The Meriwether Murder


Book Description

In a decaying plantation graveyard, Alan Graham finds a clue to a great American mystery The headstone reads Louis, and when Pepper Courtney finds it, she assumes it belonged to a slave. But when the old woman who owns the crumbling plantation house gives her an ancestor’s diary, Courtney discovers that Louis was a white man whose drifter’s appearance concealed a gentleman’s manners. Who was this stranger, and why did he die with the president’s name on his lips? Courtney’s boss, contract archaeologist Alan Graham, has a radical theory—and there are those who would kill to keep it quiet. Based on the diary, the dig, and the scant historical records, Graham believes the headstone may have belonged to explorer Meriwether Lewis, who was said to have died in Tennessee but may have survived to make a new life in Louisiana. To solve this centuries-old mystery, he will have to catch a modern-day killer.




The Murder of Judith Roberts


Book Description

In the Summer of 1972, 14-year-old Judith Roberts took off for a bike ride within the vicinity of her Staffordshire home. Her body was discovered after a three-day manhunt, concealed from view in a thick privet having been brutally attacked. The community of Tamworth was rocked by the news of her death and an outcry for justice ensued. Within weeks of her murder, an impressionable and troubled soldier, based in the nearby barracks, 17-year-old Andrew Evans, walked into a police station and confessed to the killing. Relentlessly interviewed for hours on end without representation or an appropriate adult present, Andrew was swiftly charged with Judith's murder. Despite attempting to recount his statement and a legal defense at trial that defied the prosecution's arguments that Andrew Evans was guilty, a judge sentenced him to life behind bars. He was eventually acquitted in 1997 in what was, at the time, Britain's longest miscarriage of justice. While Andrew Evans fought for his freedom, another man drove up and down England undetected: Peter William Sutcliffe. Eventually proven capable of inflicting unimaginable horror at any given opportunity, an independent inquiry dubbed him likely responsible for more murders than the 13 he was convicted of and the seven others he attempted between 1975 and 1980. In The Murder of Judith Roberts, Chris Clark and Tanita Matthews examine evidence that concludes that Sutcliffe, whose violent criminal history dates back as far as 1969, was the real culprit responsible for Judith's murder. With never before-published dialogue from Andrew Evans' police interviews showing the grave miscarriage of justice, the case file of the five-decade cold case is examined under a new light.




Akin to Murder


Book Description

The year is 1864 and Detective Inspector Faro's idyllic life has been shattered by the escape of convicted murderer John McLaw. With countless dead end sightings of the killer and further criminal activity Faro realises that this case is far more complicated than he had first assumed. When the disappearance of a maid comes to light, Faro begins to think there could be a link between her disappearance and the murder of Annie McLaw. His determination to unearth the truth becomes personal and in a race against time to solve the anonymities of the case, he takes matters into his own hands.




Killers of the Flower Moon


Book Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, from the author of The Wager and The Lost City of Z, “one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today."—New York Magazine • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NOW A MARTIN SCORSESE PICTURE “A shocking whodunit…What more could fans of true-crime thrillers ask?”—USA Today “A masterful work of literary journalism crafted with the urgency of a mystery.” —The Boston Globe In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history. Look for David Grann’s latest bestselling book, The Wager!




The Body in the Mound


Book Description

When archaeologist Jack Gordon starts a dig in the small mountain town of Renovo, Pennsylvania, he is dragged into a murder case somehow connected to an ancient Indian burial mound. As he tries to get on with his work, Gordon is threatened, shot at, and accused of being the murderer himself. To save his career and his reputation, he has to find out himself whether the mound was real, and, if so, who dug it up and what happened to the very valuable artifacts it must have contained. The more questions he asks, though, the angrier the threats against him become, and the greater the danger to his own life.




Murder on the Half Shelf


Book Description

Tricia Miles—owner of Haven’t Got a Clue, the best mystery bookstore in Stoneham, New Hampshire—once again plays amateur sleuth as she is unexpectedly reunited with a man from a chapter of her life she closed long ago… The town of Stoneham is a haven for bookstores, but it is sadly lacking in bed-and-breakfasts. Fortunately Pippa and Jon Comfort’s Sheer Comfort Inn is about to open, and the couple has offered some locals a free night as a trial run. But it won’t be so easy to sleep after Tricia makes two startling discoveries: Pippa’s murdered body in the backyard, and the fact that Pippa’s husband, Jon, is actually Harry Tyler, a man Tricia loved—and believed dead—for nearly twenty years. Though Harry is the prime suspect, Tricia doesn’t believe him capable of murder, even though he’s led a life of lies. Especially when she discovers that Pippa had a few secrets of her own—some that may have been worth killing for. Includes recipes.




A History of Minnesota


Book Description

Considered the most authoritative history of the state, the four volume set was first published in the 1920s. Volume Two includes detailed accounts of Minnesota's role in the Civil War and the Dakota War of 1862.




Bite of the Serpent


Book Description

Sequel to Tempest Rider Slate Morgan and Silver Black are married now and have moved to a farm near Sinking Spring Ohio. When they bought the land, they didn't realize that the farm next door to them was occupied by a group of pagans who had come to the area in order to be near Serpent Mound, which they believe is a vortex. The farm, called The Garden of Eden by its serpent worshipping inhabitants, is host to beliefs such as Wicca, Celtic, Atheist, and Native American; all grouped under a pagan banner. The farm is located in a longtime Christian Farming Community which has recently had an influx of Amish residents as well. It would seem they are heading for a culture clash. When Anne Baxter, the leader of the group is found murdered there are many suspects in this diverse community where she'd made many enemies and seemingly no friends. When suspicion falls on the Morgan family, on whose land the body is found, Silver feels she must help investigate in order to remove the cloud over her family's head. She sets out to learn all the local gossip so she can pass it on to the Sheriff who is investigating the murder. However, her snooping has riled up someone who has her in his/her sights, considering her a threat. This is a Who Dunnit set in a small community. With so many suspects you will be guessing who the culprit is until the last minute.




The Horror from the Mound


Book Description

This early work by Robert E. Howard was originally published in the 1932 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Horror from the Mound' is one of Howard's stories in the weird west genre, a combination of a western and a horror or fantasy. Robert Ervin Howard was born in Peaster, Texas in 1906. During his youth, his family moved between a variety of Texan boomtowns, and Howard - a bookish and somewhat introverted child - was steeped in the violent myths and legends of the Old South. At fifteen Howard began to read the pulp magazines of the day, and to write more seriously. The December 1922 issue of his high school newspaper featured two of his stories, 'Golden Hope Christmas' and 'West is West'. In 1924 he sold his first piece - a short caveman tale titled 'Spear and Fang' - for $16 to the not-yet-famous Weird Tales magazine. Howard's most famous character, Conan the Cimmerian, was a barbarian-turned-King during the Hyborian Age, a mythical period of some 12,000 years ago. Conan featured in seventeen Weird Tales stories between 1933 and 1936 which is why Howard is now regarded as having spawned the 'sword and sorcery' genre. The Conan stories have since been adapted many times, most famously in the series of films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.




Celestial Mesa: 2012


Book Description

So, for centuries your people have worked as farmers and hunters, knowing the future would roll down to the end days prophecied by the Mayan culture like a run-away freight train? Sue asked. Yes, it is true, Frank replied. We didnt have much choice, we had to keep body and soul together until the end days. We rocked along for centuries working in the fields and hunting. We domesticated fowl, eating their meat and eggs. We were all small communities and lived in simple dwellings that were relatively easy to repair. If we suffered natural disasters like earthquakes and tornadoes that destroyed our homes, we cleared away the rubble and started over. Then we came up on the twentieth century and everything got different. We went through a surge of creating new inventions. We learned to fly and made electricity, toilets that flushed, fancy cell phones and the internet. Suddenly there wasnt anything happening on the planet we didnt know about. Weve become complacent now, and a hundred years after the inventions came, our fancy inventions are beginning to crumble. We got so we depended on the economy. The monetary system took over. Men became greedy and pulled and tugged at the proceeds from Wall Street until it all began to unravel. They created bigger and better weapons not where you had your enemy in your sights, but you could take out whole cities at a time. The Hopi tell in their prophecies of villages in metal and glass canyons, where a man could walk all day and never see the horizon. One day someone would push a button and where a city had been there would just be steam. The people would have no choice but to just walk away if they survived. We are getting to be like the Olmecs and Mayans and Aztecs who couldnt feed their people because their population and their cities got too big, and they had to abandon them. Its not impossible New York could become an abandoned city. It could happen. They could just walk away. In the twentieth century, for the first time skirmishes became world wars. The young men left the land their forefathers defended and went to lose their blood and their lives defending someone elses land. One day soon we will lose all our fancy toys to the end of the age of electricity and technology and succumb to sunspots that will devastate communications. Our forefathers never knew sunspots existed.