Pines and Plains Libraries

Two true-crime thrillers include "Murder of Innocence," in which a global effort captures a serial predator; and "A Murderous Affair," in which a rookie FBI agent is set up by his informant. Murder of innocence: It's impossible to resist Andrew Luster. He's rich, charming, and good-looking, and dozens of women have fallen under his spell. But Andrew is no mere womanizer. He's a predator, and it'll take a global effort to put him behind bars. A Murderous...

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...

"Where to Retire offers the best advice not only on where to relocate in the retirement years, but why people should pick up and move just as life is settling down. Retirement guru John Howells provides well-researched and completely revised and updated information on how to find the ideal home base for the retirement years. To help the decision-making process, the author offers a list of items to consider when selecting the ideal community: safety;...

“No one who enjoys mystery can fail to savor this study of a classic case of detection.” 
—TONY HILLERMAN
 
On the night of September 14, 1935, George Conniff, a town marshal in Pend Oreille County in the state of Washington, was shot to death.  A lawman had been killed, yet there seemed to be no uproar, no major investigation.  No suspect was brought to trial.  More than fifty years later, the...

"With Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on the breadth of their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately,...

In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles. President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation, with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society. But one man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the highest ranks of the U.S....

"In Creekstone, Texas, a small, quiet suburb of Houston, football was king ... and David Temple was a prince. A former high school and college gridiron star-turned-coach, he had a fairy-tale marriage to bright, vivacious Belinda Lucas, a teacher at the local high school who was so warm and popular her colleagues called her "The Sunshine Girl." The fairy tale ended savagely on January 11, 1999, when Belinda's lifeless body was discovered in a closet....

"Contrary to what you may have heard, the middle class is not dying and robots are not stealing our jobs. In fact, writes Adam Davidson-one of our leading public voices on economic issues- the twenty-first-century economic paradigm offers new ways of making money, fresh paths toward professional fulfillment, and unprecedented opportunities for curious, ambitious individuals to combine the things they love with their careers. Drawing on the stories...

On the night of October 23rd-24th, 1995, in Prairie Village, Kansas, a fierce, wind-driven fire devastated the luxurious mansion of Dr. Debora Green and her husband, Dr. Michael Farrar. Trapped and burned to death in the flames were twelve-year-old Tim Farrar and his six-year-old sister, Kelly. Lissa, ten, was barely able to leap to safety from the garage roof while her mother, arms outstretched, urged her to jump. When Michael Farrar arrived on the...

Documents the efforts of the Vidocq Society, an elite trio of gifted investigators, to solve such notorious cold cases as those of JonBenet Ramsey, the Butcher of Cleveland, and Jack the Ripper, and details their work with the world's top forensic specialists.