A 2006 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Fact Crime. With intimate access to the families, award-winning journalist Diane Fanning's Written in Blood spins a heart-wrenching true crime tale that's been the subject of an acclaimed documentary, "The Staircase", and an HBO TV miniseries starring Colin Firth. An army brat-turned-marine, Michael Peterson saw combat in Vietnam, and returned a decorated soldier. An avid reader, his dreams of being an acclaimed novelist came true. His desire to find love was fulfilled when he married brilliant executive Kathleen Atwater, the first female student accepted at Duke University's School of Engineering. The Petersons seemed the ideal academic couple- well-respected, prosperous, and happy. All that came crashing down in December of 2001, when Kathleen apparently fell to her death in their secluded home in an exclusive area of Durham, North Carolina. But blood-spattered evidence and a missing fireplace poker suggested calculated, cold-blooded murder. Her trusted husband stood accused. Prosecutors introduced evidence at trial that sixteen years earlier, Peterson was one of the last people to see his neighbor alive before she was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in her home in Germany. A dramatic trial followed in the explosive final chapter of a life that no novelist could ever have conceived...

In 2010 Written in Blood Volume 1 told the stories of thirteen law officers who died in the line of duty between 1861 and 1909. Now Selcer and Foster are back with Volume 2 covering more line-of-duty deaths. This volume covers 1910 to 1928, as Fort Worth experiences a race riot, lynchings, bushwhacking, assassinations and martial law imposed by the U.S. Army.

In 2010 "Written in Blood Volume 1" told the stories of thirteen law officers who died in the line of duty between 1861 and 1909. Now Selcer and Foster are back with Volume 2 covering more line-of-duty deaths. This volume covers 1910 to 1928, as Fort Worth experiences a race riot, lynchings, bushwhacking, assassinations and martial law imposed by the U.S. Army.

Richard F. Selcer and Kevin S. Foster tell the stories of thirteen of those early lawmen, starting with Tarrant County Sheriff John B. York in 1861 and going through Fort Worth Police Officer William Ad Campbell in 1909. York died in a street fight; Campbell was shot-gunned in the back while walking his beat in Hells Half-Acre. This is also the story of law enforcement in the days when an assortment of policemen and marshals, sheriffs and deputies, and special officers and constables held the line and sometimes crossed over it.

Extraordinary accounts of forensic crime detection—from poisoners in ancient Rome to modern day serial killers—by the bestselling author of The Outsider. In 44 BC, a Roman doctor named Antistius performed the first autopsy recorded in history—on the corpse of murder victim Julius Caesar. However, not until the nineteenth century did the systematic application of scientific knowledge to crime detection seriously begin, so that the tiniest scrap of evidence might yield astonishing results—like the single horsehair that betrayed the murderer in New York’s 1936 puzzling and sensational Nancy Titterton case. Many such dramatic tales appear in this updated edition of the most gripping catalog of crimes by acclaimed criminologist Colin Wilson. The book follows the progress of forensic science from the first cases of suspected arsenic poisoning right up to investigations using an impressive armory of high-tech methods: ballistic analysis, blood typing, voice printing, textile analysis, psychological profiling and genetic fingerprinting. “Colin Wilson has made himself the Philosopher-King of forensic speculation, the Diderot of the path labs.” —The Times Literary Supplement “Will enthrall connoisseurs of violent crime.” —The Glasgow Herald

The second book in the critically acclaimed Obsidian and Blood trilogy: The year is Two House, and the Emperor of the Mexica has just died. The protections he afforded the Empire are crumbling, and the way lies wide open to the flesh-eating star-demons--and to the return of their creator, a malevolent goddess only held in check by the War God's power. The council should convene to choose a new Emperor, but they are too busy plotting against each other. And then someone starts summoning star-demons within the palace, to kill councilmen... Acatl, High Priest of the Dead, must find the culprit before everything is torn apart. REVIEWS: ‘Political intrigue and rivalry among a complex pantheon of divinities drive this well-paced murder mystery set at the height of the Aztec Empire in the late 15th century. De Bodard reintroduces the series hero Acatl, high priest of the dead, immediately following the death of the Tenochtitlan leader. One of the council members in charge of choosing a successor has been brutally murdered in what looks like an attempt to influence the decision. But the deaths continue and the political situation grows more complex, while the empire looks to be increasingly at risk of invasion by malignant powers. Acatl must go face-to-face with the most powerful god in his world and put the good of the empire above his antipathy for is rivals to achieve the uneasy succession. De Bodard incorporates historical fact with great ease and manages the rare feat of explaining complex culture and political system without lecturing or boring the reader.’ —Publishers Weekly ‘Another thing that intrigues me here is the whole fact that historically we know that the real empire died out mysteriously and completely and as such there is always that thought in the back of my mind that the author could choose to bring about the end of days. That highlighted sense of possible doom is something that is missing from too many novels. The way the story is told in this book is very impressive, the plot is both mature and seductive, twisting and turning like a weather vane in a force 9 gale while the action is both bloodthirsty and imaginative. The world building is fantastic and we get to learn even more of this rich culture and the many gods and creatures of the dark. I really can’t fault this book at all and recommend it to one and all but if you haven’t yet read Servant of the Underworld I suggest that you get them both and read them in order, you won’t be disappointed.’ —SF Book Reviews ‘Bodard’s writing is polished and striking, as she convincingly fills in the colorful elements of the Aztec culture–even if those colors tend to be of blood and bile as well as flowers and hummingbirds... beautiful, grimy, breathtaking, and morbid. 5*’ —Examiner ‘Aliette de Bodard has done it again. Harbinger of the Storm is an action packed Aztec mystery opera with magic, interventions from the gods and more twists and turns than the first book. It even has a love story with amusing snippets here and there... The story is self contained and can be enjoyed standalone, but you will not want to miss out on the first. I wish it was 2012 already even if the world is going under while I read the final Obsidian & Blood.’ —Cybermage

Based on characters from Screen Gems's 2003 motion picture starring Kate Beckinsale, this all-original prequel reveals the origins of the rival clans of vampires and werewolves, and how their clandestine war has been fought in the shadows of the mortal world. Original.