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A A Gill

Andrew Swanston read law at Cambridge, but was inspired to write by his lifelong interest in early modern history. His Thomas Hill novels – The King’s Spy, The King’s Exile and The King’s Return – are set against the backdrops of the English Civil War, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and the early Restoration respectively. He is also the author of Waterloo: The Bravest Man and Beautiful Star and Other Stories. His first historical thriller set during the reign of Elizabeth I – Incendium (published in paperback as The Incendium Plot) – introduced readers to the academic, lawyer and intelligencer Dr Christopher Radcliff, whose adventures continue in Chaos. Andrew Swanston lives in Surrey.

A D Swanston

A E Langsford

A G Hopkins

A. J. BAIME is the New York Times best-selling author of The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War and Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans. Both books are in development for major motion pictures. Baime is a longtime regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Popular Science, and Men’s Journal. He lives in Granite Bay, California. Visit him at facebook.com/ajbaime and trumanbook.com.

A J Baime

A J Jacobs

A J P Taylor

Anthony James Pollard is a British medieval historian, specialising in the fifteenth century and in particular the Wars of the Roses. A leading authority in the field, he is profesor emeritus of Teesside University. His books include North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses, Richard III and the Princes in theTower, Imagining Robin Hood: the Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context and Warwick the kingmaker: Politics, Power and Fame.

A J Pollard

A J Rochester

A K Benjamin is a clinical neuropsychologist and the author of Let Me Not Be Mad: A Story of Unravelling Minds.

A K Benjamin

A. L. Berridge read English at Oxford, and taught for ten years before moving into television, where her production credits range from period drama and thrillers to long-running soaps. She has written two previous novels, Top Ten besteller Honour and the Sword and In the Name of the King. Into the Valley of Death is her third novel.

A L Berridge

Alison Gaylin's first job was as a reporter for a celebrity tabloid, which sparked a lifelong interest in writing about people committing despicable acts. More than a decade later, she wrote and published her Edgar-nominated first novel, HIDE YOUR EYES. 
 
She's since published nine more books, including the USA Today and international bestselling Brenna Spector suspense series, which has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony and Thriller awards and won the Shamus award. 
 
She lives in upstate New York with her husband, daughter, cat and dog.

A L Gaylin

A Maxwell-Hyslop

A McArthur

A P Wavell

A.S. Webb is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Daughter of Chaos, the first instalment of The Dark Pantheon Trilogy. She is inspired by stories rooted in history and mythology, that push the boundaries of imagination and urge us to reflect on what it means to be human.

A S Webb

A. A. Dhand is the author of six previous novels, and has been shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award. His DI Harry Virdee novels are currently being adapted for TV by the BBC. He was raised in Bradford and spent his youth observing the city from behind the counter of a small convenience store. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he worked in London and travelled extensively before returning to Bradford to start his own business and begin writing. The history, diversity and darkness of the city have inspired all his novels. For more information about A. A. Dhand and his books, follow him on X @aadhand, and on Instagram @aa_dhand.

A. A. Dhand

A. A. Gill

A. A. Milne

A. Anatoli

A. B. Poranek grew up sharing her time between Ontario, Canada and rural Poland, and eventually completed a veterinary degree at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. A lover of mythology and history, she enjoys exploring both in her writing. Her debut novel, Where the Dark Stands Still, an instant New York Times bestseller, is an ode to Poland's folktales, while A Treachery of Swans transports readers to a world inspired by 17th century France.

A. B. Poranek

A. Bradley

Professor A. C. Grayling is Principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy, history, science and current affairs. For several years he wrote columns for the Guardian newspaper and The Times and was the chairman of the 2014 Man Booker Prize.

A. C. Grayling

A.D. Miller is the author of Snowdrops, The Earl of Petticoat Lane and The Faithful Couple. Snowdrops was a bestseller and was shortlisted for many prizes including the Man Booker and the CWA Gold Dagger. It was translated into 25 languages. As Moscow Correspondent of The Economist A.D. Miller has travelled across the former Soviet Union and covered the Orange Revolution in Ukraine; he is now the magazine’s Culture Editor based in London. 
 
admillerbooks.com

A. D. Miller

A. E. Ellis

A. E. W. Mason

A. Humphreys

A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 1979 and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Africa39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his first novel.

A. Igoni Barrett

The short life of A.J.A. Symons (1900-41) was described by his biographer as an intricate and largely harmless confidence trick. His many interests included the collection of musical boxes and rare books as well as the study and practice of forgery; they left him time to edit an anthology of Edwardian verse and compose studies of H.M. Stanley and other notable figures. He is remembered for The Quest for Corvo, one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, and for co-founding the Wine and Food Society.

A. J. A. Symons

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Mark Galeotti

'Glittering... the author’s obvious enthusiasm for the subject is matched by impressive erudition' The Spectator 
 
'The readable, scary, fun beach read of new crime literature' Financial Times 
 
When does a bandit become a monarch? When does a gang become a government? And is organised crime at the heart of every modern state? 
 
On a thrilling whistle-stop tour of how the world's criminal underbelly has shaped state-making, capitalism, globalisation and all forms of so-called legitimate power, Homo Criminalis shows the emergence of modern society through the evolution of the underworld and its crimes. From Chinese banditry and eighteenth-century English tea smuggling to today's cocaine submarines and the high-tech crimes of tomorrow, this book shows us how the world's dark underbelly shapes us, no matter how we try to outpace it. 
 
Entertaining, engaging and packed full of fascinating stories, Homo Criminalis is a book for those who want to see our grand story of progress through the surprising and subversive new lens of organised crime.

Homo Criminalis

How crime organises the world

Alison

Belinda

Helen Steel

Lisa

Naomi

Groomed. Gaslighted. Ghosted. 
 
They thought they'd found their soulmate. They had no idea he was spying on them. 
 
These five motivated, independent women each thought they'd met their perfect partner - someone who shared their values, ambitions and goals. 
 
But after a while, in some cases years later, the men started to behave strangely. They disappeared for weeks at a time, saying they needed to go away to clear their heads. Small details about their lives didn't quite fit. Then they vanished, leaving a note saying that the relationship was over. 
 
These men were undercover police officers, who had targeted the women for their links to activist groups. They took the identities of dead children and carried fake passports and driving licences. They were all married, some with children. They had been working from a set of guidelines and were all using the same manipulative techniques. 
 
This is the story of five women whose lives were stolen by state-sponsored spies, and who, one by one, uncovered the shocking truth.

The Undercover Police Scandal

The story of state-sponsored deception, by the women who uncovered the shocking truth

Delia Balmer

Soon to be an ITV drama starring Anna Maxwell Martin. Previously published as Living with a Serial Killer. 
 
When Delia Balmer entered into a relationship with the attentive John Sweeney, she had no idea he was a serial killer. 
 
At first he was caring but over the course of their relationship he became violent and controlling. On more than one occasion he held Delia hostage and tortured her. Chillingly, he also confessed to the murder of his previous girlfriend. After one serious assault, Sweeney was released on bail, and left her in the utmost fear knowing that he would return to finish her off. After a final frenzied attack leaving Delia on the brink of death, Sweeney went on the run. Astonishingly, it would take the police six years to capture and convict Sweeney of multiple murders. 
 
This is her compelling memoir. Previously published as Living With a Serial Killer, this is the true story behind the ITV drama, Until I Kill You.

Until I Kill You

The shocking true story of the woman who survived living with serial axe murderer John Sweeney

Liam Thomas

An undercover detective is a buyer, and their commodity is intelligence. But what is the real price of justice? 
 
'A compelling and powerful account from the darker side of policing and the terrifying impact it has on those who strive to keep us safe' Nazir Afzal 
 
Liam Thomas was an officer in the Met for over a decade, many of those years spent deep at the heart of Britain's most dangerous criminal enterprises in the murky world of undercover surveillance. Before him, his father had also been a police officer, a pillar of their small community. 
 
Fighting corruption was Liam's life. But the murky world of undercover work teaches him that justice is far from black and white - and a family secret reveals that corruption is closer to home than he had ever expected. The revelations push him to the edge of his sanity - and then he discovers that his bosses are investigating him... 
 
A thrilling memoir of a life lived amongst a world of corruption, justice and loyalties, this book tells the real story of the police's line of duty.

The Buyer

The making and breaking of an undercover detective

Susanna Abse

'Brilliant and touching' Maggie O'Farrell 
 
'A must-read for everyone wanting to understand more about what makes us fall in - and out - of love' Philippa Perry 
 
'A charming, useful, kind book about the pains and hopes of relationships' Alain de Botton 
 
Drawing on over 30 years of therapeutic encounters with people facing hurdles in their love lives, former Chair of the British Psychoanalytic Council Susanna Abse takes us deep inside one of the most fascinating realms there is: other people's relationships. 
 
Candid and captivating, each chapter is inspired by a classic, timeless story. Parents blow their straw house down; Rapunzel yearns for companionship but remains trapped in her castle. Couples strive to navigate the fall from Eden, the bitter taste of the poison apple and strangers in their beds. 
 
From dealing with infidelity to navigating our changing role within a single relationship over the course of a lifetime, Tell Me the Truth About Love sheds vivid light on the human heart, and its struggle to both embrace life's greatest gift and protect itself from pain. Inside, you will find solace, wisdom and unparalleled insight into how, and why, we love.

Tell Me the Truth About Love

13 Tales from Couple Therapy

13 Tales from Couples Therapy

Kathleen Hale

'A compelling yet harrowing read' Daily Mail 
'One of the best true crime books of the year' CrimeReads 
 
The 2014 Slenderman stabbings in Wisconsin, USA, shocked the local community and the world. The violence of Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weiser, the two twelve-year-old girls who attempted to stab their classmate to death, was extreme, but what seemed even more frightening was that they had done so under the influence of an internet meme, the so-called 'Slenderman'. 
 
Slenderman tells the full story for the very first time. Morgan and Anissa's friendship could so easily not have taken the turn it did - but Morgan was suffering with early onset schizophrenia. She believed she had been seeing Slenderman for years, and that the only way to stop him killing her family was to bring him a sacrifice. Her victim miraculously survived the attack but was left deeply traumatised, while the severity of their crime meant Morgan and Anissa would be tried as adults. 
 
Slenderman is both a page-turning true crime classic and a compelling search for justice.

Slenderman

A Tragic Story of Online Obsession and Mental Illness

Shay Doyle

Scott Hesketh

Shortlisted for the Book of the Year and Audiobook of the Year at the 2023 True Crime Awards 
 
Street kid turned undercover cop. 
 
'This time he wasn't getting up. Neither were the two young women he'd just murdered. The two unarmed young police officers he cut down in a hail of 32 bullets and the fragments of a grenade, ending their promising lives so savagely, so senselessly. I felt empty. Cold. How had it come to this?' 
 
Shay Doyle grew up on a tough Manchester council estate where drugs and gangs were rife. A life of crime would have been an easy path to take. So it went against everything that was expected of him when he joined the police. 
 
It wasn't long before Shay's prodigious talent caught the attention of the top and he was called upon to join the secret Level 1 undercover unit, Omega. He was given a new identity and his DNA and fingerprints were removed from the national database. 
 
In a distinguished covert career spanning 17 years, Shay led covert operations tackling high-profile murder cases and came face to face with some of Britain's most dangerous gangsters, often risking his own life. But there would be a heavy price to pay for a life in the shadows, where any mistake could have lethal consequences...

Deep Cover

How I took down Britain’s most dangerous gangsters

Jamie Hull

SAS trooper and trainee pilot Jamie Hull was flying solo when his aircraft caught fire. It should have been the end of his life, but it was the beginning of his story. 
 
With flames up to his chin, he brought the plane in, climbed out and jumped from the wing. As he lay on the ground, fully conscious, waiting for the emergency services, he could smell his flesh burn. 
 
Even if he survived, what would he have left to live for? 
 
But this man is made of stern stuff. He fought back from the brink of death, and created a new and profoundly meaningful life from the wreckage of his experience. 
 
Meet Jamie Hull, former Special Services soldier, now Ambassador for Help for Heroes and veteran of two marathons, a 3,000-mile bicycle race across America and an expedition up Mount Kilimanjaro. His story will take to you to the furthest extremes of human endurance and endeavour.

Life on a Thread

My story

Anne Nolan

Linda Nolan

"It's ok to be scared, to feel lonely... we'll get through it, because we have to." 
 
For more than 40 years Linda and Anne have performed side by side as members of iconic Irish girl group The Nolans. But in 2020 the sisters sat next to each other for a very different experience. Soon after returning home from filming their hit TV series The Nolans Go Cruising, with their sisters Coleen and Maureen, Linda and Anne received devastating cancer diagnoses within days of each other and soon began gruelling rounds of chemotherapy together. It was a stark reminder of how cruel life can be and, of course, of their beloved sister Bernie, who also faced and lost the same battle. 
 
Stronger Together is Linda and Anne's story. A reflection on their close-knit relationship, in the limelight and behind the scenes, and of how family helped them hold it all together when things got tough. Deeply personal, incredibly moving and told with trademark humour, it's a story they hope will help you too.

Stronger Together

How We’re Living While Fighting

David Teale

David Teale: groomed by the twins, controlled by threats, raped by Ronnie, falsely imprisoned by the State for his 'own protection' as younger brother of Kray-informer Bobby. Turns out that's only half the story. 
 
David first met the Krays when he was seventeen years old. He was drawn into London's underworld, and became Ronnie's reluctant foot soldier, driver, errand boy. He was close to murder, and witnessed menaces and the increasingly psychotic behaviours of the most feared men in gangster land. 
 
Unbeknown to David, his brother Bobby had bravely turned informer at great risk to his own safety and that of his brothers. That had its own consequences. 
 
But why, when the police were being furnished with eye-witness statements, from an impeccable source, were they seemingly incapable of bringing the twins to justice? The Krays were untouchable. 
 
After tireless research through newly released documents in the National Archives, and piecing together previously classified information together with his own, first-hand knowledge of the time, David Teale uncovers the shocking new truth, revealed in this book for the first time. 
 
David's story rewrites True Crime history.

Surviving the Krays

The Final Explosive Secret about the Firm

Svenja O’Donnell

'A lyrical, engrossing and essential read' - Sathnam Sanghera 
 
'A superbly nuanced reclamation of history and family secrets' - Brian Van Reet, author of Spoils 
 
What does it mean to be on the wrong side of history? 
 
Svenja O'Donnell’s beautiful, aloof grandmother Inge never spoke about the past. All her family knew was that she had grown up in a city that no longer exists on any map: Königsberg in East Prussia, a footnote in history, a place that almost no one has heard of today. But when Svenja impulsively visits this windswept Baltic city, something unlocks in Inge and, finally, she begins to tell her story. 
 
It begins in the secret jazz bars of Hitler’s Berlin. It is a story of passionate first love, betrayal, terror, flight, starvation and violence. As Svenja teases out the threads of her grandmother’s life, retracing her steps all over Europe, she realises that there is suffering here on a scale that she had never dreamt of. And finally, she uncovers a desperately tragic secret that her grandmother has been keeping for sixty years. 
 
Inge's War listens to the voices that are often missing from our historical narrative – those of women caught up on the wrong side of history. It is a book about memory and heritage that interrogates the legacy passed down by those who survive. It also poses the questions: who do we allow to tell their story? What do we mean by family? And what will we do in order to survive?

Inge's War

A Story of Family, Secrets and Survival under Hitler

Toby Muse

Join the deadly journey of cocaine, from farmer to kingpin. 
 
Meet Maria. Maria doesn’t see herself as a criminal. She’s just a farmhand picking the crops that never lose money: coca. 
 
This is Cachote. He prays to the Virgin of the Assassins that his bullets find their target. If he misses, he’ll have to answer to the cartel who pay him to take out their enemies. 
 
Pedro works the coca labs. But this laboratory is hidden deep in the jungle, and he turns coca leaves in to coca paste, a step just short of cocaine. 
 
And finally, here is Alex. Alex is a drug-lord and decides where the drug goes next: into Europe or the US. And he wields the power of life and death over everyone around him. 
 
In Kilo, Toby Muse takes us deeper into the drug trade than ever before, following a kilo of cocaine as it travels from its origins to the street. On the ground in the drug war for over a decade, earning the trust of those involved on all sides, Toby Muse takes us with him through the endless blood-soaked horror and economic logic at every level of the journey of the world’s most alluring and dangerous drug. We come to meet and ultimately understand the tainted personal psychology and motivations of each player in this dark El Dorado. 
 
But there are no winners here. Anyone who tries to hold the power of the ‘white goddess’ cocaine is ultimately undone, violently stripped of their humanity, their souls and their lives in this endless, pointless dance of death.

Kilo

Life and Death Inside the Secret World of the Cocaine Cartels

Janey Godley

Born in the tough East End of Glasgow and married into one of the city’s most notorious criminal families, Janey Godley’s young life was far from ordinary. From the grim and far-from-swinging 60s, to the discos of the 70s, to the tidal wave of heroin addiction which engulfed Glasgow's East End during the 1980s, Janey was witness to an extraordinary underworld - as well as religious sectarianism, abject poverty and a frightening family of in-laws. Throughout it all, her indomitable spirit – and her vivid sense of humour – kept her alive. 
 
A vivid, intimate and darkly funny account of a life less ordinary, Handstands in the Dark tells the story of how one girl escaped a chaotic family and became one of the UK’s most popular comedic talents.

Handstands In The Dark

A True Story of Growing Up and Survival

Arthur Brand

The true story of a detective, two bronze horses and the dictator who set the world on fire. 
 
When detective Arthur Brand is summoned to a meeting with one of the most dangerous men in the art world, he learns that a clue has emerged that could solve one of the Second World War’s unexplained mysteries: what really happened to the Striding Horses, Hitler’s favourite statue, which disappeared during the bombing of Berlin. 
 
As Brand goes undercover to find the horses, he discovers a terrifying world ruled by neo-Nazis and former KGB agents, where Third Reich memorabilia sells for millions of dollars. The stakes get ever higher as Brand carefully lays his trap to catch the criminal masterminds trying to sell the statue on the black market. But who are they? And will he manage to bring them to justice before they discover his real identity? 
 
With a plot worthy of John Le Carré, Hitler’s Horses is a thrilling retelling of one of history's most extraordinary heists.

Hitler's Horses

The Incredible True Story of the Detective who Infiltrated the Nazi Underworld

Lyn Smith

In March 2010, twenty-seven Britons who took matters into their own hands to protect Jews from the Nazis during one of the darkest times in human history were formally recognised as 'Heroes of the Holocaust' by the British Government. The silver medal, inscribed with the words 'In the Service of Humanity', was created to acknowledge those 'whose selfless actions preserved life in the face of persecution'. Gordon Brown described the medal's recipients, who risked their lives to save those of Jewish friends, or complete strangers, as, 'true British heroes and a source of national pride for all of us. They were shining beacons of hope in the midst of terrible evil because they were prepared to take a stand against prejudice, hatred and intolerance.' 
 
Some, like Frank Foley, a British spy whose cover was working at the British embassy in Berlin, took huge risks issuing forged visas to enable around 10,000 Jews to escape Germany before the outbreak of World War 2. Others, like the ten British POWs who hid and cared for Hannah Sarah Rigler as she escaped from a death march, showed great humanity in the face of horrendous cruelty and suffering. All the recipients of the award were ordinary people, acting on no one's authority but their own, who found they could not stand idly by in the face of this great evil. 
 
Heroes of the Holocaust collects for the first time the remarkable stories of the recipients of the medal. Written by acclaimed Holocaust historian Lyn Smith, it is a moving testament to the bravery of those whose inspiring actions stand out in stark relief at a time of such horror.

Heroes of the Holocaust

Ordinary Britons who risked their lives to make a difference

John ‘The Neck’ Houchin

Lee Wortley

Anthony Thomas

Don't cross The Neck. 
 
As the right-hand man to 'The Guv’nor' himself, Lenny McLean, John 'The Neck' Houchin is a living legend and is now telling his story for the first time. John trained daily with Lenny in the gym to achieve his huge bulk and neck, all 23 inches of it, required to frighten the hell out of troublemakers. As the enforcers for the Krays and the Richardsons, they worked together regularly over many years 'sorting out' whatever needed sorting. These are the mean streets of London back when swift justice as well as fearless loyalty were the order of the day. 
 
A new insider take from one of the most notorious characters of the time, this book is full of chippy dialogue, gangster banter, the biggest brawls, old school honour codes and pithy reflection on the changing times – from the hard men to the high life.

The Guv'nor and Me

My Life with Lenny McLean

Amaryllis Fox

The instant New York Times Bestseller soon to be a major Apple TV series with Brie Larson. 
 
'Reads as if a John le Carré character landed in Eat Pray Love' - New York Times 
‘Best book of the year’ - Tom Marcus, author of Soldier, Spy 
 
Do you have what it takes to stand between us and the enemy? 
 
"I’m here to prevent a major and imminent attack. One that will kill children. I’m alone and operational in the country where my colleague was taken and beheaded, and every hour I’m delayed is another hour for something to go wrong - for an informant to disclose my location, for the source I’m meeting to cancel, for the attack to go boom. The fear injects my thoughts with venom." 
 
Amaryllis Fox was recruited by the CIA at the age of 21 in the aftermath of 9/11. After an intense training period – where she learns how to master a Glock, get out of flexicuffs while in the trunk of a car, withstand torture, and commit suicide in case of captivity – she is sent undercover to keep nuclear, biological and chemical weapons out of the hands of terror groups. Posing as an art dealer, she is sent on countless dangerous missions around the globe. Each time, the stakes become even higher and the risks more terrifying. Determined to stop the masterminds, Amaryllis’s quest will almost destroy her, until she realises that the only way to actually defeat the enemy is to have the courage to sit across from them… and listen. 
 
In this explosive first-hand account – filled with suspense and plot twists to rival Carrie Mathison in Homeland – Life Undercover is an edgy story of an undercover CIA operative, hunting the world’s most dangerous terrorists, using deception and disguises and dead drops in the night in order to protect our streets. 
 
Revealed in never-before-seen detail, Amaryllis offers compelling insight that can only come from having fought on the front lines.

Life Undercover

My Life in the CIA

Coming of Age in the CIA

Mark Freestone

The closest you can get to the most dangerous minds. 
 
Find out what truly makes a psychopath, from the leading expert who helped to create Killing Eve's Villanelle. Dr Mark Freestone has worked on some of the most disturbing psychopath cases of recent times - this is his extraordinary journey with the people society would rather forget. 
 
 Danny 'the Borderline' killed his defenceless friend without explanation. Tony 'the Conman' once tried to dupe someone into buying the Eiffel Tower. Jason 'the Liar' had a fantasy life that led to vicious murders around Europe. 
 
 With its page-turning true crime storytelling and searing first-hand experience that will leave you reeling, this book opens up a window onto the unseen world of those who operate in a void of human emotion ... and asks how we will stop them. 
 
'The psychiatrist who created Killing Eve's anti-heroine' The Telegraph 
'The psychopath, revised' Psychology Today

Making a Psychopath

My Journey into 7 Dangerous Minds

Victoria Eugenia Henao

**A Sunday Times Book of the Year** 
 
The closest you’ll ever get to the most infamous drug kingpin in modern history, told by the person who stood by his side 
 
The story of Pablo Escobar, one of the wealthiest, powerful and violent criminals of all time has fascinated the world. Yet the one person closest to him has never spoken out – until now. Maria Victoria Henao met Pablo when she was 13, eloped with him at 15, and despite his numerous infidelities and violence, stayed by his side for the following 16 years until his death. At the same time, she urged him to make peace with his enemies and managed to negotiate her and her children’s freedom after Pablo’s demise. 
 
The most intriguing character in the Escobar narrative is ready to share her story and reveal the real man behind the legend.

Pablo and Me

My life with Escobar

Crystal Rasmussen

Longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize 2020 
 
Life's a drag... Why not be a queen? 
 
'Stories like the one where you shagged a 79-year-old builder and knocked over his sister's ashes while feeding him a Viagra. Or the time you crashed your car because you were giving a hand job in barely moving traffic and took your eye off the car in front. That's the kind of dinner-party ice-breaker I'm talking about.' 
 
Northern, working-class and shagging men three times her age, Crystal writes candidly about her search for 'the one'; sleeping with a VIP in an attempt to become a world famous journalist; getting hired and fired by a well-known fashion magazine; being torn between losing weight and gorging on KFC; and her need for constant sexual satisfaction (and where that takes her). 
 
Charting her day-to-day adventures over the course of a year, we encounter tucks, twists and sucks, heinous overspending and endless nights spent sprinting from problem to problem in a full face of make-up. 
 
This is a place where the previously unspeakable becomes the commendable - a unique portrayal of the queer experience. 
 
(c) 2019, Crystal Rasmussen (P) 2019 Penguin Audio

Diary of a Drag Queen

Duncan Campbell

Live on the wrong side of the law with Britain’s gangsters, Peaky Blinders, godfathers, robbers, informers, kingpins, vice lords and career criminals 
 
***The Sunday Times Bestseller *** 
 
With stories of murder, theft, fraud and treachery, The Underworld is a deep-dive into the history of professional and organised crime in Britain. From the racetrack gangs and the smash-and-grab merchants, through the Soho vice bosses and the Kray twins, to the Great Train Robbers, the Hatton Garden burglars and the new wave of international hit-men and drug and sex traffickers, Duncan Campbell exposes the dark underbelly of Britain. 
 
A unique perspective – told by the criminals themselves and the detective who pursued them – this is a definitive history from the very beginning to the present day.

Underworld

The definitive history of Britain’s organised crime

Toni Maguire

Lynn Murray

Every family has its secrets, but some are worse than others. 
 
‘I had learnt to switch myself off from feeling anything when he molested me. Just lie there like a wooden doll and don’t give him the satisfaction of allowing one whimper to leave your mouth.’ 
 
Lynn’s mother wanted the world to see the perfect family. An immaculate house, three well-dressed children and a charming husband. But behind closed doors it was a different story. 
 
Abused by her father from when she was just a baby, Lynn would scream for her mother, who ignored the little girl’s cries. Nothing was going to shatter her perfect life. Threatened by their parents, Lynn and her brother never told anyone in fear of being separated, but the trauma of their past followed them throughout their lives, with devastating consequences. 
 
Now as Lynn tries to piece together and come to terms with her past as an adult, she discovers she wasn’t the only one with a secret.

Daddy's Little Girl

A picture-perfect family with a terrible secret

Vladimir Netto

INTRODUCTION BY MISHA GLENNY, author of McMafia 
 
A gripping narrative of power, corruption and greed, The Mechanism is the true story of how a simple investigation into money laundering uncovered the biggest corruption scandal in human history. 
 
When a small team of investigators discovered that a black market currency dealer was operating out of a Brazilian petrol station, they could never have imagined that their work would destroy the government and lead to the impeachment of two presidents. As the trail leads further and further into the centre of power, the search for the truth and pursuit of justice become ever more crucial. 
 
Taut and riveting, with more plot twists than the most compelling political thriller, The Mechanism is an essential work of non-fiction that exposes the rottenness caused when politicians and big businesses believe they are above the law.

The Mechanism

A Crime Network So Deep it Brought Down a Nation

Neil Woods

J S Rafaeli

TO KNOW THE TRUE STORY BEHIND A WAR, ASK THE PEOPLE WHO FOUGHT IT 
 
 'An observation van is running surveillance on a high-level Bradford gangster. Suddenly the van is surrounded by men in balaclavas and tied shut. Out comes the can of petrol. It is set alight and the two cops inside barely escape with their lives. This incident is never reported. The gangsters clearly have informants inside the police and alerting the public would undermine the force. Everyone shrugs it off – with so much money in the drugs game, corruption is part and parcel of the whole deal' 
 
The Drug Wars have been fought on British streets for decades, bringing destruction, corruption and violence in their wake. Yet it is a story that remains fundamentally untold. Until now. 
 
In this groundbreaking book, former undercover police officer Neil Woods, who risked his life infiltrating some of the UK's most vicious gangs, pieces together the complex and terrifying reality of the drug war in Britain. Calling upon gripping first-hand accounts from those on both sides of the battle, Drug Wars is told by those who are fighting it.

Drug Wars

The terrifying inside story of Britain’s drug trade

Olivia Rayne

What do you do when the person you’re meant to trust the most in the world is the one trying to destroy you? 
 
‘When people met her they thought how lovely she was, this attractive woman with a beautiful laugh. But she was one person in public and another behind closed doors. Who would she be today? The loving mother? The trusted teacher? The monster destroying my life?’ 
 
Olivia has been afraid ever since she can remember. Out of sight, she was subjected to cruelty and humiliation at the hands of the one person who should have loved and protected her at all times – her mother, Josephine. 
 
While appearing completely normal to the outside world, Josephine displayed all the signs of being a psychopath – unbeknown to her daughter until adulthood – and Olivia grew up feeling scared, worthless and exploited. Even when she found the courage to cut ties, her mother found new ways to manipulate and deceive, attempting to destroy her life with a vicious campaign of abuse. 
 
Now Olivia has come to terms with her past and gives a fascinating, harrowing and deeply unsettling insight into what it’s like growing up with a psychopathic parent.

My Mother, the Psychopath

Growing up in the shadow of a monster

Jon Roberts

Evan Wright

‘The best crime book since Wiseguy’ – Rich Cohen 
 
A real-life Scarface, Jon was born into the Gambino Mafia family and witnessed his first murder aged seven. He joined a US Army assassination squad in Vietnam to escape a teen criminal charge, then fled New York to reinvent himself in Miami as the number one supplier of cocaine in the US. With a crazed bodyguard always at his side, and a fortress protected by mortars, tear-gas cannons, and a gold-fanged attack dog, Roberts was brutally effective at what he did. 
 
With a cast that includes everyone from Jimi Hendrix and OJ Simpson to the CIA and General Noriega, American Desperado is a hedonistic, adrenaline-soaked joyride through the world of Escobar and the cartels, told by one of most successful criminals of all time.

American Desperado

My life as a Cocaine Cowboy

Emma Louise

He told me he loved me. 
He told me it was normal. 
I wanted to believe him. 
 
Emma’s grandad was kind and loving, so when she was 11 and he started abusing her, she didn't understand what was happening. He convinced her that what he did to her was normal, and that their relationship was special – but then manipulated her into having sex with another man. Over the next seven years, Emma’s grandad sold her to over two hundred men, and forced her to keep the shameful secret. This is her true story of survival.

Grandad's Girl

Cassie Cook

How do you stop your past from determining your future? 
 
“It’s what daddies do with their little girls,” he explains, “every little girl does it. But it’s a secret, and you must not talk about it.” 
 
Cassie was too young to remember when her father started abusing her, but she remembers how unclean it made her feel. When she got married at sixteen and had a family of her own, she thought she’d finally escaped his clutches, but he found a way to make sure she could never move on. Turning to drink to cope, Cassie’s babies were taken into care and her husband left her. Now would begin the biggest challenge of her life: winning her children back and working to eclipse the pain of the past. 
 
This is the heartbreaking true story of a little girl that just wanted to be loved.

Did You Ever Love Me?

Abused by the ones who were supposed to keep her safe

Diane Fanning

Accident or Murder? 
 
The Petersons seemed like the ideal couple: well-respected, prosperous and happy. All that came crashing down December 2001, when Kathleen apparently fell to her death in their secluded home. But blood-spattered evidence and a missing fireplace poker suggested calculated, cold-blooded murder. Her trusted husband, Michael, stood accused. So what did happen on the staircase that fateful night? 
 
 
This is the inside look at the Michael Peterson case. It will make you question everything you’ve seen before. 
 
 
‘The Staircase is an emotionally riveting drama, but it is nowhere near the whole truth. If anybody wants to know the whole story, read Fanning’s Book’ Ann Christensen, Michael Peterson's sister

Written in Blood

Innocent or Guilty? An inside look at the Michael Peterson case, subject of the hit series The Staircase

Wilfried de Jong

The world as seen from a bike 
 
'Understated, comic and melancholic... It’ll inspire you to get back on your bike.' Martin Love, The Guardian 
 
‘One of the most entertaining sports books I have ever read’ Joe Short, The Daily Express 
 
In this award-winning collection of cycling tales, Wilfried de Jong uncovers the true soul of cycling – why we do it, why we watch it, why we hate it, why we love it – stripped bare. 
 
With his distinctly comic and melancholic charm Wilfried ponders life, love and death on his trusted bike, chasing the essence of our existence against the backdrop of major cycling events or while roaming alone in nature. 
 
Whether he is describing being ejected from Paris-Roubaix, a terminal incident with a bird while out riding, or explaining why he is standing stark naked on Belgian cobbles with a tyre in his hand, Wilfried unlocks a sport that involves so much pain, punishment, and a high probability of failure, but that will always liberate and inspire us.

The Man and His Bike

Musings on life and the art of cycling

The year is 1Q84. This is the real world, there is no doubt about that. But in this world, there are two moons in the sky. Discover the 1Q84 Trilogy by Haruki Murakami.

1Q84

365 Days of Art

A BBC Christmas

A Black Book Thriller

A Box Full of Murders

A Cal Leandros Novel

A Christmas Mystery

The intelligent and capable police commissioner Guido Brunetti confronts crime in and around his home town of Venice.

A Commissario Brunetti Mystery

A DC Smith / Kings Lake Investigation Series

A Daisy Story

Chronicling the lives of over three hundred characters, unrivalled for its scope and humour, this is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England.

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