The Last Stone

The Last Stone by Mark Bowden
Published by Atlantic Monthly Press on April 2, 2019
Pages: 304
Format: hardback
Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime
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Synopsis

On March 29, 1975, sisters Katherine and Sheila Lyons, age 10 and 12, vanished from a shopping mall in suburban Washington, D.C. As shock spread, then grief, a massive police effort found nothing. The investigation was shelved, and mystery endured. Then, in 2013, a cold case squad detective found something he and a generation of detectives had missed. It pointed them toward a man named Lloyd Welch, then serving time for child molestation in Delaware.

As a cub reporter for a Baltimore newspaper, Mark Bowden covered the frantic first weeks of the story. In The Last Stone, he returns to write its ending. Over months of intense questioning and extensive investigation of Welch's sprawling, sinister Appalachian clan, five skilled detectives learned to sift truth from determined lies. How do you get a compulsive liar with every reason in the world to lie to tell the truth? The Last Stone recounts a masterpiece of criminal interrogation, and delivers a chilling and unprecedented look inside a disturbing criminal mind.

West Cork

West Cork by Sam Bungey
Published by Audible Studios on February 07, 2018
Format: podcast
Genres: True Crime
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Synopsis

This much we do know: Sophie Toscan du Plantier was murdered days before Christmas in 1996, her broken body discovered at the edge of her property near the town of Schull in West Cork, Ireland. The rest remains a mystery.

Gripping, yet ever elusive, join the real-life hunt for answers in the year’s first not-to-be-missed, true-crime series. Investigative journalist, Sam Bungey, and documentarian, Jennifer Forde, guide listeners through the brutal, unsolved murder and the tangled web of its investigation while introducing an intricate cast of characters, a provocative prime suspect, and a recovering community whose story begs to be heard.

Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three

Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt, Lorna Raver
Published by Blackstone Audiobooks on November 1, 2011
Format: audiobook
Genres: Journalism, Nonfiction, True Crime
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Synopsis

For weeks after the murders of three eight-year-old boys, police in West Memphis, Arkansas, seemed stymied. Then suddenly detectives charged three teenagers with the killings, despite a lack of evidence. Here, Mara Leveritt unravels this shocking case.

Newtown: An American Tragedy

Newtown: An American Tragedy by Matthew Lysiak
Published by Gallery Books on December 10th 2013
Pages: 288
Format: hardback
Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime
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Synopsis

In the vein of Dave Cullen’s Columbine, the first comprehensive account of the Sandy Hook tragedy—with exclusive new reporting that chronicles the horrific events of December 14, 2012, including new insight into the dark mind of gunman Adam Lanza.

12/14/12

Sandy Hook Elementary School

Newton, Connecticut

we remember the numbers: 20 children and 6 adults, murdered in a place of nurture and trust. We remember the names: teachers like Victoria Soto, who lost her life protecting her students. A shooter named Adam Lanza. And we remember the questions: outraged conjecture instantly monopolized the worldwide response to the tragedy—while the truth went missing.

here is the definitive journalistic account of Newtown, an essential examination of the facts— not only of that horrific day but the perfect storm of mental instability and obsession that preceded it and, in the aftermath of unspeakable heartbreak, the controversy that continues to play out on the national stage. Drawn from previously undisclosed emails, police reports, and in-depth interviews, Newtown: An American Tragedy breaks through a miasma of misinformation with its comprehensive and astonishing portrayal.

this is the vital story that must be told—today—if we are to prevent another American tragedy in the days to come.