Crime City

The Beverly Hills Supper Club was Vegas before Vegas was cool. It was known as the "Showplace of the Nation" before it burned to the ground in 1977, killing at least 165 people - one of the worst fires in US history. But few knew that the Beverly Hills had a violent past of deadly arson beginning in 1936, when it was taken over by the Cleveland mob that ran "Sin City" in Newport, Kentucky - an open city of prostitution, extortion, gambling, and violence for decades, until new US Attorney General Bobby Kennedy went to war on the mob in 1961.

Mandy Stevenson left home for college even as her family was being torn apart by the loss of her brother, an Indianapolis police officer. But now, four years later, time to return and face the grief and hardships she left behind. As summer fades, Mandy finds herself in a nightmare when her mother vanishes without a trace. Faced with her father skepticism, Mandy turns to her godfather, head of the police department Missing Persons Unit, for help. The police investigation quickly uncovers her mother's secret, nefarious lifestyle.

Author Ron Chepesiuk chronicles the little known history of organized crime in Harlem.

African American organized crime has had as significant an impact on its constituent community as Italian, Jewish, and Irish organized crime has had on theirs. Gangsters are every bit as colorful, intriguing, and powerful as Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, and have a fascinating history in gambling, prostitution, and drug dealing. In the late 1800s, Harlem became a highly fashionable neighborhood.

It's August in New York, and the steaming garbage littering the streets isn't the only thing that stinks. Civilian investigator Leonard Mitchell can keep his job as the new head of the Department to Investigate Misconduct and Corruption only by successfully prosecuting veteran cop Ralph Mulino.

Would you turn criminal to save a child? Desperate to save his dying nephew, Mitch Walker agrees to commit a dangerous crime, in exchange for life-saving medicine. But things go horribly wrong and he sets off a chain reaction of kidnapping, carnage, and chaos. Hunted by ruthless criminals, Mitch's only hope is a cop named Betts, who wants him behind bars. But the game is about to change.

Curious about the modern love affair with criminal personalities, investigative reporter Conor Woodman spent four years exploring the hidden depths of dynamic cities across the globe. Sharks takes us on a journey through the lawless backstreets of cities as diverse as Mumbai, Bogotá, New Orleans, Barcelona and London. In each he uncovers the people and the scams that keep the global black economy moving.

Orphaned and homeless in New York City at 14 years old, Carlo Juliano lived on the streets to survive until a local crime family boss, Johnny Toracio, gave him a job, a place to live, and mentoring for his new life as a gangster. For the next few years, Carlo befriended leaders of construction scams, art theft rings, drug cartels, biker gangs, extortion rackets, gambling, and cybercrime.

Welcome, dear listener, as we embark on a thrilling tale that will take you on a journey through the treacherous world of the mafia in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In this riveting novel, you will witness the dangers of associating with a notorious mafia family, Cosa Nostra, set against the backdrop of the vibrant and bustling Furniture City. Brace yourself for a tale of dedication, murder, mystery, sizzling romance, and unwavering perseverance.

Attorney Daniel Raine has recently gone out on his own and is now struggling to make rent. So when he's invited to a fundraiser gala at a downtown Seattle art gallery, he sees it as a chance to find some new clients among the city's wealthy elite. And it works in the most unexpected way—when a young artist is found dead in the women's restroom. The assigned detective declares it a suicide, and the young woman's parents promptly sue the gallery owner for driving their daughter to take her own life. Raine is hired to defend the lawsuit and embarks on a mission to exonerate his client.

After the fight of a lifetime in The Devil Always Collects, Alexandra is living her dream, merging socially conscious public relations with investigative journalism to laud the good organizations and persecute the bad within New Orleans. Lockstep with her dashing man, Tom, the two enjoy the cultural riches of Creole country, successful in their careers and free from typical family obligations.

Those dark and terrible things from your nightmares are very real. They walk among us, masquerading as your neighbor, your lover, even your friend. You see, Empire City is full of them...if you only know where to look. How do I know this? Well, for starters the name is Detective Tom Holliday. I work homicide for Special Crimes. My friends, what few I have, call me Doc. And the other reason? I’ve got magic of my own. Welcome to Empire City, where magic and technology co-exist, and humanity endures behind walls of stone and spell-forged steel.

Almost a hundred years ago, a major terrestrial event reshaped the Earth’s coastlines. Goodbye entire cities. Goodbye entire states. Goodbye entire countries. And when the authorities outlawed salvaging from these sunken sites, why, say hello to a new breed of criminal: underwater reclamation specialists. Even a hundred years later, there’s still a whole lot of loot for the reclaiming.

You may think being a superhero is all about dodging bullets, fancy armor, secret identities, and thwarting supervillains - but not in Spire City. Here, you have to deal with crazy shamanic visions, and Nazi butchers brought to USA after World War II. Need we mention the malevolent thought forms and gangs of freakish mutants? Modern city life is tough enough, but in Spire City even the superheroes are stretched to the breaking point when the villains have better lawyers.

Detective Trent Williams comes home to find his daughter taking a nap...but he can't find his wife Molly. She would never leave her family and friends, yet the whispers say she did before. For the second time, his reputation and career are on the line. He can’t lose Molly again. Trent launches the most important investigation of his life. The hours add up but the clues don’t. Did her amnesia come back or did someone take her?

On a hot and humid morning in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, two joggers find the body of 23-year-old Kimberly Levesque. Her lifeless body had been dumped a few feet off the running path, under a bottle palm, the night before. Witnesses saw the car of the man who killed her and wrote down his license plate number. Open and shut case, or so it looks.

Sharon Simpson spent 15 of her younger years in Morgan City, Louisiana, a small, blue-collar town along the Atchafalaya River Delta. Morgan City was living large during the big oil days in the 1970s, yet no one expected what was about to happen to the town. The booming oil industry was desperate for workers to fill positions and used a “trawling net approach” to hire any warm body - as long as the work was getting done on schedule. The heart of the issue - money and greed - led to the hiring of a damaged man who went on a spree, raping and murdering several local teens...

Struggling to forget a crumbling marriage, 40-year-old Anna Lucia Lottol comes to Venice to visit an old friend - but instead of finding solace, she is dragged into the police station and accused of murdering a money-laundering count with whom she had a brief affair. A US Treasury officer with brains and athleticism, Anna fights to clear her name in a seductive city full of watery illusions. As she works to pry information from a cast of recalcitrant characters sometimes denying what she sees and hears, she succeeds in unleashing a powerful foe bent on destroying her.

Isa and Puo are enjoying a quiet, uneventful, completely lawful time in Vancouver, Canada, that is, until someone tries to blow them up. But before they even have time to recover at the hospital, they’re forced on the run for their lives.

The kingpins of Oklahoma City, one from the north side and one from the south side, push pounds of weed, gallons of PCP, and kilos of cocaine through the corridors of the OKC, using very different methods to keep their people in line. King is the leader of the north side crew. Along with his protégé, Tippi, he runs his crew with deadly force. Each member knows there is no room for error when it comes to getting money on the north side. Flamboyant, the leader of the south side crew, is the opposite.

A beautiful Southern city distinguished by its homes, towering church steeples, and hospitality, Charleston, South Carolina, has long been associated with the genteel side of Southern living. However, beyond the outward appearances that most people associate with Charleston, there is another side that most visitors and residents would dare not believe is part of the very fabric from which the city's history was woven. Jones leads the listener back to a time when "drinking, eating, and whoring with more than fifty wenches" was perhaps more common in the Holy City than one may imagine.