New True Crime Books Due In September 2009

A Poisoned Passion
Author:Diane Fanning
Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's True Crime (September 1, 2009)
Language: English

AN AMERICAN HERO.
By the age of twenty-four, Air Force Staff Sergeant Mike Severance had already survived a series of missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. But his life back at home, in Texas, would prove a lot more dangerous…
A WOMAN WITH A DEADLY PLAN.
In the winter of 2005, Mike’s wife, a veterinarian named Wendi Mae Davidson, reported him missing. Wendi told police that Mike had been acting erratically—visiting local clubs, staying out late, sometimes not coming home at all. She filed for divorce the very next day.
A CASE THAT SHOCKED THE NATION.
Eventually Mike’s body turned up in a stock pond on a private ranch. Investigators described a corpse that was weighted down with two cinder blocks, a rock, a boat anchor, and other equipment. It had also been stabbed forty-one times with a knife. But an autopsy report told a different story: That the cause of death was exposure to pentobarbital and phenobarbital, drugs commonly used in veterinary medicine. All the evidence pointed to Wendi…and soon she would be found guilty of murder in the first degree.
A Poisoned Passion: A Young Mother, her War Hero Husband, and the Marriage that Ended in Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library)


The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes, Second Edition
Author: Michael Newton; Newton Michael
Country: United States of America
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Facts on File
Publication date: October 2009
Edition: 2nd Edition
Pages: 448
Police detectives and other law enforcement agents approach each new case carefully
The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes


Vendetta: Turning Your Back on Crime Can be Deadly
Author: Paul Ferris; Reg McKay
Country: United Kingdom
Format: Softcover
Publisher: BLACK AND WHITE PUBLISHING
Publication date: September 2009
Pages: 324
Illustrations: Illustrations, ports.

Covering the story of the author's life of crime, this title slashes open the underbelly of Britain's streets and exposes the dark forces that police them as well as revealing the truth about the conspiracies and corruption that won't leave him alone.
Vendetta: Turning Your Back on Crime Can be Deadly


In the Middle of the Night: The Shocking True Story of a Family Killed in Cold Blood
Author: Brian McDonald
Country: United States of America
Format: Mass market paperback
Publisher: St. Martin's True Crime
Publication date: September 2009
Pages: 256
Illustrations: Illustrated

The affluent suburb of Cheshire, Connecticut, seemed like the perfect place for Dr. William Petit and his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, to raise their two lovely daughters... Until July 23, 2007, when, according to police, two ex-cons invaded the Petit home hoping to embark on a routine robbery--one that would ultimately prove deadly.
What unfolded at 300 Sorghum Mill Drive was a tragic and horrifying sequence of events that shocked a community and made headlines across the nation. Before the morning was over, Mrs. Hawke-Petit and one of her daughters would be sexually assaulted, the entire house would go up in flames, and only Dr. Petit--his head bloodied, his legs bound--would manage to escape with his life. With the help of neighbors and local police, the two suspects were soon found and captured. Now, Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes await trial for murder IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.
In the Middle of the Night: The Shocking True Story of a Family Killed in Cold Blood (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

Unsolved Crimes
Author: John Townsend
Country: United Kingdom
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Franklin Watts Ltd
Publication date: September 2009
Pages: 32

The world's most intriguing unsolved mysteries are explored in this exciting series
Unsolved Crimes (Amazing Mysteries)



Chasing Killers: Three Decades of Cracking Crime in the UK's Murder Capital
Author: Joe Jackson
Country: United Kingdom
Format: Softcover
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
Pages: 224
Illustrations: 1 x 8pp b/w

Glasgow is known as the murder capital of Britain and no one understands why better than Joe Jackson. For over 30 years, Jackson worked the crime beat, first as a uniformed cop then as a seasoned murder squad detective. In this hard-hitting memoir of his most memorable cases, he reveals the reality behind chasing killers and other crooks in 'No Mean City'. As a young cop, Jackson was threatened by Glasgow's most ruthless gangster, Arthur Thomson, and, as a fresh detective, he took part in the hunt for Bible John, Glasgow's most shadowy serial killer. He locked up more than his fair share of paedophiles and sex beasts along the way and, as a veteran Senior Investigating Officer, he cracked the hardest homicide nut there is: a murder without a body. Jackson's investigations have grabbed headlines, while his 'collars' have filled jails. Chasing Killers will shock readers with its behind-the-scenes look at how murder probes are run. Every case is related with candour and humour, and is laced with the kind of detail that only an expert can provide. Joe Jackson has been called the real-life Taggart, but this is no TV fantasy - this is real city police work: concrete hard, soot black and blood red.

Chasing Killers: Three Decades of Cracking Crime in the UK's Murder Capital

The Best American Crime Reporting
Author: Otto Penzler; Jeffrey Toobin
Country: United States of America
Format: Softcover
Editor: Otto Penzler; Jeffrey Toobin
Publisher: Ecco
Publication date: September 2009
Edition: 2009
Pages: 336

The Best American Crime Reporting 2009





Hidden Evidence: 50 True Crimes and How Forensic Science Helped Solve Them
Author: David Owen
Country: United States of America
Format: Softcover
Contributor: Kathy Reichs
Publisher: Firefly Books
Publication date: September 2009
Edition: 2nd Edition, Revised Second
Pages: 288
Illustrations: Illustrated

This is a monumental work. -- Science Books and Films (on the first edition)
The writing is lively but succinct, complete without being morbid. The illustrations and photos complement the text and go a long way in explaining sophisticated techniques... Highly recommended for public libraries. -- Library Journal (on the first edition)
This revised and updated history of forensics is expanded to include eight recent high-profile cases. David Owen takes readers to the scenes of 50 infamous crimes and provides detailed accounts of the scientific procedures used to catch criminals.
The high-profile cases range from as early as 1775, when Paul Revere used dentures to identify a slain soldier, to as recent as the tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Most cases will be familiar to readers, such as the Lindbergh kidnapping, the Kennedy investigation and Ted Bundy.
The book describes the established forensic methods -- dental records, ballistics, toxicology, hair sampling and blood typing -- and covers the latest technologies, including:
Computerized fingerprinting and handwriting analysis Mass DNA testing and digital DNA analysis Familial searching and DNA screening Fiber and paint databases Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry Compound and electron microscopes.
Hidden Evidence presents the facts and steers clear of speculation. The book is comprehensive in scope, thoroughly researched and expertly compiled -- a timely update of a fascinating book that will attract a wide range of readers.
Hidden Evidence: 50 True Crimes and How Forensic Science Helped Solve Them

Shake the Devil Off: A True Story of the Murder That Rocked New Orleans
Author: Ethan Brown
Country: United States of America
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
Publication date: September 2009
Pages: 304

A charismatic young soldier meets a tragic end in this moving and mesmerizing account of the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and no-safety-net America
Zackery Bowen was thrust into two of America's largest recent debacles. He was one of the first soldiers to encounter the fledgling insurgency in Iraq. After years of military service he returned to New Orleans to tend bar and deliver groceries. In the weeks before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, he met Addie Hall, a pretty and high-spirited bartender. Their improvised, hard-partying endurance during and after the storm had news outlets around the world featuring the couple as the personification of what so many want to believe is the indomitable spirit of New Orleans.
But in October 2006, Bowen leaped from the rooftop bar of a French Quarter hotel. A note in his pocket directed the police to the body of Addie Hall. It was, according to NOPD veterans, one of the most gruesome crimes in the city's history. How had this popular, handsome father of two done this horrible thing?
Journalist Ethan Brown moved from New York City to the French Quarter in order to investigate this question. Among the newsworthy elements in the book is Brown's discovery that this tragedy--like so many others--could have been avoided if the military had simply not, in the words of Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, absolutely and completely failed this soldier. Shake the Devil Off is a mesmerizing tribute to these lives lost.
Shake the Devil Off: A True Story of the Murder that Rocked New Orleans

Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family
Author: Dick Kreck
Country: United States of America
Format: Hardcover
Contributor: Gene Smaldone
Publisher: Fulcrum Group
Publication date: September 2009
Pages: 276
Illustrations: Illustrated

I never thought it would end. -Clyde Smaldone
Started by Italian brothers from North Denver, the high-profile Smaldone crime syndicate began in the bootlegging days of the 1920s and flourished well into the late twentieth century. Connected to such notorious crime figures as Al Capone and Carlos Marcello, as well as to presidents and other politicians, charismatic Clyde Smaldone was the crime family's leader from the Prohibition era to the rise of gambling to the family's waning days. Uncovering the good and the bad, best-selling author Dick Kreck captures the complexity of Clyde, brother Checkers, and their crew, who perpetuated a shadowy underworld but exhibited great generosity and commitment to their community, offering food, money, and college funds to struggling families. Through candid interviews and firsthand accounts, Kreck reveals the true sense of what it meant to be a Smaldone, and the mix of love and dysfunction that is part of every American family.
Dick Kreck retired from The Denver Post after thirty-eight years as a columnist. He previously worked at The San Francisco Examiner and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of four other books, the twenty-two-week bestseller Murder at the Brown Palace, Anton Woode: The Boy Murderer, Colorado's Scenic Railroads, and Denver in Flames. He lives in Denver, Colorado
Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family