California P.I. by Rachel Sommerville

$29.99 AUD

Category: TRUE CRIME

Marquis is accused of involvement in the murder of a man from a rival neighbourhood. Darren has been found guilty of murdering a petrol station attendant. Charles has been charged with the murder of a homeless teenage girl. All of them are potentially facing the death penalty in California. Australian-b orn Rachel Sommerville is a private investigator whose job is to help lawyers convince a jury or appeal court to let these men live. Her search for the evidence that may stop the imposition of a death sentence takes her to some of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the US. California P.I. is Sommerville's passionate account of the men whose lives she tries to save and of her journey from genteel, middle-class Adelaide to the ghettos and prisons of America. ...Show more

Manhunters - How We Took Down Pablo Escobar by Steve Murphy; Javier F. Peña

$35.00 AUD

Category: TRUE CRIME | Reading Level: near fine

The explosive memoir of the two legendary drug enforcement agents responsible for taking down Pablo Escobar and the subject of the hit Netflix series 'Narcos'. Javier Peña and Steve Murphy risked their lives hunting large and small drug traffickers in the decades they spent working for the US Dru g Enforcement Administration. But their biggest challenge was the hunt for Pablo Escobar in Colombia. The partners, who began their careers as small-town cops, have been immortalised in Netflix's 'Narcos', a fictionalised account of their hunt for Escobar. Now, for the first time, they tell the real story of how they brought down the world's first narco-terrorist and ended the reign of terror of the world's most wanted criminal. Manhunters takes you deep inside the inner workings of the Search Bloc, the joint Colombian-US task force that resulted in an intensive 18-month operation that tracked Escobar. Between July 1992 and December 1993, Peña and Murphy lived on the edge, setting up camp in Medellin at the Carlos Holguin Military Academy. There, they lived and worked with the Colombian authorities, hunting down a man thought to be untouchable. Their terrifying first-hand experience coupled with stories from the DEA's de-classified files on the search for Escobar forms the beating heart of Manhunters, a gripping account of how two determined and courageous agents risked everything to capture the world's most wanted man. Praise for Manhunters 'A riveting account of two brave DEA Agents who put their lives, along with their families' lives, on the line to fight the war on drugs. A must read on the take down of Pablo Escobar.' Joe Pistone, a.k.a. Donnie Brasco 'A fast-paced tale by two agents who had the inside track on bringing down the most wanted man in recent US history.' Bruce Porter, New York Times bestselling author of Blow 'Steve and Javier's experience on the front lines of the war on drugs over the last thirty years made them an invaluable source of information for a narrative of one of the most complex, poorly reported, and misunderstood chapters in our recent past.' Eric Newman, Executive Producer, 'Narcos' 'Manhunters grabs you from the first page and gives you a front-row seat into the harrowing hunt for the brutal narco trafficker Pablo Escobar. Two unlikely heroes recount their stories in a way that is both compelling and captivating.' Congresswoman Mary Bono 'A compelling read about the adventures of two true American law enforcement heroes who ultimately took on the world's first narco-terrorist, the world's most wanted criminal, the world's largest cocaine baron, Pablo Escobar, and won!' Barbara Comstock, former congresswoman   ...Show more

The Satin Man

$24.99 AUD

Category: TRUE CRIME

Missing William Tyrrell by Caroline Overington

$34.99 AUD

Category: TRUE CRIME

   One minute a little boy is playing outside his foster nana's house, the next minute, he's gone. How can a three year old child simply disappear? On Friday 12 September 2014, William Tyrrell - a playful three-year-old boy dressed in a fire-engine red Spider-Man suit - disappears from a quiet street in broad daylight. It's assumed he's lost in the nearby bushland, but despite an intensive search, he's not found, and police start to suspect he's been abducted. No trace of William - not a shoe, not a hair - has ever been found, but now is not the time to surrender. How can a little boy just vanish? We have to find him. From best-selling author and Walkley Award-winning journalist, Caroline Overington, Missing William Tyrrell is a moving and compelling exploration of one of Australia's most baffling and heartbreaking mysteries. ...Show more

The Pastor and the Painter by Cindy Wockner

$32.99 AUD

Category: TRUE CRIME

At 12.35 a.m. on the 29th April 2015, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were led out in front of firing squad. Strapped to wooden crosses, they prayed and sang, staring straight ahead at their killers. On that day, the Indonesian government did not execute two drug smugglers, they executed a pastor and a painter.   But who were Andrew and Myuran?   In 2005, the selfish recklessness of youth and lure of drugs, money, fast cars and a better life led them and seven other Australians into a smuggling plot to import eight kilograms of heroin from Indonesia to Australia. Unbeknownst to them all, the Australian Federal Police knew their plan and tipped off the Indonesian police. Charged with drug trafficking, Myuran and Andrew were found guilty and sentenced to death. Andrew was 22 years old. Myuran was 24.   Cindy Wockner was the Indonesian correspondent for News Limited when the Bali Nine were caught. For a decade she covered their story and she got to know Myuran, Andrew and their families very well. She watched them transform from angry, defiant young men into fully rehabilitated good people. This is the intimate, and untold, story of Andrew and Myuran; of their childhoods and what turned them to drugs, what happened in their ten years in Kerokoban Prison, the numerous legal appeals, the political fallout and the growing worldwide pleas for mercy that saw vigils held around Australia. It will show their rehabilitation and their focus on helping others - of Andrew's growing commitment to his faith and Myu's burgeoning artistic talent. It will show the boys they were and the men they became in a potent cautionary tale and a poignant reminder of what we all lose when we ignore the power of mercy. ...Show more

The Contractor 6 True tales of Counter Terrorism by Mark Abernethy

$19.99 AUD

Category: TRUE CRIME

'I fix things. I can build you a house or remodel your bathroom. I can also make bad situations - and bad people - disappear.'Meet Mike. Runs a building site, drives a ute, likes a beer, loves his nail-gun.But Mike is hiding in plain sight. When the Pentagon call him in as 'Big Unit', he's another kind of contractor - one as handy with a Colt M4 as he is with a Skilsaw, a man as accustomed to danger, death, and pain as he is to a hammer and nails.In six action-packed true stories we follow a man who left foreign intelligence for a life 'on the tools', only to discover there's too many dangerous scenarios and terrible people still out there. The good guys need a James Bond in Blundstones. They need The Contractor.Tradie. Spy. Big Unit.Follow Big Unit as he goes undercover to save a family trapped by an ISIS-run drug cartel in the seedy back streets of Northern Pakistan to terrorist-besieged Paris to a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with Australia's most wanted murderer.MORE PRAISE FOR THE CONTRACTOR ...Show more

Zero Zero Zero by Roberto Saviano

$32.99 AUD

Category: TRUE CRIME

In Zero Zero Zero, Roberto Saviano maps the international cocaine trade. He investigates the evolution of cocaine trafficking, from Mexican drug cartels to money laundering through Wall Street. Tracking cocaine's physical journey - from South America to the beaches of Miami and the streets of New York, and on to Africa and throughout Europe and even further to China and India - Saviano follows the human trail of users, victims and traffickers. First-hand accounts will show how the global sale and consumption of cocaine has radically altered economies over recent decades, and has impacted societies globally. With these stories, Saviano makes a secret world readable. ...Show more

The Satin Man (Beaumont Children) by Alan Whiticker; Stuart Mullins

$24.99 AUD

Category: TRUE CRIME

This book, The Satin Man, is the result of the six years that followed, in which Mullins continued Whiticker hunt for the truth, and lobbied the South Australian Police to open a coronial inquiry to the original investigation. It details shocking information about a potential suspect – a local man of wealth and position, known as 'The Satin Man' – and sheds incredible new light on this decades-old mystery. ...Show more

The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay and Disaster (Sandra Pankhurst)(PB) by Sarah Krasnostein

$24.99 AUD

Category: TRUE CRIME

Before she was a trauma cleaner, Sandra Pankhurst was many things: husband and father, drag queen, gender reassignment patient, sex worker, small businesswoman, trophy wife ...But as a little boy, raised in violence and excluded from the family home, she just wanted to belong. Now she believes her clien ts deserve no less.A woman who sleeps among garbage she has not put out for forty years. A man who bled quietly to death in his loungeroom. A woman who lives with rats, random debris and terrified delusion. The still life of a home vacated by accidental overdose.Sarah Krasnostein has watched the extraordinary Sandra Pankhurst bring order and care to these, the living and the dead - and the book she has written is equally extraordinary. Not just the compelling story of a fascinating life among lives of desperation, but an affirmation that, as isolated as we may feel, we are all in this together. ...Show more

Unbelievable (aka A False Report) by T. Christian Miller; Ken Armstrong

$19.99 AUD

Category: TRUE CRIME

Previously published as 'A False Report' The real-life investigation behind the forthcoming NETFLIX series: two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists uncover the story of Marie, an eighteen-year-old girl who was branded a liar after reporting her brutal rape, and the detectives who followed a twisting pat h to arrive at the truth. One of Stylist Magazine's 20 Must-Read Books of 2018 ***SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLD DAGGER AWARD*** She said she was raped. Police said she lied. On 11 August 2008, eighteen-year-old Marie reported that a masked man had broken into her home and raped her. Within days, police - and even those closest to Marie - became suspicious of her story. Confronted by inconsistencies and doubt, Marie broke down and said her story was a lie. The police convicted her of making a false report. More than two years later, Colorado detective Stacy Galbraith was assigned to a case of sexual assault. It bore an eerie resemblance to a rape that had taken place months earlier in a nearby town. Joining forces with the detective on that case, Edna Hendershot, the two soon discovered they were dealing with a serial rapist, and yet another victim. Unbelievable is a chilling tale of doubt, lies, and the hunt for justice, unveiling the disturbing reality of how sexual assault is investigated and the long history of scepticism toward its victims. ...Show more

The Whiskey Au Go Go Massacre by Geoff Plunkett

$29.99 AUD

Category: TRUE CRIME

Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell by Louise Milligan

$34.99 AUD

Category: TRUE CRIME

George Pell is the most recognisable face of the Australian Catholic Church. He was the Ballarat boy with the film-star looks who studied at Oxford and rose through the ranks to become the Vatican's indispensable 'Treasurer'. As an outspoken defender of church orthodoxy, 'Big George's' ascendancy within the clergy was remarkable and seemingly unstoppable. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse has brought to light horrific stories about sexual abuse of the most vulnerable and provoked public anger at the extent of the cover-up. George Pell has always portrayed himself as the first man in the Church to tackle the problem. But questions about what the Cardinal knew, and when, have persisted. The nation's most prominent Catholic is now the subject of a police investigation into allegations spanning decades that he too abused children. Louise Milligan is the only Australian journalist who has been privy to the most intimate stories of complainants. She pieces together a series of disturbing pictures of the Cardinal's knowledge and his actions, many of which are being told here for the first time. Conspiracy or cover-up? Cardinaluncovers uncomfortable truths about a culture of sexual entitlement, abuse of trust and how ambition can silence evil. ...Show more