Archives de catégorie : True Crime

EDEN UNDONE d’Abbott Kahler

With a mystery as alluring and exotic as the Galapagos itself, EDEN UNDONE explores the universal and timeless desire to seek Utopia—and how human fallibility renders such a quest doomed.

EDEN UNDONE:
A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II
by Abbott Kahler
Crown, Fall 2024
(via Writers House)

In December 1934, at the height of the Great Depression, Los Angeles oil mogul George Allan Hancock and his crew of Smithsonian scientists came upon a gruesome scene: two bodies, mummified by the searing heat, on the shore of a remote Galapagos island. The deaths, though shocking, seemed inevitable. For the past four years Hancock had been traveling to the Galapagos, as had other wealthy, prominent Americans, to collect specimens for scientific research. On his first trip, Hancock was surprised to discover an equally exotic group of humans: European exiles who had fled political and economic unrest, hoping to create a Utopian paradise. One was so devoted to a life of isolation that he’d had his teeth extracted and replaced with a set of steel dentures.

As Hancock and his fellow American explorers would witness, the paradise suffered from chaos. The three sets of exiles—a Berlin doctor and his lover, a traumatized World War I veteran and his young family, and an Austrian Baroness with two adoring lovers—turned against each other. Petty slights led to angry confrontations. The Baroness, wielding a riding crop and pearl-handled revolver, staged physical fights between her two lovers, seduced American tourists, and threatened a friend of businessman and philanthropist Vincent Astor. The conclusion was deadly: two exiles missing and two others dead, with the survivors hurling accusations of murder.

Using never-before-published archives, and set against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the march to World War II, Abbott Kahler weaves a chilling, stranger-than-fiction tale worthy of Agatha Christie. With a mystery as alluring and exotic as the Galapagos itself, EDEN UNDONE explores the universal and timeless desire to seek Utopia—and how human fallibility renders such a quest doomed.

Abbott Kahler, formerly writing as Karen Abbott, is the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City; American Rose; Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy; and The Ghosts of Eden Park, which was an Edgar Award finalist for best fact crime and a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award. Her debut novel, Where You End, was published January 2024.

THE BARN de Wright Thompson

A shocking and revelatory account of the murder of Emmett Till that lays bare how forces from around the world converged on the Mississippi Delta in the long lead-up to the crime, and how the truth was erased for so long.

THE BARN
The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi
by Wright Thompson
Penguin Press, September 2024
(via David Black Literary Agency)

Wright Thompson’s family farm in Mississippi is 23 miles from the site of one of the most notorious and consequential killings in American history, yet he had to leave the state for college before he learned the first thing about it. To this day, fundamental truths about the crime are widely unknown, including where it took place and how many people were involved. This is no accident: the cover-up began at once, and it is ongoing.

In August 1955, two men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were charged with the torture and murder of the 14-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi. After their inevitable acquittal in a mockery of justice, they gave a false confession to a journalist, which was misleading about where the long night of hell took place and who was involved. In fact, Wright Thompson reveals, at least eight people can be placed at the scene, which was inside the barn of one of the killers, on a plot of land within the six-square-mile grid whose official name is Township 22 North, Range 4 West, Section 2, West Half, fabled in the Delta of myth as the birthplace of the blues on nearby Dockery Plantation.

Even in the context of the racist caste regime of the time, the four-hour torture and murder of a Black boy barely in his teens for whistling at a young white woman was acutely depraved; Till’s mother Mamie Till-Mobley’s decision to keep the casket open seared the crime indelibly into American consciousness. Wright Thompson has a deep understanding of this story—the world of the families of both Emmett Till and his killers, and all the forces that aligned to place them together on that spot on the map. As he shows, the full horror of the crime was its inevitability, and how much about it we still need to understand. Ultimately this is a story about property, and money, and power, about white supremacy. It implicates all of us. In THE BARN, Thompson meets the few people who have been engaged in the hard, fearful business of bringing the truth to light, people like Wheeler Parker, Emmett Till’s friend, who came down from Chicago with him that summer, and is the last person alive to know him well. Wheeler Parker’s journey to put the killing floor of the barn on the map of Township 22 North, Range 4 West, Section 2, West Half, and the Delta, and America, is a journey we all need to go on if this country is to heal from its oldest, deepest wound.

Wright Thompson is a senior writer for ESPN and the bestselling author of Pappyland and The Cost of These Dreams. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi with his family.

THE DARKROOM d’A.J. Hewitt

In the tradition of Unnatural Causes, When the Dogs Don’t Bark and All That Remains, this is a true crime book full of the wisdom that can be found in the darkness.

THE DARKROOM
Case Files of a Scotland Yard Forensic Photographer
by A.J. Hewitt
Orion, February 2024
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)

For years, A.J. Hewitt was the first person into a crime scene. Before the detectives and the forensics team it was her alone with the body, the only sound her flashes firing as they lit up scenes of unimaginable horror. It was her job to shoot the photographs that revealed the circumstances of someone’s final moments.

Now in her debut book, THE DARKROOM, Hewitt takes us into the shadowy world of the crime scene photographer, and recounts remarkable tales, from murders to suicides, accidents to assassinations.

“An incredible insight into the work of a crime scene photographer told with sensitivity and compassion, but also with the forensic acuity of an experienced professional. The autobiographical style used to tell stories of crime scenes and crimes is compelling and incredibly readable. It becomes clear the crucial role that crime scene photography plays in not only documenting the evidence, but in aiding the solving of crimes. A must read for anyone interested in the darker side of human criminality and the work of forensic investigators.” — Professor Jane Monckton- Smith, author of In Control: Dangerous Relationships and How They End in Murder

“THE DARKROOM is an absolutely riveting read. It is a compelling book that works on so many levels. An authentic and sensitive account of the impact and aftermath of crime that will appeal to true crime readers and crime fiction authors, it also has wide appeal as a human story that charts A.J. Hewitt’s touching journey as the outsider turned insider and her struggle to prevent herself being changed by her experiences as a Police Forensic Photographer for New Scotland Yard. A unique book that offers a unique perspective. Highly recommended.” — Adam Hamdy, screenwriter and bestselling author of The Other Side of Night

“Passionate and empathetic, Hewitt speeds across London from one site of murder and mayhem to the next, always another crime scene coming, always more brutalized dead to bring to light and into focus. The great city grinds on, never seeing or knowing of these, her haunted stories selected from decades of skilled photographic investigative work for Scotland Yard.” — Judy Melinek & T.J. Mitchell, authors of Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner, a New York Times bestseller

A.J. Hewitt is a professionally trained photographer who spent almost a decade as a forensic photographer with New Scotland Yard. Hewitt studied photography and design at art college and subsequently graduated (with distinction) with a Bachelor of Arts (double major) degree. Insatiably curious and a lifelong learner, she is in the final stage of completing a psychology degree. She is a voracious reader, an open water scuba diver and has travelled widely, with her cameras, on four continents. She’s a storyteller at heart, whether through her camera lens or with a pencil and paper.

KILLER STORY de Claire St. Amant

Behind the scenes of every major murder story, there is an entirely separate drama playing out in newsrooms across the country.

KILLER STORY
by Claire St. Amant
BenBella Books, February 2025
(via Laura Dail Literary Agency)

If you pictured Apple TV’s The Morning Show taking place on the set of 48 Hours, you’d have Claire St. Amant’s behind-the-scenes memoir, KILLER STORY. Diving into her time as a true crime television producer, Claire reveals the inner workings of national TV murder coverage, narrating and investigating the twisting cases themselves, while also detailing her personal journey in mainstream network news.

Claire St. Amant is the host of the true crime podcast, Final Days on Earth, which has over 1.4 million downloads since its launch in 2021. She was part of the breaking news team nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for “Bringing a Nation Together,” a special report on the Dallas Police shooting. She has written for CBS News, the Wall Street Journal, Houston Chronicle, and D Magazine. She has earned many writing accolades, including two Dallas Bar Association Stephen Philbin Awards for excellence in legal reporting. She lives in Dallas, Texas.

Nominations aux Edgar Awards 2024

L’association Mystery Writers of America vient d’annoncer sa sélection pour la 78e édition des Edgar Allan Poe Awards, qui récompenseront les meilleurs ouvrages de « mystery fiction & nonfiction » publiés en 2023. La cérémonie de remise des prix aura lieu en mai prochain. Notre agence est heureuse de représenter plusieurs des titres dans différentes catégories :

BEST NOVEL:

ALL THE SINNERS BLEED de S.A. Cosby
publié en janvier 2024 aux éditions Sonatine
sous le titre LE SANG DES INNOCENTS

« En trois romans, S. A. Cosby s’est imposé comme une voix incontournable et un maître incontestable du thriller américain. Après Les Routes oubliées et La Colère, Le Sang des innocents vient confirmer son talent pour les intrigues denses et sous pression, les personnages déchirés et un regard remarquablement lucide sur l’Amérique et les dépossédés qu’elle coule dans son sillage. »

*

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR:

SMALL TOWN SINS
de Ken Jaworowski
Henry Holt & Co., août 2023

Les droits de langue française sont toujours disponibles

“A gripping Rust Belt thriller that captures the characters of a down-and-out Pennsylvania town, revealing their troubled pasts and the crimes that could cost them their lives.”

THE GOLDEN GATE
d’Amy Chua
Minotaur Books, septembre 2023

Les droits de langue française sont toujours disponibles

“A sweeping, evocative, and compelling historical thriller that paints a vibrant portrait of a California buffeted by the turbulent crosswinds of a world at war and a society about to undergo massive change.”

*

BEST FACT CRIME:

NUMBER GO UP: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall
de Zeke Faux
Crown Currency, septembre 2023

Les droits de langue française sont toujours disponibles

“The “rollicking” (The Economist), “masterfully written” (The Washington Post) account of the crypto delusion, and how Sam Bankman-Fried and a cast of fellow nerds and hustlers turned useless virtual coins into trillions of dollars—hailed by Ezra Klein in The New York Times as “One of the Best Books that Explain Where We Are in 2023.”