Relates the story of ex-football hero Fred Waterfield and his brutish cousin David Allen Gore, describing their grisly 1983 killing spree during which they raped, tortured, and dismembered their victims. By the author of Families Who Kill. Original.
Ugly Prey tells the riveting story of poor Italian immigrant Sabella Nitti, the first woman ever sentenced to hang in Chicago, in 1923, for the alleged murder of her husband. Journalist Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi leads readers through the case, showing how, with no evidence and no witnesses, Nitti was the target of an obsessed deputy sheriff and the victim of a faulty legal system. She was also—to the men who convicted her and reporters fixated on her—ugly. For that unforgiveable crime, the media painted her as a hideous, dirty, and unpredictable immigrant, almost an animal. Featuring two other fascinating women—the ambitious and ruthless journalist who helped demonize Sabella through her reports and the brilliant, beautiful, 23-year-old lawyer who helped humanize her with a jailhouse makeover—Ugly Prey is not just a page-turning courtroom drama but also a thought-provoking look at the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and class within the American justice system.
How do you deal with a mother whose behavior fits the label sociopath? What are the chances youll follow in her footsteps? Those are the questions that haunt Maggie Egan on the day she meets Rocco DeCulloin a psychiatrists office. In spite of Roccos struggle with social anxiety, they rapidly cultivate a friendship that plunges them into the middle of a double murder. A teenage son came home to find the beaten and butchered bodies of his parents. Maggie knows the victims as former friends of her parents. Rocco knows the son. As their connections to the murders multiply, danger threatens. When a third murder occurs, Maggies mother becomes a person of interest. Her father is the prime suspect. As Maggie works to clear her father, Evanston police work feverishly to make sense of the few clues they have. With the assistance of Maggie, Rocco, and ABC TV investigative reporter Sandra Anderson, they add pieces to the puzzle, but will they find a solution? And will they find the answer soon enough? As each day goes by, a sea of contamination spreads, lives are ruined, and human leeches continue to prey on the innocent.
Only three students had access to a teacher’s racy photos before they went viral. There’s Mouse, a brainy overachiever so desperate to escape his father and go to MIT that he would do almost anything, legal or not. Then there’s Drew, the star athlete who can get any girl’s number—and private photos—with his charm but has a history of passing those photos around. And finally there’s Jenna, a good girl turned rebel after her own shocking photos made the rounds at school last year, who is still waiting for justice. All three deny leaking the photos, but someone has to take the fall. This edgy whodunit tackles hot-button issues of sexting and gossip and will have readers tearing through the pages to reach the final reveal.
A detective and a self-help guru search for a judge’s kidnapped daughter in this romantic suspense novel by a New York Times–bestselling author. Self-help superstar Rachel de Luca and Detective Mason Brown have finally given in to their overwhelming attraction to each other, but neither of them is ready to let physical passion turn into full-blown romance, so they carefully maintain an emotional distance. Then a judge’s daughter disappears, and Mason has a terrible sense that it’s connected to the most recent case they solved together: the abduction of Rachel’s assistant. The discovery of a string of missing women—all young, all troubled—seems like a promising lead. But there’s no clear connection between the missing girls and the high-profile young woman Mason is trying to find. He realizes that once again he must rely on his own well-honed instincts and Rachel’s uncanny capacity to see through people’s lies to catch a predator and rescue his captives. But can they do it before Rachel becomes the next victim? Praise for Wake to Darkness “In this thrilling follow-up to Sleep with the Lights On, Shayne amps up both the creep factor and the suspense. She continues to build on the sexual tension between the main characters, fostering a humming anticipation that builds as the story unfolds. She pairs this with an intriguing plot that will have readers guessing till the last page.” —RT Book Reviews
Jesus warned of wolves carefully disguised as shepherds who would come into the local church as pastors. It is the perfect disguise from which to devour the flock one lamb at a time. The authors were the first to study this phenomenon in North America and discover how serious the problem is. What they uncovered is shocking. The enemy has infiltrated the North American church. In this study of a large Canadian denomination, just under one in three pastors met the diagnostic criteria of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). This is one of the most destructive and least treatable of all mental disorders, but is often well hidden behind layers of ""sacred"" deception. Some are charismatic while others are quiet and even awkward, but they share the same needs for power, control, praise, and public recognition. They are also rigid, unbending, never wrong, demanding, and full of hidden rage, leaving the people working for them in demoralized fear. They see you as inferior and God as a rival, while the worst see themselves as God. If they see you as a threat, they will do everything possible to destroy you spiritually and emotionally. Is your pastor one of them? ""Armed with research data and real-life examples, Puls and Ball provide an absorbing and alarming analysis of Christian clergy who suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, describing the toll these 'wolves in sheep's clothing' wreak upon their congregations and co-workers. A must-read for clergy and those who supervise and support them."" --Kevin Livingston, Associate Professor of Pastoral Ministry, Tyndale Seminary, Toronto ""Ball and Pulls do an amazing job of bringing a sensitive issue to the light. Filled with powerful stories, up-to-date research, and godly counsel, Let Us Prey is a great resource that brings wisdom, guidance, and healing to Christian leaders and church communities."" --Tim Clinton, President, American Association of Christian Counselors ""Let Us Prey contains ground-breaking research regarding the plague of narcissism in the church. It also provides practical direction for the diagnosis, intervention, and mitigation of narcissism in our pastorate and our congregations. A must-read . . ."" --Michael Patterson, PhD, LMHC, NCC, BCPCC, Chair, Department of Behavioral Science, Corban University ""Painstakingly researched and terrifyingly realistic, this book shocks us into facing up to the monsters within the body of Christ who prey on the sheep rather than pray for them. Read it and equip yourself to identify and confront these predators with firmness and faith."" --David Murray, Pastor, Grand Rapids Free Reformed Church; Professor of Practical Theology, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary Darrell Puls is a professional conflict interventionist with forty years of experience, and founder of Peacebridge Ministries, a Christian nonprofit that works directly with faith communities experiencing internal conflict. He is the author of The Road Home: A Guided Journey to Church Forgiveness and Reconciliation (2013). R. Glenn Ball is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in Canada, where he has served for more than thirty years in parish ministry and as a specialist working with distressed churches.
A teacher is supposed to impart a love of learning and a thirst for knowledge. It’s a bit different with Ms. Lori Settles. All the kids are talking about how hot she is–and she is especially interested in Ryan Piccoli. When she starts giving Ryan extra attention, he’s feeling more than happy–at first. He’s used to being the class clown, but really he’s a loner. One day after school, the friendship with Lori Settles goes farther than he ever expected. She’s his teacher. She’s at least twice his age. Intimacy with a teacher is wrong, yet it feels so good in every way. Soon, Lori is making demands and Ryan begins to feel overwhelmed, but Ryan refuses to even admit anything is going on. Something immoral is going on and before too long the choices made will change lives forever.
Today, two cultural forces are converging to make America's youth easy targets for sex traffickers. Younger and younger girls are engaging in adult sexual attitudes and practices, and the pressure to conform means thousands have little self-worth and are vulnerable to exploitation. At the same time, thanks to social media, texting, and chatting services, predators are able to ferret out their victims more easily than ever before. In Walking Prey, advocate and former victim Holly Austin Smith shows how middle class suburban communities are fast becoming the new epicenter of sex trafficking in America. Smith speaks from experience: Without consistent positive guidance or engagement, Holly was ripe for exploitation at age fourteen. A chance encounter with an older man led her to run away from home, and she soon found herself on the streets of Atlantic City. Her experience led her, two decades later, to become one of the foremost advocates for trafficking victims. Smith argues that these young women should be treated as victims by law enforcement, but that too often the criminal justice system lacks the resources and training to prevent the vicious cycle of prostitution. This is a clarion call to take a sharp look at one of the most striking human rights abuses, and one that is going on in our own backyard.
He seems like such a nice man. You’d never guess what was going on in his mind… Art history professor James Qatar has a hobby: he takes secret photographs of women to fuel more elaborate fantasies. When he’s alone. Behind locked doors. Then one day, he goes a step further and... well, one thing leads to another. Qatar has no choice. He has to kill her. And you know something? He likes it. When Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport takes the case, he assumes it’ll be straightforward police work. He couldn’t be more wrong. As the investigation trail takes some unexpected turns, it becomes clear that nothing is straightforward about this killer, his victims, or his motives. And to stop him Lucas has no choice but to walk right into his lair. WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY JOHN SANDFORD