"Impressively researched and written with storytelling verve. ... Talty delves the deepest into the history and twisted personality of David Koresh." --Wall Street Journal The first comprehensive account of David Koresh's life, his road to Waco, and the rise of government mistrust in America, from a master of narrative nonfiction No other event in the last fifty years is shrouded in myth like the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Today, we remember this moment for the 76 people, including 20 children, who died in the fire; for its inspiration of the Oklahoma City bombing; and for the wave of anti-government militarism that followed. What we understand far less is what motivated the Davidians' enigmatic leader, David Koresh. Drawing on first-time, exclusive interviews with Koresh's family and survivors of the siege, bestselling author Stephan Talty paints a psychological portrait of this infamous icon of the 1990s. Born Vernon Howell into the hyper-masculine world of central Texas in the 1960s, Koresh experienced a childhood riven with abuse and isolation. He found a new version of himself in the halls of his local church, and love in the fundamentalist sect of the Branch Davidians. Later, with a new name and professed prophetic powers, Koresh ushered in a new era for the Davidians that prized his own sexual conquest as much as his followers' faith. As one survivor has said, "What better way for a worthless child to feel worth than to become God?" In his signature immersive storytelling, Talty reveals how Koresh's fixation on holy war, which would deliver the Davidians to their reward and confirm himself as Christ, collided with his paranoid obsession with firearms to destructive effect. Their deadly, 51-day standoff with the embattled FBI and ATF, he shows, embodied an anti-government ethic that continues to resonate today. Now, thirty years after that unforgettable moment, Koresh presents the tragedy at Waco--and the government mistrust it inspired--in its fullest context yet.

In the Spring of 1993, federal agents raided the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. A 51-day standoff ensued. Known as the Waco Siege, it has become a founding myth of the extreme wing of American conservatism, invoked by militiamen, gun rights advocates, and the alt-right. The leader of the evangelical sect, an extreme form of Seventh-Day Adventism, was David Koresh. Born Vernon Howell, he was a preacher, interpreter of the Bible, and obsessed with the coming of the Apocalypse. A charismatic but highly volatile man, he was a former victim of sexual abuse who himself became a sexual predator on a large scale, exploiting many of the women in his compound. Koresh is Stephan Talty’s extraordinary, meticulous narration of the events that led up to the Waco Siege. Drawing on new sources, FBI negotiation tapes, and interviews with family and friends, this definitive biography explores how Koresh grew from a young man to a cult leader, and investigates why the siege has become an enduring symbol for radical opponents of the democratic state. PRAISE FOR STEPHAN TALTY: 'Gripping... A valuable recounting of a lurid and little-known episode in American history' Washington Post. ' 'Part Holocaust history, part detective case, part spy operation, The Good Assassin is an enthralling book... Stephan Talty paints vivid, often chilling, portraits of its vengeful hero, Mossad agent Jacob Medad' Neal Bascomb. 'Compelling... Talty remains true to his technique, delivering thoroughly researched, engrossing non-fiction in a thriller-like narrative style' Kirkus. 'Talty captures the chilling realities of bloody battlefields, tense war rooms and besieged London... Elegantly crafted' Wall Street Journal. 'Thrilling... An extraordinary crime story with a genuine American hero too long forgotten' - Dallas Morning News

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Leonardo DiCaprio, this gripping true story of the origins of the Mafia in America follows the brilliant Italian-born detective who gave his life to stop it. Beginning in the summer of 1903, an insidious crime wave filled New York City, and then the entire country, with fear. The children of Italian immigrants were kidnapped, and dozens of innocent victims were gunned down. Bombs tore apart tenement buildings. Judges, senators, Rockefellers, and society matrons were threatened with gruesome deaths. The perpetrators seemed both omnipresent and invisible. Their only calling card: the symbol of a black hand. The crimes whipped up the slavering tabloid press and heated ethnic tensions to the boiling point. Standing between the American public and the Black Hand's lawlessness was Joseph Petrosino. Dubbed the "Italian Sherlock Holmes," he was a famously dogged and ingenious detective, and a master of disguise. As the crimes grew ever more bizarre and the Black Hand's activities spread far beyond New York's borders, Petrosino and the all-Italian police squad he assembled raced to capture members of the secret criminal society before the country's anti-immigrant tremors exploded into catastrophe. Petrosino's quest to root out the source of the Black Hand's power would take him all the way to Sicily--but at a terrible cost. Unfolding a story rich with resonance in our own era, The Black Hand is fast-paced narrative history at its very best.

A May 2007 Book Sense Pick
"Talty's vigorous history of seventeenth-century pirates of the Caribbean will sate even fickle Jack Sparrow fans. . . . A pleasure to read from bow to stern."
--Entertainment Weekly
The passion and violence of the age of exploration and empire come to vivid life in this story of the legendary pirate who took on the greatest military power on earth with a ragtag bunch of renegades. Awash with bloody battles, political intrigues, natural disaster, and a cast of characters more compelling, bizarre, and memorable than any found in a Hollywood swashbuckler, "Empire of Blue Water" brilliantly re-creates the life and times of Henry Morgan and the real pirates of the Caribbean.

Before the Second World War, Herbert Cukurs was a world-famous aviator and a hero in his hometown of Riga, Latvia. During the war he joined the SS, led a militia and was responsible for the genocide of 30,000 Latvian Jews. By the 1960s the man who became known as the Butcher of Riga was living in South America. And Mossad were coming for him. In 1965, a statute of limitations on Nazi war crimes threatened to expire and Germany was seeking to reintegrate concentration camp commanders, pogrom leaders and executioners. The global hunt for Nazi criminals was stepped up, and a target was painted on the back of Cukurs. Yaakov Meidad, the Mossad agent who had kidnapped Adolf Eichmann three years earlier, was called into action once more, leading to an astonishing undercover operation that saw Meidad travel to Brazil in an elaborate disguise before befriending Cukurs and earning his trust. Uncovering a little-known part of Holocaust history and telling the story of one of the most daring operations in the history of the Israeli intelligence community, The Good Assassin is a thrilling story of a forgotten monster and the twenty-year quest to bring him to justice, told by a master of narrative non-fiction.

In the tradition of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, the story of David Koresh, the FBI and the tragedy at Waco - a book for everyone fascinated by true crime, conspiracy theory, and American extremity. The assault by federal agents on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993, in which 86 people died, has become a founding myth of the extreme wing of American conservatism, invoked by militiamen, gun rights advocates and the alt-right. The leader of the evangelical sect at Waco, an extreme form of Seventh-Day Adventism, was Vernon Howell, a charismatic chancer and former victim of sexual abuse who called himself David Koresh. He himself became a sexual predator on a large scale, exploiting many of the women in his compound. He was also a compelling preacher and interpreter of the Bible, notably the Book of Revelation, and was obsessed with the coming of the Apocalypse. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms duly obliged, with tragic results. Koresh is Stephan Talty's extraordinary, meticulous narration of this event, in all its squalor, strangeness and delirium. Talty doesn't downplay the madness of the cult, but he is humanely sympathetic to Koresh and his followers and is also highly critical of the ATF and FBI, who were spoiling for a violent showdown, and explains why the siege has become so important to those who loathe the state.

"I share the country's admiration for the bravery of Captain Phillips and his selfless concern for his crew. His courage is a model for all Americans."
--President Barack Obama It was just another day on the job for fifty-three-year-old Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, the United States-flagged cargo ship which was carrying, among other things, food and agricultural materials for the World Food Program. That all changed when armed Somali pirates boarded the ship. The pirates didn't expect the crew to fight back, nor did they expect Captain Phillips to offer himself as hostage in exchange for the safety of his crew. Thus began the tense five-day stand-off, which ended in a daring high-seas rescue when U.S. Navy SEALs opened fire and picked off three of the captors. "It never ends like this," Captain Phillips said. And he's right. A Captain's Duty tells the life-and-death drama of the Vermont native who was held captive on a tiny lifeboat off Somalia's anarchic, gun-plagued shores. A story of adventure and courage, it provides the intimate details of this high-seas hostage-taking--the unbearable heat, the death threats, the mock executions, and the escape attempt. When the pirates boarded his ship, Captain Phillips put his experience into action, doing everything he could to safeguard his crew. And when he was held captive by the pirates, he marshaled all his resources to ensure his own survival, withstanding intense physical hardship and an escalating battle of wills with the pirates. This was it: the moment where training meets instinct and where character is everything. Richard Phillips was ready.

When a predatory serial killer known as the Hangman escapes incarceration, throwing the city of Buffalo into a fearful panic, homicide detective Absalom Kearney is tasked with finding him. Still reeling from her encounter with a twisted killer whose dark past entwined closely with her own, Abbie tracks the Hangman to within miles of the city limits, just as a teenage girl goes missing there. The Buffalo P.D. is on high alert, and as more girls disappear, Abbie begins to suspect someone else may be helping the killer. Unsure of who to trust in a city of secrets, she turns to the Network, a shady consortium of Buffalo old boys and ex-cops. But as Abbie draws closer to the truth, the Hangman ratchets up the stakes, kidnapping a girl from a prestigious local school and leaving the clear message that Abbie has just hours to find her - or live forever with the guilt of her death...

Henry Morgan, a twenty-year-old Welshman, arrived in the New World in 1655, hell-bent on making his fortune. Over the next three decades, his exploits in the Caribbean in the service of the English became legend. His daring attacks on the mighty Spanish Empire on land and sea changed the fates of kings and queens. His victories helped shape the destiny of the New World. Morgan gathered disaffected English and European sailors and soldiers, hard-bitten adventurers, runaway slaves, cutthroats and sociopaths and turned them into the fiercest and most feared army in the Western Hemisphere. Sailing out from the English stronghold of Port Royal, Jamaica, 'the wickedest city in the New World', Morgan and his men terrorised Spanish merchant ships and devastated the cities where great riches in silver, gold, and gems lay waiting to be sent to the King of Spain. His last raid, a daring assault on the fabled city of Panama, helped break Spain's solitary hold on the New World for ever. Awash with bloody battles, political intrigues, and a cast of characters more compelling, bizarre and memorable than any found in a Hollywood swashbuckler, EMPIRE OF BLUE WATER brilliantly re-creates the passions and the violence of the age of exploration and empire. What's more, it chillingly depicts the apocalyptic natural disaster that finally ended the pirates' dominion.

Before the Second World War, Herbert Cukurs was a world-famous aviator and a hero in his hometown of Riga, Latvia. During the war he joined the SS, led a militia and was responsible for the genocide of 30,000 Latvian Jews. By the 1960s the man who became known as the Butcher of Riga was living in South America. And Mossad were coming for him. In 1965, a statute of limitations on Nazi war crimes threatened to expire and Germany was seeking to reintegrate concentration camp commanders, pogrom leaders and executioners. The global hunt for Nazi criminals was stepped up, and a target was painted on the back of Cukurs. Yaakov Meidad, the Mossad agent who had kidnapped Adolf Eichmann three years earlier, was called into action once more, leading to an astonishing undercover operation that saw Meidad travel to Brazil in an elaborate disguise before befriending Cukurs and earning his trust. Uncovering a little-known part of Holocaust history and telling the story of one of the most daring operations in the history of the Israeli intelligence community, The Good Assassin is a thrilling story of a forgotten monster and the twenty-year quest to bring him to justice, told by a master of narrative non-fiction.

"Gripping . . . a compelling story of personal hubris and humbling defeat."
--Jack Weatherford, author of the "New York Times" bestseller "Genghis Khan and the Making of the
Modern World "
In a masterful dual narrative that pits the heights of human ambition and achievement against the supremacy of nature, "New York Times" bestselling author Stephan Talty tells the story of a mighty ruler and a tiny microbe, antagonists whose struggle would shape the modern world.
In the spring of 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte was at the height of his powers. Forty-five million called him emperor, and he commanded a nation that was the richest, most cultured, and advanced on earth. No army could stand against his impeccably trained, brilliantly led forces, and his continued sweep across Europe seemed inevitable.
Early that year, bolstered by his successes, Napoleon turned his attentions toward Moscow, helming the largest invasion in human history. Surely, Tsar Alexander's outnumbered troops would crumble against this mighty force.
But another powerful and ancient enemy awaited Napoleon's men in the Russian steppes. Virulent and swift, this microscopic foe would bring the emperor to his knees.
Even as the Russians retreated before him in disarray, Napoleon found his army disappearing, his frantic doctors powerless to explain what had struck down a hundred thousand soldiers. The emperor's vaunted military brilliance suddenly seemed useless, and when the Russians put their own occupied capital to the torch, the campaign became a desperate race through the frozen landscape as troops continued to die by the thousands. Through it all, with tragic heroism, Napoleon's disease-ravaged, freezing, starving men somehow rallied, again and again, to cries of "Vive l'Empereur!"
Yet Talty's sweeping tale takes us far beyond the doomed heroics and bloody clashes of the battlefield. "The Illustrious Dead" delves deep into the origins of the pathogen that finally ended the mighty emperor's dreams of world conquest and exposes this "war plague's" hidden role throughout history. A tale of two unstoppable forces meeting on the road to Moscow in an epic clash of killer microbe and peerless army, "The Illustrious Dead" is a historical whodunit in which a million lives hang in the balance.

"From the Hardcover edition."

"The book presses ever forward down a path of historical marvels and astonishing facts. The effect is like a master class that's accessible to anyone, and "Agent Garbo" often reads as though it were written in a single, perfect draft."--"The Atlantic"

Before he remade himself as the master spy known as Garbo, Juan Pujol was nothing more than a Barcelona poultry farmer. But as Garbo, he turned in a masterpiece of deception that changed the course of World War II. Posing as the Nazis' only reliable spy inside England, he created an imaginary million-man army, invented armadas out of thin air, and brought a vast network of fictional subagents to life. The scheme culminated on June 6, 1944, when Garbo convinced the Germans that the Allied forces approaching Normandy were just a feint--the real invasion would come at Calais. Because of his brilliant trickery, the Allies were able to land with much less opposition and eventually push on to Berlin.
As incredible as it sounds, everything in Agent Garbo is true, based on years of archival research and interviews with Pujol's family. This pulse-pounding thriller set in the shadow world of espionage and deception reveals the shocking reality of spycraft that occurs just below the surface of history.

"Stephan Talty's unsurpassed research brings forth one of the war's greatest agents in a must-read book for those who think they know all the great World War II stories." --Gregory Freeman, author of "The Forgotten 500"