In New Brunswick's Hopewell Cape courthouse a sensational turn-of-the-century trial put young, handsome Tom Collins in the prisoner's dock, charged with the grisly murder of Mary Ann McAuley, housekeeper to the parish priest. Author Kenneth Saunders focuses on this story to present a vivid picture of New Brunswick rural society in the early 1900s. Looking at the events of the murder and the trial through the eyes of farmers, tradesmen, clergy, town officials, police and the notorious hangman Jon Radclive, Saunders makes their voices sound so real, so genuine that they seem to be with us still. The Rectory Murder presents a vivid portrait of a grisly crime, and of its widespread effects on an otherwise peaceful rural community.

Murder casts a dark shadow over the christening of Lady Lucy and Major Sir Robert Kurland's daughter Elizabeth—even more so when Lucy's own father, the rector, falls under suspicion for the crime . . . Lucy and Robert’s joy in christening their new daughter, surrounded by extended family and loved ones who have gathered in the village of Kurland St. Mary, is only enhanced when Robert’s aunt Rose—now the second wife of Lucy’s father Ambrose—announces that she is with child. However, not everyone is happy about the news, in particular Rose's adult daughter Henrietta and her husband, who fear for their inheritance. Following the christening, Rose’s disagreeable son-in-law Basil Northam threatens to turn afternoon tea in the rectory into an unsightly brawl. The next morning, he is found in the rector’s study, stabbed through the heart with an antique letter opener, clutching a note that appears to implicate the rector himself. As the local justice of the peace, Robert has an obligation to remain unbiased in his investigation of the ghastly crime, even though his prime suspect is a man of the cloth and his wife’s father. But Lucy is under no such obligation. As snow traps the members of the christening party in Kurland St. Mary, she vows to clear her father’s name and bring the cold-blooded culprit to justice. Someone had better start saying their prayers . . .

When discussing unsolved murders of women in late Victorian London, most people think of the depredations of Jack the Ripper, the Whitechapel Murderer. But he was just one of a string of phantom murderers whose unsolved slayings outraged late Victorian Britain. The mysterious Great Coram Street, Burton Crescent and Euston Square murders were talked about with bated breath, and the northern part of Bloomsbury got the unflattering nickname of the ‘murder neighbourhood’ thanks to its profusion of unsolved mysteries. Marvel at the convoluted Kingswood Mystery, littered with fake names and mistaken identities; be puzzled by the blackmail and secret marriage in the Cannon Street Murder; and shudder at the vicious yet silent killing in St Giles that took place in a crowded house in the dead of night. Rivals of the Ripper is the first to resurrect these unsolved Victorian murder mysteries, and to highlight the ghoulish handiwork of the Rivals of the Ripper: the spectral killers of gas-lit London.

Murder in California: Rage and Revenge Murders profiles some of California’s most infamous murder cases. The edition photographically transports you to actual murder sites along with images related to the case and perpetrator(s). The images and accompanying profiles offer a descriptive account and follow-up aftermath providing an important understanding into the far-reaching effects of each crime. The captured snapshots portray visual testimonies of extinguished lives removed by acts of violence. Crime scenes often revert back into unremarkable landscape or unassuming buildings over the ensuing years and decades. Several have altered little since their moment of infamy. Many are passed daily by pedestrian and vehicular traffic unaware of a location’s unique significance. California has been the site for many notorious homicides. The following are portrayed in this edition: South of the Border Escapade Funded By A Murder Victim’s Credit Card McDonald’s San Ysidro Restaurant Massacre Site: Artie and Jim Mitchell: Contemporary Cain and Abel Playboy playmate Dorothy Stratten’s killing and perpetrator suicide Ewell Family Killings: Delayed gratification thwarts a near perfect killing John Morency: A Vindictive Collapse To An Illusionary Refinement Laci Peterson: When motive convicts beyond the body of evidence Lyle and Erik Menendez: The sins of the son’s bury their parents The Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ronald Goldman Murders: An American travesty The Marin County barbeque murders A convincing performance behind the killing of Bonnie Lee Bakley Vincent Brothers: The convicting insects on the radiator An Illusionary Friendship That Stimulated an Embezzlement Murder A Bondage Murder With An Unconsensual Victim A Gunfight That Ultimately Becomes A Supreme Court Precedent Diane Whipple: Defining accountability with vicious pet owners Eastside Salinas: An invisible war Rages streetside Slaying of Ennis Cosby on an isolated freeway off ramp Father Eric Freed’s Brutal Slaying: A Lost Coast of fractured souls The Silent and Senseless Murder of Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen Haing Ngor: An extended and consequential journey curtailed by a random killing Huey P. Newton: A tarnished messenger with feet of clay Johnny Stompanato: Lana Turner’s fatal attraction Barbara Graham: An unsympathetic film portrayal Marvin Gaye: A visionary dishonored within his household Ned Doheny and Hugh Plunkett: The Greystone Mansion murder-suicide The Unexplainable Orcutt freeway sniper attack Phil Hartman: The shocking murder-suicide from an unanticipated source Phil Spector: The Crumbling legacy of a musical genius Ramon Novarro: The gruesome torture of a closeted screen idol Ronni Chasen Shooting: When two divergent worlds collided Sal Mineo: A career comeback curtailed The Abrupt departure of Soul Music legend Sam Cooke in his prime Ryan Jenkins: Jealousy Consumes A Reality Television Contestant A Convicted Killer Finds Conjugal Affection But Never Release The Covina Christmas Eve massacre by a Santa impersonator Edward Allaway: The questionable case for cured insanity Mel and Elizabeth Grimes: The consequences behind a one-ton stone The Helzer Brothers: Children of Thunder slayings The disintegrating mind and schoolyard entrance massacre by Brenda Spencer Dr. Victor Ohta: The execution and incendiary of the house on the hill The vindictive rampage of Elliot Rodger The Golden Dragon massacre: The gang who didn’t shoot straight Lynwood Jim Drake: A loose wire springs a rampage Marcus Wesson: The cult and tragic murder consequence traced to family abuse Scott Dekraai: Revenge for a punitive divorce settlement Holzer Family stabbing spree: Spiraling out of control mental illness The Oikos University Massacre: Piecing together a disjointed puzzle San Diego State Engineering graduate student’s rage against his perceived academic tormentors Santana High School: Adolescence angst with a gunfire solution A Synagogue Shooting By A Self-Deluded Solider

Being single, ordained and in sole charge of a parish can often be lonely, as Revd. Wendy Morris knows all too well. It’s a situation not helped by having an egotistical and ambitious archdeacon, whose interference fuels rather than quells the criticism and conflict Wendy deals with as rector of St. Olaf’s. Following the resignation of her crabby, disgruntled organist, Wendy appoints a former RUC officer to succeed him. Things further look up with the arrival of a new clerical neighbour and his family. A new era of cooperation begins…and rapidly falls apart as a story of revenge and murder unfolds. Featuring characters who will be familiar to readers of Ted Woods’ first novel Bishop, Priest is a stand-alone murder mystery set in the fictitious Church of Ireland diocese of Daneford.

None of us can predict the endless twists and turns of life or the unimaginable impact that our Christian faith can have on its outcome. Through faith, one of Gods gifts we receive at our baptism, we are able to share Gods kindness and love His Grace among one another. Through Gods gift of free will, we can choose or not choose to share or seek Gods grace. Aside from so-called routine acts of kindness, grace encounters can come crashing into our laps out of nowhere or perhaps through a vague awareness that a stranger somewhere is facing a crisis. Our response often demands an extraordinary act of faith. In an uplifting tone, sprinkled with self-effacing, humorous reflections, Mikie Casem poignantly unfolds an often painful journey which led him and his wife, Rita, to not one, but two, extraordinary encounters with grace and a woman named Theresa Palumbo. During their journey, more than a few Catholic Clergy and Religious offered them practical advice, lifted them up from despair or challenged them to grow in their faith. Theresa Palumbo also candidly shares her two extraordinary encounters with Mikie and Rita: first, as an unwed, pregnant teen who was welcomed into the Casem home to live with a family she had never met and again, 32 years later, living 300 miles away, married with a family of her own and teaching school, when Theresa learned of Mikies end-stage illness. She made an astonishing decision to return and do what she could to try to save his life.

Welcome to Black Cat Weekly #31. This time, the lineup includes pretty much everything fans look for in fantasy and science fiction—time travel, pyramids, space adventure, alternate history, war, monkeys, and even Nazi spies. Does it get much better than that? Not to forget our mystery readers, for them we have time travel, a private detective, police, international adventure, war, a solve-it-yourself puzzler, and even Nazis. (Did I mention there’s some overlap between the fantastic and the mysterious in this issue? Surprise! There is.) I leave you to sort it out among yourselves. In case you need some help, here’s the breakdown: Non-Fiction: “Speaking with Joe Haldeman,” conducted by Darrell Schweitzer [interview] Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “The Dutiful Rookie,” by James Holding [short story] “A Wee Bit Of Dough,” by Hal Charles [solve-it-yourself mystery] “The Case of the Truculent Avocado,” by Mark Thielman [Barb Goffman Presents short story] Paying the Price, by Nicholas Carter [novel] “Van Goghing, Goghing, Gone,” by Alan Orloff [Michael Bracken Presents short story] Science Fiction & Fantasy: “Van Goghing, Goghing, Gone,” by Alan Orloff [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “How High Your Gods Can Count,” by Tegan Moore [Cynthia Ward Presents short story] “How We Came Back From Mars,” by Ian Watson [Darrell Schweitzer Presents short story] “Death by Proxy,” by Malcolm Jameson[short story] Bring the Jubilee, by Ward Moore [novel]

Never say die! Can the living communicate with the dead? Many believe that spirits are constantly about us and that it is possible, through a variety of means, to speak to them and to have them speak to us. The Spirit Book: The Encyclopedia of Clairvoyance, Channeling, and Spirit Communication looks at these methods of communication, their history, and the personalities involved throughout the past three hundred years of this eternal quest. The fascinating history of Spiritualism is coaxed into the material realm as the object of this perceptive and sweeping overview by that legendary author of the occult and supernatural, Raymond Buckland. Drawing on decades of research, writing, and transcendence, he describes sundry methods of channeling, events associated with Spiritualism, including séances and exorcism, organizations focused on clairvoyance, and a colorful host of mortals—famous and infamous—who delved into Spiritualism. Nostradamus, Helena Blavatsky, and Edgar Cayce receive their due, as well as Joan of Arc, William Blake, Susan B. Anthony, Winston Churchill, Arthur Conan Doyle, Mahatma Gandhi, Harry Houdini, and Mae West (look up and see her sometime). The Spirit Book explores Qabbalah, Sibyls, Fairies, Poltergeists; phenomena such as intuition and karma; objects useful in the attempt to cross the divide, including tarot cards, flower reading, and runes; and related practices such as Shamanism, transfiguration, meditation, and mesmerism. This comprehensive reference also reports on investigations of contemporary manifestations, including electronic voice phenomena and spirit appearances on TV screens, plus channeling, fraud, psychic research, and possession. Containing more than 500 entries and 100 illustrations, this fun, fact-filled tome is richly illustrated. Its helpful bibliography and extensive index add to its usefulness.