Art Crime

One bright Los Angeles day, a young Polish émigré named Viva is driving along the freeway when she’s flagged down by a dazzling, disheveled woman in green chiffon. The woman is Bobby Sleeper, a fellow Eastern European and an erstwhile art gallerist with a mysterious background and even more mysterious filmmaker husband. Within days the couple hire Viva as their assistant, then enlist her as an accomplice in an improbable scheme involving a long-lost Vermeer masterwork, a multi-million-dollar reward, and several shadowy ex-husbands.

From the earliest days of silent films and the swinging era of the Roaring Twenties, through the Golden Age of the studio system and the patriotic call of WWII, to the Red Scare paranoia of the McCarthy years, the history of the Schenck brothers is the story of Hollywood itself—and the enduring power of the American Dream. Moguls is a must-listen for film fans, history buffs, and anyone who loves the movies.

When Gauri Lankesh, an outspoken journalist in the South Indian city of Bangalore, was assassinated in September 2017 outside her home, it wasn’t just a loss to her close-knit community of writers and activists—the shock reverberated nationwide, making headlines and sparking mass protests. Why was she targeted, and who was behind it? Following the case to its stunning, unsettling conclusion, Rollo Romig uncovers a world of political extremists, fearless writers, organized crime, and shadowy religious groups.

Former federal agent Alexis Parker is tired of death, destruction, and mayhem. She wants to forget her past and focus on the present. She has a new gig guarding a priceless piece of art and a promising future with James Martin, but when she runs into an old friend while working in Paris, her new life comes crashing to an end. Armed thugs, stolen art, and a bag of cash are just the tip of the iceberg. The painting is a fake, and the insurance firm blames Alex for the theft. But the real thief is out there.

“A powerful memoir of one man’s struggle for freedom, 15 to Life tells in vivid prose the story of Anthony Papa, a painter and a casualty of the War on Drugs. This journey of a soul shows the power of art to transcend the violence of prison, and all that is possible when the human spirit refuses to be contained. Papa’s account should be required reading for New York lawmakers and all Americans who care about civil liberties.” (Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking)

Rache ist süß und gemein. Der Maler Yves Honoré entzweit sich von seiner Muse Pénélope und landet in den Armen der Amerikanerin Patricia. Das neue Glück währt nur kurz, denn seine Ex terrorisiert das Paar. Als auch noch der Verlobte von Patti aus den USA dazustößt, ist das Drama perfekt. Leidtragende ist die Freundin von Patti, denn sie verschwindet spurlos. Wurde sie Opfer der Tragödie, die sich zwischen den Liebenden abspielt? Commissaire Lucie Girard muss alle Register ziehen, um zwischen Lügen und Intrigen ihr Ziel zu erreichen.

The original 1941 radio dramatization of Inspector Bonaparte Mystery—featuring Bony, the first Aboriginal detective. The discovery of a stolen red monoplane on the dry flat bottom of Emu Lake meant many things for different folks. For Elizabeth Nettlefold, the chance to nurse its strangely ill passenger meant renewed purpose in life. For Dr. Knowles, brilliant physician and town drunk, it meant the revival of a romantic dream. For some it meant a murder plan gone awry, and for Bonaparte, it meant one of the toughest cases of his career.

Gallery owner Ally Blake risks everything to exhibit at an art fair in Bogotá in the 1990s. She needs wealthy collectors to boost her gallery's sales and save her family from bankruptcy. When her art crates are tampered with and she discovers an ex-boyfriend and colleague from her State Department days in Santiago has involved her in a money laundering scheme, she devises a strategy to thwart the fraud, protect her children, and secure her family's future—but pulling it off will require her to make the art deal of a lifetime.

In the haunting tradition of Joe McGinniss's Fatal Vision and Mikal Gilmore's Shot in the Heart, True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa weaves a spellbinding tale of murder, love, and deceit with a deeply personal inquiry into the slippery nature of truth.

Master Forger David Henty has a problem: a forgery he painted is rejected and suddenly he owes a murderous, blind, female Japanese gangster £5 million.

Varför hade Timbuktu noll kronor på sitt konto när det borde ha varit minst fem miljoner, och vart tog "The Cardigans" förmögenhet egentligen vägen? Flera band visade sig snart vara inblandade i det som kom att kallas Tambourinehärvan: "The Ark", "Weeping Willows", "Europe" och framför allt - "The Hives".

When the bizarre death of a mob foot soldier sparks an escalating war between Boston’s Irish and Italian mafia, detective Ray Hanley’s relentless search for the truth uncovers evidence of a serial killer obsessed with the art of human suffering. As the body count rises, Detective Hanley must navigate a minefield of crime families, dirty politicians, and crooked cops, while matching wits with a deranged serial killer. But temptation, betrayal, and death threaten to derail the investigation, and justice doesn’t come without a price.

Der Bürgermeister eines kleinen Ortes an der Elsässer Weinstraße wird tot in seinem Büro aufgefunden, die Polizei geht von einem Raubmord aus. Doch Jean Paul Rapp, seit einem Jahr nicht mehr Commissaire im District Colmar-Rouffach, glaubt nicht daran. Unterstützt von seiner Nachbarin, der Deutsch-Französin Sylvie Printemps, ermittelt er wie in früheren Zeiten: beharrlich, klug und mit untrüglichem Instinkt. Und die Stille im Weinberg scheint ihm der Schlüssel zur Lösung des Falls zu sein.

Follow Europe’s most cunning art thief, forger, and amateur sleuth as she tracks down priceless antiquities and foils nefarious plots.

London. 1910. A procession of well-attired gentlemen and ladies are clearly out of place among the stalls and pushcarts of the Whitechapel District. As the group makes its way through the crowded streets, the tour guide stops now and then to point out various places where the mutilated bodies of the women had been found. Although the murders occurred twenty-two years prior, the man leading the group seems to know every detail and aspect of each slaying. Of those things he does not know, he offers freely his own insightful conjecture.

After wading through the tragedy of San Francisco's Japantown murders, struggling antiques dealer Jim Brodie is back in Japan for a well-earned vacation. But checking in at the PI firm Brodie inherited from his father, he immediately acquires a new case: a Japanese World War II veteran shows up and spins a dark story connected to the war and a pair of violent home invasions committed in Tokyo only days earlier.

In Bearing Witness, John Carpenter explores how across the world, those who experienced the war tried to make sense of it both during and in its immediate aftermath. The digestion of a cataclysmic event can take generations. But in this fascinating audiobook, Carpenter brings together all those who did their best to communicate what they saw in the moment so that it could never be lost.

Max the Forger is an artist and gentleman whose colorful lifestyle has spanned over 70 years. He has lived under the strict regime of Barnardo’s children’s homes, been an elephant handler in the circus, lived rough, busked his way from Brighton to Bombay, sold his fakes up and down the country, dined with dukes, socialized with celebrities, associated with gangsters, served time in prison, and donated tens of thousands to charity. And through it all, he never stopped smiling, and loving life - and missing his mum.

From Benjamin Franklin's newspaper hoax that faked the death of his rival to Abbie Hoffman's attempt to levitate the Pentagon - pranksters, hoaxers, and con artists have caused confusion, disorder, and laughter in Western society for centuries. Profiling the most notorious mischief-makers from the 1600s to the present day, Pranksters explores how "pranks" are part of a long tradition of speaking truth to power and social critique.

When 28-year-old San Francisco Daily Morning Call reporter Mark Twain met Tom Sawyer at a local bathhouse in 1863, he was seeking a subject for his first novel. As Twain steamed, played cards, and drank beer with Sawyer (a volunteer firefighter, customs inspector, and local hero responsible for having saved 90 lives at sea), he had second thoughts about Shirley Tempest, his proposed book about a local girl firefighter, and began to envision a novel of wider scope.