American Crime

In 1938 Chicago, a seamstress's needle can stitch together more than just fabric—it can weave power, danger, and an unexpected love that defies every boundary. Ruby Washington has built her reputation as Chicago's most talented seamstress by keeping secrets. Every dress she creates holds the confidences of its wearer, from society wives to jazz singers. But her greatest secret is one she inherited: her mother didn't die in an accident twenty years ago—she was murdered for trying to change how business was done in the Windy City. Marco Valentini may be heir to Chicago's most powerful ...

Frenemy: An enemy disguised as a friend. Dive into this mind-gripping, page-turner as a young man embarks upon a life of crime, while struggling to find his place in the world. They don't call him Truth for nothing. He is the Truth…literally. With the odds stacked against him, Truth is willing to do whatever it takes to make it to the top. He is faced with many trials throughout his young life, including the brutal death of his Mother, who taught him, "What don't kill ya, only make ya stronger". Jazzie is an alluring beauty with a bodacious body that always got her by in life. Jazzie’a ...

On a winter day north of the Arctic Circle, nine-year-old Elsa—daughter of Sámi reindeer herders—sees a man brutally kill her beloved reindeer calf and threaten her into silence. When her father takes her to report the crime, local police tell them that there is nothing they can do about these “stolen” animals. Killings like these are classified as theft in the reports that continue to pile up, uninvestigated. But reindeer are not just the Sámi’s livelihood, they also hold spiritual significance; attacking a reindeer is an attack on the culture itself.

As a cop, Ron Previte was corrupt. As a mobster, he was brutal. And in his final role, as a confidential informant to the FBI, Previte was deadly. The Last Gangster is his story—the story of the last days of the Philadelphia Mob, and of the clash of generations that brought it down once and for all. Convinced that the honor of the "business" was gone, he became the FBI's secret weapon in an intense and highly personalized war on the Philadelphia mob, operating with the same guile, wit, and stone-cold bravado that had made him a force in the underworld.

Dive into the heart of darkness in "If You Do," where the echo of footsteps in a school’s hallway could be the sound of justice drawing near—or the harbinger of danger yet to come. In the locker room of South Central High School, a new chapter of chilling crime unfolds, plunging the quaint town of Kickapoo into a profound state of shock. "If You Do" beckons readers back into the enigmatic world where Detective Katrina Jacobs and her partner, Sergeant Regina Owens, reigns supreme in their relentless pursuit of justice. This time, the heart of the mystery beats within the school's campus,...

Lex Legacy runs a legitimate dispensary out of Minneapolis with his two homeboys, Josh and Devin. With a surplus of product on their hands, they need to find a way to get rid of all that extra product and make a whole lotta money at the same time. Their Chicago connection can take it off their hands, easy. Unfortunately, the kingpin of Chicago doesn’t like that Lex’s crew and the Chicago connection are cutting into his profit, and he wants it to go away. Will Lex and his boys succumb to this hood tyrant, or do whatever it takes to keep that money rolling in? Not only that, but he’s ...

TRUE TALES OF MURDER & MAYHEM - VOLUME #1 (Edition #2. Updated and corrected 28th Feb 2024)*MURDEROUS FAMILIES The process of growing up as part of a small family group prepares a child to take a constructive part in the world. But when a family turns to crime together, there seems to be no limit to their ambition. This is clearly seen in the case of the Bender family. Kate Bender would charm the travellers who stopped at their house for a meal cooked by her mother. The men of the family then killed, robbed and buried them, sharing out the proceeds. The trial is of the Manson "family" for ...

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.

Ethan Dawson, a former Army Ranger turned investigative reporter, thought exposing a network of white-collar criminals would be his ultimate story. But when corruption within the legal system allows his wife and daughters’ killers to walk free, Ethan finds himself at a crossroad between justice and revenge. His experience and rage lead him to pursue vigilante justice, unveiling a darker underbelly of criminal influence and forcing him into hiding. With enemies on his trail, Ethan escapes by train, befriending a young mother and her children as cover. He finds sanctuary in the secluded ...

The Great War of Our Time offers an unprecedented assessment of the CIA while at the forefront of our nation's war against al-Qa'ida and during the most remarkable period in the history of the agency. Called the "Bob Gates of his generation", Michael Morell is a top CIA officer who saw it all - the only person with President Bush on 9/11/01 and with President Obama on 5/1/11, when Usama Bin Laden was brought to justice.

In the summer of 1985, Lisa Whitaker is a church kid headed to college on a scholarship while her best friend, Dana, is floundering in the wake of her mother’s latest eviction. Though Lisa tries to help, their paths diverge. Fifteen years later, Lisa has a beautiful family and is stepping into her dream job as the director for a social services organization. Everything is going right—until her future is snatched away by identity theft. Her life begins to unravel, and Lisa wants nothing more than to see the woman responsible pay for her crimes.

FEAR is given a $500,000 dollar contract to bust a snitch out of prison and deliver him to his crime boss father in Brazil. There’s only one problem though, he keeps running into a highly skilled assassin that’s hell bent on killing him, ANTON. The young hitter is determined to avenge his father’s murder even if it means sacrificing himself for his cause. Will Fear fulfill his contract before Anton catches up to him or will he die by the young hitter’s hands? Meanwhile, EUREKA’s marriage is on the rocks. Her husband, TRISTAN, realizes that his wife still has feelings for an old ...

A 'Cain' and 'Able' tale about the lust, greed and other deadly sins that inhabit the lives of today's superstar athletes. Russell and Sam Moore were brothers who both saw their pro football dreams come true only to have them ended by drugs, jealously and a tragic accident.

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 ...

On April 23, 1967, Prisoner #416J, an inmate at the notorious Missouri State Penitentiary, escaped in a breadbox. Fashioning himself Eric Galt, this nondescript thief and con man - whose real name was James Earl Ray -drifted through the South, into Mexico, and then Los Angeles, where he was galvanized by George Wallace's racist presidential campaign. With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Galt and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the crushing moment at the Lorraine Motel.

A Civil War veteran who perpetrated one of the most ghastly mass slaughters in the annals of U.S. crime. A nineteenth-century female serial killer whose victims included three husbands and six of her own children. A Gilded Age “Bluebeard” who did away with as many as fifty wives throughout the country. A decorated World War I hero who orchestrated a murder that stunned Jazz Age America.

She gave herself to save her brother. He took her to make her kneel and then couldn’t stop watching her fall. Zoe walks into the ritual hall of the Black Veil to trade her dignity for her brother’s life. Stripped, displayed, and offered like a sacrifice, she expects cruelty. She expects pain. What she does not expect is Yuri, the Bratva enforcer masked in silver and control, who claims her with quiet authority and terrifying focus. He does not touch her first. He watches. And what begins as survival quickly spirals into spectacle, obedience, and obsession. Yuri was trained to control ...

The only two men Rain ever loved was taken. Her husband was taken by a side-chick, and her only begotten son was taken by a stray bullet; Rain was sure she would never love again. Suddenly, Face, a man with the reputation of a ruthless kingpin enters her boutique with evidence that the wrong man is in custody for her son’s murder. Rain refuses to consort with the likes of Face, but then an indifferent Chicago P.D. rejects the evidence, so Rain has no one else to turn to but Face. From 2023 AAMBC Male Author Of The Year Nominee comes a romantic street odyssey with magnetic characters in ...

A phone call in 1975 changes Moon Mathias’s life forever, as a voice on the line tells him his dead brother’s baby daughter—a child Moon never knew existed—is waiting for him in Southeast Asia. A task he believes beyond his meager talents is pulling Moon to Vietnam. In a chilling world of mystery and silence, disguise and deception, he’ll risk everything for the sake of one little girl—and discover a Moon Mathias who’s a better man than he ever thought he could be.

The Red Bottom Bandits may be the world's most fashion-forward gang of masked outlaws. They're the talk of DC for their daring robberies and fly gear. And their latest caper is penned by Ashley Antoinette (of Ashley & JaQuavis) at her sultry, streetwise best.