Closely Akin to Murder


Book Description

At first it seems like a prank. How could Veronica Landonwood be the voice on the other end of the phone when she died three decades ago? But as Arkansas bookseller and amateur sleuth Claire Malloy is about to find out, her cousin "Ronnie" is very much alive—and in trouble. And could use Claire's help... Today, Ronnie is a renowned scientist living in Chicago. But when she was a teenager, she had a run-in with a famous Hollywood producer in Acapulco, Mexico. He attempted to sexually assault her—and she killed him. Having served time in prison, Ronnie finally put her this episode behind her...until now. Just when she has a real shot at the Nobel Prize, a ruthless blackmailer is threatening to expose the secrets of her past. Can Claire help to preserve Ronnie's reputation and keep her out of harm's way? That will depend on Claire's investigation—and what really happened on the night of the murder so many years ago...




Under the Banner of Heaven


Book Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, this extraordinary work of investigative journalism takes readers inside America’s isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities. • Now an acclaimed FX limited series streaming on HULU. “Fantastic.... Right up there with In Cold Blood and The Executioner’s Song.” —San Francisco Chronicle Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God; some 40,000 people still practice polygamy in these communities. At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.




[email protected]


Book Description

When a beautiful, beguiling newcomer to Maggody turns up murdered, police chief Arly Hanks traces her e-mails and begins to suspect that someone in town may have killed her--perhaps one of the many women she made jealous.




Triple Chocolate Murder


Book Description

Boxed set, USA TODAY BESTSELLING SERIES BOOK 1: DEATH BY CHOCOLATE Lindsay Powell's only secret is the recipe for her chocolate chip cookies, but she is surrounded by neighbors with deadly secrets. Suddenly Lindsay finds herself battling poisoned chocolate, a dead man who isn’t very dead and a psycho stalker. Lindsay needs more than a chocolate fix to survive all this chaos. BOOK 2: MURDER, LIES AND CHOCOLATE Rodney Bradford comes into Lindsay's restaurant, eats her brownies, and drops dead on her sidewalk. On the positive side, sales skyrocket for the special dessert Lindsay calls Murdered Man's Brownies. BOOK 3: GREAT CHOCOLATE SCAM When Rick’s SUV is blown up in his driveway, Lindsay appears to be his only heir. But before his estate is settled, poor orphan Rick has more relatives than a lottery winner. Are these people really related to Rick, or was he actually an alien stranded on earth when the mother ship left without him?




Murder as a Fine Art


Book Description

A brilliant historical mystery series begins: in gaslit Victorian London, writer Thomas De Quincey must become a detective to clear his own name. Thomas De Quincey, infamous for his memoir Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, is the major suspect in a series of ferocious mass murders identical to ones that terrorized London forty-three years earlier. The blueprint for the killings seems to be De Quincey's essay On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts. Desperate to clear his name but crippled by opium addiction, De Quincey is aided by his devoted daughter Emily and a pair of determined Scotland Yard detectives. In Murder as a Fine Art, David Morrell plucks De Quincey, Victorian London, and the Ratcliffe Highway murders from history. Fogbound streets become a battleground between a literary star and a brilliant murderer, whose lives are linked by secrets long buried but never forgotten.




Murder in America


Book Description

This revised and updated edition of Murder in America presents a pragmatic examination of both common and unusual acts of homicide in the United States.




Murder in Oregon: Notorious Crime Sites


Book Description

Murder in Oregon: Notorious Crime Sites is a visual return to 75 infamous murder scenes profiling the shocking and detailed narratives behind each tragedy. The State of Oregon has been the residence of numerous infamous serial killers including Randy Woodfield, Keith Jesperson (Smiley Faced Killer), Jerry Brudos (Shoe Fetish Killer) and Scott William Cox. Many of the narratives defy believability, yet they are true. Long after the screaming headlines and sensationalism has subsided, these bizarre, infamous and obscure murder sites and stories remain buried awaiting rediscovery. The Murder in Oregon edition features accompanying photographs of most of the crime sites as well as their precise location. The profiles include the fatality victims, perpetrators and for those still living, the penal institution where they are incarcerated. Cases profiled include: Charity Lamb: Frontier Injustice For Blatant Spousal Abuse Portland’s Famed Witches Castle Wasco County Jail: A Killing Site For A Local Informant A Private Detective’s Obscure Slaying of A Prosecuting Attorney in Old Astoria Portland’s Historic Court of Death Merchants Hotel: A Storied History Reconstructed Primarily Underground The Legendary Exaggerations Behind Joseph Bunko Kelly Portland Fasting Cult Frontier Death On The Columbia Gorge Crime Hotel Incorporated and The Vortex of Vice A Dark Strangler A Contract Killing With A Questionable Resolution Going Straight: Portland 1930s Style 1946 Willamette River Floating Torso Murders The Bowden Bomb: A Domestic Fusillade Under St. Johns Bridge: A Tainted Patch of Forest Brush The Johnson Family: Over A Cliff Into Deeper Speculation Diane Hank: A Babysitter ‘s Unexplained and Fatal Disappearance Richard Marquette: A Still Living Relic From A Costly Early Release Blunder Women’s Shoe Fetish Killer Roma Ollison: One of Portland’s Last Gangsters Ted Bundy and Kathleen Parks Murder A Murder Within Law Enforcement Ranks Michele Dee Gate’s Doomed Saga That Defies Explanation A Paperboy Axes His Rose Lady Client to Death Randall Woodfield: From Gridiron Glory To Despised Serial Killer Diane Downs: A Sordid Mother’s Shooting of Her Children Joan Leigh Hall’s Fatal Stroll Into Oblivion The Savage Legacy of Serial Killer Bobby Jack Fowler Dayton Leroy Rogers: The Screwdriver Serial Killer Robert Paul Langley: A Cactus Garden Amidst A Mental Hospital Prison Director Michael Francke’s Stabbing A Counterfeit Ticket Ring and Cadaver Deficient Murder Keith Jesperson: Smiley Faced Twisted Wreckage Tyrom Theis: A Callous Robbery and Execution With A Vanishing Perpetrator Harry Charles Moore: The Control Freak Who Relinquished His Grip Jesse McAllister and Bradley Price’s Seaside Thrill Killing Kip Kinkel: A Boy and His Guns Martin Allen Johnson: The Wolf Preying On Innocent Lambs Eric Tamiyasu: A Silent Killing Eluding A Conclusive Motive The Masquerading Façade of Christian Longo Ward Weaver III: A Predatory Neighbor With A Predictable Outcome Brooke Wilberger: An Abduction Following A Twisted Trail Scott William Cox: Tick, Tick, Ticking… Confessional Controversy Over a Potential Prostitute Serial Killer An Impulsive Oceanside Murder and Botched Arson Cover-Up A Seemingly Regular Guy Bloodies Portland’s Night Scene Rhonda Castro: The Travesty Behind A Trailhead Shove A Questionable Medical Determination Potentially Clouds A Murder Investigation Kyron Horman: A Child Abduction Scheduled Between a Science Fair and First Period Officer Chris Kilcullen: The Vague Divide Between Sanity and Accountability The Tainted Clackamas Town Center A Double Life Terminated Violently on a Hotel Stairwell Chris Harper-Mercer: A Disgruntled Failure Hellbound For His Inferno Portland Protest Murder And Even More Murder Narratives….




Murder of a Barbie and Ken


Book Description

In search of a social life in Scumble River, Skye Denison has revently joined the GUMBettes-the ladies auxiliary of the men's Grand Union of the Mighty Bulls. Now she and her boyfriend Simon hobnob with the upwardly mobile professionals in town. But when a seemingly perfect couple is murdered, Skye discovers that success doesn't equal survival...




Pure Evil


Book Description

Rebecca and Ronald Akins and their three daughters appeared to be a typical suburban family in 1970 Macon, Georgia, but the attractive facade hid a family in crisis. The girls suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of their mother. Although he sometimes worked three jobs, Ronnie was never able to provide Becky the lifestyle she wanted. After their 1974 divorce, Becky took the children to South Florida where she pursued a life of gambling and partying. Fueled by popular books and films, she wanted to live in what she believed was the exciting world of organized crime and changed her name to Machetti. In only a few months, she found two men who joined her in her murderous fantasy which culminated in two deaths. The resulting legal proceedings went on for more than a decade. This is the story of Rebecca Machetti, a cold-blooded woman whose prosecutor described as pure evil and her three daughters who lived through years of abuse before finally finding peace and normal lives.




Murder as a Second Language


Book Description

"With her bookstore, the Book Depot, being run by a competent graduate student, Claire Malloy is at loose ends. Her attempt to learn French cooking meets with dismay, so when her daughter, Caron, and Caron's friend Inez sign up to tutor English-as-a-second-language students to beef up their college applications, Claire offers to help tutor. After being turned down as a tutor since she missed the training session, Claire is roped into becoming a board member of the Farberville Literacy Council. She soon learns there are problems with the council's books, and then an elderly Polish student, Ludmilla, is murdered at the council's office. The unpleasant Ludmilla's death is not even mourned by her own grandson, so there are plenty of suspects. As Claire investigates, she uncovers other nefarious deeds that have transpired among the employees of the literacy council, and she becomes a target." --