Murder at Mountain Creek


Book Description

Beth was covered in blood and ashes. Unable to stand up and walk in the slick pool of blood, she crawled to her grandfather. Her nightgown, heavy with blood, slid along the floor, leaving a trail of red behind her. She was crying uncontrollably. Samson took her in this arms, cradling her close to his chest.







Murder on the Mountain


Book Description

Charged with murdering her husband in 1879, Margaret Meierhofer became the last woman executed by the state of New Jersey. Murder on the Mountain considers all sides of this fascinating and mysterious true crime story, investigating how the case's sensational details about domestic violence and female sexuality gripped the nation.




Murder on Shades Mountain


Book Description

One August night in 1931, on a secluded mountain ridge overlooking Birmingham, Alabama, three young white women were brutally attacked. The sole survivor, Nell Williams, age eighteen, said a black man had held the women captive for four hours before shooting them and disappearing into the woods. That same night, a reign of terror was unleashed on Birmingham's black community: black businesses were set ablaze, posses of armed white men roamed the streets, and dozens of black men were arrested in the largest manhunt in Jefferson County history. Weeks later, Nell identified Willie Peterson as the attacker who killed her sister Augusta and their friend Jennie Wood. With the exception of being black, Peterson bore little resemblance to the description Nell gave the police. An all-white jury convicted Peterson of murder and sentenced him to death. In Murder on Shades Mountain Melanie S. Morrison tells the gripping and tragic story of the attack and its aftermath—events that shook Birmingham to its core. Having first heard the story from her father—who dated Nell's youngest sister when he was a teenager—Morrison scoured the historical archives and documented the black-led campaigns that sought to overturn Peterson's unjust conviction, spearheaded by the NAACP and the Communist Party. The travesty of justice suffered by Peterson reveals how the judicial system could function as a lynch mob in the Jim Crow South. Murder on Shades Mountain also sheds new light on the struggle for justice in Depression-era Birmingham. This riveting narrative is a testament to the courageous predecessors of present-day movements that demand an end to racial profiling, police brutality, and the criminalization of black men.




A Death at Crooked Creek


Book Description

"This is an extraordinary and ground-breaking book, a wonderfully creative mix of fact and theory, imagination and drama…The startling origin of the complex 'intention exception' to the hearsay evidence rule becomes canvas on which a grand and marvelously detailed tale is told. This is modern narrative at its best: a marriage of spectacular writing and hard, documented truth presented by a brilliant author who doubles as a gifted and fastidious legal scholar and historian." —Andrew Popper, American University One winter night in 1879, at a lonely Kansas campsite near Crooked Creek, a man was shot to death. The dead man’s traveling companion identified him as John Hillmon, a cowboy from Lawrence who had been attempting to carve out a life on the blustery prairie. The case might have been soon forgotten and the apparent widow, Sallie Hillmon, left to mourn—except for the $25,000 life insurance policies Hillmon had taken out shortly before his departure. The insurance companies refused to pay on the policies, claiming that the dead man was not John Hillmon, and Sallie was forced to take them to court in a case that would reach the Supreme Court twice. The companies’ case rested on a crucial piece of evidence: a faded love letter written by a disappeared cigarmaker, declaring his intent to travel westward with a “man named Hillmon.” In A Death at Crooked Creek, Marianne Wesson re-examines the long-neglected evidence in the case of the Kansas cowboy and his wife, recreating the court scenes that led to a significant Supreme Court ruling on the admissibility of hearsay evidence. Wesson employs modern forensic methods to examine the body of the dead man, attempting to determine his true identity and finally put this fascinating mystery to rest. This engaging and vividly imagined work combines the drama, intrigue, and emotion of excellent storytelling with cutting-edge forensic investigation techniques and legal theory. Wesson’s superbly imagined A Death at Crooked Creek will have general readers, history buffs, and legal scholars alike wondering whether history, and the Justices, may have misunderstood altogether the events at that bleak winter campsite. Marianne Wesson is Professor of Law and President’s Teaching Scholar, University of Colorado Law School. She is the author of best-selling and prize-winning legal novels including Render up the Body, A Suggestion of Death, and Chilling Effect. She lives in a Colorado mountain valley with her husband, llamas, dogs, and visiting wildlife.




Done Gone Wrong


Book Description

A chance to be a part of a headline-grabbing case against a drug company has lured attorney Avery Andrews back to Charleston, South Carolina. She agrees to meet with Mark Tilman, a young doctor from her hometown who seems to have something on his mind. When he doesn't show, she figures he stood her up and takes comfort in the stilt restaurant's she-crab soup. But it turns out he had a fatal car accident. Something about the crash isn't right, and Mark's father asks Avery to look into his death. Between that and digging up dirt on the wonder drug Uplift, Avery is coming up with more questions than answers. Of course, Avery isn't the only one making headlines. Back in Dacus, her mom is on live television confronting a teenager's dynamite-toting paramour in a hostage crisis at the Burger Hut, Great-Aunt Aletha is mixing it up with the now-toupeeless postman, and the son of a ghost wants vengeance. In short, it's life as usual back in Dacus, while in Charleston, Avery is forced to face demons from her past. Cathy Pickens's first mystery novel established her as a distinctive voice in the cozy tradition. In this second, readers can expect more Southern wit and charm, more courtroom drama, and even crazier antics from the folks back home, all the while falling more and more in love with this endearing heroine.




Murder Creek


Book Description

Book #14 in the Award-Winning Raine Stockton Dog Mystery SeriesRaine Stockton knows dogs, not kids. Nonetheless, she is supremely confident in her ability to take care her fiancé's ten year old daughter, Melanie, for a week while he is out of town. After all, how hard could it be?But things get complicated when Raine and her golden retriever, Cisco, rescue a dog who is locked in a hot car in a remote Smoky Mountain park... and subsequently discover the owner of that car drowned in the creek only a few dozen yards away. Was it an accident, or was it murder?Raine is certain that she recognizes the abandoned dog from her puppy training class six years ago. Mere months later, the dog, along with his three-year-old owner, disappeared from the child's bedroom during the night and were never seen again. Now the dog is back, and Raine is convinced his reappearance might hold the key to the truth about the missing child. The problem is that no one believes her.While Raine tries to unravel the mystery of the abandoned dog's past-and a six-year-old missing child case-her ex-husband, criminal investigator Buck Lawson, opens an investigation into the death of the man in whose car the dog was found. He soon finds himself involved in another cold case, one that leads him from an apparent serial killer in Florida to a murder in his own hometown.The one thing that ties the two cases together is the dog whose shadowy history opens the door to questions better left unasked, and whose answers may prove to be deadly. But when lives are in danger, it is up to Raine and Cisco to track down the truth, even though it means risking someone she loves.




Murder in the Smokies


Book Description

A Cold Case Brought Him Home… When Sutton Calhoun shook the dust of Bitterwood, Tennessee, off his boots, he never thought he'd return. But now he's back to investigate an unsolved murder and has teamed up with police detective Ivy Hawkins—the only part of the Smoky Mountain hamlet worth remembering. A Steamy Reunion Would Keep Him There Ivy is a hometown girl and well aware of Sutton's reputation. She can't help but find his smoldering eyes resurrecting long-buried feelings. Plus, as the body count rises, Sutton is the only one who believes her that an eerily methodical serial killer is living among them in the shrouded peaks of Bitterwood. Ivy doesn't know which is worse—the desire she feels for a man who's nothing but trouble…or the danger posed by a killer who has them in his sights?