Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 In the late September of 1929, America was about to plunge from a precipice. In less than a month, the Wall Street Stock Exchange would crash, plunging the country into the Great Depression. The working class of America would struggle and die by the thousands as the intermittently prosperous nation experienced its worst economic collapse. #2 Gert’s father was a alcoholic, and her mother blamed Gert for all of his failings. But as Gert was her father’s favorite, he did not hurt her. She had a happy childhood, even though she was not having a healthy one. #3 Gert’s life was a living hell after her father died. She was treated worse than an animal at home, completely ignored by her mother, and carefully ostracized by her siblings to avoid any taint from associating with her. #4 Gert’s social life was desolate for three more years in school, but when she was 14, she began dating. She was courted by a succession of men between two and eight years her senior, all of them pursuing her because of the sordid reputation she had developed about the town.

In July 1965, teenagers Sylvia and Jenny Likens were left in the temporary care of Gertrude Baniszewski, a middle-aged single mother and her seven children. The Baniszewski household was overrun with children. There were few rules and ample freedom. Sadly, the environment created a dangerous hierarchy of social Darwinism where the strong preyed on the weak. What transpired in the following three months was both riveting and chilling. In October 1965, the body of Sylvia Likens was found in the basement of the Baniszewski home, where she had been imprisoned. She was starved, beaten, burned and had the words "I am a prostitute and proud of it" carved into her stomach. Gertrude Baniszewski oversaw and facilitated the torture and eventual murder of Sylvia Likens. While she played an active role in Sylvia's death, the majority of the abuse was carried out by her children and other neighbourhood youths. The case shocked the entire nation and would later be described as "The single worst crime perpetuated against an individual in Indiana's history". [CAUTION: This book contains descriptive accounts of abuse and violence. If you are especially sensitive to this material, it might be advisable not to read any further]

"In May of 2007, in a small, quiet town in the South Moravia region of the Czech Republic, a technical glitch, a simple, accidental crossing of signals, revealed just such a case, and an entire nation watched transfixed with horror as the grisly extent of the perversion of the maternal instinct was revealed. Two small brothers named Jakub and Ondrej, nine and seven years old respectively, were revealed to have suffered confinement, mutilation, psychological brutality, and cannibalism at the hands of several people, foremost among them their own mother and her sister."--Back cover.

BEST BOOK AWARD IN FICTION BY THE ASSOCIATION FOR ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES • A stunning, lyrical novel that tells "the story of how the Tsais, a Taiwanese family, survive the 'February 28 Incident' of 1947 and precariously navigate the decades that follow" (The New York Times). As an uprising rocks Taiwan, a young doctor in Taipei is taken from his newborn daughter by Chinese Nationalists, on charges of speaking out against the government. Although the doctor eventually returns to his family, his arrival is marked by alienation from his loved ones and paranoia among his community. Years later, this troubled past follows his youngest daughter to America, where, as a mother and a wife, she too is forced to decide between what is right and what might save her family—the same choice she witnessed her father make many years before. The story of a family and a nation grappling with the nuances of complicity and survival, Green Island raises the question: how far would you go for the ones you love?

In 1988, detectives from the Sacramento Police Department were called to investigate the disappearance of a man at his last known address, a boarding house for the elderly, homeless and mentally ill. The owner, Dorothea Puente, was an adorable old lady who cared for stray cats and the rest of society's castaways. She had a strong standing in the community and was celebrated for her selfless charitable work. The search revealed nothing untoward but one of the guests recalled some unusual incidents leading up to the disappearance. He shared stories about holes being dug in the garden and filled in overnight. Guests who were taken ill and vanished overnight, and a number of excuses why they couldn't be contacted. This was enough to launch a thorough investigation and on 11th November 1988, the Sacramento Police Department headed back to the boarding house with shovels in hand. Were they wasting their time pursuing a charming and charitable old lady or were they closing in on a clandestine killer who exploited the most vulnerable members of society? The investigation gripped the entire nation and the answers lay Buried Beneath the Boarding House. Ryan Green presents a dramatic and chilling account of one of the most bizarre true crime stories in American history. Green's riveting narrative draws the reader into the real-live horror experienced by the victims and has all the elements of a classic thriller. CAUTION: This book contains descriptive accounts of abuse and violence. If you are especially sensitive to this material, it might be advisable not to read any further

Three people. Three stories. And a desperate race for survival in a country caught up in the hell of war. Nick Scott fought in the SAS -- the elite Special Forces unit of the British Army -- during the first Gulf War. Captured and tortured, he was left a broken man. His daughter Sarah is a beautiful young scientist at Cambridge University who appears to have cracked one of the great scientific secrets of our age: cold fusion. Now, she has vanished. Sarah's longtime on-and-off boyfriend, Jed Bradley, is one of the SAS's toughest young soldiers. Nick and Jed have never gotten along because Nick doesn't want his daughter dating a soldier. Deep down, Jed reckons he joined the SAS just to win Nick's approval. Reluctantly, the two men combine their efforts to rescue Sarah and soon they are caught up in a global power play, a deadly web of intrigue in which Nick and Jed encounter a traitorous scientist willing to sell out his country; a sinister Arab intent on destroying Western civilization; and a beautiful but manipulative intelligence agent whose motives are unclear. Nick and Jed must fight their way through a war-ravaged Iraq as the regime of Saddam Hussein collapses around them. It is a heart-stopping desperate race to find the woman they both love, and to unlock the secret of the Ultimate Weapon.

In the fall of 1994, Erich Baumeister (13), was playing in a wooded area of his family's estate, when he stumbled across a partially buried human skeleton. He presented the disturbing finding to his mother, Julie, who inquired about the skull to her husband, Herb. He told her that the skeleton belonged to his late father, an anaesthesiologist, who used it for his research. He said he didn't know what to do with it, so he buried it in the back garden. Astonishingly, Julie believed him. Over the course of eighteen-months, Julie became increasingly concerned and even frightened by her husband's mood swings and erratic behaviour. In June 1996, whilst Herb was on vacation, she granted police full access to her family's eighteen-acre home. Within ten days of the search, investigators uncovered the remains of eleven bodies. Once news of the findings at Fox Hollow Farm was broadcast, Herb disappeared. He was missing for eight days when campers eventually found his body inside his car. In an apparent suicide, Herb had shot himself while parked at Pinery Park, Ontario. He wrote a three-page suicide note explaining his reasons for taking his life, which he attributed to his failing marriage and business. There was no mention of the victims scattered in his backyard. Herb Baumeister would later be alleged to have killed at least nine more men along the Interstate 70 between Indiana and Ohio, and coined the "I-70 Strangler." It is entirely possible that he was one of the most prolific serial killers in history, but because of his perpetual cowardice in the face of scrutiny, the world will never know. In You Think You Know Me, bestselling author Ryan Green assumes the role of Herb Baumeister and attempts to fill in the blanks on one of Indiana's most mysterious serial killers. CAUTION: This book contains descriptive accounts of sexual abuse and violence. If you are especially sensitive to this material, it might be advisable not to read any further.