Death's Half Acre


Book Description

Margaret Maron—winner of the most prestigious awards in mystery fiction—returns with another novel featuring her critically acclaimed sleuth Deborah Knott. Unchecked urbanization has begun to eclipse the North Carolina countryside. As farms give way to shoddy mansions, farmers struggle to slow the rampant growth. In the shadows, corrupt county commissioners use their political leverage to make profitable deals with new developers. A murder will pull Judge Deborah Knott and Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant into the middle of this bitter dispute and force them to confront some dark realities.




Death's Acre


Book Description

“Fans of the forensics-oriented novels of such mystery writers as Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell...not to mention television series like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, will make an eager audience for this one.”—Booklist On a patch of land in the Tennessee hills, human corpses decompose in the open air, aided by insects, bacteria, and birds, unhindered by coffins or mausoleums. This is Bill Bass’s “Body Farm,” where nature takes its course as bodies buried in shallow graves, submerged in water, or locked in car trunks serve the needs of science and the cause of justice. In Death’s Acre, Bass invites readers on an unprecedented journey behind the gates of the Body Farm where he revolutionized forensic anthropology. A master scientist and an engaging storyteller, Bass reveals his most intriguing cases for the first time. He revisits the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder, explores the mystery of a headless corpse whose identity astonished police, divulges how the telltale traces of an insect sent a murderous grandfather to death row—and much more. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS




Hell's Half Acre


Book Description

Includes material on Luke Short, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Sam Bass, and Butch Cassiday.




Hell's Half-Acre


Book Description

One of NPR's "Books We Love" New York Times Book Review's "The Best True Crime of 2022" "Rich in historical perspective and graced by novelistic touches, grips the reader from first to last.”—Wall Street Journal A suspense filled tale of murder on the American frontier—shedding new light on a family of serial killers in Kansas, whose horrifying crimes gripped the attention of a nation still reeling from war. In 1873 the people of Labette County, Kansas made a grisly discovery. Buried by a trailside cabin beneath an orchard of young apple trees were the remains of countless bodies. Below the cabin itself was a cellar stained with blood. The Benders, the family of four who once resided on the property were nowhere to be found. The discovery sent the local community and national newspapers into a frenzy that continued for decades, sparking an epic manhunt for the Benders. The idea that a family of seemingly respectable homesteaders—one among the thousands relocating farther west in search of land and opportunity after the Civil War—were capable of operating "a human slaughter pen" appalled and fascinated the nation. But who the Benders really were, why they committed such a vicious killing spree and whether justice ever caught up to them is a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. Set against the backdrop of postbellum America, Hell’s Half-Acre explores the environment capable of allowing such horrors to take place. Drawing on extensive original archival material, Susan Jonusas introduces us to a fascinating cast of characters, many of whom have been previously missing from the story. Among them are the families of the victims, the hapless detectives who lost the trail, and the fugitives that helped the murderers escape. Hell’s Half-Acre is a journey into the turbulent heart of nineteenth century America, a place where modernity stalks across the landscape, violently displacing existing populations and building new ones. It is a world where folklore can quickly become fact and an entire family of criminals can slip through a community’s fingers, only to reappear in the most unexpected of places.




Hell's Half Acre


Book Description

Short-story writer and novelist Baer goes for the gory in this follow-up to "Kiss Me, Judas" and "Penny Dreadful." Phineas Poe stumbles his way to San Francisco in search of ex-lover Jude who is under the spell of a wealthy sociopath, who's helping her play out a revenge fantasy.




Hell's Half Acre


Book Description

Hell's Half Acre is the story of the people who lived and worked in Turner Valley, western Canada's first commercial oilfield, located southwest of Calgary. Beginning in 1914, the oil fields attracted thousands of workers from across North America to the drilling rigs, processing plants, and the pipeline crews that dug the first trenches. In addition to the beginnings of an oil industry, Turner Valley provided Alberta with a rich historical legacy of epic proportions, along with a cast of very colourful characters. Drawing on contemporary accounts and dozens of interviews with Turner Valley pioneers, as well as probing the vast visual history of archival photographs, David Finch captures the life and times of an exciting era in Alberta history. Imagine natural gas flares so plentiful and powerful that night turned into day and the glowing sky could be seen from Calgary. The smell of sour gas and its deadly effects were a constant danger, as were the primitive work conditions associated with the early years of oil exploration. But on the workers toiled, constructing massive drilling rigs out of huge timbers, working day and night in a relentless search for black gold. The Second World War brought an unprecedented level of urgency and tension to Turner Valley when the national treasure became a military target. These were fascinating times, and in Hell's Half Acre the people, the companies, the booms and the busts are all revealed in entertaining detail.







Land, Kinship and Life-Cycle


Book Description

Essays on land transfer in English rural communities over the period 1250-1850.







From Hell's Half Acre to the Moon


Book Description

"About: C.E. Pullen His father, was Charles Eugene (Gene) Pullen, Sr., a sculptor whose works are on display at Pebble Hill Plantation in Thomasville, Georgia and The Little White House in Warm Springs. His mother, Lula Moncrief Reichert, a gifted musician, played the piano, guitar, banjo, and mandolin. Inheriting the talents of both parents, each encouraged the development of C.E.'s abilities. Some of his early years were spent in a community on the Georgia-Florida state line, known as "Hell's Half Acre." As a teenager, he lost his right eye to a failed prank. The accident left him unable to complete high school or enter the service in World War II. C.E. joined the Civil Service instead and entered a tool and die-maker apprenticeship at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Pullen never regarded himself as handicapped by the loss of his eye. In the 50s and 60s, he worked for Perkin Elmer Corporation. Named the company's number one Senior Model Maker, Pullen was the builder for projects in collaboration with MIT and NASA. Such specialized projects included a spectrometer launched in space for stellar analysis and prototypes for the lunar LASER retroreflectors used for measuring distance precisely. Apollo astronauts permanently positioned the equipment on the Moon's surface to refine the scientific measurement from earth to the surface to an accuracy of +/- 3 inches. His musical career began as a child regularly playing banjo on the radio. Pullen's musical abilities allowed him to perform with many of the Grand Ole Opry greats. He became friends with numerous professional musicians, and for some was their preferred choice when repairs were required on their instruments. Pullen designed and built his one-of-a-kind banjo. He was a featured Georgian in Oglethorpe's Dream, published by the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade, and Tourism in 2001. The Georgia Country Music Hall of Fame inducted C.E. Pullen in 2017"--Back cover