Current Crime

In the dead of winter, outside a small Minnesota town, state troopers pull two young women and their car from the icy Black Root River. One is found downriver, drowned, while the other is found at the scene - half-frozen but alive. What happened was no accident, and news of the crime awakens the community's memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river 10 years earlier and whose killer may still live among them.

America in 1982. Japanese car companies are on the rise and believed to be putting American autoworkers out of their jobs. Anti-Asian-American sentiments simmer, especially in Detroit. A bar fight turns fatal, leaving Vincent Chin - a Chinese-American man - beaten to death at the hands of two white men, autoworker Ronald Ebens and his stepson Michael Nitz. From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry is a searing examination of the killing and the trial and verdicts that followed.

In this very personal work - adapted from the original number one best seller, which the New York Times calls "as compelling as To Kill a Mockingbird, and in some ways more so" - acclaimed lawyer and social justice advocate Bryan Stevenson offers a glimpse into the lives of the wrongfully imprisoned and his efforts to fight for their freedom.

The story about Simon Fountaine’s magical cowboy ranch had been told in their family for more years than she cared to count. It was a fanciful story filled with drama, adventures, and Simon’s determination to find the special place he always dreamed about. Now, Elizabeth Fountaine wondered if there might be a bit of truth to the whimsical fairytale…if it was more than just an elaborate bedtime story to tell children. More than ever before, she very much needed for even just a small piece of the fairytale to be real. If it was, Simon's magical cowboy ranch could be the answer to her ...

If it weren't for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a black teen, lived in the crime-plagued flatlands and attended a large public one. Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But, one afternoon, on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned.

The prosecution of Leo Frank was front-page news for two years, and Frank's lynching is still one of the most controversial incidents of the twentieth century. It marks a turning point in the history of racial and religious hatred in America, leading directly to the founding of the Anti-Defamation League and to the rebirth of the modern Ku Klux Klan. Relying on primary source documents and painstaking research, award-winning novelist Elaine Alphin tells the true story of justice undone in America.

On the remote Manutassi ColonyShip, death is rare. Murder is almost unheard of. Dr. Miyumi Katahashi, a talented yet troubled physician, never expected to play detective. But when the body of a young woman is discovered floating in one of Inagawa colony’s hydropods, the fragile balance of their isolated society begins to unravel. Assisting Police Chief Whaled Bey, Katahashi soon uncovers far more than just a crime—she unearths buried secrets, illicit affairs, and a power struggle that threatens to tear the community apart. As the investigation deepens, every answer leads to more ...

From the outside, the house in Lakeview Terrace looks perfect, and the Bigelows seem like the perfect family: the respected surgeon father, the glamorous, devoted mother and two beautiful children. A perfect family, in a perfect house, living their perfect lives. But perfect surfaces can hide dark undercurrents, and behind closed doors lies a very different story. Teenager Zane and his younger sister, Britt, are terrorised by their violent father and dysfunctional mother.

"Boys, let us get up a club." Six restless young men raided the linens at a friend's mansion, pulled pillowcases over their heads, hopped on horses, and cavorted through the streets of Pulaski, Tennessee. The six friends named their club the Ku Klux Klan, and, all too quickly, their club grew into the self-proclaimed Invisible Empire with secret dens spread across the South. This is the story of how a secret terrorist group took root in America's democracy.

Imagine having everything taken away from you - permanently - with no hope of resuming a normal life. This is the case for many teenagers in America who are tried and convicted as adults for the crime of murder. Here Susan Kuklin takes you behind bars for frank interviews with a collection of young men who will spend the better part of their lives in jail. She lets them speak for themselves, providing the raw details of their incarceration and the anger, despair, and surprising hope they experience every day. Kuklin also provides an in-depth look at the American penal system, highlighting its many intricacies and inequities while focusing on capital cases involving juveniles.

In the tranquil heartland of Manistee County, Dave Jacobs, the County Planning Director, stumbled upon an unexpected twist in his newly acquired hobby of magnet fishing. It all began innocently enough when his magnet latched onto a steel case containing a laptop computer as he fished a local river. With the aid of an attractive single mother who was also happened to be the County’s IT Director, Dave uncovered a clandestine journal hidden in the computer. Compelled to return the computer to the original owner he unwittingly found himself thrust into a perilous game of cat and mouse, where ...

On a hot day in July 1919, five black youths went swimming in Lake Michigan, unintentionally floating close to the white beach. An angry white man began throwing stones at the boys, striking and killing one. Racial conflict on the beach erupted into days of urban violence that shook the city of Chicago to its foundations. This mesmerizing narrative draws on contemporary accounts as it traces the roots of the explosion that had been building for decades in race relations, politics, business, and clashes of culture.

Elizabeth had always believed there was nothing more magical than the precious gift of love...even now, in the heart of danger, she still believed it...she always would. After telling the story of Simon's magical cowboy ranch for more years than she cared to count, Elizabeth Fountaine wondered if there might be more to the fanciful fairy-tale than being an elaborate bedtime story to tell children. More than ever before, she very much needed for even just a small piece of the fairy-tale to be real. If it was, Simon's magical cowboy ranch could be the answer to their dilemma... This women's ...

"A lively, good read ... I couldn't put it down" - Kingdom Books You never know what's beneath the surface. When Seattle native Tish Yearly finds herself fired and evicted all in one afternoon, she knows she's in deep water. Unemployed and desperate, the 26 year old ex-actress heads for the one place she knows she'll be welcome - the house of her cantankerous ex-CIA agent grandfather, Tobias Yearly, in the San Juan Islands. And when she discovers the strangled corpse of Tobias's best friend, she knows she's in over her head. Tish is thrown head-long into a mystery that pits her against a ...

Have you ever said something you really wish you hadn’t?Catherine Wittiken is learning that even what is said in jest…tossed out in a moment of levity…can have real consequences. Her only intention was to get a few laughs…not a few votes…or worse than that…more than a few votes. But that is exactly what happened. And in a single moment her life changed… Then on her first day in her new job as mayor of the small town of Highlands Lake…when Catherine didn’t think things could get any worse than the dark and gloomy atmosphere of her new office…it did. There wasn’t much ...

I am tired of people asking me how hard it is to be a woman in engineering. My career is the least of my worries. Dealing with my family and personal relationships? That's the hard part. I proposition a hottie, just to tune it all out for a bit. The fling blows my mind, but leaves me with unexpected consequences. By the time I meet the guy again, he's a different person, and I'm carrying a huge secret.

When the CIA asks 36-year-old public defender Malcom X Heinlein to represent a minor co-defendant at the trial of Saddam Hussein, he thinks he is being chosen because of his murky history with 30-year-old Ayesha Qaddafi, trial counsel for Saddam and daughter of President Qaddafi. Malcom and his partner Sofia soon learn that their client, a former Saddam body double, wants desperately to testify against the tyrant in exchange for freedom for himself and his family in America.

The villa in Espinola reveals many of Jeremy’s carefully guarded secrets…the long forgotten centuries old paintings found in the attic are just the beginning… Family Unbroken is the second book in the Delahass Legacy series, the continuing saga of one family’s search for answers to a mystery rooted in historical events that took place generations ago in the later years of the twenty-first century. Ann Delahass has always wanted to visit the place that her ancestor, Jeremy Delahass, had been inspired by when he built his home, Nolbeloir House. It is one of life’s many mysteries she...

When socialite Nina Rai disappeared without a trace, everyone wrote it off as another trophy wife tired of her wealthy husband. But now her bones have turned up in the shadowed green of the forest that surrounds her elite neighborhood, a haven of privilege and secrets that's housed the same influential families for decades. The rich live here, along with those whose job it is to make their lives easier. And somebody knows what happened to Nina one rainy night 10 years ago.

Over 40 years, two British police units acted undercover to infiltrate activist groups. At least 20 of those officers deliberately targeted women and entered relationships with them. One of those women was me. This is my story.