True Crime Kidnapping

November 2, 1945: On her way to a high school football game with friends, a fourteen-year-old girl vanishes after driving away with a man who says he needs a babysitter. The FBI unleashes its top kidnapping expert, an agent who helped bring John Dillinger down. Will that be enough to find the girl and her abductor? Agents chase the suspected kidnapper from California to Illinois and back again. Arrested in Los Angeles, he admits abducting the child. He also tells the FBI he killed the girl and threw her body into the Pacific Ocean. A search for her corpse proves fruitless. Then, when all ...

Why do some mysteries endure, haunting our collective imagination for decades, or even centuries? From the gaslit alleys of Victorian London, where Jack the Ripper carved his name into history, to the silent, snowy slopes of the Ural Mountains, where nine experienced hikers met an inexplicable end, this encyclopedia is your definitive guide to the cases that defy explanation. Unsolved chronicles humanity's most perplexing crimes, spanning centuries of mystery. Journey through a meticulously curated collection of baffling disappearances, audacious heists, and brutal murders that have ...

“M.G. Cole is a brilliant new addition to the echelon of British crimewriters.” Peter James "Dark, grim, tense. A compelling new voice." PAUL FINCH, author of the Detective Mark Heckenburg novels. ONE VICTIM… WRONG BODY… DCI Garrick’s new case takes a strange turn when the victim displays a unique characteristic that ignites a media storm. The case centres around a mysterious new ‘Banksy’-like artist, whose work begins to rapidly increase in value as rumours of a curse begin to circulate. Rumours propelled by an art dealer who finds his life is increasingly on the line. With ...

A sinister secret lies buried—one that swallows two young teens into an abyss of mystery. When two young teens at a county fair are drawn to desperate cries emanating from the House of Horrors, their world spins into chaos. They never enter, but suddenly, they're gone—vanished into thin air. Thus begins a baffling mystery into which rookie detective Teresa Simmonds and veteran Allan Yeats are thrown headfirst into a maze of secrets and lies. As they unravel the web of secrets and cover-ups, the question haunts them: What happened to Yasmine and Jerry, and why does no one want the truth ...

“M.G. Cole is a brilliant new addition to the echelon of British crimewriters.” Peter James "Dark, grim, tense. A compelling new voice." PAUL FINCH, author of the Detective Mark Heckenburg novels. A gruesome discovery in DCI David Garrick’s home appears to be the ultimate endgame for a deranged serial killer he thought had died by his own hand. But it’s not the end. It’s the beginning of terrifying new chapter in Garrick’s life, in which he stands to lose everything: his job, his love, his sanity. As the sins of his murdered sister begin to surface, Garrick finds himself on case...

Black girls and women disappear every day, but not without a trace. Join actress and activist Erika Alexander in a neo-noir, true crime drama as she searches for Tamika Huston, a 24-year-old Black woman from Spartanburg, SC who went missing in 2004. Her case became a rallying cry for other missing Black women in America and led to a growing demand to expose a system that ignores missing girls and women of color.

MURDER IN THE GARDEN OF ENGLAND DCI David Garrick's world is already spinning out of control. Haunted by his sister's brutal murder and plagued by terrifying visions, he's barely holding it together. But Kent's darkness won't wait for him to recover. When mutilated bodies start appearing across the county's picturesque villages, Garrick and his fresh-faced team are thrust into a shadowy underworld of human trafficking. Each victim bears the killer's signature – grotesque souvenirs carved from their flesh. But as the body count rises and the victims' identities remain shrouded in mystery, ...

When you can’t hear…death comes silently. Scotland Yard detective Valerie Crowther is assigned to investigate the murder of a student at a university for the Deaf in London, England. The murder investigation coincides with a deadly flu virus outbreak, resulting in the university being quarantined from the outside world. When more Deaf students are murdered, it becomes clear there is a serial killer operating within the sealed-off university. A chilling cat-and-mouse game evolves as the unknown killer targets Valerie and the virus claims more lives. A stunning, claustrophobic, “...

In November 2016, Sherri Papini—a young mother from Redding, California—vanished while out for a jog, sparking a nationwide search and a media frenzy. Three weeks later, she reappeared on a rural roadside, battered and bound, claiming she had been abducted by two Hispanic women. Her harrowing tale captivated the nation and drew comparisons to the thriller Gone Girl. But as investigators delved deeper, inconsistencies emerged. DNA evidence and witness accounts unraveled a shocking truth: the entire abduction was a meticulously crafted hoax. Sherri had been hiding with an ex-boyfriend, ...

“M.G. Cole is a brilliant new addition to the echelon of British crimewriters.” Peter James "Dark, grim, tense. A compelling new voice." PAUL FINCH, author of the Detective Mark Heckenburg novels. Taking an absence of leave from the Kent Police, DCI David Garrick travels to the USA to finally close the chapter on his sister’s murder at the hands of a grotesque club of serial killers. Travelling with journalist Molly Meyers, Garrick soon discovers that America is a very different place to the UK and that following the steps of a case so personal to him is replete with danger... ......

“M.G. Cole is a brilliant new addition to the echelon of British crimewriters.” Peter James "Dark, grim, tense. A compelling new voice." PAUL FINCH, author of the Detective Mark Heckenburg novels. REVENGE IS ONLY HALF THE STORY An unreported missing person. A crime that lurks undetected. A temptation that corrupts the incorruptible. Only when a corpse is uncovered are these dark secrets revealed. But the dead can’t speak. They can’t accuse. And they certainly don’t pay their debts. It’s up to DCI David Garrick’s investigation team to connect the dots and unearth a most ...

When she was kidnapped from Long Meadow Farm in Stony Brook, New York, in 1937, Alice McDonell Parsons was the heir to a vast fortune among Long Island's wealthy elite. The crime shocked the nation and was front-page news for several months.

Whether in Truman Capote’s detailed murder of the Clutter family or Ted Bundy’s small-town charm, criminals have always roamed rural America and towns worldwide. Featuring murder stories, criminal case studies, and more, The Best New True Crime Stories: Small Towns contains all-new accounts from writers of true crime, crime journalism, and crime fiction. And these entries are not based on a true story - they are true stories. Edited by acclaimed author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto, the stories in this volume span the globe.

Without A Trace explores the haunting mysteries of individuals who vanished without explanation between the late nineteenth century to the late 20th century, blending historical research with the emotional weight of unresolved loss. The book delves into the lives of Percy Fawcett, a British explorer who disappeared in 1925 while seeking a lost city in the Amazon with his son and a friend, sparking theories of hostile tribes or a hidden utopia; Etta Place, the enigmatic companion of outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who vanished after 1925 in Argentina, her true identity and fate ...

In the quiet, close-knit town of Lake Redding, a sudden abduction shatters the community's calm. When seven-year-old Lacy Peters vanishes, her teenage cousin Blakely is left haunted by secrets that everyone in town seems to be hiding. As Blakely digs deeper into the mystery, she uncovers a web of lies that could unravel the town’s reputation and bring a long-buried truth to light. In a race against time, Blakely must piece together the clues before Lacy’s fate is sealed forever.

“M.G. Cole is a brilliant new addition to the echelon of British crimewriters.” Peter James "Dark, grim, tense. A compelling new voice." PAUL FINCH, author of the Detective Mark Heckenburg novels. DCI David Garrick faces his most difficult task yet with a serial killer hunting people on dating apps… and a brutal arsonist punishing their victims in the most horrific ways imaginable. As the two cases begin to overlap, Garrick and his team find themselves on a twisting path where nothing is as it seems, and nobody is to be trusted. Recovering from a delicate operation, Garrick begins to ...

In May 1971, Pam Jackson and Sherri Miller were two seventeen-year-olds driving to an end-of-the-school-year party in a rundown Studebaker Lark, when they seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. Police back then didn't do enough to try and find them. Investigators thirty years later did too much. Two families endure decades of pain as they await answers of what happened to their girls. When a third family is pulled into the mystery, they quickly learn their nightmare is just beginning.

“M.G. Cole is a brilliant new addition to the echelon of British crimewriters.” Peter James "Dark, grim, tense. A compelling new voice." PAUL FINCH, author of the Detective Mark Heckenburg novels. A DCI Garrick Thriller - book 8 Recovering from previous traumatic events, DCI David Garrick is now trying to mentally prepare for impending fatherhood. But the chance to start a new life is threatened by the discovery of a body on the beach. Frustrations grow as the case appears to be a series of dead ends… all it takes is one surprising lead that reveals an incredibly grim seam of criminal...

When Phillip is abducted, his family's hidden secrets and the town's dark mysteries come to light. Josie must confront the prejudices of their small community and uncover the sinister truth to bring her son home. A tale of courage and resilience, this story dives deep into family bonds and the shadows lurking in a seemingly peaceful town.

In the fall of 2010, in the all-American town of Apple Valley, Ohio, four people disappeared without a trace: Stephanie Sprang; her friend, Tina Maynard; and Tina's two children, 13-year-old Sarah and 11-year-old Kody. Investigators began scouring the area, yet despite an extensive search, no signs of the missing people were discovered.