Get the Summary of Jerry Bledsoe's Blood Games in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. "Blood Games" by Jerry Bledsoe recounts the chilling murder of Lieth Von Stein in Washington, North Carolina, and the subsequent investigation that ensnares his stepson Chris Pritchard and friends James "Bart" Upchurch (Moog) and Neal Henderson. The narrative unfolds with the discovery of the murder and the brutal attack on Lieth's wife, Bonnie Von Stein. As detectives delve into the case, they uncover a plot driven by the desire for inheritance, with Chris orchestrating the murder...

The New York Times–bestselling author of Bitter Blood weaves “a powerful account” of greed that led to an unspeakable crime (The New York Times Book Review). As they slept in their North Carolina home, wealthy Lieth Von Stein and his wife Bonnie suffered a vicious assault with a knife and a baseball bat. Bonnie barely survived. Lieth did not. The crime seemed totally baffling until police followed a trail that led to the charming stepson, Chris Pritchard, and his brilliant, drug-using, Dungeons and Dragons–playing friends at North Carolina State University. “Haunting . . . Addictive, chilling and a masterpiece of reportage,” Blood Games is the true story of depraved young minds and a son’s gruesome greed turned to horrifyingly tragedy (Patricia Cornwell). Jerry Bledsoe masterfully reconstructs the bloody crime and its aftermath as he takes us into the secret twisted hearts of three young murderers. “Mr. Bledsoe goes straight to the bigger issues.” —The New York Times Book Review “In Mr. Bledsoe’s hands, a mega-load of inert facts becomes a human story of hurricane force.” —The News & Observer “Devastating . . . A brilliant account.” —Publishers Weekly

The “riveting” #1 New York Times bestseller: A true story of three wealthy families and the unbreakable ties of blood (Kirkus Reviews). The first bodies found were those of a feisty millionaire widow and her daughter in their posh Louisville, Kentucky, home. Months later, another wealthy widow and her prominent son and daughter-in-law were found savagely slain in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Mystified police first suspected a professional in the bizarre gangland-style killings that shattered the quiet tranquility of two well-to-do southern communities. But soon a suspicion grew that turned their focus to family. The Sharps. The Newsoms. The Lynches. The only link between the three families was a beautiful, aristocratic young mother named Susie Sharp Newsom Lynch. Could this former child “princess” and fraternity sweetheart have committed such barbarous crimes? And what about her gun-loving first cousin and lover, Fritz Klenner, son of a nationally renowned doctor? In this tale of three families connected by marriage and murder, of obsessive love and bitter custody battles, Jerry Bledsoe recounts the shocking events that ultimately took nine lives, building to a truly horrifying climax that will leave you stunned. “Recreates . . . one of the most shocking crimes of recent years.” —Publishers Weekly “Absorbing suspense.” —Chicago Tribune “Astonishing . . . Brilliantly chronicled.” —Detroit Free Press “An engrossing southern gothic sure to delight fans of the true-crime genre. Bledsoe maintains the suspense with a sure hand.” —The Charlotte Observer

In this “true story that reads like a novel,” the #1 New York Times–bestselling author reveals the facts behind a notorious Southern murder case (Library Journal). When North Carolina farmer Stuart Taylor died after a sudden illness, his forty-six-year-old fiancée, Velma Barfield, was overcome with grief. Taylor’s family grieved with her—until the autopsy revealed traces of arsenic poisoning. Turned over to the authorities by her own son, Velma stunned her family with more revelations. This wasn’t the first time she had committed cold-blooded murder, and she would eventually be tried by the “world’s deadliest prosecutor” and sentenced to death. This book probes Velma’s stark descent into madness, her prescription drug addiction, and her effort to turn her life around through Christianity. From her harrowing childhood to the crimes that incited a national debate over the death penalty, to the final moments of her execution, Velma Barfield’s life of crime and punishment, revenge and redemption, this is crime reporting at its most gripping and profound. “A painfully intimate, moving story about the life and death of the only woman executed in the U.S. between 1962–1998 . . . With graceful writing and thorough reporting, it makes the reader look hard at something dark and sad in the human soul . . . Breathes new life into the true crime genre.” —The News & Observer “Undertakes to answer the questions about the justice system and the motives that drive women to kill.” —The Washington Post Book World “An extraordinary piece of writing . . . The most chilling description of a legal execution that we are ever likely to get.” —Citizen-Times “Taut and engrossing on the nature of justice and the death penalty as well as on guilt and responsibility.” —Booklist

The case of a wealthy North Carolina woman who, after leading a life of deceit, is finally brought to trial for murdering her husband.

A North Carolina community college is wracked by controversy when a local reporter writes an article claiming that an adult community-outreach course on the Civil War taught that slaves in the South were happy.

“Vivid prose plunges the reader into the politically fraught, self-contained world of a military base” and a chilling true case of triple murder (Linda Landrigan, editor of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine). Carlton “Butch” Smith was a troubled teenager who’d been kicked out of school for aggressive behavior. His parents lived at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and when Butch was home with them, his life was fairly normal. But that all changed on August, 24, 1981, when Butch’s sister, aunt, and cousin were found slain in his parents’ house. It was a horrifying crime that shook the Marine base community, not to mention the Smith family—especially when Butch was named the prime suspect. In Tunnel Vision, reporter and true crime author N. P. Simpson delves into this young man’s harrowing past. She also provides a detailed chronicle of the grisly murders and the complex case that followed—a case of conflicting confessions, a mysterious second suspect who was never found, and difficult questions of jurisdiction between military, state, and federal courts.