True Crime Writing

In the 1970s, Frank Lucas was the king of the Harlem drug trade, bringing in over a million dollars a day. He lived a glamorous life, hobnobbing with athletes, musicians, and politicians, but Lucas was a ruthless gangster. He was notorious for using the coffins of dead GIs to smuggle heroin into the United States, and, before being sentenced to 70 years in prison, he played a major role in the near death of New York City.

Joe Simpson, with just his partner Simon Yates, tackled the unclimbed west face of the remote 21,000 foot Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in June of 1995. But before they reached the summit, disaster struck. A few days later, Simon staggered into base camp, exhausted and frostbitten, to tell their non-climbing companion that Joe was dead.

While investigating financial crimes for CNN Money, Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken were intrigued by reports that elderly Americans were giving away thousands of dollars to mail-in schemes. With a little digging, they soon discovered a shocking true story. Victims received personalized letters from a woman who, claiming amazing psychic powers, convinced them to send money in return for riches, good health, and good fortune. The predatory scam has continued unabated for decades, raking in more than $200 million in the United States and Canada alone - with investigators from all over the world unable to stop it.

In a world where tales are brought to life not only through words on paper but by the very voices that weave them, the art of audio book narration has taken center stage. As an author, you've crafted a masterpiece, and poured your heart and soul into every word, and now is the time to bring your story to life! That's precisely where The Author's Guide to Narrating Your Own Audiobooks by Michael Goodrick steps in as the shining beacon in this endeavor.

Nina, a new graduate from fashion design in college, gladly accepts the offer to have her palm read as a graduation gift. Smiling, the palm reader tells Nina that she has a long lifeline, as she traces it on her hand. As soon as the words are uttered, the palm reader’s facial expression turns to one of fear. In broken English, she whispers, “Break – very bad break in middle of life. Maybe you die.”

Mike Gatto was an up-and-coming young lawmaker when his father was brutally murdered. The act sucked him into the world of noir: wild theories, intransigent detectives, and unimaginable violence.

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.

A major literary figure tells “a searching tale of loss, recovery, and déja vu that is part memoir and what-if speculation, part polemic and exposé” (The Washington Post) about two generations of one family - civil rights martyr Emmett Till and his father, Louis - shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Thanks to one reporter's skill, we can fix the exact moment on November 22, 1963 when the world stopped and held its breath: At 12:34 p.m. Central Time, UPI White House reporter Merriman Smith broke the news that shots had been fired at President Kennedy's motorcade. Most people think Walter Cronkite was the first to tell America about the assassination. But when Cronkite broke the news on TV, he read from one of Smith's dispatches.

Kristie Macrakis combines a storyteller's sense of drama with a historian's respect for evidence in this pause-resisting history of intrigue and espionage, love and war, magic and secrecy. From the piazzas of ancient Rome to the spy capitals of the Cold War, Macrakis' global history reveals the drama and importance of invisible ink. From Ovid's advice to use milk for illicit love notes, to al-Qaeda's hidden instructions in pornographic movies, this book presents stories of secret messaging that chart its evolution in sophistication and its impact on history.

El libro detrás de la serie de Netflix La enfermera. Una madrugada de marzo de 2015, la policía danesa recibió la llamada de una enfermera del hospital en Nykøbing Falster. La enfermera sospechaba que una compañera de trabajo había matado a algunos de sus pacientes y temía que hubiese ocurrido otra vez.

Every cop has a case that dug its claws in and would not let go. For veteran detective Ron Iddles, it was his very first homicide case - the 1980 murder of single mother Maria James at the back of her Melbourne bookshop. He never managed to solve it, and it still grates like hell. Maria's two sons, Mark and Adam, have lived in a holding pattern longer than Rachael Brown has been alive.

This classic essay from Jon Krakauer is now available as an unabridged audiobook download. This essay is also included in the Classic Krakauer collection. From the best-selling author of Missoula and Into the Wild: a selection of the singular investigative journalism that made Krakauer famous, covering topics from avalanches on Mt. Everest to a volcano in Washington state; from a wilderness therapy program for teens to an extraordinary cave in New Mexico so unearthly that is used by NASA to better understand Mars.

Peter Jukes, an award-winning TV crime writer, starts at the beginning: October 2013 and the Old Bailey is gearing up for an eight-month courtroom clash. It's a showdown that will pit tabloid newspaper executives in Rupert Murdoch's News International against the British state. The journalists are accused of phone hacking, corrupting public officials, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. After years of cover up involving News International, the Metropolitan Police, and the government, the judge tells the jury, "British justice is on trial."

When Tim Bowden went back to Tasmania to explore his state of origin for the first time in many years, he was reminded of his adolescent assertion that "Tasmania is the testicle of Australia, suffusing the mainland with strength and vigour. What a pity there is only one of them".

As a true crime book, Tracks to Murder is witty and informative and enriches these classic American murder cases by placing them within their original settings. Goodman also plays them against their locations as they are today, resulting in a series of character sketches both contemporary and historical. As a travel book, it presents the seasoned reflections of a cultivated English writer on American manners and morals observed during his serendipitous transcontinental journey.

Danger lurks on every voyage - what the cruise lines don't want you to know - how to be safe on your cruise. Crew with criminal backgrounds, drug dealers and mules carrying drugs on the ship, crime at the ports of the Caribbean and the biggest danger of all - fire on cruise ships. Learn about the one small item you should bring that fits in your pocket. Read this book before booking a cruise.

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.

What was Takako Konishi really doing in North Dakota, and why did she end up dead? Did she get lost and freeze to death, as the police concluded, while searching for the fictional treasure buried in a snowbank at the end of the Coen Brothers’ film Fargo? Or was it something else that brought her there? Unrequited love, ritual suicide, a meteor shower, a far-flung search for purpose? The seed of an obsession took root in struggling film student Jana Larson when she chanced upon a news bulletin about the case.

This true story begins on Valentine's Day, 1961. Fourteen years old, Claudette Carolyn Covey went missing from Hondo, Texas. On Halloween evening, 1961, Claudette's remains were discovered eight miles from town in a field. She had been shot twice in the head. From the beginning, town folks believed that she was murdered by the corrupt sheriff or his 18-year-old son, whom she was dating. Because of the corrupt sheriff's influence, no one was ever charged with the murder.