A true crime history of the 1965 torture and murder of Indiana teenager Sylvia Likens, the case that served as basis for the film An American Crime .In the heart of Indianapolis in the mid-1960s, through a twist of fate and fortune, a pretty, young girl came to live with a thirty-seven-year-old mother and her seven children. What began as a temporary childcare arrangement between Sylvia Likens's parents and Gertrude Banis...

Surly and abrasive, veteran detective Jack Harris at times shows more concern for the wildlife in his beloved Pennine Hills than keeping up cordial relations at work. Indeed, when a trio of local criminals try to steal the eggs of a rare bird, DCI Harris treats it almost like a personal insult. Yet, when two of the criminals descend from the hills into Harris’ snare, Harris finds himself with a murder investigation on his hands.

A series of blood-curdling screams is heard in the dead of the Cumbrian night. When the body of a young woman is found, rumours quickly spread that a serial killer is at work in the small Pennine community of Levton Bridge. When the clues begin to point to a connection with other missing women, the pressure from on high to find answers increases ten-fold. Fighting the media circus’ constant attempts to thwart the investigation, detective Jack Harris must also battle the confusion and doubt...

Are the defacing of a town’s war memorial and the death of a WWII veteran connected? DCI Jack Harris investigates.The small town of Levton Bridge is beset by a spate of vandalism against its war memorials. Uniformed police believe it is just kids, but DCI Jack Harris is not so sure. And when a local WWII veteran is found brutally murdered, his suspicions are confirmed. With anti-war activists causing trouble in the lead up to Remembrance Sunday, top brass want the case wrapped up t...

When the hunt for a missing man turns up a body in a forest in northern England, Detective Jack Harris investigates. The man’s links to known criminals raise suspicion, especially as one of the names is that of a notorious villain. But Harris’ obsession with bringing Danny Radford to justice might distract him from the facts. Will his desire for revenge let a resourceful killer off the hook?

When an archaeological investigation of an old prisoner of war camp turns up several bodies in unmarked graves, it should be an open and shut case for DCI John Blizzard. But, on a foggy November morning, his instinct that something is not quite right is confirmed when forensics show that while most of the victims died during a flu epidemic after the Second World War, one of the deaths was far more recent. Who is this man? Why was he killed? As Blizzard and his team investigate, they begin ...

Whilst detective John Blizzard looks into a series of drug-related deaths, an old nemesis appears who threatens to cloud his judgement.Frustrated with the slow progress of his colleagues’ investigation into the deaths of several youngsters, DCI John Blizzard takes over, determined to catch the drug pushers. In so doing, he stumbles across information that might help solve a murder that occurred when he first joined CID. Many years ago, Des Fairley was shot dead after mouthing off a...

When detective John Blizzard is called to Hafton city cemetery to inspect a recently desecrated grave, he quickly suspects it is something to do with a girl who went missing years before. The grave belongs to the victims of an unsolved murder case, involving members of the family to which the girl belonged. DCI Blizzard is sure that the father was the culprit but previous attempts to bring him to justice had failed. Now a wealthy businessman, Blizzard is still determined to put him under l...

Few tears are shed when an ex-boxer and local hard man is found dead in a disused railway signal box. When DCI John Blizzard is called in to investigate, he discovers no shortage of people who would want the bully dead. But getting any of them to come forward proves difficult. Having interrupted the opening day of the public display of a steam engine that DCI Blizzard lovingly helped restore, few are keener than he to see the perpetrator under lock and key. It transpires that the victim on...

LEYTE…LUZON…MANILA...places where thousands of Americans died, bloody battles that finally turned the tide for America in World War II. Who was the man who led the Japanese to fight so tenaciously in the face of certain defeat, who cost the Americans such a hard-won victory?While Manila was being razed and raped by Japanese troops, while his soldiers were dying of starvation in the hills, Tomoyuki Yamashita finally bowed to the orders of his Emperor and surrendered to American force...

Explores the institutional and environmental transformations that occurred during the Reconstruction Era.While the Reconstruction Era in America saw a paradigmatic realignment of the country’s core institutions and values, there was a physical quality to Reconstruction as well: the country was not only rebuilding the South after the Civil War, but flat-out building as it expanded westward.In Reconstructors, John Dean Davis details how the ...

How did America end up with a leader who acts so crudely and despotically, and counter to our democratic principles? Why do his followers stick with him, even when he acts against their own interests?To fully understand, John Dean, a man with a history of standing up to autocratic presidents, joined with Bob Altemeyer, a professor of psychology with a unique area of expertise: Authoritarianism.Relying on social science findings and psychological diagnostic ...