True Historical

Is it so much to ask to be allowed to die in peace?" Berthie's plea echoes through the quiet room as she lies on her deathbed, eating cold beans and wishing her life was already over. She can't help but think of Mick, the love of her life, and their twisting story. She's loved him since childhood when she dreamed of how they would make their life together in Cedar Hollow. Little did she know that while she was planning their future, he was planning to run off and join the army at the start of World War I. Despite knowing it was wrong, Berthie remained determined to rekindle their love, even...

In 1955, small-town girls flock to Minneapolis for work, love, and adventure. But Teresa Hickman, from Dollar, North Dakota, is a special case. Beguiling. Promiscuous. And, on a chilly April morning, dead along an abandoned trolley track in a Southside neighborhood. Teresa Hickman was three months pregnant when she was strangled. Was the unborn child's father also her killer? Could the killer have been - among the many men drawn to her like flies to honey - Dr. H. David Rose, a middle-aged dentist who admits he was with her the night she died?

The name “Hollywood” conjures up fantastical images of bright lights, glamorous dreams, and impossible riches. From its humble beginnings as a ranch sprawling northwest of Los Angeles in the late 1800s, Hollywood has spanned lifetimes as a factory of dreams, a dazzling place where all things are possible.

In 1924, 18-year-old college students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb made a decision: they would commit the perfect crime by kidnapping and murdering a child they both knew. But they made one crucial error: As they were disposing of the body of young Bobby Franks, whom they had bludgeoned to death, Nathan's eyeglasses fell from his jacket pocket. Multi-award-winning author Candace Fleming depicts every twist and turn of this harrowing case.

Eva and her identical twin sister, Miriam, had a mostly happy childhood. Theirs was the only Jewish family in their small village in the Transylvanian mountains, but they didn't think much of it until anti-Semitism reared its ugly head in their school. Then, in 1944, ten-year-old Eva and her family were deported to Auschwitz. At its gates, Eva and Miriam were separated from their parents and other siblings, selected as subjects for Dr. Mengele's infamous medical experiments.

After a perfectly decent local woman is killed during a robbery, the Witherspoon household receives a surprising visit from a stranger named Blimpey Groggins. He claims his best buddy was convicted of the crime. He also claims the peaceable chap didn't even know how to fire a gun. And considering he's to be hanged in three weeks, Blimpey's desperate to find the real killer. With the trail cold, the crime allegedly solved, and the evidence mucked up, Mrs. Jeffries and her belowstairs cohorts have their work cut out for them if they want to save an innocent man from the gallows.

By 1944, the war has turned against Hitler’s Third Reich, and German cities lie in ruins from the constant bombing by the Allies. On every front, Allied forces are driving the Wehrmacht forces back. Inspired by the success of his terror weapons, the V-1 and V-2 rockets, against cities in England, Hitler approved plans for a secret operation to retaliate against the United States by launching V-1 buzz bombs from the decks of German U-boats in an attack on New York City. In September of 1944, a clandestine operation involving the Abwehr, Kriegsmarine, and Luftwaffe, codenamed Operation ...

Discover the untold stories behind history's most bizarre, chilling, and unsolved mysteries in You Won't Believe This Actually Happened. This captivating collection takes you on a journey through time, exploring the strange and enigmatic events that have confounded experts, sparked endless debate, and fueled the imaginations of people around the world. From the eerie disappearance of the Somerton Man to the puzzling codes of the Voynich Manuscript, from the mysterious Taos Hum to the tragic fate of the Dyatlov Pass hikers, each chapter delves into a different mystery, unraveling the facts, ...

The men on the SS Marine Electric sailed into a storm in February 1983 not knowing that they would make history - at a great cost in lives. Just three men survived the wreck of the Marine Electric off the shores of Virginia and they found that their struggle had just begun once they got back to shore. Blamed for the wreck, they fought back and broke a code of silence that had covered up sloppy ship inspections for decades and revealed the flaws in old World War II rust buckets that were still at sea long past their functional lifetime.

This is the incredible true story of the greatest spy you’ve never heard of - as told to the author by the woman herself. At the outbreak of World War Two, Nancy Wake’s glamorous life in the South of France seemed far removed from the fighting. But when her husband was called up for military service, Nancy felt she had just as much of a duty to fight for freedom. By 1943, her fearless undercover work even in the face of personal tragedy had earned her a place on the Gestapo’s "most wanted" list.

On April 10, 1834, firefighters smashed through a padlocked attic door in the burning Royal Street mansion of Creole society couple Delphine and Louis Lalaurie. In the billowing smoke and flames they made an appalling discovery: the remains of Madame Lalaurie's chained, starved, and mutilated slaves. This house of horrors in the French Quarter spawned a legend that has endured for more than 150 years. But what actually happened in the Lalaurie home? Rumors about her atrocities spread as fast as the fire. But verifiable facts were scarce.

For well over twenty years, Poe Ballantine traveled America, taking odd jobs, living in small rooms, and wondering the big whys. At age 46, he finally settled with his Mexican immigrant wife in Chadron, Nebraska, where they had a son who was red-flagged as autistic. Poe published four books about his experiences as a wanderer and his observations of America.

A Delayed Life is the breathtaking memoir that tells the story of Dita Kraus, the real-life Librarian of Auschwitz. Dita Kraus grew up in Prague in an intellectual, middle-class Jewish family. She went to school, played with her friends, and never thought of herself as being different - until the advent of the Holocaust. Torn from her home, Dita was sent to Auschwitz with her family. From her time in the children’s block of Auschwitz to her liberation from the camps and on into her adulthood, Dita’s powerful memoir sheds light on an incredible life - one that is delayed no longer.

A Jewish girl suffers from anti-Semitic sentiments in the Iraq of the past century. A Kurdish girl finds her diary over sixty years later. What connects them? Rahila grows up under the growing anti-Semitic threats of the 1940’s and loses her family and most people around her to the pull of Zionism and the state of Israel. She herself marries a Muslim, converts to Islam and stays in Iraq. Zara is part of the Arab Spring movement in Kurdistan and struggles to come to terms with her new-found, Jewish roots. She finds she is not the only one whose long forgotten past is looming heavily over ...

Why would ‘Constance’ travel between the exotic ‘powerhouse’ of the ancient Assyrian and Roman Empires, only to finally journey to the wild, inhospitable and barbaric lands of Northumberland? This is a story based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale from The Canterbury Tales and tells of the travels of ‘Constance’. The question is, what secret was Chaucer trying to tell in this unlikely journey and where ‘Constance’, suggested as being one of the most recognised of biblical artefacts, continues to be hidden to this day. The book also reveals that to conceal this and ...

American horse trainer Adia Kensington is living her dream of working at the famous Janów Podlaski stables in Poland, where the best Arabian horses in the world are bred. But her plans to bring a priceless stallion to the US are derailed when the German army storms into her adopted country in 1939. Little does she know this is just the beginning of six long years of occupation that will threaten her beloved horses at every turn.

The "unputdownable" (Dave Eggers, National Book award finalist) story of the most infamous American con man you've never heard of: James Strang, self-proclaimed divine king of earth, heaven, and an island in Lake Michigan, "perfect for fans of The Devil in the White City" (Kirkus).

November, 1914. The Great War has come to Brussels, the Germans have occupied the city, and Edith Cavell, Head Nurse at Berkendael Medical Institute, faces an impossible situation. As matron of a designated Red Cross hospital, Edith has sworn an oath to help any who are wounded, under whatever flag they are found. But Governor von Lüttwitz, the ranking German officer, has additional orders for her. She and her nurses must also stand guard over the wounded Allied prisoners of war and prevent them from escaping.

Since their father’s death summoned Lavinia Brinkman and her four sisters to Eden, Colorado, Lavinia has been content with her new life. Well, almost. Lavinia’s heart’s desire - creating the elaborate hats she loves - doesn’t belong in this small town. How can she choose between the life she has and the life she wants? Especially when she’s so utterly vexed by the handsome scoundrel who’s just arrived in Eden.

The novel opens on the eve of World War II. In the mountain village of Half-Village, a young man nicknamed the Pigeon, under the approving eyes of the entire village, courts the beautiful Anielica Hetmanska. But the war's arrival wreaks havoc in all their lives and delays their marriage for six long years.