Celebrity Conspiracy

Michael Jackson was the pop icon the media loved to hate. Tremendously wealthy, inarguably eccentric, and one of the most famous people in the world, Jackson was the unenviable target of constant public humiliation. The media poked fun at his skin, his features, his sexuality, and his lifestyle. Here, seasoned crime reporter Aphrodite Jones condemns the media for perpetuating hateful rumors and innuendoes, recounting just the sordid details, and reporting only the most despicable accusations and grisly charges made against Michael Jackson during his criminal trial.

In 2007, a short blogpost by Gawker Media outed PayPal founder and billionaire investor Peter Thiel as gay. Thiel's sexuality had been known to close friends and family, but he didn't consider himself a public figure, and believed the information was private. This post would be the casus belli for a meticulously plotted conspiracy that would end nearly a decade later with a $140 million dollar judgment against Gawker and its bankruptcy. Only later would the world learn that Gawker's demise was not incidental - it had been masterminded by Thiel.

Michael Shermer presents an overarching review of conspiracy theories—who believes them and why, which ones are real, and what we should do about them. Trust in conspiracy theories, he writes, cuts across gender, age, race, income, education level, occupational status—and even political affiliation. One reason that people believe these conspiracies, Shermer argues, is that enough of them are real that we should be constructively conspiratorial. But Shermer reveals that other factors are also in play: anxiety and a sense of loss of control, as well as certain personality traits.

Investigative journalist Lee Smith's The Plot Against the President tells the story of how Congressman Devin Nunes uncovered the operation to bring down the commander-in-chief. While popular opinion holds that Russia subverted democratic processes during the 2016 elections, the real damage was done not by Moscow or any other foreign actor. Rather, this was a slow-moving coup engineered by a coterie of the American elite, the "deep state," targeting not only the president, but also the rest of the country.

Immunity. Everyone wants it. One man has it. Our hero, if you can call him that, must escape from the government facility he is incarcerated in. Escape the certifiable, alphabet-agency super-spook who seized him and dragged him across the country. Elude an army of doctors and soldiers who think he is the answer to the plague of the living dead. Flee back to his friends, a continent away. Can he safely traverse a ruined United States crawling with insatiable, infected cannibals? Find out.

Science doesn't speak for itself. Neck-deep in work that can be messy and confounding and naïve in the ways of public communication, scientists are often unable to package their insights into the neat narratives that the public requires. Enter celebrities, advocates, lobbyists, and the funders behind them, who take advantage of scientists' reluctance to provide easy answers, flooding the media with misleading or incorrect claims about health risks. In Bad Advice, Paul A. Offit shares hard-earned wisdom on the dos and don'ts of battling misinformation.

There are rogue government agents hunting supernatural creatures all over Charlotte. There's a bloodbath in the parking lot of a demon bar and a massacre at a shopping mall. There are protests and tear gas and riot cops and somehow Quincy F'n Harker is the one stuck in the middle of cops, monsters, and demon agents trying to keep them from tearing his city apart. And now there seems to be a traitor in their midst.

When you're an outlaw hoping for a pardon, and the emperor personally sends a note requesting that your team kidnap him, you make plans to comply, even if it'll involve infiltrating a train full of soldiers, bodyguards, and spies loyal to a nefarious business coalition that has numerous reasons to hate you.

For 600 years, the kingdom of Wahrheit was ruled by an unbroken line. It rose on a wave of technology and magic and stood alone—a bastion of stability built on pillars of economic and military might. The nation and her people thrived due to the strength of soldiers and the protection of dragons. But the line has ended—the king is dead. Noble houses vie to carve out their own domains. Foreign armies march across Wahrheit’s soil for the first time in memory. Without leadership, the king’s army watches helplessly.

Berlin, November 1943. With bombing raids commencing, the city is blanketed by explosions. Siblings Gerta and Max Hoffmann live a surprisingly carefree childhood amid the raids. Berlin is a city going about its business, even as it's attacked almost nightly. But one night, the air raid sirens wail, and the Hoffmanns' neighborhood is hit. A mortally wounded man comes to their door, begging to be let in. He asks for Karl Hoffmann, their father. Gerta and Max watch as Karl tries in vain to save the man's life.

What had started as a simple case three years earlier, forever altered the course of FBI Agent Alex Toles’ life. A committed investigator, Alex had always avoided personal entanglements. That was until she meet Cassidy O’Brien. Alex had been sent by President John Merrow to investigate threatening letters that had targeted Cassidy and her ex-husband Congressman Christopher O’Brien. Three years later, Alex finds herself a devoted wife and parent. Her life and her work center on Cassidy and their two children Dylan and Mackenzie.

Years of grueling police work have left Niall Hamarsson jaded and disillusioned with life...although it’s likely he’s been that way all along. The last straw lands when the DA refuses to try a case Niall worked for years to bring to justice. Within hours he finds himself heading to the only place he’s ever been able to call home - a place he knows he doesn’t belong. Mat Dempsey returned to Piedras Island after his father’s death. Niall and Mat have a history, and it’s not one Mat’s proud of. Will the two men be able to put aside their pasts and embrace a future?

From the Satanic Panic to the anti-vaxx movement, it's always been human nature to believe we're being lied to by the powers that be (and sometimes, to be fair, we absolutely are). But while it can be fun to indulge in a bit of Deep State banter on the family Whatsapp group, recent times have shown us that some of these theories have taken on a life of their own—and in our dogged quest for the truth, it appears we might actually be doing it some damage.

Best-selling author De'nesha Diamond brings her dynamic storytelling talent to DC's treacherous corridors of power - where scandal is merely the first move in a high-stakes game that makes its own rules. It's an offer too tempting to refuse: One night as an elite escort will give Abrianna Parker the fresh start she's been searching for and put the pain and costly missteps of the past behind her for good. But getting framed for a high-profile murder isn't what the coolheaded beauty signed up for.

Lynn has been rescued from deep within the heart of a night runner lair. The answer to why she was taken remains a mystery. Sandra lies in a pool of her own blood, ending her desperate measures to draw Jack to her. As Red Team celebrates their joy of Lynn's freedom, they are unaware that a sight is centered on them from afar. A bullet tears through the air, streaking their way.

A Secret Service agent is dead, an apparent suicide. A presidential candidate narrowly escapes an assassin's bullet. And Desk Three, a covert branch of the NSA, is searching for a chilling connection deep inside the Republic of Vietnam.

Once, Charlie Dean was a Marine sniper in Quang Nam Province. Today he's a Deep Black operator, and he comes face to face with a man he once hunted down...and thought he had killed.

Now, with every asset, weapon, bug and high-tech magic wand Desk Three can wave, the agents enter a terrifying global race against time.

Conspiracies and cover-ups, real or imagined, have shaped our world. Now leaked cables and declassified papers are rewriting the history of our times. More information must be good, but how do you tell truth from fiction? In this fresh look at 50 conspiracy theories, Ian Shircore cuts through the fog and misinformation to deliver a balanced analysis of the key facts behind unsettling suspicions that litter our recent past. Today's new evidence - from WikiLeaks, freedom of information requests and declassified archives - has solved some classic mysteries.

The Left is angry: angry at President George W. Bush, the war in Iraq, the "right-wing media", and more. And as National Review investigative writer Byron York reveals in this stunning, meticulously reported book, liberal activists have harnessed that anger to build the biggest, richest, and best organized political movement in American history.

In 2016, one of the giants of modern journalism fell: Gawker Media, infamous for saying what other outlets wouldn't say, was sued for publishing Hulk Hogan's sex tape, lost the case and went bust. After countless other lawsuits it seemed that Gawker had finally run out of luck. But luck had nothing to do with it. Peter Thiel, PayPal founder and billionaire investor, had masterminded the whole thing.

22 November 1963: Dallas, Texas. US President John F Kennedy is assassinated as his motorcade passes through the city's streets. The assassin is soon captured, and revealed to be disaffected Communist sympathizer Lee Harvey Oswald. Did Oswald act alone, or did he have help? Is the Bilderberg Group simply a group of international financiers concerned with promoting democracy throughout the world, or is there a more sinister power at work?