Disaster Crimes

Fighting Crime in the Largest City West of the Mississippi Famous robbers. A Trunk Murder. The deadliest incident in St. Louis Police history. This book covers some of the most significant crimes affecting the city from 1860 to 1909, when it was the largest city west of the Mississippi River. These true stories are stranger than fiction.

After Hurricane Katrina struck and power failed, amid rising floodwaters and heat, exhausted staff at Memorial Medical Center designated certain patients last for rescue. Months later, a doctor and two nurses were arrested and accused of injecting some of those patients with life-ending drugs.

Stone Barrington embarks on his most dangerous adventure yet when he takes on a job as a lawyer for a sleazy and clueless con man and ends up getting embroiled in the underworld of the New York mafia. It started out as just another late night at Elaine's, where Stone was eating a porterhouse steak and enjoying the company of his friends. But when Herbie Fisher, a notoriously not-so-sharp swindler, walked in, the pleasant atmosphere turned to ice.

When Jean-Marc Sauvet, successful lawyer and the best friend of Aix-en-Provence's examining magistrate Antoine Verlaque, accepted a small role in a local theater's summer production of Marcel Pagnol's Cigalon, he had no idea that the lead actress would be played by the great Liliane Poncet. But Jean-Marc's excitement about rubbing elbows with one of France's legendary film stars is quickly extinguished.

For 10 years, Yona has been stuck behind a desk as a coordinator for Jungle, a travel company specializing in vacation packages to destinations devastated by disaster and climate change. Her work life is uneventful until trouble arises in the form of a predatory colleague. To forestall any disruption of business as usual, Jungle makes Yona a proposition: a paid “vacation” to the desert island of Mui. But Yona must pose as a tourist and assess whether Jungle should continue their partnership with the unprofitable destination.

All Bunny McGarry wants is a spot of breakfast and a decent cup of tea. So imagine how annoyed he gets when two masked men attempt to rob the New York diner he is in. Unfortunately, dealing with that problem just leads to a whole lot more. One of the diner’s other customers isn’t who she appears to be, and the odds aren’t great that she is going to live to see another breakfast.

A real-life thriller in the vein of The Devil in the White City, Kate Winkler Dawson's debut, Death in the Air, is a gripping, historical narrative of a serial killer, an environmental disaster, and an iconic city struggling to regain its footing. In winter 1952, London automobiles and thousands of coal-burning hearths belched particulate matter into the air. But the smog that descended on December fifth of 1952 was different; it was a type that held the city hostage for five long days.

Beth and Donovan have come a long way from Hurricane Sabrina and the San Francisco earthquake. Now they are approaching their wedding day and anxiously waiting to promise each other a lifetime of love. The journey down the aisle isn’t smooth, though, as they receive threats from the followers of the notorious criminal, Jackson Storm. They think they’ll be safe in Hawaii, but distance can’t stop these killers. Not even a tsunami can. This monstrous wave is the most devastating disaster Beth has ever faced.

Across the world, the United States recalls troops to combat civil unrest after the biggest economic meltdown in history. Marine Sergeant Ronaldo Salvatore’s platoon comes home to a powder keg that could ignite a civil war. While some see the coming collapse as the end, others see opportunity. Fleeing Naples after rival crime lords decimated his family, Don Antonio Moretti settles in Los Angeles to rebuild his criminal empire. But he is far from alone in his ambitions.

In 1927, while the majority of the township of Bath, Michigan, was celebrating a new primary school - one of the most modern in the Midwest - Andrew P. Kehoe had other plans. The local farmer and school board treasurer was educated, respected, and an accommodating neighbor and friend. But behind his ordinary demeanor was a narcissistic sadist seething with rage, resentment, and paranoia. On May 18 he detonated a set of rigged explosives with the sole purpose of destroying the school and everyone in it.

Nea Campbell is a thirty-seven year old, successful real estate agent in Florida who spends her days driving her ‘89 Mustang convertible, showing million dollar homes, and taking her Jack Russell terrier, CJ, on walks on the beach. Along with her best friend, Amara Baros, a half-Greek goddess and interior designer, Nea has found the perfect real estate investment. Twelve, cute bungalows make up a boutique hotel property on the Gulf Coast that Nea and Amara are ready to fix-up and make a tourist hot spot. But, when surprise repairs are needed, and a body is found in a bungalow; well, ...

An Internal Affairs investigator was murdered and his brother, Donovan Goldwyn, was framed. Now Donovan is desperate to prove his innocence. And the one person who can do that is the woman who saved him from a deadly hurricane - Beth Kennedy. It’s her love for him that pushes her to do whatever she has to do to help him get justice, including putting herself in a criminal’s crosshairs. When a tip reveals the killer's location, they travel to California, but then an earthquake of catastrophic proportions separates them.

Beth and Donovan are now happily married, and what Beth wants more than anything is a baby. Her dream of starting a family is put on hold as fires burn dangerously close, and Donovan becomes a victim of sabotage. Donovan escapes what could've been a deadly wreck. Their past enemies have been eliminated, so who is cutting brake lines and leaving bloody messages? He vows to find out for the sake of the woman he loves and the life they're trying to build.

The year is 2026. The US military has a new weapon in its arsenal: an intelligent life-form so versatile that it can not only create a new generation of weapons but can become a weapon itself - entering a host’s body to manipulate (or kill) them. Admiral James Curtiss is tasked with deploying the new weapons, first in Cuba, then Venezuela, then China. But the news of the military’s breakthrough has gotten out and there are menacing forces trying to steal it. What’s more, a single man has somehow harnessed the new power and has become something more than human - godlike.

For nearly a century, Kellogg, Idaho, was home to America's richest silver mine, Sunshine Mine. Mining there, as everywhere, was not an easy life, but regardless of the risk, there was something about being underground, the lure of hitting a deep vein of silver. The promise of good money and the intense bonds of friendship brought men back year after year. Mining is about being a man and a fighter in a job where tomorrow always brings the hope of a big score.

Marco D’Amato was deep undercover as an informant on one of the biggest cases of his career: taking down the elusive drug lord, Juan Espinoza. He had infiltrated the gang and was part of the top echelon – only to have everything fall apart around him at the worst time… Carmen Hill knew the dark-haired man was trouble. People didn’t act suave, speak, or walk with that arrogant swagger, unless they knew they could back it up… and Marco? Well, Marco could certainly hold his own… despite her bumbling attempts to say hello to the handsome man, and her horrific timing! Couldn’t he? ...

The Esperanza Fire started October 26, 2006, in the San Jacinto Mountains above the Banning Pass near Cabazon, California. It destroyed 41,000 acres and dozens of homes and cost the taxpayers $16 million dollars. But by far the highest costs of the conflagration were the lives of the five-man crew of Engine 57, the first engine crew ever killed fighting a wildland blaze. Fire and superheated gases had erupted in a freak "area ignition," sending flames racing across three-quarters of a mile in mere seconds, engulfing the crew and the house they were defending.

The gun-toting Artzy Chicks, Lily and LauraLea are off on another adventure. This time, they’ll leave Massanutten Mountain behind to venture off to uncharted waters. Uncharted for them anyway. Flying to London was the easy part. Their newest creation, The Majestic Norway, had been selected for auction aboard a prestigious cruise ship bound for Norway. They’d planned to sit back, relax, and enjoy the tranquil atmosphere. Maybe even check off one of their bucket-list items and view the spectacular northern lights. As usual, things didn’t go as expected. Amid suspicious Vikings, irate ...

When a deadly snowstorm strikes the Icelandic highlands, four friends seek shelter in a small, abandoned hunting lodge. It is in the middle of nowhere and there's no way of communicating with the outside world. They are isolated, but they are not alone. As the night darkens, and fears intensify, an old tragedy gradually surfaces—one that forever changed the course of their friendship. Those dark memories could hold the key to the mystery the friends now find themselves in. And whether they will survive until morning . . .

After her car breaks down, Beth Kennedy is forced to stay in Florida, the target of Hurricane Sabrina. She stocks up supplies, boards up windows, and hunkers down to wait out the storm, but her plan unravels when she witnesses a car accident. Risking her life, she braves the winds to save the driver. Just when she believes they are safe, she finds out the man she saved could possibly be more dangerous than the severe weather.