There was blood splattered all over the windshield. Obviously, Tom had been shot while sitting in the driver's seat. Looking in the back seat, I saw the body of a woman.

A brutal murder that shocked residents of Missouri—and a killer it took 25 years to bring to justice... On June 17, 1985, twenty-year-old beauty pageant winner Jackie Johns's car was found abandoned, the interior drenched in blood. Four days later, her bludgeoned, nude body was found floating in a nearby lake. Sheriff Dwight McNiel vowed to catch Jackie's killer, however long it took. His prime suspect: local rich kid Gerald Carnahan. But despite suspicions, the evidence never managed to add up, and Carnahan slipped away again and again. Throughout the next two decades, multiple other women went missing, some murdered, some never found. Fearful residents believed that a murderous bogeyman was connected to all these crimes. Carnahan's conviction on the attempted kidnapping charge of another young woman brought his name into the mix over and over again--but all of the cases remained unsolved for decades, until a highway patrol sergeant sent DNA from the Jackie Johns's murder for testing and came up with a quadrillions-to-one match to Carnahan. This is the true account of a murderer who thought he was beyond punishment, and the lawmen who would not relent until justice was finally done.

Ray Bradbury, the undisputed Dean of American storytelling, dips his accomplished pen into the cryptic inkwell of noir and creates a stylish and slightly fantastical tale of mayhem and murder set among the shadows and the murky canals of Venice, California, in the early 1950s. Toiling away amid the looming palm trees and decaying bungalows, a struggling young writer (who bears a resemblance to the author) spins fantastic stories from his fertile imagination upon his clacking typewriter. Trying not to miss his girlfriend (away studying in Mexico), the nameless writer steadily crafts his literary effort--until strange things begin happening around him. Starting with a series of peculiar phone calls, the writer then finds clumps of seaweed on his doorstep. But as the incidents escalate, his friends fall victim to a series of mysterious "accidents"--some of them fatal. Aided by Elmo Crumley, a savvy, street-smart detective, and a reclusive actress of yesteryear with an intense hunger for life, the wordsmith sets out to find the connection between the bizarre events, and in doing so, uncovers the truth about his own creative abilities.

From the bestselling author of The Outsider, an exhaustive historical true crime survey. Colin Wilson, co-author of the bestselling Encyclopedia of Murder, has written a definitive volume on the world’s major cases of violent murder. In doing so, he traces the history of violence from its beginnings. From Sawney Bean and his cannibal family to Ed Gein, the Wisconsin Necrophile, Wilson illustrates the “changing fashions of murder” and indicates some hope for the future.

Rickards' work separates fact from fantasy in this meticulously documented account of the life of Pat Garrett and the men who may have killed him.

Early one cold, wintry morning in late May 1942, the bullet-ridden body of Driver Roy Willis was found on the side of the road. He had been shot a number of times with a military revolver. Despite extensive enquiries by some of the Victoria Police’s most experienced homicide detectives, the murderer was not found. Then three months later, the killer struck again. In September 1942 Gunner John Hulston went missing whilst on guard duty. His gun crew immediately began a search. Two soldiers followed what appeared to be drag marks from the gate down towards the beach. They saw a figure some way off and thinking it was Hulston, they called out to him. Instead of a friendly reply, they were met with a barrage of bullets. The figure ran off and disappeared towards the camp. Incredibly the garrison was not turned out to search for the missing man or the mysterious figure. The searchlights which could have turned the night into day along the beach, were not activated. Hulston’s rifle and bayonet were found in the water. His torn trousers were also found on the beach. His body was eventually recovered further along the coastline, 10 days later. Like Driver Willis, back in May, he had also been shot in the chest with a .455 calibre army revolver. As with any good murder mystery, this story has more twists and turns than the Great Ocean Road. They range from black market operations, confessions, suspects identified in later years, lost or missing police files, disagreements between the police and the army over the investigation, and an attempted cover-up that went all the way to the wartime Deputy Prime Minister’s office.

The picturesque vineyards of California's Napa Valley, one of the world's premier tourist destinations, disguise a tangled history of lawlessness, depravity and frontier justice. Some crimes were committed over debts, some for retribution and others in the name of love. Famed photographer Eadweard Muybridge killed a man for seducing his wife but was acquitted. Other criminals were not so lucky and met the gallows, like murderer William Roe, the state's final public execution. From the Pomo massacre--the first criminal case heard by the California Supreme Court--to the cold cases that continue to haunt the region, Napa Police Detective Todd Shulman decants the crimes of the Napa Valley, memorializing the victims and honoring the efforts of local law enforcement.