The Devil's Jail


Book Description

Phil, a downtrodden journalist, is rested and ready to move on to the next village. When the proprietor of the inn hands him a mysterious envelope and asks him to open it only after he leaves town, Phil stuffs it into his glove compartment without another thought. Phil has no idea that in a short time, the innkeeper and his wife will be dead and his own life will have changed forever. In a village nestled in the Appalachian Mountains, John Abbott has just captured a dark force that had wreaked a terrible vengeance upon the town’s unlucky population. As the residents celebrate their victory over evil, they have no idea of the tumultuous events that had been set in motion. Meanwhile, Phil becomes entangled in a series of attacks that baffle police. While struggling with his own inadequacies, he unwittingly becomes the target of evil intent. No one knows if it is just bad luck or fate, but one way or the other, the Devil is determined to get his way. In this gripping thriller, events quickly escalate until a cataclysmic showdown becomes inevitable. Turns out, Phil may just be the only one who can stop the Devil—before it is too late.




The Devil's Half Acre


Book Description

The inspiring true story of an enslaved woman who liberated an infamous slave jail and transformed it into one of the nation’s first HBCUs In The Devil’s Half Acre, New York Times bestselling author Kristen Green draws on years of research to tell the extraordinary and little-known story of young Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who blazed a path of liberation for thousands. She was forced to have the children of a brutal slave trader and live on the premises of his slave jail, known as the “Devil’s Half Acre.” When she inherited the jail after the death of her slaveholder, she transformed it into “God’s Half Acre,” a school where Black men could fulfill their dreams. It still exists today as Virginia Union University, one of America’s first Historically Black Colleges and Universities. A sweeping narrative of a life in the margins of the American slave trade, The Devil’s Half Acre brings Mary Lumpkin into the light. This is the story of the resilience of a woman on the path to freedom, her historic contributions, and her enduring legacy.




Devil's Cut


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In J. R. Ward’s thrilling finale to her Bourbon Kings series, the Bradford family dynasty teeters on the edge of collapse after the murder of their patriarch—and a shocking arrest. At first, the death of William Baldwine, the head of the Bradford family, was ruled a suicide. But then his eldest son and sworn enemy, Edward, came forward and confessed to what was, in fact, a murder. Now in police custody, Edward mourns not the disintegration of his family or his loss of freedom . . . but the woman he left behind. His love, Sutton Smythe, is the only person he has ever truly cared about, but as she is the CEO of the Bradford Bourbon Company’s biggest competitor, any relationship between them is impossible. And then there’s the reality of the jail time that Edward is facing. Lane Baldwine was supposed to remain in his role of playboy, forever in his big brother Edward’s shadow. Instead he has become the new head of the family and the company. Convinced that Edward is covering for someone else, Lane and his true love, Lizzie King, go on the trail of a killer—only to discover a secret that is as devastating as it is game-changing. As Lane rushes to discover the truth, and Sutton finds herself irresistibly drawn to Edward in spite of his circumstances, the lives of everyone at Easterly will never be the same again. For some, this is good; for others, it could be a tragedy beyond imagining. Only one thing is for certain: Love survives all things. Even murder. Praise for J. R. Ward’s Bourbon Kings series “A most sinful indulgence . . . The gorgeous Kentucky backdrop will sweep you away.”—Susan Wiggs “Breathless fun!”—Lisa Gardner




The Devils of Cardona


Book Description

"A thrilling quest for justice... [A] novel that is as exciting as it is enlightening from its first pages to its satisfying end.” —The New York Times Book Review “A page-turner in the proper sense… Mr. Carr has written a gripping and enjoyable novel.” —The Wall Street Journal The gripping story of the dangerous high-stakes worlds of politics and religion in sixteenth-century Spain as a mysterious Muslim killer retaliates against the Catholic Church. In March 1584, the priest of Belamar de la Sierra, a small town in Aragon near the French border, is murdered in his own church. Most of the town’s inhabitants are Moriscos, former Muslims who converted to Catholicism. Anxious to avert a violent backlash on the eve of a royal visit, an adviser to King Philip II appoints local magistrate Bernardo de Mendoza to investigate. A soldier and humanist, Mendoza doesn’t always live up to the moral standards expected of court officials, but he has a reputation for incorruptibility. From the beginning, Mendoza finds almost universal hatred for the priest. And it isn’t long before he’s drawn into a complex and dangerous world in which greed, fanaticism, and state policy overlap. And as the killings continue, Mendoza's investigation is overshadowed by the real prospect of an ethnic and religious civil war. By turns an involving historical thriller and a novel with parallels to our own time, The Devils of Cardona is an unexpected and compelling read.




Wrestling with the Devil


Book Description

A New York Times Editors’ Choice "A welcome addition to the vast literature produced by jailed writers across the centuries . . . [a] thrilling testament to the human spirit." —Ariel Dorfman, The New York Times Book Review "Wrestling with the Devil is a powerful testament to the courage of Ngũgĩ and his fellow prisoners and validation of the hope that an independent Kenya would eventually emerge." —Minneapolis Star Tribune "The Ngũgĩ of Wrestling with the Devil called not just for adding a bit of color to the canon’s sagging shelf, but for abolition and upheaval." —Bookforum An unforgettable chronicle of the year the brilliant novelist and memoirist, long favored for the Nobel Prize, was thrown in a Kenyan jail without charge Wrestling with the Devil, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's powerful prison memoir, begins literally half an hour before his release on December 12, 1978. In one extended flashback he recalls the night, a year earlier, when armed police pulled him from his home and jailed him in Kenya's Kamĩtĩ Maximum Security Prison, one of the largest in Africa. There, he lives in a prison block with eighteen other political prisoners, quarantined from the general prison population. In a conscious effort to fight back the humiliation and the intended degradation of the spirit, Ngũgĩ—the world-renowned author of Weep Not, Child; Petals of Blood; and Wizard of the Crow—decides to write a novel on toilet paper, the only paper to which he has access, a book that will become his classic, Devil on the Cross. Written in the early 1980s and never before published in America, Wrestling with the Devil is Ngũgĩ's account of the drama and the challenges of writing the novel under twenty-four-hour surveillance. He captures not only the excruciating pain that comes from being cut off from his wife and children, but also the spirit of defiance that defines hope. Ultimately, Wrestling with the Devil is a testimony to the power of imagination to help humans break free of confinement, which is truly the story of all art.




The Devil's Song


Book Description

“Family secrets, childhood memories, and old crimes influence the present in this suspenseful debut...A solid bet for fans of dark crime dramas.”—Library Journal Up-and-coming Mission County, Pennsylvania, prosecutor Kate Magda has been given the assignment of a lifetime: lead counsel on a string of murders rocking the community. As the privileged daughter of a powerful local judge, Kate views the case as her chance to show her boss, her family, and the public that she is more than just “the judge’s daughter.” As Kate delves into it, she becomes convinced that she shares a personal link with the killer, who seems to know intimate details about a tragic childhood event from Kate's past—an event she’d long been trying to forget. Paranoia sets in, the night terrors return, and Kate has a strong sense that she’s the killer's next victim. She no longer feels assigned to the case. She is the case, and solving it is her only chance for survival. “Exciting…keeps the reader on a roller-coaster ride with unexpected twists and turns to the end.”—Publishers Weekly "I was up all night, utterly riveted by The Devil's Song, with its memorable characters, crisp dialogue, and meticulous plotting.”—Alafair Burke, New York Times-bestselling author of The Better Sister




The Devils Wimp Was Gods Man


Book Description

Why This Book In the late 1980's I started Ministering at different Men Jails and Prisons in California. This particular time as I was getting ready to go to my assigned Pod, there were Deputies bringing in Men shackles by their hands and feet; one of the Men looked at me and said we need prater too. I always wanted to go into the Pod where the gangs were, but they never allow me. My Hear would cry for them because they would allow gang members to be in the same cells and you could actually feel the tension. I ministered at Chuckawalla and Ironwood Prison in Blyte CA; Donovan Prison which is in San Diego, CA. The talent and gifts that were in the Jails and Prisons blew my mind because all these gifts and talents were locked up. The Devils Wimp was born in 1989, and the Lord bless me to preach it in the prisons and jails. Let's Get to Eden was born in 2010. I was visiting this church in Rialto CA and they sang the song Let's Get Back to Eden living on top of this world. And in January 2011, the Lord blessed me to have Men's Conference "Let's Get Back to Eden because You're Up Front On Top and In Charge" was the theme. In 2016 was when the Lord out the titles together and He wanted it in book form, so here it is. Truly just seeing the miraculous hand of God's work in the lives of Men, the transformation is awesome. Why the book, because men are hurting wanting to be delivered and set free. They really don't like themselves the way they are, but they have so much pride and would rather stay that way until they are urged by God that they need to be delivered. When God sets them up and touch their heart truly they are ready to get rid of the pride and every chain that is keeping them in bondage and want to be free. Just seeing them crying and crawling on the floor trying to get to the altar, and God meeting them there at the altar is life changing not just for them but for us also. Just seeing the new creation bloom. There was one time I was having a Men's fellowship in my one-bedroom apartment. I didn't' think it was going to be that man men there. It was fifty men and they were in the balcony, living room, dining room and in the kitchen and they were like sardines. I forgot the message that God has given me but man oh man, oh man it was truly a set up by God. Afterwards, (I always was the only there) I would have a couple of ladies that would help me serve food. When they walked in they were shocked and guess what my Brothers in Christ cleaned up and put everything back in order. Why the book, just like us ladies men have been mistreated, rejected, betrayed, bruised, abused and the list goes on and on, so have they. And God wants His men to be encouraged and strengthened, Delivered and set free so they could be the Real Men, husbands, father's, uncles, grandfathers, and brothers' that God ha call them to be. My prayer is that every make would allow The Man (Jesus Christ) into their lives, so He could teach them how to take their Rightful place in this world and take dominion (rule) over everything God has given them, they way it was in Eden ( the garden of delight)....




Defy All the Devils


Book Description

The “fascinating, hair-raising, suspenseful” account of a little boy abducted in broad daylight and the desperate manhunt to find him (The New York Times Book Review). On July 1, 1874, four-year-old Charley Ross and his older brother, Walter, were playing in front of their stately Philadelphia home when a horse-drawn carriage pulled up with two men who offered candy and fireworks if the boys would ride with them. Hours later, Walter came back, stating that they had ridden through the city until the men abandoned him in the street but kept Charley. Soon after, their father, Christian K. Ross, received a demand for $20,000 in return for his son. Ross went to the police for help—and before long, the case became a national phenomenon. A popular song pleaded for the boy’s safe return. The Philadelphia police searched every home in the city, and thousands of people falsely reported that they had seen Charley or knew his whereabouts. Meanwhile, the kidnappers’ ransom letters were becoming more threatening and bizarre. The press, eager to fan the flames of hysteria, printed wholly fabricated stories and even accused Christian Ross of orchestrating the whole thing in order to hide the fact that Charley was illegitimate. And then the men who took Charley went silent . . . This is the chilling true story of a crime that transfixed a still-growing America, the unlikely series of events that produced the case’s most tantalizing clues, and the tragic twist of fate that plunged the Ross family back into darkness and haunted them for decades to come. Originally published as Little Charley Ross.




The Devils' Alliance


Book Description

History remembers the Soviets and the Nazis as bitter enemies and ideological rivals, the two mammoth and opposing totalitarian regimes of World War II whose conflict would be the defining and deciding clash of the war. Yet for nearly a third of the conflict's entire timespan, Hitler and Stalin stood side by side as partners. The Pact that they agreed had a profound -- and bloody -- impact on Europe, and is fundamental to understanding the development and denouement of the war. In The Devils' Alliance, acclaimed historian Roger Moorhouse explores the causes and implications of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, an unholy covenant whose creation and dissolution were crucial turning points in World War II. Forged by the German foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and his Soviet counterpart, Vyacheslav Molotov, the nonaggression treaty briefly united the two powers in a brutally efficient collaboration. Together, the Germans and Soviets quickly conquered and divided central and eastern Europe -- Poland, the Baltic States, Finland, and Bessarabia -- and the human cost was staggering: during the two years of the pact hundreds of thousands of people in central and eastern Europe caught between Hitler and Stalin were expropriated, deported, or killed. Fortunately for the Allies, the partnership ultimately soured, resulting in the surprise June 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union. Ironically, however, the powers' exchange of materiel, blueprints, and technological expertise during the period of the Pact made possible a far more bloody and protracted war than would have otherwise been conceivable. Combining comprehensive research with a gripping narrative, The Devils' Alliance is the authoritative history of the Nazi-Soviet Pact -- and a portrait of the people whose lives were irrevocably altered by Hitler and Stalin's nefarious collaboration.




The Devil's Butcher Shop


Book Description

A well-researched account of the 1980 convict uprising at the New Mexico State Penitentiary at Santa Fe, tracing the prison system corruption, cronyism, and negligence that led to the riot.