Lawyer X by Patrick Carlyon; Anthony Dowsley (As told to)

$34.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

nderbelly meets Molly's Game - the true crime investigation that rewrote the story of Melbourne's infamous gangland war and triggered a royal commission. Melbourne's gangland war was an era dominated by murders, stings, hits, drug busts, corruption and greed - inspiring bestselling books and even a pop ular TV series, Underbelly. It took the police a decade to curtail the violence and bring down criminal kingpins Carl Williams, Tony Mokbel and their accomplices. When the police finally closed the case file, just how they really won the war, with the help of an unlikely police informer, would become a closely guarded secret and its exposure, the biggest legal scandal of our time. Lawyer X is the scandalous, true story of how a promising defence barrister from a privileged background broke all the rules - becoming both police informer and her client's lover - sharing their secrets and shaping the gangland war that led to sensational arrests and convictions. The story of how Nicola Gobbo became Lawyer X, and why, is a compelling study in desperation and determination. Lawyer X is the definitive story of Melbourne's gangland wars and its most glamorous and compelling central character, based on the ground-breaking work of investigative journalists Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon, who broke the story for the Herald Sun in 2014, and their five-year struggle to reveal the truth about the identity of Lawyer X. ...Show more

The Schoolgirl Strangler by Katherine Kovacic

$32.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

The shocking true story of a serial killer in 1930s Melbourne.  

Son of Escobar: First Born by Roberto Sendoya Escobar

$29.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

Pablo Escobar was the most notorious drug lord the world has ever seen. He became one of the ten richest men on the planet and controlled 80 per cent of the global cocaine trade before he was shot dead in 1993. This is the long-awaited autobiography of his eldest son, Roberto Sendoya Escobar. His story opens with two helicopter gunships, filled with heavily armed Colombian Special forces personnel led by an MI6 agent, flying into a small village on the outskirts of Bogota in Colombia. The secret mission to recover a stolen cash hoard, culminates in a bloody shoot-out with a group of young Pablo Escobar’s violent gangsters. Several of the men escape, including the young Escobar.As the dust settles in the house, only a little baby is left alive. His distressing cries can be heard as his young mother lies dead beside him. That baby is the author, Roberto Sendoya Escobar. In a bizarre twist of fate, the top MI6 agent who led the mission, takes pity on the child and, eventually, ends up adopting him.Over the years, during his rise to prominence as the most powerful drug lord the world has ever known, Pablo Escobar tries, repeatedly, to kidnap his son. Flanked by his trusty bodyguards, the child, unaware of his true identity, is allowed regular meetings with Escobar and it becomes apparent that the British government is working covertly with the gangster in an attempt to control the money laundering and drug trades.Life becomes so dangerous, however, that the author is packed off from the family mansion in Bogota to an English public school. Many years later in England, as Roberto’s adopted father lies dying in hospital, he hands his son a coded piece of paper which, he says, reveals the secret hiding place of the 'Escobar Missing millions' the world has been searching for! ...Show more

The Last Days of John Lennon by James Patterson

$32.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

John Lennon achieved with the Beatles a level of superstardom that defied classification. "We were the best bloody band there was," he said. "There was nobody to touch us."   In the summer of 1980, Lennon signs with a label and hires a top producer to recruit the best session musicians, ready to re cord new music for the first time in years. They are awestruck when Lennon dashes off "(Just Like) Starting Over." Lennon is back in peak form, with his best songwriting since "Imagine."   The Last Days of John Lennon is the amazing story of John Lennon's life and career, from his earliest days and first songs up to his last seconds. It tells the story of the most profound rock-and-roll genius of all time-and of Mark David Chapman, the consummate Nowhere Man who took him from us. Enriched by exclusive interviews with Lennon's friends and associates, including Paul McCartney, the book is a true-crime drama about two men who changed history. One whose indelible songs still enrich our lives today-and the other who ended the beautiful music with five pulls of a trigger.   ...Show more

The First Time He Hit Her by Heidi Lemon

$32.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

Pure Narco by Jesse Fink; Luis Navia

$34.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

It's a life story that reads like something out of a John Grisham or Elmore Leonard novel that it's remarkable it has remained untold for so long. Careers in the cocaine-trafficking business are usually short. It's not only a dangerous profession, fraught with the possibility of capture and long jail se ntences, but it can be deadly if the cartels get to you first. Not for Luis Antonio Navia. For 25 years the Cuban-American smuggled hundreds of tons of white powder for the biggest cartels in Colombia and Mexico, including Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel. In a profession populated by thugs, Navia's dress sense and good manners earned him the nickname 'El Senador' (The Senator). He refused to carry a weapon. What made him good at his job was amassing trusted contacts, losing very few shipments of coke, and keeping a low profile. He also maintained a normal family life with a Colombian wife and two young children. But he was never far removed from the most brutal violence imaginable. One friend got his head cut off. Another was hit over the head, put in a 55-gallon drum full of cement and dumped in a canal. Navia himself was kidnapped three times and went close to being fed alive to crocodiles. Somehow through it all he managed to survive and spent two decades fooling the DEA and other law-enforcement agencies. That was until he came under the radar of Robert Harley, a tenacious US Customs special agent in Key West, Florida, who was determined to bring him to justice. What followed was an international game of cat-and-mouse that culminated in Navia's 2000 arrest in Venezuela in one of the biggest antinarcotics takedowns of all time, the 12-nation Operation Journey. Spanning decades, continents and featuring a who's who of the drug trade, Pure Narco is a fast-paced adventure ride into the dark underworld of cocaine trafficking, written with the cooperation of a dozen law-enforcement agents from the world's top antinarcotics forces in the United States and Great Britain. It also contains insider insights into how the global drug business operates and offers some cogent solutions to the never-ending 'war on drugs'. Navia served his time in jail and is now free to tell his tale. His is the rare perspective of someone who has worked on both sides of that war- as a cocaine trafficker and US Government consultant. This book is a redemption story. Luis Navia, the pure narco, has gone full circle. ...Show more

El Jefe: The Stalking of Chapo Guzman by Alan Feuer

$32.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

"As portrayed in the hit Netflix series Narcos, Guzman was the most legendary and notorious of the deadly Mexican cartel leaders. As leader of the deadly Sinaloa drug cartel, he was one of the most dangerous men in the world. His nickname El Chapo translates as ‘shorty’, but there was no que stion about his power as El Jefe, ‘The Boss’. His fearless climb to power, his brutality, his charm, his taste for luxury, his penchant for disguise, his multiple dramatic prison escapes, his unlikely encounters with Sean Penn—all of these burnished the image of the world's most famous outlaw. It’s not surprising that his story inspired the writers of a top-rating drama. El Chapo’s Robin Hood-like appearances at rural Mexican restaurants to the unlikely role a twenty-four year old ‘IT guy’ played in his downfall – make for a surprising, cinematic story. He was finally captured by US and Mexican law enforcement in a daring operation years in the making. From El Chapo's humble origins to his conviction in a Brooklyn courthouse, this is the definitive story of his life by the New York Times criminal justice reporter Alan Feuer's whose gripping coverage of his trial went viral. There will be other ‘El Chapo’ narratives, but author Alan Feuer is in a unique position. Feuer’s mastery of the complex facts of the case, his unparalleled access to confidential sources in law enforcement in both the US and Mexico, and his powerful understanding of disturbing larger themes—what this one man's life says about drugs, walls, class and money —will ensure that this is the one book to read about ‘El Chapo’. " ...Show more

One Punch by Barry Dickins

$29.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

In One Punch Barry Dickins reflects on the many types of violence that can now affect everyday life. In his heartfelt exploration of the subject, Barry talks to many of the people whom this violence impacts, including the parents of children who have been killed, professionals in the justice system , and children who live in communities where violence is rife. He looks at how the world has changed in his lifetime and discusses where we are going as a society. ...Show more

These Are Not Gentle People by Andrew Harding

$32.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

Land. Race. Murder. Betrayal. The true story of a case that broke a South African town - by BBC Africa Correspondent "A smartly paced true-crime thriller with a vivid cast of characters . . . as tense as it is disturbing" JOHN CARLIN, author of Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation "Look what the fucking dogs did to them, someone muttered. No-one mentioned the rope, or the monkey-wrench, or the gun, or the knife, or the stick, or the whip, or the blood-stained boots. In fact, no-one said much at all. It seemed simpler that way. There was no sense in pointing fingers.'" At dusk, on a warm evening in 2016, a group of forty men gathered in the corner of a dusty field on a farm outside Parys in the Free State. Some were in fury. Others treated the whole thing as a joke - a game. The events of the next two hours would come to haunt them all. They would rip families apart, prompt suicide attempts, breakdowns, divorce, bankruptcy, threats of violent revenge and acts of unforgivable treachery. These Are Not Gentle People is the story of that night, and of what happened next. It's a murder story, a courtroom drama, a profound exploration of collective guilt and individual justice, and a fast-paced literary thriller. Award-winning foreign correspondent and author Andrew Harding traces the impact of one moment of collective barbarism on a fragile community - exploding lies, cover-ups, political meddling and betrayals, and revealing the inner lives of those involved with extraordinary clarity. The book is also a mesmerising examination of a small town trying to cope with a trauma that threatens to tear it in two - as such, it is as much a journey into the heart of modern South Africa as it is a gripping tale of crime, punishment and redemption. When a whole community is on trial, who pays the price? ...Show more

The Doctor Who Fooled the World: Andrew Wakefield by Brian Deer

$35.00 AUD

Category: True Crime

Award-winning investigative reporter Brian Deer reveals the shocking truth behind the rise of Andrew Wakefield  the so-called father of the anti-vaccine movement. In February 1998, a then-unknown British doctor, Andrew Wakefield, published an explosive scientific paper in a top medical journal, Th e Lancet. Researching twelve developmentally challenged children, he claimed to have found evidence that MMR, the lifesaving three-in-one vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella, was causing a frightening 'new syndrome' of autism and bowel disease. As a result, a generation of young parents were terrified, and vaccination rates plummeted. In The Doctor Who Fooled the World, Brian Deer cuts to the heart of the most damaging medical conspiracy of our time. The only journalist to crack Wakefield's secrets, Deer explains how he gained legal access to patients' records, uncovering the truth about their histories and diagnoses, His landmark fifteen-year inquiry saw Wakefield struck from the medical register, his research retracted, and his claims about MMR dubbed 'an elaborate fraud'. In this riveting detective story, Deer lays bare the rigged research, secret business schemes, and financial and commercial conflicts of interest that lay behind Wakefield's original false claims - and the continuing smear campaigns that have aimed to keep the truth hidden. Now resurrected in the United States, Wakefield dominates a broader international anti-vaccine campaign, exporting his claims everywhere. Alarmingly, widespread outbreaks of measles have returned to threaten children's health. As before, the facts don't fit the story, but that hasn't got in the way of Wakefield's new campaign. 'Brian Deer is the world's foremost authority on Andrew Wakefield.' -Dr Peter J. Hotez, PhD, Baylor College of Medicine, author of Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism ...Show more

Dead Man Walking: The Murky World of Michael Mcgurk and Ron Medich by Kate McClymont

$22.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

We all know Sydney is full of corruption and crime, but none of us expected to read about a Sydney businessman being shot in the back of his head, in his driveway, in front of his nine-year-old son, in Cremorne. Nor that the order would come from a Point Piper millionaire. Kate McClymont is Australia's best-known investigative journalist. Kate and McGurk received intel that he was going to be 'hit'. Before the two could meet, McGurk was murdered. Kate and her family also received death threats and were moved to a hotel for a few days. This story involves bumbling criminals, turncoats, snitches, miniature korans, developers, wealthy people brought down, and devastated families. It unpacks the structures of our major cities and asks some big big questions. Multiple Walkley-winner Kate tells it with pace and character and her insider status. ...Show more

Bowraville (PB) by Dan Box

$34.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

A true crime story cannot often be believed, at least at the beginning. In Bowraville, all three of the victims were Aboriginal. All three were killed within five months, between 1990 and 1991. The same white man was linked to each, but nobody was convicted. More than two decades later, homicide detecti ve Gary Jubelin contacted Dan Box, asking him to pursue this serial killing. At that time, few others in the justice system seemed to know – or care – about the murders in Bowraville. Dan spoke to the families of the victims, Colleen Walker-Craig, Evelyn Greenup and Clinton Speedy-Duroux, as well as the lawyers, police officers and even the suspect involved in what had happened. His investigation, as well as the families’ own determined campaigning, forced the authorities to reconsider the killings. This account asks painful questions about what ‘justice’ means and how it is delivered, as well as describing Dan’s own shifting, uncomfortable realisation that he was a reporter who crossed the line. Praise for the Bowraville podcast- 'It is a gripping true crime tale and an essay on racism; a challenge to the lies Australia tells itself about its treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people told through the voices of three Aboriginal families who have been indisputably let down ... The podcast has galvanised the public in a way that two decades of print and television reporting on the Bowraville murders have not.' The Guardian 'A masterful example of crime reporting which forensically details the worst of human nature, inexplicably compounded by the gross negligence of the only people who could provide justice. It's stirred thousands, including the prime suspect, to re-engage with the case after trusting the journalist to take them to dark places.' Walkley judges' comments 'Outstanding.' Leigh Sales 'Moving, brilliant.' Annabel Crabb 'If you haven't listened to Bowraville by Dan Box, then you should.' David Campbell ...Show more