True Crime

A horrifying story rapidly unfolded. Ariel Castro, a local school bus driver, had separately lured Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight to his home, where he kept them chained. In the decade that followed, the three were raped, psychologically abused, and threatened with death. Berry had a daughter--Jocelyn--by their captor.

Drawing upon their recollections and the diary kept by Amanda Berry, Berry and Gina DeJesus describe a tale of unimaginable torment, and Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporters Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan interweave the events within Castro's house with original reporting on efforts to find the missing girls. The full story behind the headlines--including details never previously released on Castro's life and motivations--Hope is a harrowing yet inspiring chronicle of two women whose courage, ingenuity, and resourcefulness ultimately delivered them back to their lives and families.

David Brown was the consummate entrepreneur: a computer wizard and millionaire by age thirty-two. When his beautiful young wife was shot to death as she slept, Brown's fourteen-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, confessed to killing her stepmother. The California courts sentenced her harshly: twenty-four years to life. But in the wake of Cinnamon's murder conviction, thanks in part to two determined lawmen, the twisted private world of David Brown himself unfolded with astonishing clarity -- revealing a trail of perverse love, twisted secrets, and evil mind games. A complex and often dangerous investigation suggested a horrifying scenario: Was the seemingly bland David Brown really a stone-cold killer who convinced his own daughter to prove her love by killing for him? A man who turned young women into his own personal slaves, who collected nearly $1 million in insurance money, and married his dead wife's teenage sister, David Brown was a sociopath who would stop at nothing...a deadly charmer who almost got away with everything.

In It's Just the Way It Was: Inside the War on the New England Mob and other stories, Joe Broadmeadow and Brendan Doherty take you inside the investigations, covert surveillances, and murky world of informants in the war against Organized Crime.

Make no mistake about it, it was a war targeting the insidious nature of the mob and their detrimental effect on Rhode Island and throughout New England.
Indeed, the book reveals the extensive nature of Organized Crime throughout the United States.

From the opening moments detailing a mob enforcer's near death in a hail of gunfire to the potentially deadly confrontation between then Detective Brendan Doherty and a notorious mob associate, Gerard Ouimette, this book puts you right there in the middle.

Most books on the mob tell a sanitized story of guys who relished their time as mobsters. As Nicholas Pileggi, author of "Wiseguys," put it, "most mob books are the egomaniacal ravings of an illiterate hood masquerading as a benevolent godfather."

This is not that kind of book. This is the story of the good guys.

It's just the way it was.

Donald MacNeil was teaching sailing in the north of England when he was hired to skipper a yacht across the Mediterranean. The pay was good and the work was easy--or so he thought. But the truth was soon revealed: He had to sail the Atlantic to South America to collect one of the biggest hauls of cocaine ever bound for the United Kingdom.

Realizing he knew too much about the gangsters who had hired him, he saw that refusal wasn't an option. There followed a harrowing journey to Venezuela, where almost £50 million of coke was waiting. But before they could escape, MacNeil and his fellow crewman were arrested. They were found guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced to six years in the notorious island prison of San Antonio.

MacNeil soon discovered why Venezuela's prisons are the most violent in the world, with hundreds killed every year in riots, vendettas, and petty disputes. Thrown into a filthy, overcrowded dormitory and surrounded by armed gangs and crack addicts, he faced a daily fight to survive. Ferocious guards beat prisoners indiscriminately, and many cut themselves in "blood strikes" to protest against the scarce food, undrinkable water, and lack of medical care. Finally, a war broke out between the two prison compounds, involving guns, machetes, and even grenades.

Through it all, MacNeil clung to the belief that one day he would be home. Journey To Hell is a harrowing but compelling account of one man's extraordinary will to survive in a world gone mad.

Donald MacNeil has worked as a sailing instructor and in mountain rescue. He is currently rebuilding his life in Scotland.