has been involved politically on the island as a county commissioner for the past 11 years. http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/LeftToDie.html

WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES ALAN PATON AWARD

On 9 June 2003, a 43-year-old coloured man named Magadien Wentzel walked out of Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town. Behind him lay a lifelong career in the 28s, South Africa's oldest and most reviled prison gang, for decades rumoured to have specialised in rape and robbery. In front of him lay the prospect of a law-abiding future, and life in a household of eight adults and six children, none of whom earned a living. Jonny Steinberg met Wentzel in prison in the dying months of 2002. By the time Wentzel was released, he and Steinberg had spent more than 50 hours discussing his life experiences.

The Number is an account of their conversations and of Steinberg's journeys to the places and people of Wentzel's past. Wentzel had lived a bewilderingly schizophrenic life, wandering to and fro between three worlds: the arcane universe of prison gangs, steeped in a mythology of banditry and retribution, where he was known as JR; the fringes of South Africa's criminal economy, where he lived by a string of stolen names and learned the arts of commercial fraud; and his scattered family which eked out a living int the coloured ghettos of the Cape flats. The Number visits each of those worlds in turn. It is a tale of modern South Africa's historic events seen through the eyes of the country's underclass.

Surprisingly, perhaps, it is neither a story of passivity nor despair, but of beguiling ingenuity and cool cynicism. Most of all, the book is an account of memory and identity, of Wentzel's project to make some sense of his bewildering past and something worthy of his future. When Steinberg met him, Wentzel was embarking on a quest to retrieve the name he had been given at birth. He was also beginning the daunting task of gathering together the estranged children he had sired into a nuclear family. It was an eccentric and painful venture for a man with his past, but it has led him to construct an account of himself that begs to be told.

Over the years, authors, artists and amblers aplenty have felt the pull of the Thames, and now travel writer Tom Chesshyre is following in their footsteps. He's walking the length of the river from the Cotswolds to the North Sea - a winding journey of over two hundred miles. Join him for an illuminating stroll past meadows, churches and palaces, country estates and council estates, factories and dockyards. Setting forth in the summer of Brexit, and meeting a host of interesting characters along the way, Chesshyre explores the living present and remarkable past of England's longest and most iconic river.

'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.

Venture back to the Hudson Valley of 1912 in this unique look at a salacious historical murder. The Grace murder was Walden's "Lizzie Borden" case, and author Lisa Melville offers a fascinating snapshot of a village's past as she chronicles one of the most infamous murders of its time. Murder was a rare occurrence in the small village of Walden, New York, 60 miles north of Manhattan. The Grace case was scandalous, involving sex, lies and a violent murder which rocked Walden, a small riverside community known for manufacturing knives. The "Lizzie Borden" case is still one of the most famous murder cases in America. The Grace case possessed similarly startling characteristics to the Borden case in the violence of the murder and family connection, but it also involved bigamy. Grace not only abandoned his first wife and three children, but he married a second woman and left her while she was pregnant with their child. He also stole her family's money to make his escape. Grace used this money to help finance a new life for himself in Walden, a life that included yet another wife. Despite the titillating facts of the murder, the Grace case has nearly been forgotten. Until now.