A cutthroat Manhattan custody battle leads to kidnapping and murder Rita Galloway is leaving a puppet show when a stranger sprints up to her and snatches her son, Bobby, from her arms. She screams for help, and Bobby is able to wriggle out of the man’s grip, but the would-be kidnapper escapes without a trace. It would be just another ordinary Manhattan street crime if it weren’t for Rita’s estranged husband, heir to one of the wealthiest corporations in New York City. Rita’s convinced he paid to have his son kidnapped and will stop at nothing until he has the boy. When NYPD lieutenant Marian Larch is assigned to keep an eye on Bobby, she’s not surprised when the conflict turns bloody. And when people connected with the case begin dying, she finds herself dragged into the spotlight—and worries she may be the next victim. Full Frontal Murder is the 7th book in the Marian Larch Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
Family, murder, and neuroscience collide as this daughter's compelling memoir reveals the untold personal story behind one of the most important and controversial cases in the history of the criminal justice system. The case of Herbert Weinstein, the author's father, started with a shocking murder in 1991 that was blasted across the news media with tabloid-style headlines ("High-rise Horror"). Now, three decades later, it is considered the case that forever changed the courtrooms of America by securing a ruling to allow neuroscience in as evidence when determining a defendant's guilt or innocence. The case has been prominently featured in countless articles, symposiums, and books including the standard legal textbook on law and neuroscience used to educate law students throughout the country. This unique case has literally gone from tabloid to textbook.Joni West looks back at the years prior to the murder to determine whether there had been any signs - surely there must have been something she missed given that her father was 65 years old at the time and she was 29. He had been the very best part of her world until her mother died when Joni was 20. When a new woman entered her father's life just one month after her mother's funeral, Joni started noticing a different side to her father - one that pushed Joni away. It would take an unspeakable crime and decades to unravel the true nature of that side and for Joni to put the pieces of her personal puzzle together. She contrasts her contentious relationship with her mother and the heartwarming one she had with her father and shows how he expertly soothed the emotional wounds her mother inflicted upon her. She weaves together her past, the crime, and what she later learns through years of extensive research to paint a stunning masterpiece depicting how it could all go so very wrong. She exposes the private side of this infamous man that has never been revealed anywhere until now. She leaves the reader with new answers about the crime and better questions to ask themselves when thinking about why people do the things they do.
This volume is a comprehensive collection of critical essays on The Taming of the Shrew, and includes extensive discussions of the play's various printed versions and its theatrical productions. Aspinall has included only those essays that offer the most influential and controversial arguments surrounding the play. The issues discussed include gender, authority, female autonomy and unruliness, courtship and marriage, language and speech, and performance and theatricality.
Many bibliographers focus on women who write. Lawyer Barnett looks at women who detect, at women as sleuths and at the evolving roles of women in professions and in society. Excellent for all women's studies programs as well as for the mystery hound. Look at the popularity of such reading guides as Willetta Heising's Detecting Women (3rd ed. 0-9644593-7-X) or Amanda Cross' fiction (Honest Doubt 0-345-44011-0 11/00).
All internationally renowned 'lady showbiz detective' Stella Pentangeli wants is to solve a simple literary riddle: did Shakespeare belong to a 17th-century cult which resurrected people? All brilliant Investigator Ng wants is to find out why a monster is using Shakespeare's recipe to make 'resurrection soup' out of 21st Century citizens.
Called “the best kind of nonfiction” by Michael Connelly, this riveting new book combines true crime, brain science, and courtroom drama. In 1991, the police were called to East 72nd St. in Manhattan, where a woman's body had fallen from a twelfth-story window. The woman’s husband, Herbert Weinstein, soon confessed to having hit and strangled his wife after an argument, then dropping her body out of their apartment window to make it look like a suicide. The 65-year-old Weinstein, a quiet, unassuming retired advertising executive, had no criminal record, no history of violent behavior—not even a short temper. How, then, to explain this horrific act? Journalist Kevin Davis uses the perplexing story of the Weinstein murder to present a riveting, deeply researched exploration of the intersection of neuroscience and criminal justice. Shortly after Weinstein was arrested, an MRI revealed a cyst the size of an orange on his brain’s frontal lobe, the part of the brain that governs judgment and impulse control. Weinstein’s lawyer seized on that discovery, arguing that the cyst had impaired Weinstein’s judgment and that he should not be held criminally responsible for the murder. It was the first case in the United States in which a judge allowed a scan showing a defendant’s brain activity to be admitted as evidence to support a claim of innocence. The Weinstein case marked the dawn of a new era in America's courtrooms, raising complex and often troubling questions about how we define responsibility and free will, how we view the purpose of punishment, and how strongly we are willing to bring scientific evidence to bear on moral questions. Davis brings to light not only the intricacies of the Weinstein case but also the broader history linking brain injuries and aberrant behavior, from the bizarre stories of Phineas Gage and Charles Whitman, perpetrator of the 1966 Texas Tower massacre, to the role that brain damage may play in violence carried out by football players and troubled veterans of America’s twenty-first century wars. The Weinstein case opened the door for a novel defense that continues to transform the legal system: Criminal lawyers are increasingly turning to neuroscience and introducing the effects of brain injuries—whether caused by trauma or by tumors, cancer, or drug or alcohol abuse—and arguing that such damage should be considered in determining guilt or innocence, the death penalty or years behind bars. As he takes stock of the past, present and future of neuroscience in the courts, Davis offers a powerful account of its potential and its hazards. Thought-provoking and brilliantly crafted, The Brain Defense marries a murder mystery complete with colorful characters and courtroom drama with a sophisticated discussion of how our legal system has changed—and must continue to change—as we broaden our understanding of the human mind.
From the author of books about women police officers and a retired editor who’s now a volunteer cop in small town America, Food, Drink, and the Female Sleuth gathers together the best food scenes in mainstream detective fiction. Over 140 flavorful contributors, over 250 slurpy excerpts, 23 rich chapters with titles like “Undercover Grub and Stakeout Takeout,” “Junk Food on the Run,” “A Dozen Ways to Feed Your Lover,” “Bribing with Food,” and “The Last Bite.” Like us, PIs, cops, and amateur sleuths ARE what they eat. Also they are known by how they eat, where they eat, why they eat, and by who does the cooking. What better way to flesh out a sleuth’s work partner than “Let’s Have A Drink,” or spell out social class with humor in “Upper and Lower Crusts”? What better way to get a plot underway than breakfast? Or stir in suspense and foreshadow events in “Let’s Do Lunch”? This book is for anyone whose shelves are stacked with really good detective novels and really good food. Face it, if you like to eat, put Food, Drink on your table.
THE VERY BEST PERSON TO CATCH YOUR KILLER...IS YOU. Matt Forbeck arrives as the new king of high-concept - with a blockbuster action movie in a book. In the near future, scientists solve the problem of mortality by learning how to backup and restore a persons memories into a vat-bred clone. When Secret Service agent Ronan "Methusaleh" Dooley is brutally murdered, he's brought back from the dead one more time to hunt his killer, but this time those who wanted him dead are much closer to home. FILE UNDER: Science Fiction [Future Thriller / Cheat Death / Rogue Agents / Who Killed Who?]