"This book examines many examples of how the community has responded when the justice system is perceived to fail."--Book jacket.

SHADOW tells the haunting story of Dakota Sterling and how she became the ruthless vigilante, Shadow, who -- alongside her partner, Jasper Beauregard (Sparrow) -- protects the very city which turned her into the monster that she is. Silver City is plagued by crime and corruption, most of which is owed to the secret underground railroading faction called the Faceless League, which kidnaps children and trains them to be barbarous assassins. Thirteen years ago, in the year 2004, the Faceless League targeted three very important, very wealthy children: Dakota Lovett, her younger brother, Wesley, and his best friend, Alice Fitzgerald. Dakota found herself to be an unlikely protector of the younger children when they discovered the faction had no intentions of returning them to their respective families. When young Wesley fell ill within the week that they were held hostage, proving himself to be too weak for the Faction’s liking, he was executed right in front of the girls. A distraught Dakota and fearful Alice plotted to escape the next night and their plan worked, but only Alice made it out. Dakota Lovett was left behind, and no one – not even Alice – ever knew what happened to her. Through analepsis, 20-year-old Alice recounts the days of her captivity in the Faceless Institute up until her miraculous escape in order to expose the faction. To Dakota Sterling, the little girl she was before she was recruited by the Faceless League has long since been dead. To ordinary girl Alice Grey, the past is the key to everything - she just doesn’t know it yet. As the Shadow does what is necessary to achieve justice and protect the people, she also struggles with her epic love for the equally-damaged Jasper. When Alice Grey sets out to find the Shadow's true identity, she opens old wounds, discovers even larger conspiracies hidden beneath the streets of the city she calls home and joins a dangerous game that she never meant to play.

For many people, the cinematic vigilante has been shaped by Charles Bronson's character in Death Wish and its sequels. But screen vigilantes have taken many guises, from Old West lynch mobs and rogue police officers to rape-avengers and military-trained equalizers. This book recounts the varied representations of such characters in films like The Birth of a Nation, which celebrated the violence of the Ku Klux Klan, and Taxi Driver, Falling Down and You Were Never Really Here, in which the vigilante impulse was symptomatic of mental instability. Also considered is the extent to which fictional vigilantism functions as social commentary and to what degree it is simply stoking popular fears.

Blurb: In a world much like our own, in a city called where crime is almost encouraged, a vigilante they call the Shadow does what needs to be done to achieve justice and protect the people alongside her partner, the Sparrow. When ordinary girl Alice Grey sets out to find the Shadow's true identity, she opens old wounds, discovers conspiracies hidden beneath the streets of the city she calls home, and joins a dangerous game that she never meant to play.Extended Blurb:SHADOW tells the haunting story of Dakota Sterling and how she became the ruthless vigilante, Shadow, who -- alongside her partner, Jasper Beauregard (Sparrow) -- protects the very city which turned her into the monster that she is. Silver City is plagued by crime and corruption, most of which is owed to the secret underground railroading faction called the Faceless League, which kidnaps children and trains them to be barbarous assassins. Thirteen years ago, in the year 2004, the Faceless League targeted three very important, very wealthy children: Dakota Lovett, her younger brother, Wesley, and his best friend, Alice Fitzgerald. Dakota found herself to be an unlikely protector of the younger children when they discovered the faction had no intentions of returning them to their respective families. When young Wesley fell ill within the week that they were held hostage, proving himself to be too weak for the Faction's liking, he was executed right in front of the girls. A distraught Dakota and fearful Alice plotted to escape the next night and their plan worked, but only Alice made it out. Dakota Lovett was left behind, and no one - not even Alice - ever knew what happened to her. Through analepsis, 20-year-old Alice recounts the days of her captivity in the Faceless Institute up until her miraculous escape in order to expose the faction. To Dakota Sterling, the little girl she was before she was recruited by the Faceless League has long since been dead. To ordinary girl Alice Grey, the past is the key to everything - she just doesn't know it yet. As the Shadow does what is necessary to achieve justice and protect the people, she also struggles with her epic love for the equally-damaged Jasper. When Alice Grey sets out to find the Shadow's true identity, she opens old wounds, discovers even larger conspiracies hidden beneath the streets of the city she calls home and joins a dangerous game that she never meant to play.

Rough justice has often been served in the pages of serial novels, notably beginning with Don Pendleton's The Executioner in 1969. This is the first overview of the serial vigilante genre, which featured such hard-boiled protagonists as Nick Carter, Mark Stone, Jake Brand and Able Team among the 130 series that followed Pendleton's novel. Serial vigilantes repeatedly take the law into their own hands, establishing and imposing their own moral standards, usually by force. The book examines the connections between the serial vigilante and the pulp hero that preceded him and how the serial vigilante has influenced a variety of tough guys, private eyes, spies and cops in different media. A complete bibliography for each series is featured.

A fae urban fantasy romance. Some humans can see the fae. McKenzie Lewis can track them. A Houston College student trying to finish her degree, McKenzie has been working for the fae king for years, tracking vicious rebels who would claim the Realm. Her job isn't her only secret. For just as long, she's been in love with Kyol, the king's sword-master--and relationships between humans and fae are forbidden. But any hope of a normal life is shattered when she's captured by Aren, the fierce and uncompromising rebel leader. He teaches her the forbidden fae language and tells her dark truths about the Court, all to persuade her to turn against the king. Time is running out, and as the fight starts to claim human lives, McKenzie has to decide once and for all whom to trust--and where she ultimately stands in the face of a cataclysmic civil war. "A fresh take on the fae, packed with suspense, surprises, and real moral dilemmas. Sexy and fun, this is a must for anyone who likes their fae modern, their stakes high, and their property damage extensive." --Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author "Combines top-notch writing and world-building with characters you'll adore...and the star-crossed lovers may just break your heart." --Ann Aguirre, USA Today bestselling author Keywords: urban fantasy, urban fantasy romance, contemporary fantasy, contemporary fantasy, fae romance, fantasy, fae books, fae urban fantasy series, urban fantasy magic, sword and sorcery, epic urban fantasy, paranormal romance, fae urban fantasy, fey urban fantasy, new adult urban fantasy, enemies to lovers, urban fantasy trilogy, paranormal fae Similar Authors: K. F. Breene, McKenzie Hunter, Linsey Hall, Jaymin Eve, Bella Forrest, Annette Marie, Kim Harrison, Karen Marie Moning, Meg Xuemei X

Most murderers and rapists escape justice, a horrifying fact that has gone largely unexamined until now. This groundbreaking book tours nearly the entire criminal justice system, examining the rules and practices that regularly produce failures of justice in serious criminal cases. Each chapter outlines the nature and extent of justice failures in present practice, describing the interests at stake, and providing real-world examples. Finally, each chapter reviews proposed and implemented reforms that could balance the competing interests in a less justice-frustrating manner and recommends one—sometimes completely original—reform to improve the system. A systematic study of justice failures is long overdue. As this book discusses, regular failures of justice in serious criminal cases undermine deterrence and the criminal justice system’s credibility with the community as a moral authority. The damage caused by unpunished crime is immense and, even worse, falls primarily on vulnerable minority communities. Now for the first time, students, researchers, policymakers, and citizens have a resource that explains why justice failures occur and what can be done about them.