Crime stories fascinate the public. But between factual news stories, overblown “human interest” reports, and salacious murder mystery exposes, it’s difficult to tell where news ends and entertainment begins. Mark Fuhrman, best-selling author of Murder in Brentwood, explores this fine line, revealing new and shocking details on such high-profile cases as Jon Benet Ramsey, Martha Moxley and Chandra Levy.
In 1959, Olathe, Kansas was made famous by the murder of the Clutter family and Truman Capote's ground-breaking book on the crime, In Cold Blood. But fewer know that Olathe achieved notoriety again in 1982, when a member of Olathe's growing Evangelical Christian population, a gentle man named David Harmon, was bludgeoned to death while sleeping—the force of the blows crushing his face beyond recognition. Suspicion quickly fell on David's wife, Melinda, and his best friend, Mark, student body president of the local bible college. However, the long arms of the church defended the two and no charges were pressed. The case was declared as dead as David Harmon. Two decades later, two Olathe police officers revived the cold case making startling revelations that reopened old wounds and chasms within the Olathe community—revelations that rocked not only Olathe, but also the two well-healed towns in which Melinda and Mark resided. David's former wife and friend were now living separate, successful, law-abiding lives. Melinda lived in suburban Ohio, a devoted wife and mother of two. Mark had become a Harvard MBA, a high-paid corporate mover, a family man, and a respected community member in a wealthy suburb of New York City. Some twenty years after the brutal murder, each received the dreaded knock of justice at the door. A Cold-Blooded Business provides fascinating character studies of Melinda and Mark, killers who seemingly returned to normalcy after one blood-splattered night of violence. A fast-moving true crime narrative, A Cold-Blooded Business is a chilling exploration into the darkest depths of the human psyche.
Drawn from the International Center of Photography’s archives, this book highlights the incomparable style and fascinating career of Weegee, one of New York City’s quintessential press photographers. For a decade between 1935 and 1946, Weegee made a name for himself snapping crime scenes, victims, and perpetrators. Armed with a Speed Graphic camera and a police-band radio, Weegee often beat the cops to the story, determined to sell his pictures to the sensation-hungry tabloids. His stark black-and-white photos were often lurid and unsettling. Yet, as this beautifully produced volume shows, they were also brimming with humanity. Designed as a series of "dossiers," this book follows Weegee’s transformation from a freelancer to a photo-detective. It explores his relationship with the tabloid press and gangster culture and reveals his intimate knowledge of New York’s darkest corners. It provides readers with a rich historical experience—a New York City "noir" shot through the lens of one of its most iconoclastic figures.
MURDER AT THE RIO GRANDE Ten years ago, private eye Mike Shayne did a job for one of the richest men in El Paso, digging up dirt on a boy courting the tycoon’s daughter. Now the daughter’s back, all grown up and dangerous. And so’s Shayne – but this time it’s to investigate murder…
In the second edition of Murder as a Business Decision, a new chapter is added that covers aspects of additional real world planned homicide investigations. The new material covers investigations related to FBI undercover operations Strawman in Kansas City.
Seattle printing collective owner Pam Nilsen is on the case when a member of the group turns up dead before a controversial merger Pam Nilsen and her twin sister, Penny, inherited Best Printing four years ago when their parents died in a car crash. Unwilling to sell their family legacy, the sisters turned it into a collective run by a cadre of activists whose arguments over the business can be just as impassioned as their support for progressive causes. But internal divisions at the collective pale in comparison to those between Seattle typesetters B. Violet and Moby Dick—once a single company that has since broken apart into an all-female (and lesbian-run) company, and an all-male (and quickly bankrupt) operation. Shortly after Best Printing and B. Violet begin discussing a merger, the offices of the typesetter are ransacked, one of their members nowhere to be found. Then an employee of Best Printing is found murdered. It appears as if someone will stop at nothing—not even murder—to prevent the merger. And it’s up to Pam to get to the bottom of this deadly turn of events before the killer strikes again. Murder in the Collective is the first book in the Pam Nilsen Mystery trilogy, which continues with Sisters of the Road and The Dog Collar Murders.
