Revised and updated with new information, this Jane Adams award winner is an in-depth examination of the Emmett Till murder case, a catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement. The kidnapping and violent murder of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 was and is a uniquely American tragedy. Till, a black teenager from Chicago, was visiting family in a small town in Mississippi, when he allegedly whistled at a white woman. Three days later, his brutally beaten body was found floating in the Tallahatchie River. In clear, vivid detail Chris Crowe investigates the before-and-aftermath of Till's murder, as well as the dramatic trial and speedy acquittal of his white murderers, situating both in the context of the nascent Civil Rights Movement. Newly reissued with a new chapter of additional material--including recently uncovered details about Till's accuser's testimony--this book grants eye-opening insight to the legacy of Emmett Till.

"From the prize-winning biographer--the fascinating, little-known story of a Victorian-era murder that rocked literary London, leading Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, and Queen Victoria herself to wonder: can a novel kill? In May 1840, Lord William Russell, well known in London's highest social circles, was found with his throat cut. The brutal murder had the whole city talking. The police suspected Russell's valet, Courvoisier, but the evidence was weak. And the missing clue lay in the unlikeliest place: what Courvoisier had been reading. In the years just before the murder, new printing methods had made books cheap and abundant, the novel form was on the rise, and suddenly everyone was reading. The best-selling titles were the most sensational true-crime stories. Even Dickens and Thackeray, both at the beginning of their careers, fell under the spell of these tales--Dickens publicly admiring them, Thackeray rejecting them. One such phenomenon was William Harrison Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard, the story of an unrepentant criminal who escaped the gallows time and again. When Courvoisier finally confessed his guilt, he would cite this novel in his defense. Murder By the Book combines the thrilling true-crime story with a illuminating account of the rise of the novel form and the battle for its early soul between the most famous writers of the time. It is a superbly researched, vividly written, fascinating read from first to last"--

WINNER • 2022 PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY Finalist • National Book Award for Nonfiction Best Books of the Year • TIME, Smithsonian, Boston Globe, Kirkus Reviews The Pulitzer Prize-winning history that transforms a single event in 1722 into an unparalleled portrait of early America. In the winter of 1722, on the eve of a major conference between the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee (also known as the Iroquois) and Anglo-American colonists, a pair of colonial fur traders brutally assaulted a Seneca hunter near Conestoga, Pennsylvania. Though virtually forgotten today, the crime ignited a contest between Native American forms of justice—rooted in community, forgiveness, and reparations—and the colonial ideology of harsh reprisal that called for the accused killers to be executed if found guilty. In Covered with Night, historian Nicole Eustace reconstructs the attack and its aftermath, introducing a group of unforgettable individuals—from the slain man’s resilient widow to an Indigenous diplomat known as “Captain Civility” to the scheming governor of Pennsylvania—as she narrates a remarkable series of criminal investigations and cross-cultural negotiations. Taking its title from a Haudenosaunee metaphor for mourning, Covered with Night ultimately urges us to consider Indigenous approaches to grief and condolence, rupture and repair, as we seek new avenues of justice in our own era.

Murder in the Name of Honour is Rana Husseini’s hard-hitting and controversial examination of honour crimes. Common in many traditional societies around the world, as well as in migrant communities in Europe and the USA, they involve a ‘punishment’—often death or disfigurement—carried out by a relative to restore the family’s honour. Breaking through the conspiracy of silence surrounding this crime, one writer above all others has been instrumental in bringing it to the world’s attention: Rana Husseini.

Of the approximately 38,500 deaths by suicide in the U.S. annually, about two percent--between 750 and 800--are murder-suicides. The horror of murder-suicides looms large in the public consciousness--they are reported in the media with more frequency and far more sensationalism than most suicides, and yet we have little understanding of this grave form of violence. In The Perversion of Virtue, leading suicide researcher Thomas Joiner explores the nature of murder-suicide and offers a unique new theory to explain this nearly unexplainable act: that murder-suicides always involve the wrongheaded invocation of one of four interpersonal virtues: mercy, justice, duty, and glory. The parent who murders his child and then himself seeks to save his child from a fatherless life of hardship; the wife who murders her husband and then herself seeks to right the wrongs he committed against her, and so on. Murder-suicides involve the gross misperception of when and how these four virtues should be applied. Drawing from extensive research as well as real examples from the media, Joiner meticulously examines, deconstructs, and finally rebuilds our understanding of murder-suicide in such a way that brings tragic reason to what may seem an unfathomable act of violence. Along the way, he dispels some of the most enduring myths of suicide--for instance, that suicide is usually an impulsive act (it is almost always pre-meditated), or that alcohol or drugs are involved in most suicides (usually they are not). Sure to be controversial, this book seeks to make sense of one of the most difficult-to-comprehend types of violence in modern society, shedding new light that will ultimately lead to better understanding and even prevention.

Coming out as a lesbian is never easy and for single mom Britt Danner it’s been a total fiasco. Falling in love with a beautiful woman should be a heavenly experience. But when she’s your boss and has “forgotten” to mention she’s already married to a wife with psycho-stalker tendencies, things can go to hell really fast. So when Britt’s aging Aunt Tess asks if she would return to rural Kansas to help take care of her ranch, Britt jumps at the chance. She hopes the hard work caring for the land and horses will help her move on, even though it means revisiting a place full of painful memories. Although it’s easy for Britt to ignore the rumors that the Shamrock Ranch is haunted, it’s harder to ignore the ghosts from her own past. Like her abusive ex-husband. Her eccentric sister Shelby who leads the local Wicca coven. And the ex-con mom who abandoned her. The move has also exacerbated Britt’s tenuous relationship with her snarky teenaged son. Already conflicted about what he perceives as his mom’s “new” sexual orientation, Jake resents being uprooted from his urban home and friends and begins to act out in rebellious—and dangerous—ways. But are they as dangerous as the secrets buried deep under the dust in the attic and the dirt of the silo floor?

Why do Americans alternately celebrate and condemn gangsters, outlaws and corrupt politicians? Why do they immortalize Al Capone while forgetting his more successful contemporaries George Remus or Roy Olmstead? Why are some public figures repudiated for their connections to the mob while others gain celebrity status? Drawing on historical accounts, the author analyzes the public's understanding of organized crime and questions some of our most deeply held assumptions about crime and its role in society.

Margaret Truman brings us into the corridors of Washington power as only she can, where the end too often justifies the means, where good people are destroyed by those for whom the only goal is survival... whatever the cost...in Monument to Murder. Times are tough in Savannah for former cop and current PI Robert Brixton, so when he agrees to take on a 20 year-old murder case, he figures he's got nothing to lose. It's not long before the trail leads him deep into the corrupt underbelly of Savannah's power elite, and right into the lap of a secret government organization that's been offing "troublesome" politicians for decades. The cold case heats up when he joins forces with former attorneys Mackensie and Annabel Lee Smith to investigate the organization and the murders they committed in the name of patriotism. With what he knows, Brixton can bring down Washington D.C.'s leading social hostess, if not the administration itself. But can he outwit an organization that is hell-bent on keeping its secrets—secrets that go all the way back to the assassinations of Jack and Bobby Kennedy? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

"Ever since Ma Rainey's Black Bottom captivated Broadway audiences, August Wilson established himself as the most important American playwright of the last fifty years. His decade-by-decade cycle of ten plays about the African American experience in the twentieth century put Black life center stage, celebrating themes and voices that had been sorely missing from Broadway and regional theaters nationwide. His prolific body of work, as well as his advocacy for equity in the nation's theaters, paved the way for a new generation of African American playwrights. Wilson's life is the quintessential American story, a winding tale that took him from a two-room cold-water flat in Pittsburgh to the nation's most prestigious stages. His life is full of paradox as well as poetic justice. A precocious young man who dropped out of high school because of racism and intolerance, he went on to win a Tony Award and two Pulitzer Prizes for drama. He wrote flowery verse as a young aspiring poet but found his voice when he learned to listen to the people around him and tell their stories in their own words. He wrote often about fathers and sons but was raised by a single mother and never fully resolved questions about his biological father. His success was due in part to the guidance of his mentor, the acclaimed director Lloyd Richards, whom he referred to as "Pops," but the two men eventually parted ways in a tragic, acrimonious split. No one has written more brilliantly about the trials and triumphs of African American life than August Wilson -- from Fences to Jitney to Joe Turner's Come and Gone. A prodigious reader and autodidact, Wilson said he never did research but instead drew on what he called "the blood's memory," an uncanny reimagining of his own family history and, by extension, that of all African Americans. He ultimately achieved his oft-stated goal: to turn ordinary Black Americans into kings and queens. Author and theater critic Patti Hartigan knew Wilson and interviewed him many times. She conducted exhaustive research, including interviews with friends, colleagues, and family members, to tell the definitive story of a playwright who left his indelible imprint on American theater" --