Child Crimes

It is an ordinary Tuesday morning in April when bored, lonely Charlie Fisher witnesses something incredible. Right before his eyes, in a busy square in Marseille, a group of pickpockets pulls off an amazing robbery. As the young bandits appear to melt into the crowd, Charlie realizes with a start that he himself was one of their marks.

Mason Buttle is the biggest, sweatiest kid in his grade, and everyone knows he can barely read or write. Mason’s learning disabilities are compounded by grief. Fifteen months ago, Mason’s best friend, Benny Kilmartin, turned up dead in the Buttle family’s orchard. An investigation drags on, and Mason, honest as the day is long, can’t understand why Lieutenant Baird won’t believe the story Mason has told about that day.

A gripping, murder mystery, organized crime and vigilante justice thriller introducing Joe Beck - a brutal ex-cop turned outlaw private detective. When Joe Beck visits Texas for the funeral of an old friend, he gets caught up with an escort named Sapphire and taken at gunpoint by a group of men he’s never seen before. Under orders of a man known only as 'the chairman,' the men drive them out to a desolate stretch of desert land where a hand-dug grave, a harrowing demise, and a gut-wrenching discovery awaits. As horrors come to light in the dark of the Texan night, Joe Beck survives the ...

Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it's not a skill that she's ever taken seriously until the FBI come knocking: they've begun a classified programme that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie. What Cassie doesn't realise is that there's more at risk than a few unsolved murders - especially when she's sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem.

“Hello, mom?” “Piper?” “I have been arrested. Will you please come get me?” “AGAIN, Piper?!” I sigh. “I can explain…” “I will be right there. My mom comforts me, “ I know you are tired; just go get her, and we can talk when you get back.” Stressed and upset, I drive to the police station to pick up my wayward daughter. I am at my wit's end with this girl! I know that rebelling as a teenager is normal; even though I had rebellious moments, Piper takes it to a new level. I stopped short when my eyes lock on her new probation officer. “Come on, Piper,” I insist....

This account describes how a 28-year-old from Watford, Nick Leeson, plunged Barings Bank into ruin. In 1994, Leeson seemed to be making the company millions of pounds a week, but he explains how the cover-up of a colleague's small error led to the crash of Britain's oldest merchant bank.

Adventure-loving penguin Jackson dreams of being a secret agent like his Uncle Bryn, who works for the Frosty Bureau of Investigation. Jackson and his gadget-inventing best friend, Quigley, might officially be too young to join the FBI, but they aren’t going to let that stop them! They just need to come up with the right plan to prove they are worthy. But when one of Q’s inventions goes dangerously wrong, Jackson suddenly finds himself dropped right in the middle of an FBI stakeout. There’s fishy business afoot at the city’s aquarium....

Two fourteen-year-old girls go missing from an exclusive boarding school. Did they abscond, or have they been kidnapped? The girls’ parents - and indeed the parents of many other pupils – have considerable influence in very high places. Pressure is quickly brought to bear to get Scotland Yard involved. Concern for the girls’ safety is paramount. Detective Chief Inspector Adair and three of his officers are assigned to help the local police. Initially there is little to go on, but Adair soon determines that the children didn’t leave voluntarily. The first step – to ascertain how ...

The trial of the century has come to Tupelo Landing, North Carolina. Mo and Dale, aka the Desperado Detectives, head to court as star witnesses against Dale's daddy - confessed kidnapper Macon Johnson. Dale's nerves are jangled, but Mo, who doesn't mind getting even with Mr. Macon for hurting her loved ones, looks forward to a slam dunk conviction - if everything goes as expected. Of course nothing goes as expected.

WAS IT A NIGHTMARE OR WAS IT REAL? A seven-year-old boy experienced a horrible nightmare while on a camping trip. But was it a nightmare? Sgt. Jeremy Porter, the squad supervisor for the New Orleans Police Department's Child Endangerment Division, does not think so, especially since he suffers from his own realistic nightmares. Therapists, doctors, and even the police chief are all convinced it was a nightmare and the boy won't cooperate. Amidst the maddening and violent Mardi Gras season, Jeremy develops a wild hunch and sets his sights on a most unlikely suspect for child abuse. While ...

Foster carer Maggie Hartley is finally enjoying a well-earned holiday from fostering, savouring time with her brand-new baby granddaughter. One night, though, the peace and quiet is interrupted by an urgent call from Social Services. A man has been stabbed, and Social Services need to find an emergency placement for his little girl. Maggie is used to children arriving on her doorstep at all times of the day and night, but nothing can prepare her for the sight of 11-year-old Nancy.

FIRST PRIZE WINNER OF 2021 FIREBIRD BOOK AWARD! Gangsters, an assassin, and a woman detective await you at WHITE DUNES! Murder and violence are rife in the desert city of White Dunes, California, where gangsters run a seedy underworld of sex trafficking and vice. Detective Viola Hendricks secretly records a conversation between a crooked judge and a hit man hired to murder two thugs. Police arrest both men, but the victims' bodies are missing, and the killer won’t confess. The case stalls when the judge dies in jail from a fatal “accident.” Kidnapped and pandered by her gambling ...

Edgar Award-winning author Nancy Springer captivates young listeners with mysteries that feature Sherlock Holmes’ little sister Enola. Abandoned by her mother and fearing her brothers will exile her to a finishing school, 14-year-old Enola lives a lonely London existence. But when someone kidnaps her elderly landlady—the closest thing she has to family these days—the feisty heroine will do whatever it takes to find her.

For much of the twentieth century, a series of terrible events—abuse, both physical and psychological, and even deaths—took places inside orphanages. The survivors have been trying to tell their astonishing stories for a long time, but disbelief, secrecy, and trauma have kept them from breaking through. For ten years, Christine Kenneally has been on a quest to uncover the harrowing truth.

Angeline Reddy is the daughter of a famous lawyer, but she's no stranger to rule-breaking. Growing up in the wild gold-mining town of Bodie, California, in the 1880s, Angeline has seen it all -- saloons, brawls, dance halls, and a whole lot of desperation. But nothing's more exciting than seeing her daddy, Patrick Reddy, in action in the courtroom. Yet when Angeline's beau, a detective, ends up on trial, she finds herself tangled in a dangerous mystery as she attempts to help clear his name.

Alex Rider's life changed forever with the silent pull of a trigger. When Ian Rider died at the hands of the assassin Yassen Gregorovich, Alex, ready or not, was thrust into the world of international espionage - the world's only teenage spy. Alex vowed revenge against Yassen and the two have battled ever since. Yet, years ago, it was none other than Alex's own father who trained and mentored Yassen, turning him into the killer he would eventually become. What makes us choose evil?

The boy studied the bruise turning yellow at the base of his neck. With quick fingers his mother tightened his tie and pulled his collar high above it. Her eyes alone said, We will not speak of this.... Years later a man is found shot dead in a local park. On his phone is a draft text: I can’t keep this secret any longer. The recipient is unnamed. Detective Robyn Carter knows this secret is the key to the case, but his friends and family don’t offer any clues, and all her team have to go on is a size-ten footprint.

Like the biblical Job, John Ramsey had it all - wealth, social position, a loving family. And like Job, Ramsey was destined for great affliction, as many of the most precious things in his life were cruelly taken from him.

Commanded by the magical artifact known as the Dragon’s Eye, junior con artist Callan and his friends are eagerly reaching the end of the epic quest that will finally free him from the Eye’s sinister hold. But their final task is their most ambitious: sneaking into the emperor’s private island prison and rescuing a man from a jail cell that has been locked tight for a hundred years. This impossible heist will strain the gang’s unique abilities to thieve and deceive everyone from the guards, the city elite, the warden, and even the nefarious local crime boss who warns them to stay away.

Twelve true crime stories of murder and mayhem. Fifth audiobook of the True Crime Case Histories Series (2020). When researching these stories, I commonly use actual police reports, court documents, and first-hand descriptions. Some of the details can be disconcerting. I do my best to not leave out any of the details in my audiobooks, no matter how depraved they may be. My intent is not to shock, but to show precisely how twisted the mind of a killer can be. The stories in this volume are shocking and disturbing, but they’re also true. These things really do happen in the world.