Ocean Crimes

There are few remaining frontiers on our planet. But perhaps the wildest, and least understood, are the world's oceans: too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these immense regions of treacherous water play host to rampant criminality and exploitation.

The call came on the morning of July 13, 2011, from the historic Spreckels Mansion, a lavish beachfront property in Coronado, California, owned by pharmaceutical tycoon and multimillionaire Jonah Shacknai. When authorities arrived, they found the naked body of Jonah's girlfriend, Rebecca Zahau, gagged, her ankles tied and her wrists bound behind her. Jonah's brother, Adam, claimed to have found Rebecca hanging by a rope from the second-floor balcony. On a bedroom door in black paint were the cryptic words: She Saved Him Can You Save Her.

An off-duty Coast Guardsman is fishing with his family when he calls in some suspicious behavior from a nearby boat. It's a snazzy craft, slick and outfitted with extra horsepower, and is zipping along until it slows to pick up a surfaced diver...a diver who was apparently alone, without his own boat, in the middle of the ocean. None of it makes sense unless there's something hinky going on, and his hunch is proved right when all three Guardsmen who come out to investigate are shot and killed.

A tanker steaming through the deep Northwest Providence Channel of the Bahamas comes across a shocking sight: a lone dinghy carrying Captain Julian Harvey and the body of a young girl. They are all that remain of the ketch Bluebelle, a handsome sixty-foot sailing yacht chartered by the Duperrault family of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

On a foggy summer night, 11 people - 10 privileged, one down-on-his-luck painter - depart Martha's Vineyard on a private jet headed for New York. Sixteen minutes later, the unthinkable happens: The plane plunges into the ocean. The only survivors are the painter Scott Burroughs and a four-year-old boy, who is now the last remaining member of an immensely wealthy and powerful media mogul's family. Was it by chance that so many influential people perished? Or was something more sinister at work?

On Australia day, 26 January 1966, Jane, Arnna, and Grant Beaumont were abducted from Colley Reserve, Glenelg, South Australia, and never seen again, leading to one of Australia's most extensive police investigations and manhunts. Five decades later, no trace of the children has ever been found.

On November 13, 1974 the quiet village of Amityville was rocked by the murders of six members of the DeFeo family at 112 Ocean Ave. The only surviving member of this tragic ordeal was Ronald DeFeo Jr., who was later charged and convicted to six-life-sentences. Thirteen months later, the Lutz family moved into the lavish Dutch Colonial home, but moved out mysteriously after just 28-days, claiming that the house was haunted! Then came a media frenzy, and with the release of Jay Anson's runaway best-selling book The Amityville Horror, which was later transformed into a blockbuster movie, the story became an international phenomenon.

It’s party time on board the Aurelia! On the LA to Hawaii leg, a Hollywood film crew are shooting scenes for a new action movie and Barbie has been given a bit-part role. It’s all great fun, and Patricia isn’t surprised when her cute, blonde friend attracts the attention of the handsome A-lister male lead. But when he's found murdered in the upper deck pool and the killer leaves a message that Barbie is next, it falls to Patricia to work out who the killer is. With Barbie, her trusted butler, and an odd-looking extra she befriended, Patricia will have plenty of help.

Set in the era of the Nixon and Reagan presidencies, this novel examines the American conscience while inviting us into the glittering world of the East Coast legal community. Stephen L. Carter's book follows black Ivy League law professor Talcott Garland as he investigates the death of his father, Judge Oliver Garland, the eponymous "Emperor."

When Samantha Claymore doesn’t return home after an afternoon bicycle ride on Martha’s Vineyard, Detective Abby Pearce acts immediately. She knows from experience how quickly a lost girl can become a tragedy. Back on the island for the first time since she ran away as a teenager, Abby hopes solving Samantha’s case will make up for her past mistakes....  

Life is a Crime Wave is the 13th mission of Black Ocean: Mirth & Mayhem. It follows a mismatched duo of itinerant comedian and outlaw wizard as they roam the galaxy trying to eke out a living and stay ahead of the consequences of their actions. Black Ocean: Mirth & Mayhem looks back at an earlier era in the Black Ocean universe, and returning listeners will get to see how some of their favorite characters came to be. Fans of morally gray heroes and slick-talking conmen will love this series.

Under the cover of night on June 11, 1962, using only crude homemade tools, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin tunneled their way out of Alcatraz, America's most secure maximum security prison. Enacting a complex escape plan, the trio broke free from the cellblock, made it undetected past patrolling guards, inflated homemade life vests and a raft, and set sail into a foggy history.

Obsessed with the iconic '60s classic Easy Rider, encyclopedic Floridaphile, lovable serial killer, and movie buff extraordinaire Serge A. Storms devises his wildest plan yet: finish the journey begun by his freewheeling heroes, Captain America and Billy, tragically cut short by some shotgun-wielding rednecks.

Author and historian Michael Esslinger spent seven years conducting interviews with Whitey Bulger following his capture in 2011. Their conversations captured Bulger's memories of an early life in crime, his years as a prisoner on Alcatraz, and his life as one of the FBI's Most Wanted fugitives. The Last Interviews is a collection of Bulger's own memories, transcribed directly from personal interviews that chronicle a lifetime spent in crime. It is a scrapbook weaved together from prison documents, personal letters, and candid conversations that offer intimate details about his life.

An extraordinary fiction debut: a large, stirring novel of suspense that is, at the same time, a work of brilliantly astute social observation. Publishers Weekly predicts this "will be the talk of the political in-crowd this summer," and Booklist's starred review calls it "a roman à clef with fascinating insights into the behind-the-scenes machinations of racial and power politics." Don't miss this one!

The way Inspector Hanzō Shimura had it figured, it was just another case. Sure, it was sick, twisted, but those were human traits he’d grown accustomed to. A hardened veteran of two wars, there was little left on Earth that could faze a man like him. But what didn’t sit well with him was that this case’s blood-trail led him home. All the way to Nagasaki, where he’d lost his wife and daughter to the atom bomb, nine years before.

A mystery taking place in the Florida Keys, Ocean Floors is the second installment of the story of lottery winner turned private detective Dan Coast. In Ocean Floors, Dan's chance meeting with a beautiful young woman leads him and his trusted sidekick, Red, down a road of murder and kidnapping. Join Dan and Red as they try and solve the murder while searching for a missing friend.

When newly divorced Sage arrives in Bali, his only plan is to drink on the beach until his money runs out and then return home to start over. So he's caught by surprise when he falls in love with the country and its people, particularly the attractive and considerate Ratri. Soon Sage can no longer see himself living anywhere else, even as his funds dwindle and his visa's expiration date nears. Increasingly desperate to stay with Ratri, Sage finds himself being recruited by a drug-smuggling ring - in a country where drug trafficking is punishable by death.

At 17-years-old, Lily Arthur was caught between an era of women's liberation and the draconian ideology that young women should be punished for deviating from society's "moral codes".

Troy Bodean just wants to get away. He thought the southernmost point in the US - Key West - was far enough away...but that’s when it all went sideways, or rather...down. Flying a seaplane for his brother’s tourist ferry to Fort Jefferson, he spotted the thing in the water. Dreams of shipwrecks, treasure, and fame filled his head, until everyone started trying to kill him - including Hurricane Daniel! In a race against time and all the shadowy forces hoping to steal his find, Troy Bodean is at it again. Find out what comes up from the deep and if Troy will live to enjoy the bounty.