In this momentous debut, Randy Bates finds in the daily lives of one American family the pathos and drama we usually associate with the finest fiction. Rings is strict, however, in presenting only actual people and incidents. The book takes as its protagonist Collis Phillips, a black man who, one generation away from slavery managed to turn a youth of caddying:, shoe shining, and running bootlegged whiskey into a career as a successful boxer in New Orleans during the days of Jim Crow. But ...

Table Scraps and Other Essays is for all intents and purposes memoir writing. At the heart of the twenty-two true stories is an African American female who, as a child, along with her siblings, must learn the value of hard work as hired hands. James's young spirit is often at odds with her growing family, especially with a father figure who ignores his duties as husband and provider. She has a strong, loving mother who insists on keeping the family together. James learns to trust and depen...

Perspectives on Deviance and Social Control provides a sociological examination of deviance and social control in society. Derived from the same author team’s successful text/reader version, this concise and student-friendly resource uses sociological theories to illuminate a variety of issues related to deviant behavior and societal reactions to deviance. The authors briefly explain the development of major sociological theoretical perspectives and use current research an...

The “propulsively intriguing, staggeringly addictive” (USA TODAY) novel from master storyteller Stephen King—a #1 New York Times bestseller.It is a typical October morning in Chester’s Mill, Maine: glorious weather, a perfectly blue sky, and quiet. Then, all hell breaks loose. Inexplicably, and simultaneously, a plane falls from the sky in flames; a woman’s hand is severed; and a farmer’s John Deere explores (with him on it). A few moments later, ...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A father’s sudden death leaves one of his sons holding a dangerous secret in this masterful thriller from “a legal literary legend” (USA Today).“A pleasure to read . . . a good yarn.”—The Washington PostA pillar of the community who towered over local law and politics for forty years, Judge Atlee is now a shadow of his former self—a sick, lonely old man who has withdrawn to his spraw...

The epic horrors of psychopathic mastermind Eddie Lee Sexton from the New York Times bestselling author who “knows how to dramatize true crime” (Elmore Leonard).For years, Eddie Lee Sexton ruled his large family like Charles Manson. The depraved patriarch dominated his ragged brood of twelve children mentally, physically, and sexually, and enforced every cruelty imaginable, from vicious beatings to raping his daughters and fathering their children. Finally...

From New York Times bestselling author Jack Olsen, known as "the dean of true crime," comes a shattering account of a killer the system created, enabled, and then set loose to kill again.Little Artie Shawcross bullied classmates, started fires, tortured animals, and roamed the woods of upstate New York talking to imaginary friends. He also scored top grades, excelled in sports, and shared his toys with the children who ridiculed him. From second grade on, psychiatrists examined him...

Winner of the Edgar Award. A New York Times Bestseller.Between 1978 and 1981, a rapist prowled the South Hill neighborhood of Spokane, Washington. He targeted women jogging alone, waiting for buses, walking home after dark. His signature was unmistakable and terrifying: a gloved fist rammed into his victim's mouth to silence her screams. By the time police made an arrest, more than forty women had been attacked.The suspect was clean-cut, conservative, and c...

In this thrilling crime novel, homicide detective Gus Ramone is on the case for the potential murder of a local teen in a community garden—but the investigation slowly unearths dark memories of similar decades old cold cases.Gus Ramone is "good police," a former Internal Affairs investigator now working homicide for the city's Violent Crime branch. His new case involves the death of a local teenager named Asa whose body has been found in a local community garden. T...

This "impressive crime anthology" presents a century of American greed, crime and comeuppance by some of the genre's greatest authors ( Publishers Weekly, starred review).James Ellroy, the author of such noir classics as The Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential, joins forces with award-winning editor Otto Penzler to present this treasure trove of stories. Ranging from the 1920s to the present day, this collection represents noir at its best...

It’s a bizarre case for Andy Broussard and Kit Franklyn. A man is found in Jackson Square, stabbed, one eyelid removed and four Scrabble tiles with the letters KOJE on his chest. Soon, there’s a second victim, also stabbed and devoid of one eyelid, but this time with only three letters on his chest, KOJ. Does the missing letter mean there will be two more victims and then the killer will cease, or is he leading up to something bigger and deadlier? Broussard and Kit use their respective dis...

FBI Agent, Win Holloway is going home to Kentucky—and not under the best of circumstances. At odds with his family since turning his back on their lucrative and long-standing bourbon empire, the blond haired golden boy carries not only a badge and weapon, but the unwarranted guilt of his mother’s death twenty-three years ago. When his father is found murdered in their family estate in an identical fashion, Win is forced to face his family’s past and the history of Winter Bourbon while sear...