A crusade to find a killer becomes a gripping, intensely personal investigation into a shocking cold case and the radicalization of a terrorist. In September 2011, Erik Weissman and two friends were murdered in a brutal triple homicide in Waltham, Massachusetts. The case went unsolved for months and then years, with no discernible leads. Erik's friend Susan Zalkind, an investigative journalist, needed closure and knew that finding it would be up to her. As Susan began digging, and as the Boston Marathon bombing exposed startling new leads, the case led her down a tangled and sometimes dangerous path to the truth. With every person Susan interviewed came a new thread. She followed each one through a web of conspiracy theories, corruption, and crime until she eventually arrived at a decade-defining act of domestic terrorism. A true-crime memoir and the culmination of more than ten years of reporting, The Waltham Murders is an in-depth probe into a dark American underworld by a journalist coming to grips with both personal grief and the collective anguish of a nation in her tireless pursuit of the truth.
This is the third novel based around the character of D.C.I Steven Price by Joseph and Linda Pye. It is the fourth book to be published in eighteen months by the couple who only met in 2008. Joseph has had the stories in his head for a long while and has even written them in the past although never got them published. Linda writes the female parts and edits the books and they work together well as a team. The first three books are now in the local library and are being well received by customers as they are often out on loan. The accompanying photo was taken in Queensland, Australia, where the couple spent five weeks visiting family, having a 'mock up' wedding so that Joseph's sister Marilyn could be there as she couldn't make the real one later in the year, her husband Derek, is a marriage celebrant over there. We made many good friends during out time over there and miss them all lots as we do our family and friends that we don't see so often.
The search for hidden treasure brings Roger Shallot face to face with murder... In Paul Doherty's The Grail Murder, Roger Shallot's third journal, he must pit his wits against the terrifying and mysterious Templars. Perfect for fans of Ellis Peters and C.J. Sansom. In 1522 the rogue Roger Shallot and his sober-sided master Benjamin Daunbey are sent for by Cardinal Wolsey. Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, has been arrested for treason and Benjamin and Roger are made to witness his bloody execution. The true reason for Buckingham's downfall soon becomes apparent: he was searching at Templecombe Manor and Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset for two precious relics - the Holy Grail and Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur. Benjamin and Shallot are ordered to Templecombe, accompanied by the leaders of King Henry VIII's dreaded secret service, the Agentes in Rebus, to find these relics for the King. They must pit their wits against the Templars, a secret organisation plotting against the Tudors, of which Buckingham may have been a part and who may still have a member of their society close to the crown. The difficulties that wily Shallot - running true to his boast of possessing the fastest legs and quickest wits in Christendom - has to face soon make their presence felt: a duel, blackmail, the curses of a witch, the grisly hand of glory, decapitated heads, mysterious fires - and silent murder in the eerie Templar chapel. What readers are saying about The Grail Murders: 'This book had it all, locked room murders, a mysterious country manor house, an abbey, Templar conspiracy and Arthurian folklore - excellent!' 'Fascinating... historical mysteries brought to life with lots of accurate historical facts' 'Excellent story. Always enjoyed the Shallot stories, he is a lovable rogue'
From the author of Profiling the Criminal Mind comes these true stories of cold cases and true mysteries. A truly compelling collection of adventures from the files of a career police detective and university professor that takes the reader inside the mysteries and murders that intrigue the author and make the reader listen for "things that go bump in the night." From spies to ghosts to celebrities and the places we like to spend time reading spy and murder mystery adventures, this collection has something for every mind that seeks adventure.
When prosperous lawyer Ernest Brendel mysteriously disappeared, along with his wife Alice, and their 8-year-old daughter Emily, friends in the close-knit Rhode Island neighborhood worried that family had been kidnapped. It would be agonizing months in a massive FBI search before they would know the heartbreaking truth. The shaken community began to lose hope that the family would ever be found alive. Their worst fears were confirmed when heavy rains from a tropical storm uncovered Alice and Ernest Brendel's badly decomposed bodies--shot with a giant crossbow, strangled, and buried in the quiet woods of the town. Lying under her mother's corpse was little Emily's lifeless body, now a silent witness to her killer's shocking identity. Like a hand pointing from the grave, the evidence led authorities to one of Ernest Brendel's closest and most trusted friends. What Ernest couldn't have known was that Christopher Hightower--a Sunday school teacher and respected member of the community--was a psychotic liar obsessed with greed, jealousy, and murderous revenge.
This is the true story about a respected businessman, Henry Wainwright, who had everything he needed in 1871. A wife and 5 children and a delightful London townhouse home. But in 1872, Henry fell in love with attractive Harriet Lane. He then embarked on a risky affair with Harriet coupled with gambling and flirtations with ballet girls from the Pavilion Theatre, Whitechapel. Harriet produced two children as Henry sets her up in lodgings with an allowance as they pretended to be husband & wife. Henry’s finances then tumbled out of control and bankruptcy loomed. What happened next was a scandalous conspiracy which ended in murder, and a plot which fooled everyone into thinking that the victim had gone abroad. Henry Wainwright got away with murder for a year before a schoolboy error led to his capture. The case ruined the lives of three families. This fast-moving story will transport to a world of polite, East End society in the mid 1870’s of Victorian London, but with a seedy underbelly. 14 years before the infamous Jack the Ripper Murders, it was the original, ‘Whitechapel Mystery’ which was probably the most sensational criminal case of the 1870’s and involves a chase through the city and across London Bridge. This story also involves Henry’s younger brother Thomas who was also involved in the conspiracy to murder Harriet Lane. The case paints a vivid picture of Victorian London. The police investigation and Old Bailey trial is revealed in glorious detail. It’s a story of love, weakness and devious, desperate liars. It’s a rollickingly good Victorian scandal. Written in an entertaining style, the book contains a huge amount of fascinating detail, not only of the murder but about the lives of so many of the characters in the story. It’s a huge slice of London life, 1875 style. This story deserves to be much better known and will be fascinating to anyone interested in Whitechapel or Victorian Crime.
National Book Award winner Masha Gessen tells an important story for our era: How the American Dream went wrong for two immigrants, and the nightmare that resulted. On April 15, 2013, two homemade bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston marathon, killing three people and wounding more than 264 others. In the ensuing manhunt, Tamerlan Tsarnaev died, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, was captured and ultimately charged on thirty federal counts. Yet long after the bombings and the terror they sowed, after all the testimony and debate, what we still haven’t learned is why. Why did the American Dream go so wrong for two immigrants? How did such a nightmare come to pass? Acclaimed Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen is uniquely endowed with the background, access, and talents to tell the full story. An immigrant herself, who came to the Boston area with her family as a teenager, she returned to the former Soviet Union in her early twenties and covered firsthand the transformations that were wracking her homeland and its neighboring regions. It is there that the history of the Tsarnaev brothers truly begins, as descendants of ethnic Chechens deported to Central Asia in the Stalin era. Gessen follows the family in their futile attempts to make a life for themselves in one war-torn locale after another and then, as new émigrés, in the looking-glass, utterly disorienting world of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Most crucially, she reconstructs the struggle between assimilation and alienation that ensued for each of the brothers, incubating a deadly sense of mission. And she traces how such a split in identity can fuel the metamorphosis into a new breed of homegrown terrorist, with feet on American soil but sense of self elsewhere.
Welcome to the 1st Diana Rivers, Mystery Suspense Murder Boxed Set featuring the first three books in the series, ‘The Assassins’ Village’, ‘Children of the Plantation’ and ‘The Surgeon’s Blade’. All three books are bestsellers. Diana Rivers our heroine is a writer, sometime actor and amateur sleuth and loves nothing more than getting embroiled in the middle of a mystery – especially MURDER! ‘The Assassins’ Village’: When an expatriate theatrical group gather to discuss their next play there will be murder. A blackmailer stalks their picturesque Cypriot village. Unbeknown to each other they all attempt to find solutions to their problems. Some believe it lies in murder. Can they find the blackmailer? And can they find that all important ‘little black book’ – the chronicle of their misdeeds. A body is discovered and Diana turns detective. After the police get involved one of her suspects is found hanged – is this another murder or suicide? A visit to a villager’s home uncovers an ancient assassin’s device. Could this be the murder weapon? Is it possible that an assassin lives at the heart of this formerly peaceful and idyllic mountain village? The villagers are riven with jealousies, rivalry, sexual tension and illicit affairs. Love, hate, murder and high drama all feature in this classic detective story. With a list of suspects, some dramatic twists and the odd red herring, the reader is left guessing until the final curtain. ‘Children of the Plantation’: After discovering the truth surrounding the bloody murders in, ‘The Assassins' Village’ our sexy, feisty sleuth and heroine, Diana Rivers and her partner Steve, decide they deserve a holiday. Relaxing at their luxurious, palm fringed plantation hotel in lush, tropical Malaysia; things don't quite work out as they imagined. Diana is approached by the hotel owner, the enigmatic & secretive Miss Chalcot to take a look through some old family documents and help find a solution to put right a dreadful forty-year old misdoing. Diana is given free rein to pursue the mysterious past of the family and discover what lies behind the dark stories. Diana enters into a world of the 1950's and 1960's, where lies, deceit, illicit love, jealousies and perhaps murder all feature. What really happened all those years ago? Who was responsible for events that shocked the whole family and plunged it into despair? And what is the real story behind the façade? ‘The Surgeon's Blade’: Nursing sister, Libby Hunter wakes up in hospital with amnesia after a traumatic sailing accident. She finds a stranger sitting by her bedside who claims to be her fiancé. Libby remembers nothing about him. Returning home, Libby finds herself in great danger when her house is broken into. Who is the intruder and what does he want? Is this connected with a series of attacks on nurses in London and Southampton? Will Libby be the latest targeted victim? Distressed Libby turns to helicopter pilot, Robert for help and understanding, but is he as respectable and kind as he appears to be? Is her so-called fiancé, Nigel trustworthy? The night time intrusion into Libby's house sets in motion a downwards spiral of cataclysmic and terrifying events, culminating in Diana Rivers stepping in to help solve the case in this chilling mystery.
In Maximum Harm, veteran investigative journalist Michele R. McPhee unravels the complex story behind the public facts of the Boston Marathon bombing. She examines the bombers' roots in Dagestan and Chechnya, their struggle to assimilate in America, and their growing hatred of the United States - a deepening antagonism that would prompt federal prosecutors to dub Dzhokhar Tsarnaev "America's worst nightmare." The difficulties faced by the Tsarnaev family of Cambridge, Massachusetts, are part of the public record. Circumstances less widely known are the FBI's recruitment of the older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, as a "mosque crawler" to inform on radical separatists here and in Chechnya; the tracking down and killing of radical Islamic separatists during the six months he spent in Russia - travel that raised eyebrows, since he was on several terrorist watchlists; the FBI's botched deals and broken promises with regard to his immigration; and the disenchantment, rage, and growing radicalization of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar, along with their mother, sisters, and Tamerlan's wife, Katherine. Maximum Harm is also a compelling examination of the Tsarnaev brothers' movements in the days leading up to the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013, the subsequent investigation, the Tsarnaevs' murder of MIT police officer Sean Collier, the high-speed chase and shootout that killed Tamerlan, and the manhunt in which the authorities finally captured Dzhokhar, hiding in a Watertown backyard. McPhee untangles the many threads of circumstance, coincidence, collusion, motive, and opportunity that resulted in the deadliest attack on the city of Boston to date.
“Laugh-out-loud humor & top-notch mysteries! Absolute MUST-READS!”—Darynda Jones, New York Times/USA TodayBestselling Author of the Charley Davidson Series “Smart, entertaining, and laugh-out-loud funny!”—Liliana Hart, New York Times Bestselling Author Meet gutsy beautician, part-time sleuth, Valentine Beaumont. Quick thinker? Check. Risk-taker? Check. Catching killers with her beauty tools has never been so much fun! MURDER, CURLERS & CREAM Valentine Beaumont is a beautician with a problem. Not only has she got a meddling mother, a wacky staff, and a dying business, but now she’s got a dead client who was strangled while awaiting her facial. With business the way it is, combing through this mystery may be the only way to save her salon. Until a second murder, an explosion, a kidnapping, death threats, and the hard-nosed Detective Romero complicate things. But Valentine will do anything to untangle the crime. That’s if she can keep her tools of the trade in her bag, keep herself alive, and avoid falling for the tough detective. In the end, how hard can that be? MURDER, CURLERS & CANES Valentine Beaumont is back in her second hair-raising mystery, this time, trying to find out who had it in for an elderly nun. Only trouble is there are others standing in her way: hot but tough Detective Romero, sexy new stylist Jock de Marco, and some zany locals who all have a theory on the nun’s death. Making things worse: the dead nun’s secret that haunts Valentine, another murder, car chases, death threats, mysterious clues, an interfering mother, and a crazy staff. Between brushing off Jock’s advances and splitting hairs with handsome Detective Romero, Valentine struggles to comb through the crime, utilizing her tools of the trade in some outrageous situations. Question is, will she succeed? MURDER, CURLERS & CRUISES In her third fast-paced mystery, beautician Valentine Beaumont and her madcap crew sail the high seas on a Caribbean “Beauty Cruise.” When a bizarre murder takes place onboard, Valentine finds herself swept into the middle of the investigation. If things aren’t bad enough, her mother is playing matchmaker, a loved one is kidnapped, drug smuggling is afoot, a hair contest proves disastrous, and a strange alliance between tough Detective Romero and sexy stylist Jock de Marco rubs Valentine the wrong way. Will this impulsive beauty sleuth comb through the catastrophes and untangle the mystery, or will this voyage turn into another fatal Titanic? With Jock and Romero onboard, it’s destined to be a hot cruise!
