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In Cold Blood
by Truman Capote
from Vintage
"Until one morning in mid-November of 1959, few Americans--in fact, few Kansans--had ever heard of Holcomb. Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there." If all Truman Capote did was invent a new genre--journalism written with the language and structure of literature--this "nonfiction novel" about the brutal slaying of the Clutter family by two would-be robbers would be remembered as a trail-blazing experiment that has influenced countless writers. But Capote achieved more than that. He wrote a true masterpiece of creative nonfiction. The images of this tale continue to resonate in our minds: 16-year-old Nancy Clutter teaching a friend how to bake a cherry pie, Dick Hickock's black '49 Chevrolet sedan, Perry Smith's Gibson guitar and his dreams of gold in a tropical paradise--the blood on the walls and the final "thud-snap" of the rope-broken necks.
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.
As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.
With the publication of this book, Capote permanently ripped through the barrier separating crime reportage from serious literature. As he reconstructs the 1959 murder of a Kansas farm family and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, Capote generates suspense and empathy.
The Innocent Man
by John Grisham
from Dell
In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the Big Leagues, Ron stumbled, his dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron’s home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it led to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to death—in a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that would shatter a man’s already broken life…and let a true killer go free. Impeccably researched, grippingly told, filled with eleventh-hour drama, John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction reads like a page-turning legal thriller. It is a book that will terrify anyone who believes in the presumption of innocence—a book no American can afford to miss.
In His Sights: A True Story of Love and Obsession
by Kate Brennan
from Harper
What if the man you'd loved for years vows, when you leave him, to destroy you? What if he transforms into a ruthless tormentor, stealing your freedom, undermining your sanity, and threatening your safety?
This is not a fictional scenario. It is Kate Brennan's life.
Kate is a well-respected writer and scholar, a highly independent woman with simple tastes and a complicated romantic past that leave her perfectly content with singlehood. So when she meets Paul—a wealthy, charismatic businessman with a great deal of free time—she's wary of getting involved. Eventually, though, his polished charm and relentless wooing win her over. Things move quickly, and it is only after the two have moved in together that Kate discovers the serial infidelity, the unbalanced psyche, and the sordid secrets lurking under the Mr. Right facade.
Kate lets Paul into her life with trepidation, and when she ends the relationship, she finds she can't get him out of it. With limitless resources, he dedicates himself to stalking her: he tracks her movements, arranges for people to break into her home, interferes with her work, and even relocates to her new neighborhood. His harassment lasts for more than a decade and, as Paul is still at large, it continues to turn Kate's life upside down today.
This visceral memoir not only lays bare the mind of a stalker, but also shows how a smart, successful woman can fall prey to a warped and powerful man who has the money and connections to keep her under his watchful eye. Both frightening and insightful, In His Sights is a gripping tale of one woman's descent into the dark side of love and how she has fought—and still struggles—to free herself.
Criminology: The Core
by Larry J. Siegel
from Wadsworth Publishing
Did you know that the best text for your criminology class is also very affordably priced? CRIMINOLOGY: THE CORE, Third Edition is the field's top-selling concise paperback-and the right text to help you excel in the criminology course. Author Larry Siegel guides you through the fast-paced field of criminology, its most current research, and the fascinating examples that help you understand criminological theory. In new "Profiles in Crime" features, you'll study the crimes of real-life men and women and how they illustrate specific criminology theories discussed in this book. Along the way you'll find the newest information, court cases, and topics, including hundreds of new references to keep you at the cutting-edge of the field. The author also includes "Thinking Like a Criminologist" role-plays, "Checkpoints" (throughout each chapter to help you review as you read), "Connections" boxes (that help you connect concepts among chapters to see the big picture), "Critical Thinking" questions, and other resources in every chapter to help you retain what you learn and do your best on exams.
McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld (Borzoi Books)
by Misha Glenny
from Knopf
Amazon Significant Seven, April 2008: In McMafia, Misha Glenny draws the dark map that lies on the other side of Tom Friedman's bright flat world. That connected globe not only brings software coders and supply-chain outsourcers closer together; it's also opened the gates to a criminal network of unsettling vastness, complexity, and efficiency that represents a fifth of the earth's economy, trading in everything from untaxed cigarettes and the usual narcotics to human lives and nuclear material. Glenny's a Balkans expert, and he begins his story there, with the illicit--but often state-sponsored--underworld that grew out of the post-Soviet chaos, but he soon follows the contraband everywhere from Mumbai and Johannesburg to rural Colombia and the U.S. suburbs. It's not just a hodgepodge of scare clips, though: Glenny reports from the ground but follows the leads as high as they go, showing how the dark and bright sides of the flat world are more connected than we imagine. --Tom Nissley
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the deregulation of international financial markets in 1989, governments and entrepreneurs alike became intoxicated by forecasts of limitless expansion into newly open markets. No one would foresee that the greatest success story to arise from these events would be the globalization of organized crime. Current estimates suggest that illegal trade accounts for nearly one-fifth of global GDP.
McMafia is a fearless, encompassing, wholly authoritative investigation of the now proven ability of organized crime worldwide to find and service markets driven by a seemingly insatiable demand for illegal wares. Whether discussing the Russian mafia, Colombian drug cartels, or Chinese labor smugglers, Misha Glenny makes clear how organized crime feeds off the poverty of the developing world, how it exploits new technology in the forms of cybercrime and identity theft, and how both global crime and terror are fueled by an identical source: the triumphant material affluence of the West.
To trace the disparate strands of this hydra-like story, Glenny talked to police, victims, politicians, and members of the global underworld in eastern Europe, North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, China, Japan, and India. The story of organized crime’s phenomenal, often shocking growth is truly the central political story of our time. McMafia will change the way we look at the world.
Criminal Behavior: A Psychosocial Approach (8th Edition)
by Curt R. Bartol
from Prentice Hall
This book approaches the understanding of delinquent and criminal behavior from a developmental, coginitive-behavioral, and psychological perspective. Viewing the juvenile and adult offender as being embedded and continually influenced by multiple systems, the book examines the risk and protective factors that are believed to influence the developmental pathways on the road to delinquency and crime. The 8th edition continues to be heavily researched in a style that allows the reader to follow the flow of the research literature. Most up-to-date psychological research and theories regarding criminal behavior are presented. Highlights how psychological, social, economic, political and ecological factors all play a role in influencing individual behavior. Looks at specific crimes from a psychological perspective: terrorism, sniper attacks, homicide and serial murder, cyber crime, white collar crime, identity theft, sex crimes, school violence, hate crimes, stalking, family violence, and drug crimes. Coverage of criminal profiling and crime scene analysis. Strategies for prevention and treatment of criminal behavior offered. New chapter on the treatment of juvenile offenders. Sections on juvenile offending added include: Juvenile Serial Murder, Juvenile Sex Offenders, Child Delinquents, Peer Rejection, School Failure, Language Deficiencies, Brain Development, Female Juvenile Sex Offenders, Current Juvenile Drug Use, & Juvenile Psychopathy. Professionals involved with the prevention and treatment of criminal behavior.
Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in Criminal Justice (Ethics in Crime and Justice)
by Joycelyn M. Pollock
from Wadsworth Publishing
This text is designed to introduce students to ethical decision-making in the criminal justice system. Its greatest strengths are its balanced coverage of 1) all three segments of the CJ system-police, courts, and corrections-and 2) both philosophical principles/theories and hands-on criminal justice issues and applications.
Rich Get Richer and The Poor Get Prison, The (8th Edition)
by Jeffrey Reiman
from Allyn & Bacon
Crimes Against Logic: Exposing the Bogus Arguments of Politicians, Priests, Journalists, and Other Serial Offenders
by Jamie Whyte
from McGraw-Hill
Uncover the truth under all the BS
In the daily battle for our hearts and minds--not to mention our hard-earned cash--the truth is usually the first casualty. It's time we learned how to see through the rhetoric, faulty reasoning, and misinformation that we're subjected to from morning to night by talk-radio hosts, op-ed columnists, advertisers, self-help gurus, business "thinkers," and, of course, politicians. And no one is better equipped to show us how than award-winning philosopher Jamie Whyte.
In Crimes Against Logic Whyte take us on a fast-paced, ruthlessly funny romp through the mulligan stew of can, folderol, and bogus logic served up in the media, at the office, and even in your own home. Applying his laserlike wit to dozens of timely examples, Whyte cuts through the haze of facts, figures, and double-talk and gets at the real truth behind what they're telling us.
"An incisive philosopher."
--Sunday Telegraph
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
by David Simon
from Holt Paperbacks
This 1992 Edgar Award winner for best fact crime is nothing short of a classic. David Simon, a police reporter for the Baltimore Sun, spent the year 1988 with three homicide squads, accompanying them through all the grim and grisly moments of their work--from first telephone call to final piece of paperwork. The picture that emerges through a masterful accumulation of details is that homicide detectives are a rare breed who seem to thrive on coffee, cigarettes, and persistence, through an endlessly exhausting parade of murder scenes. As the Washington Post writes, "We seem to have an insatiable appetite for police stories.... David Simon's entry is far and away the best, the most readable, the most reliable and relentless of them all.... An eye for the scenes of slaughter and pursuit and an ear for the cadences of cop talk, both business and banter, lend Simon's account the fascination that truth often has."
The scene is Baltimore. Twice every three days another citizen is shot, stabbed, or bludgeoned to death. At the center of this hurricane of crime is the city’s homicide unit, a small brotherhood of hard men who fight for whatever justice is possible in a deadly world.
David Simon was the first reporter ever to gain unlimited access to a homicide unit, and this electrifying book tells the true story of a year on the violent streets of an American city. The narrative follows Donald Worden, a veteran investigator; Harry Edgerton, a black detective in a mostly white unit; and Tom Pellegrini, an earnest rookie who takes on the year’s most difficult case, the brutal rape and murder of an eleven-year-old girl.
Originally published fifteen years ago, Homicide became the basis for the acclaimed television show of the same name. This new edition—which includes a new introduction, an afterword, and photographs—revives this classic, riveting tale about the men who work on the dark side of the American experience.
David Simon was the first reporter ever to gain unlimited access to a homicide unit, and this electrifying book tells the true story of a year on the violent streets of an American city. The narrative follows Donald Worden, a veteran investigator, Harry Edgerton, a black detective in a mostly white unit, and Tom Pellegrini, an earnest rookie who takes on the year's most difficult case, the brutal rape and murder of an eleven-year-old girl. Meanwhile, Baltimore is plagued by racial tensions and a drug epidemic, and the detectives often feel that the rising tide of chaos is about to swamp them completely.
Originally published 15 years ago, Homicide became the basis for the acclaimed television show of the same name. This new edition--which includes an introduction, an afterword, and photographs--revives a classic of its kind, a riveting tale about the men who work on the dark side of the American experience.
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