More on the the body in the hollow tree mystery. Alex Merrill explores the people who lived and worked near Hagley Woods who could have pinpointed who Bella was and why she was murdered. Offering new revelations; a fresh perspective of all the different theories, thoroughly researched and referenced, and complemented by historical facsimiles, photographs, and bespoke maps and charts, Alex suggests the possibility that the identity of Bella was known to the police long ago and that the case was closed because prosecutors deemed there to be insufficient evidence that the police had solved a mere gypsy murder. It also asks how much of the spy stories told by Wilfred Byford-Jones, Una Mossop, Donald McCormick and others was sheer fantasy, invented for personal gain and to sell newspapers and books and whether the shoes discovered at the scene of the crime pushed Professor Webster and his colleagues into misinterpretations of the evidence setting the police off on the wrong trail from the outset. And surprisingly for some readers, the mystery now focuses more on the town of Halesowen and hardly at all on Hagley.

A baffling unsolved 1943 Worcestershire murder - a woman's body stuffed into a hollow tree and not found for 18 months. Witchcraft or spies or just the vicious murder of a spurned lover? Missing evidence and even the skeletal remains mislaid. Conspiracy or incompetence or even the work of MI5? With contemporary photographs and original case documentation.

A New York Times bestseller and a Best Book of 2018 by NPR, The New York Times Book Review, Amazon, The Boston Globe, LitHub, Vulture, Slate, Elle, Vox, and Electric Literature “Tana French’s best and most intricately nuanced novel yet.” —The New York Times An “extraordinary” (Stephen King) and “mesmerizing” (LA Times) standalone novel from the master of crime and suspense and author of the forthcoming novel The Hunter. From the writer who “inspires cultic devotion in readers” (The New Yorker) and has been called “incandescent” by Stephen King, “absolutely mesmerizing” by Gillian Flynn, and “unputdownable” (People) comes a gripping new novel that turns a crime story inside out. Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who’s dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life—he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family’s ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden—and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed. A spellbinding standalone from one of the best suspense writers working today, The Witch Elm asks what we become, and what we’re capable of, when we no longer know who we are.

"In an alternate 1800’s America, where magic is real and dragons soar through the skies of the American frontier -Topher had a good life, mostly. It wasn't great, but what can a young African girl expect living on the Edge of the World? She had a shack that she shared with her Ma, she knew what vendors she could pocket an apple from, and was better than anyone with a spitshot. What more could a girl in the slums expect? Then that chucklehead Wasco rolled out of the mountains like a toppled boulder. Topher had figured he might be good for a penny or two if she showed him around. Before she knew it he had her trompin’ around the Blacklands, getting shot at, almost eaten and damn near gutted by some bull-headed dandy! Jacob, who was about the handsomest gunfighter a body could imagine, might be some kind of monster. Old Ying turned out to be one of them wizards from the storybooks and Li had a magic sword! All because someone went and took Bella and Wasco aimed to get her back, and Topher had been too stubborn not to follow him.Yeah, it had been a good enough life. She just wasn't sure she was going to make it back to it, or if she even wanted to"--Back cover.

Twenty years after witnessing the violent disappearances of two companions from their small Dublin suburb, detective Rob Ryan investigates a chillingly similar murder that takes place in the same wooded area, a case that forces him to piece together his traumatic memories.

"Meet Leda Foley; Devoted friend, struggling travel agent, sometime psychic. When Leda, proprietor of Foley's Flights of Fancy, books Seattle PD Grady Merritt on a flight back from Orlando, she does not expect it to change her life. When Grady watches the plane he was set to travel on catch fire while he remains safely in the airport, he seeks out Leda, and despite her rather scattershot premonitions, he enlists her help in investigating a cold case he just can't crack. But Leda has her own reasons for helping: her fiancé Tod was murdered under mysterious circumstances several years ago. Her psychic abilities weren't good then, but now she's been honing them at her favorite bar's open-mic nights, where she draws a crowd klairvoyant karaoke-singing whatever song comes to mind after holding other patrons' personal effects. With a rag-tag group of bar patrons and friends, Leda and Grady set out to catch a killer--and find that the two cases that haunt them may have more in common than they think"--

Who put Bella in the Wych-Elm? And who was she? Found in a hollow tree in Worcestershire in 1943, nobody knows, except her killer.,Now Alex Merrill makes us the first people to see her face since the day she died, approaching 80 years ago. In doing so, he opens up new leads from- the crime scene which could finally solve this legendary Midlands mystery.

What is it about unsolved murders that still fascinates us long after the cases have gone cold? Is it simply that we enjoy being able to come up with our own theories about what happened to the unfortunate victims? Or are we intrigued by the terrifying possibility that the killers are still out there somewhere? The Faceless Villain: Volume One is the first in a three volume series that explores the most mysterious and disturbing unsolved murders of the twentieth century. This volume is comprised of the years 1900 through 1959, and includes all of the best known cases of the period, as well as many more lesser-known murders, all presented in a compelling chronological narrative that takes the reader on a grisly journey through the blood-soaked avenues of early twentieth century crime. Featuring: The Peasenhall Murder. The Seal Chart Murder. The Atlanta Ripper. The Villisca Axe Murders. The Axeman of New Orleans. The Green Bicycle Case. Little Lord Fauntleroy. Hinterkaifeck Farm. The St. Aubin Street Massacre. The Wallace Case. The Atlas Vampire. The Brighton Trunk Crime. The Cleveland Torso Murderer. The Horror in Room 1046. Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm? The Pitchfork Murder. The Sodder Children. The Phantom Killer. The Black Dahlia. Somerton Man. The Grimes Sisters. The Boy in the Box. And Much More!