American Crime

No other event in the last fifty years is shrouded in myth like the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Today, we remember this moment for the 76 people, including 20 children, who died in the fire; for its inspiration of the Oklahoma City bombing; and for the wave of anti-government militarism that followed. What we understand far less is what motivated the Davidians’ enigmatic leader, David Koresh.

Julie Wilder returns to her hometown of Cranberry Cove to live with her aging aunt, Emma Babbage. Julie's nursing career leads her to a position on the surgical floor of Oceanview General Hospital. After she encounters her high school friend, Lucas Ethridge, her former attraction to the handsome lawyer is reawakened. But when she begins to suspect Lucas of a murder that occurred fifteen years earlier, she recalls an incriminating photo she'd hidden in her aunt's antique desk. She searches for the evidence only to find that it's vanished. To add to her misgivings, she gets mysterious phone ...

What would you do if your son suddenly disappeared in Syria, and you had no idea what had happened to him? Would you contact the FBI? The State Department? Pray? Would you Google “What to do if your son disappears in Syria”? When the unthinkable happened, the answer, in the case of Ann Goodwin and her husband Tag, was: all of the above. Their 30-year-old son Sam, who was attempting to become one of the few people in history to travel to every single country on the planet, vanished in a supposed safe-zone run by the Kurds on the Turkish border.

Karen Abbott illuminates one of the most fascinating yet little-known aspects of the Civil War: The stories of four courageous women - a socialite, a farmgirl, an abolitionist, and a widow - who were spies. After shooting a Union soldier in her front hall with a pocket pistol, Belle Boyd became a courier and spy for the Confederate army, using her charms to seduce men on both sides. Emma Edmonds cut off her hair and assumed the identity of a man to enlist as a Union private, witnessing the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.

There’s more than one vicious storm brewing in the small town of Thompson Trails. Cabin owners, Rick and Donna Welk, are the first to encounter the dark and mysterious stranger as he searches for shelter during one of the worst blizzards the town has ever seen. There’s no need to panic. He’s just passing through.

Broken Angel was written by USA TODAY Bestselling Author Reana Malori She was an angel... craving chaos. He was a demon... seeking peace. When Nico Mitchell met Lavinia Ross, it was annoyance-at-first-sight. She pushed his buttons, created chaos in her wake, and made him fall in love with the very essence of her soul. He’d never claimed to be a nice man, or even a good man, but none of that mattered to her. When Lavinia believes he’s betrayed her, the anger and retribution are swift and unmistakable. They call him a demon, but he needs his broken angel to soothe his soul. They were a ...

June Kato's burgeoning career as LA's top neurosurgeon gets turned upside down when she finds a dead body in her garden. Calling the cops brings trouble and it isn't long before she ends up on their suspect list. When a second murder victim is discovered too close to home, June is on the run--not just from the culprit but to put an end to the madness before anyone else is slaughtered. Will June become the next victim as she goes on a thrill ride through the streets of LA, until she comes face to face with the murderer?

J Jackson Bentley and others have contributed their American homeland short stories for this anthology. There are thrillers, murder mysteries and feel good dramas. Beautifully written and descriptive they are each a mini novel in the vein of the traditional and much loved short story writers of yesteryear. JJB kicks off the book with a tribute to the Great American Short Story, reminding us all of the great stories we now take for granted and which have spawned films and TV series that we know and love. The essay also pays homage to graphic novels and comics. There are fifteen stories ...

Parks- deep down has always known that the day would come when he had to run, taking his family with him. He thinks has prepared for everything. He is mistaken. After letting his guard down to make his wife and Erie happy, he sees his worst nightmare on the horizon. Can he escape again, or will this be the end of the road for their family. Ember- has always chosen her husband and family over what she knew was right. Her guilt is heavy yet doesn't outweigh the love she has for him and their children. As long as they are all together she can handle it. So, when Erie has a request, she grants ...

Mexico in the 1970s is a dangerous country, even for Maite, a secretary who spends her life seeking the romance found in cheap comic books and ignoring the activists protesting around the city. When her next-door neighbor, the beautiful art student Leonora, disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite finds herself searching for the missing woman—and journeying deeper into Leonora’s secret life of student radicals and dissidents.

Bridget Jones meets James Bond! What happens when you stumble in the arms of a gorgeous man with DANGER! written all over? Especially, when you're stuck in your worst magical eclipse? FREE on Kindle Unlimited! I’m Sophie Rowling. I used to be a world-renowned violinist, until my world was turned upside down. Following a freak accident in Paris, I can’t remember how to play the violin anymore. To make matters worse, I’m supposed to perform for my childhood teacher’s retirement party, which is just weeks away. Usually I would turn to my BFFs, Jackie the ghost and Allegra the violin ...

Meet Marcel and Sabrina, a hitman and a bookkeeper for the Mob. The couple should have never met, let alone fallen in love. When they decide to go against the grain, all hell breaks loose. Somebody wants them dead; they just don't know who. It could be Leo, Marcel's jealous older brother; Othello, Sabrina's crooked father; or it could be The Family, a roundtable of the top contenders in the underworld. There is no honor amongst thieves. Marcel and Sabrina will find the old adage to be true the hard way.

Spying is the family business. Amanda Cole is a brilliant young CIA officer following in the footsteps of her father, who was a spy during the Cold War. It takes grit to succeed in this male-dominated world—but one hot summer day, when a Russian defector walks into her post, Amanda is given the ultimate chance to prove herself. The defector warns of the imminent assassination of a US senator. Though Amanda takes the warning seriously, her superiors don’t. Twenty-four hours later, the senator is dead. And the assassination is just beginning.

From a colonial manse in New England to a small-town home in Iowa to a Beverly Hills mansion, these residences have taken on a life of their own, gaining everything from local lore and gossip to national - and even global - infamy. Here, writer Steve Lehto recounts the stories behind the houses where Lizzie Borden supposedly gave her stepmother "40 whacks", where the real Amityville Horror was first unleashed by gunfire, and where the demented acts of the Manson Family horrified a nation.

In September of 2019, Luis Alberto Quiñonez—known as Sito— was shot to death as he sat in his car in the Mission District of San Francisco. He was nineteen. His killer, Julius Williams, was seventeen. It was the second time the teens had encountered one another. The first, five years before, also ended in tragedy, when Julius watched as his brother was stabbed to death by an acquaintance of Sito’s. The two murders merited a few local news stories, and then the rest of the world moved on. But for Laurence Ralph, Sito’s murder forced him to revisit the subject in a profoundly different way.

For decades, Indigenous women and girls have gone missing or been found murdered along an isolated stretch of highway in Northwestern British Columbia. The corridor is known as the Highway of Tears, and it has come to symbolize a national crisis. Journalist Jessica McDiarmid meticulously investigates the devastating effect these tragedies have had on the families of the victims and their communities and how systemic racism and indifference have created a climate in which Indigenous women and girls are overpoliced yet underprotected.

Two men, each unaware of the other, share a common family secret: They were sold for adoption by their American father shortly after their births in the Philippines. Three alternating stories interweave the experiences of father Andrew Breszky and the two sons who try to connect and piece together the puzzle of their reckless, impulsive father. One lives in New York and the other grows up in the south of France, later traveling all over Asia as a documentary filmmaker. Both will discover that their relationships somehow echo that of the young man whose history eludes them.

A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents' American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago.

Artist Annie Shaw seems to have it all: a dream career, a devoted husband, and a whip-smart teenage daughter. But when her mother, a Vietnam War refugee, dies suddenly one night, Annie’s carefully curated life starts to unravel. She’s spent her adulthood trying to escape her difficult upbringing—and has tried her best to give her own daughter a completely different, idyllic childhood. But in the wake of her mother’s death, Annie’s obsessive-compulsive disorder comes roaring back, and this time, the disturbing fixations swirling around in Annie’s brain might actually be coming true.

Peter Montrose, a 73 year old retired attorney, wakes up on August 27, 2020 in the body of a much younger married man in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, Paul Skelding wakes up that same morning in a dumpy Syracuse hotel sporting the body of an old man. The two thoroughly confused men have limited time in order to figure out why their bodies were switched. Their strange dilemma makes for a fascinating adventure for both of them. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lance Majestik is a pen name of retired Canadian lawyer Donald W. Desaulniers who has written more than 100 novels. That author has published some of ...