The 'serial killer' has become increasingly prevalent in popular culture since the term was coined by Robert Ressler at the FBI in the mid-1970s. Murders and Acqusitions explores the social and political implications of this cultural figure. The collection argues that the often blood-chilling representations of the serial killer and serial killing offered in TV series, films, novels and fan productions function to address contemporary concerns and preoccupations. Focusing on well-known popular culture texts, such as The Wire, Kiss the Girls, Monster, the Saw series, American Psycho, The Strangers, CSI and Dexter, this electic anthology engages with a broad spectrum of cultural theory and performs critical textual analysis to examine the sophisticated ways the serial killer is deployed to mediate and/or work through cultural anxieties and fears.

During a weekend in the country, Reuben Frost investigates the murder of a frozen-food king who got himself into hot water Reuben Frost misses a lot of things about life as a corporate lawyer, but working for Andersen Foods Corporation is not one of them. A vast international enterprise, AFC has made millions pumping out cheap, inoffensive food. But Reuben Frost, a titan of Wall Street, is simply not the TV-dinner type. Unfortunately, even after retiring from the respected law firm Chase & Ward, Frost is still expected to attend the annual Andersen family retreat, a weekend of fun and games as bland as an Andersen frozen meal. This year, however, the retreat will be a bloody good time. A corporate raider has his eyes on the Andersen family fortune, and old Flemming Andersen is determined to fight him to the death—a wish he’ll get to fulfill all too soon. When Andersen is boiled alive in his hot tub, Frost must find the killer to save the corporation and rescue his long weekend. Murders & Acquisitions is the 3rd book in the Reuben Frost Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

In Laurel, Mississippi, in 1935, one daughter of a wealthy and troubled family stood accused of murdering her mother. On her testimony, authorities suspected an equally prominent and well-to-do businessman, her reputed lover, of assisting. Ouida Keeton apparently shot her mother, chopped her up, and disposed of most of her body parts down the toilet and in the fireplace, burning all but the pelvic region, the thighs, and the legs. Attempting to dispose of these remains on a narrow, one-lane, isolated road, Ouida left a trail of evidence that ended in her arrest. People had seen her driving to the road. Within hours, a hunter and his dogs found the cloth in which she had wrapped her mother’s legs. Touted as the most sensational crime in Mississippi history at the time, the Legs Murder of 1935 is almost entirely forgotten today. The controversial outcome, decided by an unsophisticated jury, has been left muddled by ambiguity. With The Legs Murder Scandal, Hunter Cole presents an intricately detailed description of the separate trials of Ouida Keeton and W. M. Carter. Having researched trial transcripts, courthouse records, medical files, and vast newspaper coverage, the author reveals new facts previously distorted by hearsay, hushed reports, and misinformation. Cole pursues many unanswered questions such as what, really, did Ouida Keeton do with the rest of her mother? The Legs Murder Scandal attempts to provide the reader with clarity in this story, which is outlandish, harrowing, and intriguing, all at once.

Now a Netflix Limited Series "...A compulsively readable tour de force." —The Wall Street Journal New York Times Book Review recommends M.T. Edvardsson’s A Nearly Normal Family and lauds it as a “page-turner” that forces the reader to confront “the compromises we make with ourselves to be the people we believe our beloveds expect.” (NYTimes Book Review Summer Reading Issue) M.T. Edvardsson’s A Nearly Normal Family is a gripping legal thriller that forces the reader to consider: How far would you go to protect the ones you love? In this twisted narrative of love and murder, a horrific crime makes a seemingly normal family question everything they thought they knew about their life—and one another. Eighteen-year-old Stella Sandell stands accused of the brutal murder of a man almost fifteen years her senior. She is an ordinary teenager from an upstanding local family. What reason could she have to know a shady businessman, let alone to kill him? Stella’s father, a pastor, and mother, a criminal defense attorney, find their moral compasses tested as they defend their daughter, while struggling to understand why she is a suspect. Told in an unusual three-part structure, A Nearly Normal Family asks the questions: How well do you know your own children? How far would you go to protect them?

Never before has IT played such a significant role in transforming organisations, of all sizes. And yet it continues to be dominated by technical jargon, acronyms and irrelevant detail. This book cuts through all of the confusion, and presents a clear, direct, solution based focus on the key IT/business issues facing every company and business leader today. This book contains the complete, first fifteen months of David Taylor's highly acclaimed Computer Weekly column - Inside Track. With a reputation for cutting through the hype, David focuses on the IT/business and personal leadership agenda, covering such issues as: * The key IT issues for the boardroom - in business language * Actions to win in the new world of e-commerce - and get started today * The successful new IT leader - the skills you and your company need to employ * Quick solutions to long-term IT problems - they can be resolved * How to motivate your people, and slash staff turnover - save a fortune on recruitment costs * True IT/business alignment - add real value to your bottom line David Taylor is a leading authority on IT in business. He is President of the association of IT Directors, Certus, a reference partner to the UK Government's National Audit Office, and a registered expert with several global research companies. His overall aim is to enable people and organisations to be all that they can be, through the combination of world class technology, true leadership and the release of human potential. With a prestigious background across companies such as Rolls-Royce, Allianz and Cornhill, David has a driving, positive passion for IT in business, and a reputation for championing IT Directors who want to achieve board level positions in their organisations. David and his team work with FTSE 200 companies on winning in the new internet economy, with entrepreneurs starting new dot com ventures, and with CEOs, advising on the qualities they should seek in their IT leaders. A regular writer, television presenter and speaker, David gives keynote, leadership and IT presentations throughout the world. He lives with his wife, Rosalind and their two children, Anthony and Olivia, in Surrey.

The intrigue began with a triple homicide in a luxury apartment building just steps from the Champs-Elyseés, in March 1887. A high-class prostitute and two others, one of them a child, had been stabbed to death—the latest in a string of unsolved murders targeting women of the Parisian demimonde. Newspapers eagerly reported the lurid details, and when the police arrested Enrico Pranzini, a charismatic and handsome Egyptian migrant, the story became an international sensation. As the case descended into scandal and papers fanned the flames of anti-immigrant politics, the investigation became thoroughly enmeshed with the crisis-driven political climate of the French Third Republic and the rise of xenophobic right-wing movements. Aaron Freundschuh's account of the "Pranzini Affair" recreates not just the intricacies of the investigation and the raucous courtroom trial, but also the jockeying for status among rival players—reporters, police detectives, doctors, and magistrates—who all stood to gain professional advantage and prestige. Freundschuh deftly weaves together the sensational details of the case with the social and political undercurrents of the time, arguing that the racially charged portrayal of Pranzini reflects a mounting anxiety about the colonial "Other" within France's own borders. Pranzini's case provides a window into a transformational decade for the history of immigration, nationalism, and empire in France.

A guide to series fiction lists popular series, identifies novels by character, and offers guidance on the order in which to read unnumbered series.

A bibliography of various mystery novels published between November 1976 and Fall 1992.

Patrick has a new desk job and seems to be out of harm’s way . . . but not for long. Patrick Gillard has taken on a new role as the NCA’s officer within Avon and Somerset Police’s Regional Organised Crime Unit, much to his wife and working partner Ingrid Langley’s relief. It may seem like a safe desk job, but Ingrid’s relief is short-lived when she finds the head of the Metropolitan Police’s specialist undercover unit, F9, Commander Rolt, barely alive in a field in Somerset. Unsurprisingly, Patrick is soon pulled back into frontline action. And when further, gruesome discoveries are made, Patrick and Ingrid are plunged into danger yet again in the hunt for one of the Met’s most-wanted criminals.