Kids in Jail, narrative nonfiction, sheds light on a deeply fractured juvenile justice system. In the grim setting of a juvenile jail, the book reveals the angst of tragically lost childhoods, appalling indignities, and brutal retribution. The harsh realities of incarceration are unveiled to awaken system reform and allow youth to rise from the rubble of custody. Kids in Jail eloquently conveys the capacity of children to change. This book is a treatise for justice.

ON ANY SUNDAY MORNING IN THE FLORIDA REDLANDS, DEE CASTEEL MIGHT HAVE SERVED YOU PANCAKES AT THE IHOP … She was a hard-working, cheerful waitress, one of the nicest people you’d ever want to know. She was also a three-bottle-a-day alcoholic, hopelessly in love with the IHOP’s manager, Allen Bryant. Bryant wanted his live-in lover, IHOP owner Art Venecia, dead. And Dee Casteel helped him to arrange it. After Venecia’s murder, Dee and Bryant moved into his house, forged checks, spent his money, and embezzled from the IHOP to buy gifts for Bryant’s boyfriends. But there was an even more gruesome killing to come … WITHOUT MERCY is an engrossing, bizarre true story that traces the twisted path to a loathsome crime. But it is also the story of middle-class citizens gone wrong, of an almost-perfect murder, the traumas of alcoholism, and a legal system that can be deadly in itself. Dee Casteel was an ordinary woman—who now stands convicted of one of the most cold-blooded crimes of this century.

On June 25, 1980, Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were hitchhiking in West Virginia, headed to the Rainbow Family Gathering in the Monongahela National Forest. They accepted a ride from a soft spoken young man driving a Chevy Nova. They never made it to the Rainbow festival.The young women made the mistake of admitting to Joseph Paul Franklin that they did not disapprove of interracial dating. Franklin, a racist serial killer, murdered Nancy and Vicki and left their bodies on a remote mountainside in Pocahontas County. He had committed 18 other murders before that, all of them racially motivated.Twelve years later, despite repeated confessions from Franklin, a local man, Jacob Wilson Beard, was charged with the killings, which had come to be known as "The Rainbow Murders."Beard was convicted of those killings and sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole. "Life Without Mercy," as they call it in West Virginia.Written with the cooperation of Jake Beard and Joseph Paul Franklin, Life Without Mercy is the story of the Rainbow murders, the perversion of justice and one man's five and a half year struggle to get out of prison and clear his name.If it could happen to Jake Beard, it could happen to anyone.

*** A NEW YORK TIMES "100 Notable Books of 2020" *** A stunning, complex narrative about the fractured legacy of a decades-old double murder in rural West Virginia—and the writer determined to put the pieces back together. In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered in an isolated clearing. They were hitchhiking to a festival known as the Rainbow Gathering but never arrived. For thirteen years, no one was prosecuted for the “Rainbow Murders” though deep suspicion was cast on a succession of local residents in the community, depicted as poor, dangerous, and backward. In 1993, a local farmer was convicted, only to be released when a known serial killer and diagnosed schizophrenic named Joseph Paul Franklin claimed responsibility. As time passed, the truth seemed to slip away, and the investigation itself inflicted its own traumas—-turning neighbor against neighbor and confirming the fears of violence outsiders have done to this region for centuries. In The Third Rainbow Girl, Emma Copley Eisenberg uses the Rainbow Murders case as a starting point for a thought-provoking tale of an Appalachian community bound by the false stories that have been told about. Weaving in experiences from her own years spent living in Pocahontas County, she follows the threads of this crime through the complex history of Appalachia, revealing how this mysterious murder has loomed over all those affected for generations, shaping their fears, fates, and desires. Beautifully written and brutally honest, The Third Rainbow Girl presents a searing and wide-ranging portrait of America—divided by gender and class, and haunted by its own violence.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING MICHAEL B. JORDAN AND JAMIE FOXX • A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time. “[Bryan Stevenson’s] dedication to fighting for justice and equality has inspired me and many others and made a lasting impact on our country.”—John Legend NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times • The Washington Post • The Boston Globe • The Seattle Times • Esquire • Time Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever. Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice. Winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction • Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Nonfiction • Winner of a Books for a Better Life Award • Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • Finalist for the Kirkus Reviews Prize • An American Library Association Notable Book “Every bit as moving as To Kill a Mockingbird, and in some ways more so . . . a searing indictment of American criminal justice and a stirring testament to the salvation that fighting for the vulnerable sometimes yields.”—David Cole, The New York Review of Books “Searing, moving . . . Bryan Stevenson may, indeed, be America’s Mandela.”—Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times “You don’t have to read too long to start cheering for this man. . . . The message of this book . . . is that evil can be overcome, a difference can be made. Just Mercy will make you upset and it will make you hopeful.”—Ted Conover, The New York Times Book Review “Inspiring . . . a work of style, substance and clarity . . . Stevenson is not only a great lawyer, he’s also a gifted writer and storyteller.”—The Washington Post “As deeply moving, poignant and powerful a book as has been, and maybe ever can be, written about the death penalty.”—The Financial Times “Brilliant.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of You Betrayed Me delivers a “juicy creep-a-thon . . . [that] builds to a surprising cliffhanger ending” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). At first, it sounds like the answer to a parent’s prayers: an elite boarding school in the Oregon mountains where wayward kids turn their lives around. But behind the idyllic veneer lie disturbing rumors of missing students and questionable treatments. Jules Farentino knows her half-sister, Shaylee, has been going off the rails lately. She’s just not sure Blue Rock Academy is the answer. Accepting a teaching position there lets Jules keep an eye on Shay, but also confirms her fears. One student is found hanged, another near death. Something sinister is at hand—and Jules may already be too late to stop it. As a brutal snowstorm sweeps in, cutting off the remote campus from the rest of the world, Jules will discover the Academy’s dark secrets, and confront a murderous evil without limits, without remorse, without mercy . . . “Her latest whodunit hits all the marks, taking readers on a nail-biting roller-coaster ride.” —Library Journal Praise for Lisa Jackson and her novels “Lisa Jackson shows yet again why she is one of the best at romantic suspense. A pure nail biter.” —Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author “Shiveringly good suspense! Lisa Jackson ratchets up the tension . . . Each chapter will leave you wondering who to trust. The answer: You don’t want to know . . .” —Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • AN AMERICAN BOOK AWARD FINALIST • A monumental history that has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the most original and important books to be written about the war between Japan and the United States.” In this monumental history, Professor John Dower reveals a hidden, explosive dimension of the Pacific War—race—while writing what John Toland has called “a landmark book ... a powerful, moving, and evenhanded history that is sorely needed in both America and Japan.” Drawing on American and Japanese songs, slogans, cartoons, propaganda films, secret reports, and a wealth of other documents of the time, Dower opens up a whole new way of looking at that bitter struggle of four and a half decades ago and its ramifications in our lives today. As Edwin O. Reischauer, former ambassador to Japan, has pointed out, this book offers “a lesson that the postwar generations need most ... with eloquence, crushing detail, and power.”

From the hellhole of a Taliban prison to sweet freedom, five brave military heroes have made it home--and they're ready to take on the civilian missions no one else can. Individually they're intimidating. Together they're invincible. They're the men of ARES Security. Rafe Vargas is only in Newton, Iowa, to clear out his late grandfather's small house. As the covert ops specialist for ARES Security, he's eager to get back to his new life in Texas. But when he crosses paths with Annie White, a haunted beauty with skeletons in her closet, he can't just walk away--not when she's clearly in danger. . . There's a mysterious serial killer on the loose with a link to Annie's dark past. And the closer he gets, the deeper Rafe's instinct to protect kicks in. But even with his considerable skill, Annie's courage, and his ARES buddies behind him, the slaying won't stop. Now it's only a matter of time before Annie's next--unless they can unravel a history of deadly lies that won't be buried.

How can we be just and merciful? Are justice and mercy in conflict? Or are they aspects of the same truth? Christians in America are presented with two conflicting versions of justice and mercy. One version comes from the dominant secular narrative of America. Justice and mercy are contradictions. Mercy is devalued and discouraged. But within the counter narrative of God revealed through Torah, the prophets, and particularly through the life and parables of Jesus, justice and mercy are aspects of the same truth and way of God. There is no justice without mercy. There is no mercy without justice. In this book, Rev. Brooks Harrington draws on more than 40 years' experience as a criminal prosecutor, a pastor of an inner-city church in an impoverished neighborhood, and the founder of a legal ministry protecting indigent victims of family violence and child neglect and abuse. Through moving stories of women and children he has encountered, he shows the terrible toll of the dominant narrative's version of justice and mercy. And he offers Christians hope with new and startling insights into God's justice and mercy revealed in the parables of Jesus.

As Detective Superintendent Hannah Bernstein of Special Branch lies recuperating in the hospital, an enigmatic shadow from the past, burning with hatred, steals into her room and finishes the job. Consumed by grief and rage, Dillon, Blake Johnson, and all who loved Hannah swear vengeance, no matter where it takes them. But they have no idea of the searing journey upon which they are about to embark—or of the bloody war into which they are about to charge. Filled with dark suspense, driven by characters of complexity and passion, Without Mercy once again proves that Jack Higgins is the unchallenged master of international intrigue.