Winner of a 2020-2021 New York City Book Award In a rapidly changing New York, two forces battled for the city's soul: the pro-slavery New Yorkers who kept the illegal slave trade alive and well, and the abolitionists fighting for freedom. We often think of slavery as a southern phenomenon, far removed from the booming cities of the North. But even though slavery had been outlawed in Gotham by the 1830s, Black New Yorkers were not safe. Not only was the city built on the backs of slaves; it was essential in keeping slavery and the slave trade alive. In The Kidnapping Club, historian Jonathan Daniel Wells tells the story of the powerful network of judges, lawyers, and police officers who circumvented anti-slavery laws by sanctioning the kidnapping of free and fugitive African Americans. Nicknamed "The New York Kidnapping Club," the group had the tacit support of institutions from Wall Street to Tammany Hall whose wealth depended on the Southern slave and cotton trade. But a small cohort of abolitionists, including Black journalist David Ruggles, organized tirelessly for the rights of Black New Yorkers, often risking their lives in the process. Taking readers into the bustling streets and ports of America's great Northern metropolis, The Kidnapping Club is a dramatic account of the ties between slavery and capitalism, the deeply corrupt roots of policing, and the strength of Black activism.

Soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg. A National Book Award Finalist The extraordinary story of how the vatican's imprisonment of a six-year-old Jewish boy in 1858 helped to bring about the collapse of the popes' worldly power in Italy. Bologna: nightfall, June 1858. A knock sounds at the door of the Jewish merchant Momolo Mortara. Two officers of the Inquisition bust inside and seize Mortara's six-year-old son, Edgardo. As the boy is wrenched from his father's arms, his mother collapses. The reason for his abduction: the boy had been secretly "baptized" by a family servant. According to papal law, the child is therefore a Catholic who can be taken from his family and delivered to a special monastery where his conversion will be completed. With this terrifying scene, prize-winning historian David I. Kertzer begins the true story of how one boy's kidnapping became a pivotal event in the collapse of the Vatican as a secular power. The book evokes the anguish of a modest merchant's family, the rhythms of daily life in a Jewish ghetto, and also explores, through the revolutionary campaigns of Mazzini and Garibaldi and such personages as Napoleon III, the emergence of Italy as a modern national state. Moving and informative, the Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara reads as both a historical thriller and an authoritative analysis of how a single human tragedy changed the course of history.

The compelling and insightful account of a New York Times reporter's abduction by the Taliban, and his wife's struggle to free him. In November 2008, David Rohde, a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for The New York Times, was kidnapped by the Taliban and held captive for seven months in the tribal areas of Pakistan. In the process, Rohde became the first American to witness how Pakistan's powerful military turns a blind eye toward a Taliban ministate thriving inside its borders. In New York, David's wife Kristen Mulvihill, together with his family, kept the kidnapping secret for David's safety and struggled to navigate a labyrinth of conflicting agendas, misinformation, and lies. Part memoir, part work of journalism, A Rope and a Prayer is a story of duplicity, faith, resilience, and love.

A teenage girl is kidnapped, but when freed, she is accused of masterminding the scheme to extort money from her wealthy grandmother.

In an original short story by New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd, Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge must put all his detecting skills to use to solve a baffling case. A man and his young daughter were returning home from a dinner party when three men appeared from out of nowhere and grabbed the girl. Rutledge has to act quickly to find the child and bring the surprising culprits to justice. The Kidnapping also includes excerpts from three other Ian Rutledge mysteries: A Lonely Death, The Red Door, and A Pale Horse.

‘Riveting . . . a triumph . . . intertwining personal narratives with wider themes of remembrance, loss, courage and blame’ Gary Murphy, Irish Examiner November 1983. Early morning in suburban south Dublin. Businessman Don Tidey is snatched from his car and the IRA has its latest kidnap victim. Weeks later he is tracked down to an isolated Leitrim wood, but in saving Tidey’s life a recruit garda and a soldier lose theirs. The Kidnapping is a brilliantly reported account of this landmark event by two accomplished journalists and Leitrim natives. Delving deep, they provide a chilling account of the lead-up to Tidey’s abduction, the massive manhunt that followed, his bloody rescue, the botched attempts to capture his abductors and the devastating fall-out – personal and national – that followed. At the heart of The Kidnapping revealing interviews with Don Tidey – speaking about his experience in detail for the first time – and with the families of Garda Gary Sheehan and Private Patrick Kelly, provide a startling and moving testimony of the lasting impact of these traumatic events. It is both a gripping read and one that raises profound questions for today’s Ireland. ‘Vividly written, deeply insightful, extremely timely’ Business Post ‘A fascinating read . . . beyond that, it’s an important document’ Mick Clifford, The Mick Clifford Podcast ‘A harrowing story . . . [but] an enjoyable book’ Irish Mail on Sunday ‘An important reminder of our imperfect, contentious past’ Tommy Gorman, Irish Times ‘Vivid . . . [shows] a deep understanding . . . insightful and emotional’ Sunday Independent ‘A major page-turner . . . fascinating’ Nicola Tallant, Crime World podcast

A brother and sister uncover a sinister kidnapping plot when their family moves into a strange house over Christmas vacation.

Aiden works with the FBI in order to rescue his sister Meg, who was kidnapped. Where is Meg Falconer? Everybody wants to know. Her brother Aiden, who saw her kidnapped and is now trying to track her down, wants to know. The FBI, led by the very serious Agent Harris, wants to know. Her parents, who fear their pasts have something to do with why Meg was taken, want to know. Even Meg's kidnappers want to know. Because even though they caught her once, that doesn't mean they can keep a hold of her.

The New York Times described what happened to New York businessman Jack Teich as a “front page horror.” Two hundred FBI agents and Nassau County police officers combined forces to form a dragnet, hunt for his kidnappers, and rescue him. Teich lay handcuffed and chained to the walls of a closet in the Bronx with a medical bandage wrapped around his head to cover his eyes. His captors demanded that his wife, Janet, drop a bag with $750,000 (the equivalent of four million dollars in today’s currency) in a locker at Penn Station, making the Jack Teich ransom one of the highest in U.S. history at the time. FBI and Nassau County police detectives spent over a year before finally uncovering the meticulously planned kidnapping ploy hatched by radical mastermind Richard Warren Williams. The FBI internally dubbed the Jack Teich kidnapping operation “Jacknap.” The real-life crime drama that followed proved stranger than fiction, involving a tense across-the-country manhunt, a trailer in California stuffed with tens of thousands of ransom dollars hidden inside, a contentious jury trial that dominated NYC headlines for months; a guilty verdict that was overturned twenty-one years later on a controversial technicality; a retrial stymied by a mysterious fire that incinerated court records; and a civil verdict ruling that the kidnapper pay Jack Teich back the ransom money, plus interest. Operation Jacknap tells the incredible true crime story that continues even now. Indeed, as of this writing, no one knows where the majority of the ransom money is located. Inside, Teich also details his offer of a reward to anyone helping track down the still missing money and kidnappers.

On a June night in 2002, Salt Lake City teenager Elizabeth Smart was abducted at knifepoint from her own bedroom. for months afterward her distraught family prayed for her safe return while a massive manhunt was undertaken. Then, in March of the following year, Elizabeth Smart was discovered alive just a few miles from home, the prisoner of a man who believed himself the messiah and his loyal, complacent wife. What happened to Elizabeth during her nine months of captivity is shocking; how she finally gained her freedom is remarkable. And now the story can be told -- including startling information about the controversial investigation. -- book jacket.