NCW Libraries

The author reopens the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history. This book chronicles the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) fire, and its aftermath, to showcase the crucial role that libraries play in our lives. The author delves into the evolution of libraries around the world, from their humble beginnings to their status as a cornerstone of the community; brings the departments of the library to life through on-the-ground...

"Blending elements of reportage, memoir, and incantation, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is a stunning investigation into the role of carrier pigeons in South African diamond smuggling. Nearly every town along South Africa's infamous diamond coast has been deemed "overmined." Before the area fully becomes a series of abandoned outposts, journalist Matthew Gavin Frank drives from Oranjemund, Namibia to the De Beers mining towns of Alexander Bay, Port...

Richard Lloyd Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, chronicles the 2000 disappearance, massive search, long investigation, and the even longer murder trial behind the gruesome murder case of Lucie Blackman in Japan.

"Marked Man tells the propulsive story of Frank Serpico who, in the 1960s, single-handedly rooted out systematic corruption in the New York Police Department. Since the NYPD was formed in 1845, the famous "pad" was as much a criminal ring as it was a legitimate police force. As the decades wore on, corruption became so out of hand that cops were regularly demanding payments from brothels, bars, pool halls, and gambling joints to keep them out of trouble...

"An account of the unsolved murder of two women in Shenandoah National Park, by a journalist with unprecedented access to all key elements of the case, and a story that reveals the challenges of wilderness forensics and the failures of our justice system"--

"Hollywood starlet Lana Turner was one Tinseltown's most recognizable faces in the 1940s and 50s. But, when the Academy Award-winning actress began dating mobster Johnny Stompanato-a thug for west coast mob boss Mickey Cohen-all the lights and glamor of Hollywood did not brighten the darkness of her personal life. Johnny's intense jealousy over Lana ruled their relationship from the get-go and Lana's daughter, Cheryl, witnessed her mother's bruises...

From an award-winning former law enforcement park ranger and investigator, a female-driven true crime adventure that follows the author's quest to find missing hikers along the Pacific Crest Trail by pairing up with an eclectic group of unlikely allies.

Between 2005 and 2009, the bodies of eight women were discovered around the town of Jennings, in Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana. They had all engaged in sex work as a means of survival, and they came to be called the Jeff Davis 8. The investigations into their deaths, originally searching for a serial killer, raised questions about police misconduct and corruption.

"A true-crime story for the post-truth era. In the early hours of July 10, 2016, gunshots rang out and a young man lay fatally wounded on a quiet Washington, DC, street. But who killed Seth Rich? When he was buried in his hometown, his rabbi declared: "There are no answers for a young man gunned down in the prime of his life." The rabbi was wrong. There were in fact many answers, way too many. In the absence of an arrest, a howling mob filled the...

"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; they traveled with a third woman however, who lived. For thirteen years, no one was prosecuted for the "Rainbow Murders," though deep suspicion was cast on a succession of local...