A Rage to Kill

For this sixth collection of cases, Ann Rule has culled from her private files the most-asked-about homicide cases: accounts of seemingly normal men and women, compelled by a murderous rage to suddenly lash out at innocent victims. She constructs the chain of events leading up to each crime.
Views: 270

Ben Stone at Oakdale

As he was leaving the academy on the afternoon of his third day at school in Oakdale, Ben Stone was stopped by Roger Eliot, the captain of the football team. Roger was a big, sturdy chap, singularly grave for a boy of his years; and he could not be called handsome, save when he laughed, which was seldom. Laughter always transformed his features until they became remarkably attractive. Compared with Ben, however, Roger appeared decidedly comely, for the new boy was painfully plain and uncouth. He was solid and stocky, with thick shoulders and rather big limbs, having a freckled face and reddish hair. He had a somewhat large nose, although this alone would not have been detrimental to his appearance. It was his square jaw, firm-shut mouth, and seemingly sullen manner that had prevented any of the boys of the school from seeking his acquaintance up to this point. Half of his left ear was gone, as if it had been slashed off with some sharp instrument.
Views: 257

North

'[With] echoes of Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Stephen King's The Stand...' Guardian on SouthIf a virus doesn't kill you, the South will...The USA has been ravaged by Civil War. It's been thirty years since the first wind-borne viruses ended the war between North and South. While the South has been devastated by disease - the North has emerged victorious, but terrified of reprisals. Both territories remain at the mercy of the vicious Northern dictator, Renard.Two survivors, Dyce and Vida, journeyed deep into the Southern terrains in search of a Cure for Renard's chemical warfare. Now they find themselves scouring the Northern territories on a new and far deadlier pursuit; to eliminate Renard himself. Could Dyce and Vida unite a fractured America - and at what cost?This is the story of Dyce and Vida.This is the story of the Resistance and its last, desperate, stand.This is the story of North.
Views: 250

Knocking on Reality's Door (The Chronicles of Clark Wilson)

What started as an ordinary day would soon turn into an extraordinary life. Halloween night and all was well till that first Knock came. What do you do when your world turns upside down? Well if you are the hero type you fight back! If you are Clark Wilson you assume you are crazy and try to make the best of it. After all its not everyday you find out there are alternate reality's next door.This is a Young Adult Fantasy, set in the magical world of Ytir. Owain Brecca Morwenna is a young Tiraeg noble who has power over the element of Air. He has been captured by Turkic corsairs, and made to use his Talent in their service. Now he has the chance to escape, and return to his family - and finds that his troubles are only just beginning....His Uncle Ianto would prefer Owain to remain dead as part of his plot to become Morwenna of Ravenscar's heir - and what did happen to Cousin Peredur? And when Owain finally gets back to Ravenscar, will his mother Brecca accept him? He was deliberately crippled by the corsairs to stop him from running away, and will never be able to walk normally again - which disqualifies him from inheriting her lands, under Tiraeg law.
Views: 238

Sofia's Puppy Love

Sofia loves helping at the animal shelter. But she is finding it increasingly hard to see the adorable dogs and cats leave and find forever homes with other families.Sofia is particularly attached to a puppy she's nicknamed Piper, who is the runt of a litter. One by one, the puppy's brothers and sisters find homes, until only Piper is left. Time is running out! Can she convince her parents that Piper belongs with her before someone else takes him home?
Views: 237

LAST DANCE, LAST CHANCE - and Other True Cases

"America's best true-crime writer" (Kirkus Reviews), Ann Rule presents an all-new collection of crime stories drawn from her private files -- and featuring the riveting case of a fraudulent doctor whose lifelong deceptions had deadly consequences. LAST DANCE LAST CHANCE Dr. Anthony Pignataro was a cosmetic surgeon and a famed medical researcher whose flashy red Lamborghini and flamboyant lifestyle in western New York State suggested a highly successful career. But appearances, as this shocking insider account of Pignataro's tailspin from physician to prisoner proves, can be deceiving -- and, for the doctor's wife, very nearly deadly. No one was safe if they got in his way. With scalpel, drugs, and arsenic, he betrayed every oath a physician makes -- until his own schemes backfired. Now, the motivations of the classic sociopath are plumbed with chilling accuracy by Ann Rule. Along with other shocking true cases, this worldwide headline-making case will have you turning pages in disbelief that a trusted medical professional could sink to the depths of greed, manipulation, and self-aggrandizement where even slow, deliberate murder is not seen for what it truly is: pure evil.
Views: 234

The Dinner Party

All your friends are invited. But which of them will survive? An addictive and twisty psychological thriller about the dark secrets that lie within a peaceful neighbourhood. Eight friends. Eight secrets. One killer. A group of old friends gather in a peaceful suburban street for a dinner party. They are expecting a fun evening of wine, food and pleasant company. But then they start to play the game... It's about trust and dark secrets – it tests marriage to its limits – and none of them can begin to imagine its consequences. Because the next day, two guests are dead and the others are trapped in a nightmare...
Views: 227

The Removal Man

'Extremely fast paced and completely page-turning ... will stay in my mind for a long time' Sunday Times bestseller B P Walter on The Good Neighbour The Removal Man is an utterly unputdownable suspense thriller that imagines your worst house-moving nightmare – and then dials it up to 11. Rose is moving. For her and her son, Noah, this is going to be a fresh start. She's almost finished packing but Noah is determined to spend one last night camping out in the garden like he used to. Rose agrees as long as he wraps up warm inside their small tent. Four hours later she's woken by a frantic banging on the window. It's Noah. There's someone in the garden. That's when Rose picks up the kitchen knife. Readers are loving The Removal Man: 'I literally could not stop reading'Julie, NetGalley 'I read it over the course of about 8 hours in a single day!'Shasta, NetGalley 'Geez my poor heart!! It's still pounding!! I was yelling at my Kindle!! She wasn't listening to me! It's gonna take me a...
Views: 226

Boys of Oakdale Academy

“He’s a fake,” declared Chipper Cooper positively, backing up against the steam radiator to warm himself on the other side. “I’ll bet a hundred dollars he never was west of Scranton, Pennsylvania.” “A hundred dollars,” drawled Sile Crane, grinning. “Why don’t yeou bate something while you’re abaout it? Nobody’d bother to take a measly little wager like that. Now I’ve kinder got an idee that the new feller really comes from Texas, jest as he says he does. I guess he ain’t no fake.” “Oh, is that so!” retorted Cooper, a bit warmly. “Well, I’ll talk business to you, Mr. Crane; I’ll really bet you fifty cents Rodney Grant never saw the State of Texas in his life. Now put up or shut up.” “I don’t want to bate on it,” said Sile; “but I guess I’ve got a right to my opinion, and I cal’late Rod Grant ain’t no fake Westerner.”
Views: 203

ABDUCTION: The Minivan Murders: Killer Couple Michelle Michaud and James Daveggio

Fueled by methamphetamines and deviant motives, nothing was off limits for James Daveggio and Michelle Michaud. Not even their own children. Living out of a specially rigged minivan (a mobile torture chamber that included ropes, hooks, curling irons, duct tape, etc), this cold-blooded murdering duo kidnapped, tortured, raped and killed young girls from Reno, Nevada, to Sacramento, California. While the local and state police departments, and even the FBI, vigorously searched for the couple, they freely hunted for prey and carried out their months-long spree of abduction and murder. Warning: This true account is at times quite graphic which some may find disturbing. Recommended read... The Basement by RJ Parker On March 24, 1987, the Philadelphia Police Department received a phone call from a woman who stated that she had been held captive for the last four months. When police officers arrived at the pay phone from which the call was made, Josephina Rivera told them that she and three other women had been held captive in a basement by a man named Gary Heidnik. This is a shocking story of kidnapping, rape, torture, mutilation, dismemberment, decapitation, and murder. URL - rjpp.ca/THE-BASEMENT
Views: 195

The I-5 Killer

As a young man, Randall Woodfield had it all--a star athlete, good looks, and an award-winning student. Working in the swinging West Coast bar scene, he had more than his share of women. But he wanted more than just sex. An appetite for unspeakable violent acts led him to cruise the I-5 highway through California to Washington, leaving a trail of victims along the way. As the list of the dead grew, the police mobilized to stop a twisted killer who had 44 known deaths to his name. Praise for Ann Rule: "Vivid...Extraordinary...A page-turner!"-- "New York Times Book Review," for "Small Sacrifices" "Rule has an instinct for suspense, knowing just what information to leak to the reader and when."-- "Washington Post Book World," for "Small Sacrifices" "A shattering story...carefully investigated, written with compassion but also with professional objectivity."-- "Seattle Times," for "The Stranger Beside Me"
Views: 160

The Good Neighbor

The latest nerve-shredding thriller from the bestselling author of The Dinner Party... When Leah Talbot hits a deer on a deserted road she spots a light on in a nearby house and approaches, hoping that someone is home. Martin Tate, a charming and handsome man answers the door to the bedraggled and traumatised Leah, inviting her in. Though she's not there for long, Leah feels an indescribable pull to the man who has helped in her hour of need. Returning the next morning to express her gratitude, Leah is shocked by the crime scene tape covering the entryway to the house. The sole occupant of the house had been murdered the night before. The sole female occupant. The Good Neighbor is an absolutely gripping crime thriller that does not let up the pace! Perfect for fans of Lucy Foley and Alex Michaelides.
Views: 152

The Fate of Katherine Carr

George Gates used to be a travel writer who specialized in places where people disappeared—Judge Crater, the Lost Colony.Then his eight-year-old son was murdered, the killer never found, and Gates gave up disappearance. Now he writes stories of redemptive triviality about flower festivals and local celebrities for the town paper, and spends his evenings haunted by the image of his son’s last day. Enter Arlo MacBride, a retired missing-persons detective still obsessed with the unsolved case of Katherine Carr. When he gives Gates the story she left behind—a story of a man stalking a woman named Katherine Carr—Gates too is drawn inexorably into a search for the missing author’s brief life and uncertain fate. And as he goes deeper, he begins to suspect that her tale holds the key not only to her fate, but to his own. From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. George Gates, who once toured the world as a travel writer, churns out fluff pieces for his local paper and spends his nights alone, imagining what he'd do to the person who murdered his eight-year-old son seven years before and is still at large in Cook's eerily poignant novel. When Arlo McBride, a retired missing persons detective, tells Gates about the unsolved disappearance of reclusive poet Katherine Carr 20 years earlier, Gates is intrigued. Cook (Master of the Delta) seamlessly intertwines the short story Carr left behind—about a woman also named Katherine Carr—with Gates's growing obsession with Carr's fate. When his editor suggests that Gates write a profile of Alice Barrows, an orphan girl dying of progeria (premature aging), he discovers that Alice is an avid detective fan, and together they form an unlikely partnership. Adept at merging past and present plot lines, Cook eloquently examines the often cathartic act of storytelling. Author tour. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistCook, the author of 21 novels, has been nominated for the Edgar seven times and won once (for The Chatham School Affair, 1996). His latest is as much an investigation into character as it is a cold-case mystery. Hero George Gates has been completely broken by the kidnapping and murder of his eight-year-old son seven years ago. Gates is a former travel writer, much given to writing about places where people disappeared. Now he salves his psyche by writing totally innocuous small features for the local paper. A chance meeting at a bar with the detective who organized the search parties when Gates’ son went missing leads Gates into a new interest, a cold case that has obsessed the detective for two decades. Retired missing-persons detective Arlo McBride shows Gates the poems and journal that the 31-year-old missing woman left behind, and both men are pulled into reopening the case. The action tends to crawl, but the characters are rich and fascinating. Give this one to fans of Kate Atkinson’s acclaimed When Will There Be Good News? (2008). --Connie Fletcher
Views: 147