Child Crimes

Fresh off the boat from England, Vita Marlowe has a job to do. Her beloved grandfather Jack has been cheated out of his home and possessions by a notorious conman with Mafia connections. Seeing Jack's spirit is broken, Vita is desperate to make him happy again, so she devises a plan to outwit his enemies and recover his home. She finds a young pickpocket, working the streets of the city. And, nearby, two boys with highly unusual skills and secrets of their own are about to be pulled into her lawless, death-defying plan.

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.

Come along on a visit to the police station, including descriptions of the things and people found there.

Fatty, Larry, Diasy, Pip and Bets are forbidden to solve any mysteries this summer. Then they meet Ern, Mr Goon's nephew, and can't help giving him a few false clues. But they don't expect their fake mystery to turn into a real one, or for Ern to go missing!

In the spring of 2016, someone kidnapped the young step-daughter of John Allen Douglas, a very dangerous figure in the Philadelphia criminal world. Is this the opening move in a gang war, one designed to distract Douglas from his business, or is it something more personal? Ellen is drawn into the hunt for the child when Robert Blasingame reappears in her life. Ellen first met him during what was supposed to be a vacation but turned into a life and death struggle. She cut off her feelings for Blasingame when she discovered he was a very dangerous man operating outside the law. Nowadays, ...

After sabotaging a mass kidnapping in Paris, Lucas Benes faces a new and perilous threat from Siba Günerro and her anything-but-good Good Company. When a briefcase-toting kid from the Falkland Islands joins the New Resistance Spy School, 14-year-old Lucas learns the truth about his mother and becomes a boy on a mission. Lucas and friends speed in and around Rome - from the Colosseum to the Vatican - until they stowaway on a cargo ship carrying diamonds that could unlock the secret to Lucas's past and destroy the Good Company's future.

A Life in Pieces is a literary novella by D. X. Lewis, told through 28 sharp, emotionally rich flash stories that piece together the life and background of Edward Newman from childhood to his imminent death. Moving between styles—from lyrical fairy tale to gritty realism, from humorous to melancholic—this genre-blending work offers a fresh, deeply human listening experience.

2017 Silver Falchion Award Nominee ​"He's first. You're next." That's the message someone scribbled on a photo of Stacy May Charms' six-year-old son, two days before her release from prison. Stacy knows why. She doesn't know who. And she's not waiting around to find out. Her plan is to grab her child and run. Elizabeth McClaine has no idea why Stacy ran, but she intends to find out. Contracted to oversee the governor’s early release program for young incarcerated mothers, she is responsible for the program’s first successful applicant. But when Stacy May breaks parole only two hours ...

He doesn’t scare easy. He doesn’t back down. And this time, the victims can’t even speak for themselves. Private Investigator Jim Knighthorse is used to messy cases, but this one takes the prize. Heidi Mann is convinced her missing boyfriend was murdered by shark poachers. Not just any poachers, but the worst kind: the ones who use live animals as bait. When Mitch Golden’s body turns up shot and dumped in the ocean, Jim’s left to untangle a web of threats, smuggling, and cold-blooded greed stretching from California’s piers to Mexico’s backwater docks. But local cops don’t ...

Meet DCI Hanlon. A woman with a habit of breaking the rules and a fierce loyalty to the few people she respects. When the kidnap of a 12-year-old boy blows the case of some missing children wide apart, the finger is pointing at the heart of the Met. Hanlon is sent in as the only cop who is incorruptible enough to handle it. But can she find the killer before another child is stolen?

Tom Simmons has everything: he is tall; he is charming; he is self-assured; and he is strikingly handsome – the kind of guy who will always command the attention of the opposite sex. Ben Hingley is none of these things. Gullible, obsessive, and emotionally illiterate, this unprepossessing little man seems destined to live out his days a despised and misunderstood loner. Yet these two contrasting characters do share something in common – the gathering indulgence of three very different women: a raffish, thrill-seeking author; a crestfallen politician; and a kindly churchgoer who bears ...

Late one summer evening, Detective Kim Stone arrives at Haden Hill Park to the scene of a horrific crime: a woman in her 60s tied to a swing with barbed wire and an X carved into the back of her neck. The victim, Belinda Evans, was a retired college professor of child psychology. As Kim and her team search her home, they find an overnight bag packed and begin to unravel a complex relationship between Belinda and her sister Veronica.

HOUSES OF THE HOLY: A Nightmare Web of Hate, Crime, Corruption, and Child Abuse is the true story they never wanted you to hear of one man’s battle for truth—and the price he paid. When Mark Harris, a decorated former Air Force Special Operations pilot, filed a routine restraining order to protect his two young sons, he had no idea he was stepping into a nightmare. That single act set off a chain reaction that exposed a hidden criminal empire—an alliance of white supremacists, rogue military operatives, mob families, corrupt officials, government informants, and religious extremists.

In the morning they gave Reacher a medal. And in the afternoon, they sent him back to school. Night School takes Reacher back to his army days, but this time he's not in uniform. With trusted sergeant Frances Neagley at his side, he must carry the fate of the world on his shoulders in a wired, fiendishly clever new adventure that will make cold sweat trickle down your spine.

Florence Lovelady's career was made when she convicted coffin-maker Larry Grassbrook of a series of child murders 30 years ago in a small village in Lancashire. Like something out of a nightmare, the victims were buried alive. Florence was able to solve the mystery and get a confession out of Larry before more children were murdered, and he spent the rest of his life in prison. But now, decades later, he's dead, and events from the past start to repeat themselves. When her own son goes missing under similar circumstances, the case not only gets reopened...it gets personal.

Pete Kelliher and the FBI thought the boys were safe. So did their parents. So did the hospital staff. In fact, everyone thought the boys were safe. That is, until people began dying. More than a hundred arrest warrants were served and those who took part in the human trafficking ring were arrested. However, six dangerous men escaped and go into hiding. These men vow revenge on those who forced them to run, and no one is safe. Brett, his brother Bobby, George, and the twins, Randy and Billy are in danger and live in fear that at any moment, they could be murdered along with their families. ...

Total Strangers, One Man and Two Boys, each hold a piece of a deadly puzzle and they don’t know it. The bodies of six boys are found in remote areas in different states with startling characteristics. FBI Agent Pete Kelliher and his team from the Crimes Against Children Unit investigate and discover a curious pattern that his superiors refuse to believe. Unfortunately for Pete, there are no other leads and nothing else to go on, and no proof to verify his theory.

It began on the Navajo Nation Reservation when fourteen-year-old George Tokay, witnessed and reported the murder of a Caucasian boy his own age. Kelliher and his team solved that case, which led to the freedom of thirty boys who were abducted off safe suburban streets and held in captivity. The FBI thought that was the end, that the boys were safe. Three dangerous men with nothing to lose offer a handsome reward if fourteen-year-old Brett McGovern, one of the boys held in captivity was killed. He has no idea that he, his younger brother, and a friend are targets. More than anyone, these ...

In March 2014, eight-year-old Relisha Rudd vanished from a Washington, D.C. homeless shelter. Her disappearance shocked the city—but what emerged in the weeks that followed was even more disturbing. As investigators searched for clues, they uncovered a harrowing web of bureaucratic failures, overlooked warning signs, and a young girl caught in the blind spots of a system meant to protect her. Relisha hadn’t been abducted in the traditional sense—she had slowly slipped through the cracks, unnoticed until it was far too late. This gripping true crime account unravels the story of a ...

A terrible crime forces Lucy to turn to Lockwood for help and sets them on the trail of dark secrets at the heart of London society. Both professionally and personally, their investigation stirs up forces they may not be able to control.... Ghouls and spectres, thrills and tension in this brand-new instalment in Jonathan Stroud's best-selling series.