MR. Stacey King.

Raven Ledger was born two minutes before her twin brother Matthew. The newborns shared the same blood, the same womb, and the same parents. But everything about the siblings was different . . . one was darkness and one was light. Raven was born into poverty to a mother who couldn’t care for her, and a father who would do anything to see his twins thrive. Eventually, Raven becomes a pawn between her parents.

First came the shocking story of Rainey Paxton being born addicted to heroin and the sacrifices she made to accommodate her parents’ reckless lifestyle. Now comes the terrifying, extraordinary novel that picks up after Rainey’s release from juvenile detention. With no money and lost in a section of North Philadelphia dominated by gangs and violence, Rainey won’t accept that it may be too late to save Ivy. Instead, she pushes all limits to fight for her sister, surrendering herself to keep her vow.

At the age of two, Carly Fleischmann was diagnosed with severe autism and an oral motor condition that prevented her from speaking. Doctors predicted that she would never intellectually develop beyond the abilities of a small child. Although she made some progress after years of intensive behavioral and communication therapy, Carly remained largely unreachable. Then, at age 10, Carly had a breakthrough....

In the early morning hours of August 13, 2018, Shanann Watts was dropped off at her Frederick, Colorado, home by a colleague after returning from a business trip. It was the last time anyone would see her alive. By the next day, Shanann and her two young daughters, Bella and Celeste, had been reported missing, and her husband, Chris Watts, was appearing on the local news, pleading for his family's safe return. But Chris Watts already knew that he would never see his family again. Less than 24 hours after his desperate plea, Watts made a shocking confession to police.

Growing up, Joanne suffered at the hands of a violent boyfriend and controlling relatives, as her mother lapsed into a downward spiral following the break-up of her marriage. But the consequences of her mother's lifestyle turned out to be worse than Joanne could ever have imagined. She already knew about the baby buried in a shallow makeshift grave next to the family plot. But when Joanne came across a red plastic bin in her mother's wardrobe in 2009, she realised that the family home held an even more sinister secret.

It's a case reminiscent of the explosive story of Susan Smith, convicted in the drownings of her two young sons in South Carolina. But in The Unforgiven, three young children are in the back seat of a car driven by Amanda Hamm's boyfriend as it slips into an Illinois lake. Amanda and her boyfriend survive. Her three children do not.

Evie and Elliot are scrawny, filthy, and wide-eyed with fear when they turn up on foster carer Maggie Hartley's doorstep. Aged just two and three years old, this brother and sister have hardly set foot outside their own home. They have been prisoners, locked in a terrifying world of abuse, violence, and neglect. Maggie soon realizes that Evie and Elliot are lacking the basic life skills we all take for granted. The outside world terrifies them; the sound of the doorbell sends them into a panic that takes hours to abate.

Someone is committing random murders across Chicago—and making sure detectives Billy Harney (Aaron Paul) and Patti Harney (Krysten Ritter) are first on the crime scene. What connects the victims, and why is the killer leaving clues behind with each body? Billy and Patti are scrambling to stop the next killing when their father, Chief of Detectives Dan Harney (Beau Bridges), is kidnapped. But in their race to track him down, they uncover pieces of his past that simply can’t be true. Could their own flesh and blood be covering up a dark secret?

Eight-year-old Joon has no time to grieve her parents’ sudden death. Ripped from the security of a loving family, she endures horrific abuse in a system intended to protect her. After four years of torture and her foster brother’s attempt to steal her innocence, she runs away to Philadelphia’s poverty-stricken streets. Coming of age while homeless, Joon must fight just to stay alive. Despite the danger and desperation that surrounds her, she clings to her dream of offering the world something positive. But kind acts don’t put food in her belly as she searches for love and a place to call home.

STOLEN LIVES is a podcast dedicated to spreading the stories of those who are forgotten. Those whose lives were stolen. The missing and murdered. STOLEN LIVES tells the stories of these people to keep their memory alive.