Perfect for young students of the battle or veteran campaigners who want lighter fare--much of it they have never heard before, this book presents stories so compelling, the reader will not want to put it down.

An FBI agent must return to a traumatic case to protect her family and stop a killer in this small-town Pennsylvania thriller. Ever since she fatally disobeyed orders, Supervisory Special Agent Lucy Guardino has been chained to her desk. But now a mysterious letter has arrived, hinting that a case she closed four years ago pinned a string of rapes and killings on the wrong man. Lucy jumps at the chance to re-open the case—despite orders to leave well enough alone. Her unofficial investigation takes her back to the small town where a killer took his own life along with one final victim—a mother who left behind a grieving husband and son. Could those dramatic events have all been orchestrated to protect the real killer? Now, with the lives of her own family at risk and a desperate boy out for vigilante justice, Lucy must race to uncover the truth.

“An extremely detailed history of 160 hospital sites that formed to care for soldiers who were wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg.” —Civil War Cycling Nearly 26,000 men were wounded in the three-day battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863). It didn’t matter if the soldier wore blue or gray or was an officer or enlisted man, for bullets, shell fragments, bayonets, and swords made no class or sectional distinction. Almost 21,000 of the wounded were left behind by the two armies in and around the small town of 2,400 civilians. Most ended up being treated in makeshift medical facilities overwhelmed by the flood of injured. Many of these and their valiant efforts are covered in Greg Coco’s A Vast Sea of Misery. The battle to save the wounded was nearly as terrible as the battle that placed them in such a perilous position. Once the fighting ended, the maimed and suffering warriors could be found in churches, public buildings, private homes, farmhouses, barns, and outbuildings. Thousands more, unreachable or unable to be moved remained in the open, subject to the uncertain whims of the July elements. As one surgeon unhappily recalled, “No written nor expressed language could ever picture the field of Gettysburg! Blood! blood! And tattered flesh! Shattered bones and mangled forms almost without the semblance of human beings!” Based upon years of firsthand research, Coco’s A Vast Sea of Misery introduces readers to 160 of those frightful places called field hospitals. It is a sad journey you will never forget, and you won’t feel quite the same about Gettysburg once you finish reading.

Fresh out of college and headed straight for my dream job, I didn't think things could get any better.Then I met my dream man. In an instant, my happy ever after had begun.The life I'd stumbled into was beautiful, and the man I loved was perfect. But perfection comes at a cost, and I'd slumbered through all the alarms. Then I met my nightmare. The man whose bright eyes held untamed darkness. The man who disarmed me with his peculiar behavior. The man whose cold, merciless hands shook me awake. In an instant, questions started to dismantle my happy ever after.But whoever said the truth would set you free was wrong.It wasn't going to repair the cracks in my naive heart. It wasn't going to caress my face with comforting hands and reassure me it was all just a dream.No, the truth shoved me down a rabbit hole, and I landed in the lair of a real-life monster.

“An exhaustive compilation of first-hand accounts of the Gettysburg battlefield in the days, weeks, and months following the fight . . . heartbreaking.” —Austin Civil War Round Table Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) was the largest battle fought on the American continent. Remarkably few who study it contemplate what came after the armies marched away. Who would care for the tens of thousands of wounded? What happened to the thousands of dead men, horses, and tons of detritus scattered in every direction? How did the civilians cope with their radically changed lives? Gregory Coco’s A Strange and Blighted Land offers a comprehensive account of these and other issues. Arranged in a series of topical chapters, A Strange and Blighted Land begins with a tour of the battlefield, mostly through eyewitness accounts, of the death and destruction littering the sprawling landscape. Once the size and scope are exposed to readers, Coco moves on to discuss the dead of Gettysburg, North and South, how their remains were handled, and how and why the Gettysburg National Cemetery was established. The author also discusses at length how the wounded and prisoners were handled and the fate of the thousands of stragglers and deserters left behind once the armies left before concluding with the preservation efforts that culminated in the establishment of the Gettysburg National Military Park in 1895. Coco’s prose is gripping, personal, and brutally honest. There is no mistaking where he comes down on the issue: There was nothing pretty or glorious or romantic about a battle—especially once the fighting ended.

Bloodstain pattern analysis helps establish events associated with violent crimes. It is a critical bridge between forensics and the definition of a precise crime reconstruction. The second edition of this bestselling book is thoroughly updated to employ recent protocols, including the application of scientific method, the use of flow charts, and the inter-relationship of crime scene analysis to criminal profiling. It provides more illustrations, including color photographs, and explains the use of computer programs to create demonstrative evidence for court.