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...

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...

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...

The 9th breakneck thriller in the Matt Scudder series, from a master of the genre.To Matt Scudder, no one can rise above the law.But when the ex-cop is privately hired to investigate the murder of a beautiful pregnant woman, he finds himself pushed to the limits of his beliefs. With every step he takes, Scudder discovers darker and more depraved secrets. Human trafficking, snuff films, murderous fetishes: the light of humanity seems all but extinguished.

What does itreally mean to be a good father? What did your father tell you, that has stayed with you throughout your life? Was there a lesson from him, a story, or a moment that helped to make you who you are? Is there a special memory that makes you smile when you least expect it?After the publication of Tim Russert’s number one New York Times bestseller about his father, Big Russ & Me, he received an avalanche of letters from daughters and sons who wanted to tel...

As a young English teacher keen to make a difference in the world, Michelle Kuo took a job at a tough school in the Mississippi Delta, sharing books and poetry with a young African-American teenager named Patrick and his classmates. For the first time, these kids began to engage with ideas and dreams beyond their small town, and to gain an insight into themselves that they had never had before.Two years later, Michelle left to go to law school; but Patrick began to lose his way, en...

A stylish and gripping crime novel from one of the acclaimed writers of THE WIRE.Part-time PI Nick Stefanos doesn't tail wives anymore. But when a childhood friend steps into Nick's bar after 15 years and asks for help locating his wife April, he feels obliged to do some digging.After a visit to the small-time crime boss with whom April was supposedly having an affair, Nick realises there is far more to this story than a missing wife. There is missing money...

A "compelling" novel based on the life of Irish American gangster Owen Madden, from a New York Times–bestselling author ( Booklist).Winner of the American Book Award for FictionHis life of crime began at the age of ten, after he crossed the Atlantic with his family and landed in America. Starting as the leader of the most violent Irish street gang in Hell's Kitchen, the young immigrant rose to prominence as the leading brewer and ...