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The Zodiac Revisited, Volume 1: The Facts of the Case by Michael F. Cole

Winner
True Crime
2021 Best Book Awards

Understand History's Most Enigmatic Serial Killer

In December of 1968, a serial killer began orchestrating a campaign of terror in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not satisfied with the simple act of murder, he taunted law enforcement and the public by writing letters to local newspapers. Through often cryptic and bizarre content—including four ciphers, three of which have never been solved—the psychopath played a twisted game. Reporters dubbed the man the "Cipher Killer," but the murderer chose a different name for himself: the Zodiac. Eventually, he would claim to have murdered thirty-seven. Law enforcement, however, could only account for five.

In 1971, authenticated communications with the Zodiac ceased. The elusive fugitive resurfaced briefly three years later, sending a small number of communiqués, before disappearing for good. What started out with shocking abruptness slowly dissolved into mysterious uncertainty. To this day, the Zodiac's true identity remains one of the twentieth century's greatest mysteries...

In Volume 1 of The Zodiac Revisited, Michael reviews the facts of the case, building a foundation for the analysis that follows in Volumes 2 and 3.




Surviving Dirty John by Debra Newell and M. William Phelps

Now that articles, podcasts, newsmagazines, and miniseries have had their sensationalistic say, Debra Newell, the one woman who truly knows what it was like to survive “Dirty John” Meehan shares the full story—the reality—with the world for the first time.

Debra Newell is nothing if not a survivor. By the time she met John Michael Meehan online, she lived through a near-fatal childhood illness, an attempted rape in her 20s, the traumatic death of her sister at the hands of her brother-in-law, four failed marriages, and a litany of dating disasters. But despite those tragedies, she seemed to have it all: adoring children, a successful business, a fabulous penthouse apartment.




Chasing bin Laden: My Hunt for the World's Most Notorious Terrorist by Barbara K. Janik

A secret truth:

On the early morning of August 16, 2006, Osama bin Laden was arrested in Brooklyn by the New York FBI Terrorism Task Force.

They were acting on a tip called in by Barbara Janik.

Janik tells her story:

Chasing bin Laden takes readers along with Janik on an emotional journey through the hidden world of lay investigations, which is charged with high-stakes puzzle solving, Arabic message boards, and anxiety-provoking collaborations with the FBI.

A Pulitzer prize-winning journalist backs her up!

In The Killing of Osama bin Laden, Seymour Hersh states that “bin Laden was a prisoner of the ISI [Pakistani intelligence] at the Abbottabad compound since 2006…”

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A Stranger Killed Katy: The True Story of Katherine Hawelka, Her Murder on a New York Campus, and How Her Family Fought Back by William D. LaRue

Finalist
True Crime
2021 Best Book Awards

In the early morning hours of August 29, 1986, Clarkson University sophomore Katy Hawelka – bright, pretty and full of life – strolled back to her upstate New York campus after a night out. On the dimly lit path beside the university’s ice hockey arena, a stranger emerged from the darkness. The brutal sexual assault and strangulation that followed rocked the campus and the local community.When Katy was declared brain-dead three days later, her family’s nightmare had only just begun.Terry Connelly soon learned details about her daughter’s death that would make her blood boil. From the bungling campus guards who could have stopped the murder, to mistakes by others that allowed the killer to wander the streets committing violence, Katy's mother became certain of one thing: The criminal justice system only meant “justice for the criminals.”A STRANGER KILLED KATY is the true story of a life cut tragically short, and of the fight by a grieving mother and others more than 30 years later to ensure that a killer would spend the rest of his life behind bars.




Between Blade & Bullet: The Mary Steinhauser Story by Margaret Franz

Finalist
True Crime
2021 Best Book Awards

Mary Steinhauser is the only peace officer in the history of penal institutions in Canada to willingly offer up her life in the service of her country. It was during a 1975 prison escape attempt and 41-hour hostage-taking by three desperate inmates of the British Columbia Penitentiary in New Westminster, B.C. that Mary volunteered to be the principal hostage. For 41 hours, she was held as a human shield, protecting not only the inmates but the fourteen other hostages sequestered in a nearby vault. Her calmness, composure and bravery throughout the entire hostage-taking was noted by the negotiators and penitentiary staff alike. She was killed there. This is her story.

This biography of Mary's life and tragic death is narrated by Margaret, her younger sister. From Mary's early childhood in rural B.C., it charts the evolution of a young nurse from social worker to symbol for those dedicated to prison reform. Mary's experiences are fascinating reading for any adult interested in local history, law enforcement, mental health awareness, and criminal justice. Her work as a psychiatric nurse in hospitals and institutions across Canada led to her introduction to prison life, which sparked her fierce determination to improve the inmate experience, prisoner justice, and prison reform.

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Michael Chapel: Why a Decorated Veteran and Former Police Officer Remains in Prison Decades After a Crime He Did Not Commit by Henry Ball

Finalist
True Crime
2021 Best Book Awards

Michael Chapel is the tragic, infuriating, and explosive true story of a decorated veteran and former Gwinnett County (Georgia) police officer, with over thirty (30) letters of commendation from his police department, for meritorious service. In 1995 Chapel was convicted for the wanton armed robbery and murder of Emogene Thompson a Sugar Hill grandmother.

Chapel has maintained his innocence for twenty-eight years and a team of investigators have uncovered a mountain of evidence that proves the Gwinnett County Police Department and the District Attorney manufactured evidence (in their own words), destroyed evidence, coerced witnesses, lied in open court and otherwise manipulated the justice system and the case of the State of Georgia vs. Michael Harold Chapel.

Award winning author Henry Ball exposes it all in this instant classic true crime, true story.




Never Enough: The Carl Katz Story by Elise Garibaldi

Finalist
True Crime
2021 Best Book Awards

A man hunted by the Nazis long after the fall of the Third Reich. In this stranger than fiction true story, Carl Katz contends for survival against a relentless enemy.

In this much anticipated sequel to the bestselling, Roses in a Forbidden Garden: A Holocaust Love Story, Never Enough follows the defiant, German-born, Katz as he navigates Hitler’s Germany. We shadow his harrowing life and death journey—from his years of incarceration, starvation, and torture, to his desperate plays to keep his family safe from the deadly grasp of Hitler’s Final Solution. Forced to make vital decisions at every turn, his unwillingness to succumb sparks outrage and vengeance from his would-be executioners.

With the perpetrators of his past continuously pursuing him, Katz learns that old habits certainly die hard in the Fatherland.

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The Demon in Disguise by Ashley Elliott

Finalist
True Crime
2021 Best Book Awards

In the late evening of May 18, 2002, prominent local businessman Carter Elliott and his young protégé become the first double-homicide victims in the history of Conway, Arkansas. The Conway PD, Arkansas State Police, and FBI combine to launch a painstaking investigation into what seems a meticulously planned mob-style execution. There are no eyewitnesses, recorded disturbances, fingerprints, or DNA.

After several weeks of investigation, and numerous theories, law enforcement has made no progress. They have no motive. No suspects. Then, one month after the murders, the estranged wife of Carter Elliott goes missing. Is there a connection?

The Demon in Disguise chronicles Ashley Elliott's years-long, roller-coaster journey with the criminal justice system in pursuit of answers and justice for her parents. When will it end, and what will it ultimately produce?




Warden Force: Masters of Destruction and Other True Game Warden Adventures by Terry Hodges

Finalist
True Crime
2021 Best Book Awards

A collection of 13 award-winning short stories (true crime/narrative non-fiction) concerning the true adventures of California Fish and Game Wardens and the wildlife-destroying outlaws they pursue. These stories illustrate the wide variety of wildlife-related problems wardens face in California, which has a greater diversity of wildlife and wildlife habitat than any other state and is second only to Alaska in its vast expanses of wilderness.




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