Crime Town

Rancho Santa Elena in 1987 seems like the ideal Southern California paradise—that is, until a series of strange crimes threatens to unravel the town’s social fabric: workers attacked with mysterious weapons; a wealthy real estate developer found dead in the pool of his beach house. The only clues are poison and red threads found at both crime scenes. As Detective Benjamin Wade and forensic expert Natasha Betencourt struggle to connect the incidents, they begin to wonder: Why Santa Elena? And why now?

A brutal murder in a town called Treachery? It's a story most journos would kill for, but for Stuart Dryden, it's a major inconvenience. He didn't take the gig at the local rag for its bustling crime beat. He'd sacrifice a career-making story for happy hour at the pub, but not even he can let a grisly murder through to the keeper. Especially when he keeps getting scooped by a persistent kid with a disposable Kodak.

When a plea for help sends retired Detroit cop Kurt Argento to the small desert town of Fenton, Arizona things immediately don’t appear to be as they seem, and he finds himself unraveling secrets that want to stay hidden and questioning his own moral compass.

When an old man is found dead on the road - seemingly run over by a Hungarian au pair - police investigator Anna Fekete is certain that there is more to the incident than meets the eye. As she begins to unravel an increasingly complex case, she’s led on a deadly trail where illegal immigration, drugs and ultimately murder threaten not only her beliefs but her life.

Jon Frederick spent his adolescence protecting his mentally ill brother and worrying about his parents' farm as it headed toward bankruptcy. So when Mandy Baker, the alluring new girl in town, pursued him, he was easily enamored. But on the day he ended their tryst, Mandy vanished. There is no doubt in the small Minnesota town of Pierz that the flirtatious girl is dead, and there is little doubt that Jon got away with murder.

Magpie Beach is a quiet seaside town – full of small-town prejudices and small-town cliques. Meg, Rosemary and Lily are all outsiders. Meg and Lily because they came to Magpie Beach to escape their former lives, Rosemary because her upbringing was the subject of much local gossip and upturned noses. The three women come together as friends, partly because their homes are so close together on the outskirts of town – and partly because their neighbors treat them with such suspicion. When Jessie Else goes missing – it's easy to see why this small band of outcasts are first on the list of suspect.

On July 23, 2007, Dr. William Petit suffered an unimaginable horror: Armed strangers broke into his suburban Connecticut home in the middle of the night, bludgeoned him nearly to death, tortured and killed his wife and two daughters, and set their house on fire. He miraculously survived, and yet living through those horrific hours was only the beginning of his ordeal. Broken and defeated, Bill was forced to confront a question of ultimate consequence: How does a person find the strength to start over and live again after confronting the darkest of nightmares?

A deserted train station: A man waits. A woman watches. Chris is ready to join his wife. He’s planned this moment for nearly a year. The date. The time. The train. But he hadn’t factored in Sarah.So when Sarah walks onto the platform and sees a man swaying at the edge, she assumes he’s just had too much to drink. What she doesn’t expect is to stop a suicide. As Sarah becomes obsessed with discovering the secrets that Chris is clearly hiding, he becomes obsessed with stopping her, protecting her. But there are some secrets that are meant to stay buried....

In the audiobook Criminal Activity in the Hoosier Heartland, author David Boyer offers up tales that have no happy endings, no Prince Charming or fairy-tale romances. Truth is much stranger than fiction, as these tales will prove beyond the shadow of a doubt. In the author's world, deep, dark secrets lie beneath the friendly, normal facade known as Knox County, Indiana.

The Pen Pal follows the story of Shiloh Ray, who is a military wife, new mother, and college student. Shiloh also suffers from postpartum depression and overall loneliness from living in rural Alaska, far away from any family or friends. Shiloh then breaks out of her comfort zone and signs up for a pen pal. Weeks pass and she is matched with Penelope Young. This is where her whole life will change. Shiloh and Penelope become the best of friends and write letters every week. Until one day, the letters just stop. Penelope has vanished.

In December 1832 a farmer found the body of a pregnant young woman hanging near a haystack outside a New England mill town. When news spread that Methodist preacher Ephraim Avery was accused of murdering Sarah Maria Cornell, a factory worker, the case gave the public everything they found irresistible: sexually charged violence, adultery, the hypocrisy of a church leader, secrecy and mystery, and suspicions of insanity. Murder in a Mill Town tells the story of how a local crime quickly turned into a national scandal that became America's first "trial of the century."

Before David Wilson became the UK's pre-eminent criminologist, he was just a young boy growing up in the Scottish town of Carluke. As a child, the brutal murder of a young woman rocked this small community, but very quickly a man was arrested for the crime, convicted and put behind bars. For most, life slowly carried on - case closed.

After covering racial unrest in the remote northwest corner of his home state of Nebraska in 1999, journalist Stew Magnuson returned four years later to consider the larger questions of its peoples, their paths, and the forces that separate them. Examining Raymond Yellow Thunder’s death at the hands of four White men in 1972, Magnuson looks deep into the past that gave rise to the tragedy. Situating long-ranging repercussions within 130 years of context, he also recounts the largely forgotten struggles of American Indian Movement activist Bob Yellow Bird.

On the outside, Mary Jane Fonder seemed like a kindly 66-year-old congregant of the Lutheran church in Springfield Township, PA. But inside, she longed for the church's handsome Pastor Gregory Shreaves, a former golf pro who sparked her most sinful thoughts. When Mary Jane let her feelings be known, the Pastor gently pushed her away. But her obsession only grew stronger when she became convinced that he was romantically involved with a younger church member, a woman named Rhonda Smith. Rhonda was doing volunteer work in the church office one day when she was shot to death.

Evil in My Town is a dark and tension-filled installment to the Serenity's Plain Secrets' mystery/crime thriller series. After a tragic mass shooting in Blood Rock, Sheriff Serenity Adams is shocked to discover ties to the local Amish settlement, and her teenage niece, who barely survived the carnage. The investigation takes her from the terror of a massacre to an equally horrific crime relating to a missing woman in the community.

True crime isn't only about serial killers and rapists and pedophiles and organized crime. It is also about the victims left behind to serve their own life sentences, often without anyone to help them make it through the awful ordeal. If you dare, enter the world of Small Town Murder.

America’s justice system is severely restricted by bulleted definitions of awful crimes. Bad people have averted guilty pleas when the prosecution can prove all but one measly bullet point in the law. Not anymore. When bodies are recovered from shallow graves in an open field of one small town, local police think they know exactly who’s carrying out these heinous crimes, but their evidence is merely circumstantial. John Wolfe, a military veteran with a disturbing past, is assigned the case and watching the innkeeper's every move. Is he watching the right man?

Andromeda returns to visit her hometown after several years away. She hated the small town, the people, her family and even her friends. Most of all, she hated Lynn. Lynn, who had made this town so unbearable to return to in the first place. Lynn, who had promised her that they'd always be the best of friends. Lynn, who had held her hand when she'd been scared or upset or angry. Lynn, who had calmed her down and let her know that she was not alone.

On the run and with danger tailing him, Beckett races against time to save his niece, Amber, from vicious kidnappers. With deadly threats closing in, he comes to the startling revelation he can trust no one…not even his closest allies. The streets of London become a battlefield as Beckett struggles to stay one step ahead of his enemies and protect Amber—all the while confronting the dark truth about The Consortium, a shadowy organization that will stop at nothing to maintain its grip on power.

In the town of Willow Creek, where the annual Willow Festival usually marks the height of excitement, tea shop owner Emma Thorne finds herself steeped in a murderous mystery that threatens to uproot the very foundation of her beloved community. When the town's curmudgeonly tycoon, Harold Blackwood, is found dead beneath the ancient willows he threatened to destroy, Emma's curiosity — much like her prized tea blends — begins to percolate. Armed with nothing but her wits, a mysterious map, and an unlikely alliance with a ambitious city journalist, Emma delves into Willow Creek's shadowy past.