Are you looking for an intriguing Victorian murder mystery based on a true crime? Then you will love Kathryn McMaster's "Blackmail, Sex and Lies." How far would you go to escape an abusive relationship? Would you turn to murder? For more than 160 years Scottish society and the world at large, were scandalised by the brazen and unbecoming behaviour of young Madeleine Hamilton Smith that ended in murder and mayhem, and remains unsolved to this day. Madeleine has everything going for her. She is a single young woman from a good, upper-middle class family. However, instead of romancing young men within her own social circles, she encourages a working-class man almost a decade older, soon becoming lovers. Her behaviour, the like seldom seen in polite society of the day, brings shame and disgrace upon her family. Despite being forbidden to see him, she defies her family by continuing the relationship, and ignores any advice from her friends. Her life changes forever when her lover suddenly dies. Arrested on suspicion of murder she finds herself the center of "The Trial of the Century" due to the nature of her actions, and the salacious contents of her love letters, now evidence, which causes maids and men to blush alike. Does Madeleine kill her lover because she sees no other way out of an increasingly difficult situation she just cannot extract herself from? Is it his vengeful threats of blackmail, or his disturbing and malicious treatment of her, that is his undoing? Does she poison him to silence him, or is she as innocent as she fiercly proclaims? By reading the unfolding of this true account, with British detectives McLauchlin and Murray hot on her heels, you can sift through their evidence, and make your own conclusions. Kathryn McMaster is the bestselling author of her debut novel, "Who Killed Little Johnny Gill?" Another Victorian murder mystery of a brutal, unsolved true crime of a young boy that shook the Nation. Her writing appeals to fans of authors like Anne Rule, Kate Summerscale or Julian Barnes.

A firsthand account of how public officials and other well-connected individuals have been compromised or blackmailed by their sexual improprieties, Confessions of a D.C. Madame relates the author’s time running the largest gay escort service in Washington, DC, and his interactions with VIPs from government, business, and the media who solicited the escorts he employed. The book details the federal government’s pernicious campaign waged against the author to ensure his silence and how he withstood relentless, fabricated attacks by the government, which included incarceration rooted in trumped up charges and outright lies. This fascinating and shocking facet of government malfeasance reveals the integral role blackmail plays in American politics and the unbelievable lengths the government perpetrates to silence those in the know.

A billionaire has found her weakness—and a fake engagement is the price for what she craves . . . “When you’ve finished making offers for the bracelet, I have a proposition for you.” Billionaire Liev Dragunov has spent a lifetime plotting revenge against those responsible for his family’s ruin. Finally he has the way: Bianca Di Sione. She’s denied their obvious attraction and coolly rebuffs every request to work for him—until he finds her weakness: a diamond bracelet she desperately needs. Bianca is not happy to learn that she must become his fake fiancée if she wants her trinket! But the taste of revenge isn’t as sweet as desire, and Liev discovers that she is innocent in more ways than one . . .

In the early 1980s, William Steel's life took a turn towards the macabre when he quite literally ran into Robert Durst in midtown Manhattan. Steel was attending a school for locksmithing and security systems at the time, and Durst -- the black sheep of a family that controls billions of dollars in New York real estate -- decided he could use a man of those specific talents. Little did Steel realize that his new acquaintance was not only the prime suspect in his first wife's mysterious disappearance but quite possibly the wealthiest serial killer in American history. For the better part of a decade, Steel and Durst maintained what has been called a friendship of mutual usury, as Durst paid Steel for use of his Brooklyn home to engage in drug- and fetish-fueled sex with a variety of prostitutes. As they got to know each other better, Durst boasted to Steel of darker deeds. Were they confessions of rape, torture and cold-blooded murder, or just the twisted fantasies of a maniacal multimillionaire? Steel didn't know for sure until years later. He's now convinced that Durst is, indeed, a murderous monster, and he remains haunted by thoughts that he should have done something to stop the fiend before he claimed more innocent lives. In his gripping memoir, Sex and the Serial Killer, My Bizarre Times with Robert Durst, Steel reveals the depths of the scion's depravity, and he demands justice for Durst's victims and their shattered families.NOTE: Parts of this book have been redacted for various legal and safety reasons.

ALICE FEENEYS NEW YORK TIMES AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER “Boldly plotted, tightly knotted—a provocative true-or-false thriller that deepens and darkens to its ink-black finale. Marvelous.” —AJ Finn, author of The Woman in the Window My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie. Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth?

"Jaw-dropping . . . Inspiring . . . A haunting and beautifully composed book . . . It blew my mind." --Lisa Taddeo, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Three Women A fearless exposé of the secrets and lies of women's intimate lives, by the bestselling author of The Perfect Nanny, Adèle, and In the Country of Others "All those in positions of authority--politicians, parents, teachers--maintain the same line: 'Do what you like, but do it in private.' " Leila Slimani was in her native Morocco promoting her novel Adèle, about a woman addicted to sex, when she began meeting women who confided the dark secrets of their sexual lives. In Morocco, adultery, abortion, homosexuality, prostitution, and sex outside of marriage are all punishable by law, and women have only two choices: They can be wives or virgins. Sex and Lies combines vivid, often harrowing testimonies with Slimani's passionate and intelligent commentary to make a galvanizing case for a sexual revolution in the Arab world.

Cynical CEO, Nik Masterton, believes he's finally met a woman who isn't interested in his money...until she vanishes with a hefty amount of it. He's been searching for her ever since and has finally found her doing a stint in Holloway prison for stealing...from someone else. Clearly, he's just one of many. Now she's coming out, and it's time for a little payback. After two years in prison, Summer Delaney is determined she's never going back. While she had good reasons for doing what she did, it's time to move on to a new life and earn an honest living. Unfortunately, there's a glitch in her plan, and he's waiting at the gate as she comes out. Nik isn't above using blackmail to make Summer work for him until he decides just how he'll get his revenge. But this time they're both determined to keep their distance. Right until the inconvenient attraction explodes between them... Each book in the Cutting Loose series is STANDALONE: * Falling for the Bad Girl * Blackmailing the Bad Girl * The Bad Girl and the Baby

The New York Times bestselling true crime author investigates a shocking case of a wife, mother, and murder in the Iowa suburbs. Iowa housewife Tracey Pittman Roberts seemed to have it all: natural beauty, three loving children, and a fairy tale second marriage to a wealthy businessman. But beneath the happy façade was a woman who used lies, manipulation, sex, ugly allegations, blackmail—and even murder—to serve her own selfish ends. On December 13, 2001, police rushed to Tracey’s home after a shooting left her young neighbor dead. Tracey claimed it was an act of self-defense. Nine gunshot wounds—and a decades-long trail of extortion, fabrication, fraud, and intimidation—said otherwise. Ten years after the crime, Tracey’s case finally went to trial in an explosive courtroom showdown. In a searing exploration of the criminal mind, acclaimed investigative journalist M. William Phelps traces the saga of a psychopath who hid in plain sight—until her wicked ways caught up with her. “Phelps is one of America’s finest true-crime authors.” —Vincent Bugliosi “Phelps is the Harlan Coben of real-life thrillers.” —Allison Brennan

Suppose your life sucks. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your stepson is being bullied and your daughter has a once in a lifetime opportunity - that you can't afford to pay for. So imagine you found and kept some money that didn't belong to you, knowing it would pay for your daughter's happiness. But how do you cope with the shame? Especially when the man you've lied to decides to help you out in your hour of need. Jess is in hell - Ed has saved her family - but is their happiness worth a lifetime's soul-searching? 2014.

Brick Barrister is an a$$hole. Okay, so he’s my dad’s gorgeous, dominating boss with blue eyes that make me shiver and a build like He-Man. But still, Brick’s arrogant and soooo frustrating. He caught me doing something I shouldn’t, and got it on videotape! But instead of giving the tape back like an honorable man, he’s keeping it. In fact, Brick watches me over and over again on his phone … at work, at home, and even out in public. Who DOES that? I have to get that video back. But Brick wants something as payment for his dirty blackmail … and it’s a baby with ME as the mommy! Reality has left the room and we’re waaaay off the reservation. Our heroine is a sassy, feisty girl who makes an personal video only to be caught by her dad’s gorgeous boss red-handed. Of course, Brick takes advantage of the situation because he wants the curvy girl any way he can get her. Sit back, relax, and turn the A/C on because you’ll be sweaty and steamy reading this story! 80k full-length novel. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and always an HEA for my readers.