Crime City

Beginning in the mid-1990s, American cities experienced an astonishing drop in violent crime. By 2014, the United States was safer than it had been in 60 years. Sociologist Patrick Sharkey gathered data from across the country to understand why this happened. Sharkey puts forth an entirely new approach to confronting violence and urban poverty. At a time when inequality, complacency, and conflict all threaten a new rise in violent crime, and the old methods of policing are unacceptable, the ideas in this book are indispensable.

Two damaged people, a love affair, and narrow streets breathing crime In the heart of a rapidly changing London, two lonely souls find each other when they least expect it. Tom, a former soldier living with the physical and emotional scars of war, has resigned himself to solitude. Gin, a spirited widow, carries her own burdens of grief but refuses to let them dim her love for life. When a violent attack outside their shared apartment building forces them together, an unlikely friendship blossoms. A bond of trust—and something deeper—begins to grow. But Gin is haunted by the shadow of ...

Claire is only seven years old when her college-age sister, Alison, disappears on the last night of their family vacation at a resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X. Several days later, Alison’s body is found in a remote spot on a nearby cay, and two local men - employees at the resort - are arrested. But the evidence is slim, the timeline against it, and the men are soon released. The story turns into national tabloid news, a lurid mystery that will go unsolved. For Claire and her parents, there is only the return home to broken lives.

She's a violinist with a secret mafia bloodline. I'm the underboss who kidnapped her. Now she's mine to protect, to possess, to own. They call me The Ghost for a reason. I'm the ruthless enforcer who makes problems disappear. Music died for me the night my mother was murdered. Until I heard her play. Saskia Amadeo awakens something dangerous in me. Something I thought died years ago. But her father's blood carries a dark legacy. One that makes her forbidden fruit in New York's underworld. I should use her as a pawn. Instead, I'm claiming her as mine. Let them try to take her. I'll paint ...

When her beloved sister Caroline dies suddenly, Deirdre is heartbroken. However, her sorrow turns to bone-chilling confusion when she receives a message Caroline sent days earlier warning that her death would be no accident. Long used to being a pariah to her family, Deirdre covers her tattoos and heads to Manhattan for her sister’s funeral. The message claimed Caroline’s husband, Theo, killed his first wife and got away with it.

The firefighting crew of Engine 99 has spent years rushing fearlessly into the hot zone of major fires across New York City. This tight-knit four-person unit has worked together to save countless lives and stop out of control fires before they cause major destruction. They've also stolen millions from banks, jewelry stores, and art galleries. Under the cover of saving the city, they've used their knowledge and specialist equipment to become the most successful heist crew on the East Coast.

Joanna "Jonsie" Hunter is a little rough around the edges. Outspoken and strong willed with a streak of defiance, she can give most guys a run for their money. She also happens to be Queen City Royalty. With the territories surrounding the city divided between two rival gangs, she lives a life of wealth and privilege afforded not only by her social standing, but also her brother, Nicky - the leader of the Queen City Dukes.

On an unseasonably warm April evening in 2001, the headless body of a tiny girl was found discarded in a makeshift dump site in the woods on the southeast side of Kansas City, Missouri.

Dick Kallman was an up-and-coming actor in the fifties and sixties—until he wasn’t. A costar on Broadway, a member of Lucille Ball’s historic Desilu workshop, and finally a primetime TV actor, Dick had hustled to get his big break. But just as soon as his star began to rise, his roles began to dry up and he faded from the spotlight, his name out of tabloids and newspapers until his sensational murder in 1980.

Zoey has only ever known a world with few women and a society capable of unimaginable evil. Now she's about to learn she may be the only hope it has for salvation. After she and her companions flee a vicious attack, barely escaping with their lives, Zoey finds herself faced with a new threat: video evidence suggesting she is the mother of an unborn baby girl - and the key to mankind's survival. Knowing that her former captors will stop at nothing to control the power that lies within her, Zoey sets out on her own for the last American city, Seattle, in search of answers.

Year 2150: Eight years after the murder of Akira Kimura, Water City’s renowned scientist and anointed “God,” the nameless antihero who tracked down Akira’s killer, is no longer a detective, but a stay-at-home dad. While his wife climbs the corporate ladder of the city’s police department, he raises his daughter and occasionally takes the odd job as a bounty hunter. His domestic bliss is threatened when Ascalon’s Scar—the mark left by Akira’s destruction of Sessho-seki—vanishes from the sky and a familiar face thought dead returns from the ocean depths to exact revenge on humanity.

Fear was the unacknowledged specter haunting the streets of London during the Second World War; fear not only of death from the German bombers circling above, but of violence at the hands of fellow Londoners in the streets below. Mass displacement, the anonymity of shelters, and the bomb-scarred landscape offered unprecedented opportunities for violent crime. In this absorbing, sometimes shocking account, Amy Helen Bell uncovers the hidden stories of murder and violence that were rife in wartime London.

October 1941. Lisbon is a city on the edge. Amidst the chaos of refugees seeking safety in the Americas, black-market smugglers, and a web of spies and informers, former cop Dinis Lopes finds himself at the heart of the turmoil. As the main troubleshooter for Portuguese dictator Salazar, Lopes' case files are overflowing whilst his personal life and mood get ever darker. Trapped in a loveless marriage and haunted by a failed romance with Jewish refugee Elena, Lopes is also deeply concerned for the safety of his loyal assistant, Costa. Little does he know, a deadly plot is about to ensnare ...

A tale of two cousins and two corpses -- a double-barreled dark comedy from a well-loved "American original." (Los Angeles Times) Ebook formatting by R.L. Parker for the best possible electronic reading experience.

As soon as he graduated high school, Wink jumped head first into the drug game. He hardened his heart and did whatever he had to in order to rise through the ranks. In The Good Life Part 2, Wink takes things to the next level. His father plugs him in with a cocaine pipeline from prison. Soon, Wink is at the top of his game, handling enough cocaine to supply the entire Midwest. But he will learn, just as hustlers before him have, that every run has its end.

Nichelle Tramble's first novel, The Dying Ground, was named a Best Book of 2001 by the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle. In this follow-up work, Maceo returns home after drifting for two years. He finds his friends tangled up in a murder case, and he must act fast to save them.

On Mother's Day night, 2004, award-winning fourth grade teacher Nancy Seaman left the Tudor home she shared with her husband of 32 years in the gated community of Farmington Hills, near Detroit, Michigan, and drove in a driving rain storm to Home Depot, to purchase a hatchet. Three days later, police discovered the mutilated body of Bob Seaman - a successful auto industry engineer, softball coach and passionate collector of vintage Mustangs - in the back of the family's Ford Explorer.

Written by a Police Detective who has been there, done that, walked the beat and has witnessed the worse of the worst! Who killed Antonio Russo and why? Detective James Pierce is determined to find out. But as he digs deeper, he uncovers deadly secrets, ruthless enemies, and a truth worth killing for. In the heart of Rome, where ancient secrets and modern ambitions collide, a string of brutal murders sends shockwaves through the Eternal City. The victims—artists, historians, archaeologists, and politicians—are found alongside cryptic relics and the sinister sigil of the Custodes ...

A husband’s chance at redemption turns sinister when a mysterious poker chip links his future to a violent past. When Jack Harper finds an old poker chip in his Las Vegas hotel room, he sees it as a symbol of his fresh start. The past few years have strained his marriage—marked by addictions, unemployment, and depression—but with this newfound luck secretly in his possession, Jack is determined to leave that past behind. This weekend’s getaway is the perfect anniversary gift for his wife, Emily, and he’s sure it will win back her love and admiration. Sixty years earlier, in the ...

In December 1941 an enemy attack launched the United States of America into World War II when the Imperial Army of Japan surprised the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Americans had been watching the Europeans battle for two years already; hopes were high that the US could remain out. But on December 7 all that changed. Later that week Germany and Italy declared war against the US. For Dorie Lennox, a private detective in Kansas City, like all Americans, the sudden and tragic entry into the war was traumatic. This short story takes place two weeks after Pearl Harbor, as the country ...