In Cold Blood, Truman Capote ~ $3.96

October 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

In Cold BloodNational Bestseller 

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. 


As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.


“The best documentary account of an American crime ever written. . . . The book chills the blood and exercises the intelligence . . . harrowing.” ~The New York Review of Books


“A remarkable, tensely exciting, superbly written ‘true account.’ ” ~The New York Times


“A masterpiece . . . a spellbinding work.” ~Life


The average customer review is currently 4.5 stars (483 reviews).


Click here to read customer reviews or to purchase In Cold Blood for $3.96 from Amazon

Filed Under: Finds Under $5, Mystery/Thrillers, NonFiction, True Crime

The Devil in the White City: A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America, Erik Larson ~ $8.69

September 10, 2010 By 10 Comments

The Devil in the White City: A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed AmericaTwo men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds—a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.

The Devil in the White City draws the reader into a time of magic and majesty, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and others. In this book the smoke, romance, and mystery of the Gilded Age come alive as never before.

Erik Larson’s gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the great fair that obsessed them both.


“Engrossing . . . exceedingly well documented . . . utterly fascinating.” ~Chicago Tribune


“A dynamic, enveloping book. . . . Relentlessly fuses history and entertainment to give this nonfiction book the dramtic effect of a novel. . . . It doesn’t hurt that this truth is stranger than fiction.” ~The New York Times


“As absorbing a piece of popular history as one will ever hope to find.” ~San Francisco Chronicle


The average customer review is currently 4.5 stars (926 reviews).


Purchase The Devil in the White City: A Sage of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America here for $8.69

Filed Under: Finds Under $9, History, NonFiction, True Crime

The Cases That Haunt Us: From Jack the Ripper to Jon Benet Ramsey, The FBI’s Legendary Mindhunter Sheds New Light on the Mysteries That Won’t Go Away, Mark Olshaker & John Douglas ~ $7.99

September 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Cases That Haunt Us: From Jack the Ripper to Jon Benet Ramsey, The FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Sheds New Light on the Mysteries That Won't Go AwayAmerica’s foremost expert on criminal profiling provides his uniquely gripping analysis of seven of the most notorious murder cases in the history of crime — from the Whitechapel murders to JonBenet Ramsey — often contradicting conventional wisdom and legal decisions.

Jack the Ripper. Lizzie Borden. The Zodiac Killer. Certain homicide cases maintain an undeniable, almost mystical hold on the public imagination. They touch a nerve deep within us because of the personalities involved, their senseless depravity, the nagging doubts about whether justice was done, or because, in some instances, no suspect has ever been identified or caught. 
In The Cases That Haunt Us, twenty-five-year-FBI-veteran John Douglas, profiling pioneer and master of modern criminal investigative analysis, and author and filmmaker Mark Olshaker, the team behind the bestselling Mindhunter series, explore the tantalizing mysteries that both their legions of fans and law enforcement professionals ask about most.Among the questions they tackle: 
Was Jack the Ripper actually the Duke of Clarence, eldest grandson of Queen Victoria, or perhaps a practicing medical doctor? And did highly placed individuals within Scotland Yard have a good idea of the Ripper’s identity, which they never revealed? Douglas and Olshaker create a detailed profile of the killer, and reveal their chief suspect. 
Was Lizzie Borden truly innocent of the murder of her father and stepmother as the Fall River, Massachusetts, jury decided, or was she the one who took the ax and delivered those infamous “whacks”? Through a minute-by-minute behavioral analysis of the crime, the authors come to a convincing conclusion.
Did Bruno Richard Hauptmann single-handedly kidnap the baby son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the most famous couple in the world, or was he an innocent man caught up and ultimately executed in a relentless rush to judgment in the “crime of the century”? 
What kind of person could kill six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey on Christmas night in her own home? Douglas was called in on the case shortly after the horrifying murder, and his conclusions are hard-hitting and controversial. Why, in the face of the majority of public, media, and law enforcement opinion, including former FBI colleagues, does Douglas believe that John and Patricia Ramsey did not murder their daughter? And what is the forensic and behavioral evidence he brings to bear to make his claim? 
Taking a fresh and penetrating look at each case, the authors reexamine and reinterpret accepted facts and victimology using modern profiling and the techniques of criminal analysis developed by Douglas within the FBI. This book deconstructs the evidence and widely held beliefs surrounding each case and rebuilds them — with fascinating and haunting results.
The average customer review is currently 4 stars (95 reviews).

Purchase The Cases That Haunt Us: From Jack the Ripper to Jon Benet Ramsey, The FBI’s Legendary Mindhunter Sheds New Light on the Mysteries That Won’t Go Away here for $7.99

Filed Under: Finds Under $9, NonFiction, True Crime

The Company She Keeps, Georgia Durante ~ $6.99

September 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Company She Keeps
A female Goodfellas- the true story of a supermodel turned getaway driver for the mob.

All-American beauty Georgia Durante was one of the most photographed models in the country when she married mobster Joe Lamendola. It plunged her into a world she never dreamed of-and one she feared she-d never survive-as a getaway driver for the Mafia and an eyewitness to unspeakable violence, brutality, and murder, as she came to understand the terrifying risk of being married to the Mob.


“A unique look at how organized crime can destroy much more than the usual victims of its activities. Georgia Durante rose above it. I salute her.” – James Henderson Chief of the Strike Force on Organized Crime

“Georgia Durante has written a gripping, fast-paced, insider’s look at an underworld she knew only too well. Breathtakingly readable.” – Sidney Sheldon Best-selling Author

“Georgia Durante, not only survived her years in the underworld, but lived to write about it. A fascinating life. A fascinating book.” – Nicholas Pileggi Best-selling Author

The average customer review is currently 5 stars (232 reviews).


Filed Under: 5 Star Frugal Finds, Finds Under $9, NonFiction, True Crime

Secrets in the Cellar, John Glatt ~ $6.99

August 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Secrets in the CellarJosef Fritzl was a 73-year-old retired engineer in Austria. He seemed to be living a normal life with his wife, Rosemarie, and their family—though one daughter, Elisabeth, had decades earlier been “lost” to a religious cult. Throughout the years, three of Elisabeth’s children mysteriously appeared on the Fritzls’ doorstep; Josef and Rosemarie raised them as their own. But only Josef knew the truth about Elisabeth’s disappearance…
For twenty-seven years, Josef had imprisoned and molested Elisabeth in his man-made basement dungeon, complete with sound-proof paneling and code-protected electric locks. There, she would eventually give birth to a total of seven of Josef’s children. One died in infancy—and the other three were raised alongside Elisabeth, never to see the light of day.
Then, in 2008, one of Elisabeth’s children became seriously ill, and was taken to the hospital. It was the first time the nineteen-year-old girl had ever gone outside—and soon, the truth about her background, her family’s captivity, and Josef’s unspeakable crimes would come to light. 
The average customer review is currently 4 stars (19 reviews).

Purchase Secrets in the Cellar here for $6.99

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Filed Under: Finds Under $9, NonFiction, True Crime