The Phillip Island Murder by Vikki Petraitis; Paul Daley

$19.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

The discovery of the body of Beth Barnard in her Phillip Island farmhouse in 1986, began a homicide investigation that rocked a peaceful community. It also created an enduring mystery, for no one was ever brought to trial for her brutal death, and the main suspect disappeared - never to be seen again. Beth Barnard, a popular and attractive 23-year-old, had been having an affair with a local married man. On the night of her brutal murder, a car belonging to Vivienne Cameron - wife of Beth's lover - was found abandoned near the bridge that connects the famous tourist island to the mainland. No trace of Vivienne was ever found, and her disappearance has never been adequately explained. Nevertheless, a Coroner's Court found that Vivienne had killed her rival then jumped to her death into the waters of Westernport Bay. The case was closed but not forgotten. Ever since their first edition of The Phillip Island Murder, in 1993, Vikki Petraitis and Paul Daley have been regularly contacted by people wanting to know more; people who, like the authors, let the case get under their skin. More than three decades later the mystery, rumours and arm-chair solutions continue. ...Show more

Barrenjoey Road by Ruby Jones; Neil Mercer (As told to)

$34.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

A gripping expose of a notorious cold case 1978. An idyllic beachside community. A series of abductions and rapes. So what happened to Trudie Adams? The disappearance of 18-year-old Trudie Adams while hitchhiking home on Sydney's northern beaches in 1978 left her family and community devastated. When police began to investigate, the dark underbelly of the so-called 'insular peninsula' was exposed, where surfers ran drugs home from Bali, teenagers hitchhiked everywhere due to the lack of public transport, gangs of men prowled the beaches and the roads, and predators abducted and raped countless young women, crimes rarely reported or investigated. Inspired by the award-winning #1 podcast and ABC TV series and containing new revelations never previously revealed, Barrenjoey Road is the gripping expose of why the case was never solved. It takes us all the way to the top, from a criminal perpetrator with a lifelong record and links to organised crime who was never formally accused, to police corruption at the highest level. ...Show more

The Missing Among Us: Stories of missing persons and those left behind by Erin Stewart

$32.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

In Australia 38 000 people are reported missing each year and in the US it's over 600 000. In the UK someone is reported missing every 90 seconds. Many of these cases are never resolved. Blending long-form journalism with true crime and philosophy,The Missing Among Ustakes us from the Australian bush to the battlefields of Northern France and the perilous space of a refugee camp to explore the stories of the missing. Erin Stewart speaks to parents of missing children, former cult members, detectives and investigators, advocates working on the crisis of missing refugees, a child of the Stolen Generations and many more to trace the mysterious world of missing persons. Examining famous cases like that of Madeleine McCann to those who are lesser known yet equally loved and mourned, this unique book forces us to see the complex story behind each missing person and those they leave behind.'The Missing Among Us will wrench your heart while it stretches your mind. Erin Stewart has undertaken a large inquiry, encompassing personal investigation, historical events, true crime, untold and untellable mysteries, while never losing sight of the emotional distress at the core of every missing person's story. This is a rare book from a gifted writer: intelligent yet poignant, enlightening yet deeply disturbing.' — Malcolm Knox'The Missing Among Us is illuminating, profound and wise. Stewart is a distinct new voice and her inquiry into the gaps and absences so many of us try to gloss over is intelligent, gentle and brave.' — Anna Krien'A deeply moving and insightful exploration of the concept of "missingness". Erin Stewart brings compassion and informed understanding to these hugely diverse stories of personal loss, resilience and advocacy.' — Siobhán McHugh'Nothing goes unnoticed in this beautifully written and thought-provoking exploration that will enlighten and enthral.' — Loren O'Keeffe, founder of the Missing Persons Advocacy Network ...Show more

The Stranger Beside Me - The Inside Story of Serial Killer Ted Bundy by Ann Rule

$24.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

The Inside Story of Serial Killer Ted Bundy Ann Rule was a writer working on the biggest story of her life, tracking down a brutal mass-murderer. Little did she know that the young man who was her close friend was the savage slayer she was hunting . . . TED BUNDY was everyone's picture of a natural 'win ner' - handsome, charming, brilliant in law school, successful with women, on the verge of a dazzling career. Fast-forward to 24 January 1989, Ted Bundy is executed. He had confessed to taking the lives of at least thirty-five young women, coast to coast. This is his story: the story of his magnetic power, his unholy compulsion, his demonic double life and his string of helpless victims. It was written by a woman who thought she knew Ted Bundy, until she began to put all the evidence together and the whole terrifying picture emerged . . . As recommended by the hosts of the podcast My Favorite Murder. Fascinating further reading for viewers of the Netflix documentary Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. ...Show more

Stalking Claremont by Bret Christian

$32.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

  The gripping true story of the notorious Claremont serial murders and the nation's longest and most expensive investigation to catch the killer In the space of just over year in 1996-7, three young women disappeared from Claremont, an upmarket suburb in central Perth. When two of the young women were found murdered, Australia's longest and most expensive investigation was established. More than twenty years later, an unlikely suspect was arrested based on forensic evidence that also linked the murders to two previous vicious rapes. The Claremont Killings, by local newsman Bret Christian, is a riveting story of young lives cut short, a city in panic, an investigation riddled with error and incompetence, and a surprising twist that absolutely no one saw coming. ...Show more

I Catch Killers by Jubelin, Gary

$34.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

Serial killings, child abductions, organised crime hits and domestic murders. This is the memoir of a homicide detective. Here I am: tall and broad, shaved head, had my nose broken three times fighting. Black suit, white shirt, the big city homicide detective. I've led investigations into serial killing s, child abductions, organised crime hits and domestic murders. But beneath the suit, I've got an Om symbol in the shape of a Buddha tattooed on my right bicep. It balances the tattoo on my left ribs: Better to die on your feet than live on your knees. That's how I choose to live my life.As a cop, I got paid to catch killers and I learned what doing it can cost you. It cost me marriages and friendships. It cost me my reputation. They tell you not to let a case get personal, but I think it has to. Each one has taken a piece out of me and added a piece, until there's only pieces. I catch killers - it's what I do. It's who I am.Gary Jubelin was one of Australia's most celebrated homicide detective, leading investigations into the disappearance of William Tyrrell, the serial killing of three Aboriginal children in Bowraville and the brutal gangland murder of Terry Falconer. During his 34-year career, former Detective Chief Inspector Jubelin also ran the crime scene following the Lindt Cafe siege, investigated the death of Caroline Byrne and recovered the body of Matthew Leveson. In 2020, Jubelin was found guilty of illicitly recording conversations during the Tyrrell investigation. This is his story. ...Show more

The Altar Boys by Suzanne Smith

$34.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

Boys with everything to live for ... A community betrayed ... The whistle-blower priest who paid the ultimate price Glen Walsh and Steven Alward were childhood friends in their tight-knit working-class community in Shortland, on the outskirts of Newcastle, New South Wales. Both proud altar boys at the local Catholic church, they went on to attend the city's Catholic boys' highs schools: Glen to Marist Brothers and Steven to St Pius X. Both did well: Steven became a journalist; Glen a priest. But when Glen discovered another priest was sexually abusing boys, he reported the offending to police, breaking Canon Law and his vows to the Catholic 'brotherhood' in the process. Just weeks before he was due to give evidence at a key trial against the highest cleric to ever be charged with covering up child abuse, Father Glen Walsh was dead. Two months later, his friend Steven also died, only weeks before he was to marry the love of his life. Ensuing investigations revealed that at least 60 men in the region had taken their own lives. Why? What had happened, and why were so many from the three Catholic high schools in the area? By six-time Walkley Award-winning investigative reporter Suzanne Smith, The Altar Boys is the powerful expose of widespread and organised clerical abuse of children in an Australian city, and how the cover-up in the Catholic Church in Australia extended from parish priests to every echelon of the organisation. Focusing on two childhood friends, their families and community, this gripping and explosive story is backed by secret documents, diary notes and witness accounts, and details a deliberate church strategy of using psychological warfare against witnesses in key trials involving paedophile priests. ...Show more

The Schoolgirl Strangler by Katherine Kovacic

$29.99 AUD

$32.99 (9% off)

Category: True Crime

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

Marching Powder (PB) by Rusty Young

$19.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

San Pedro is Bolivia's most notorious prison. Small-time drug smuggler Thomas McFadden found himself on the inside. Marching Powder is the story of how he navigated this dark world of gangs, drugs and corruption to come out on top.Thomas found himself in a bizarre world, the prison reflecting all that i s wrong with South American society. Prisoners have to pay an entrance fee and buy their own cells (the alternative is to sleep outside and die of exposure), prisoners' wives and children often live inside too, high quality cocaine is manufactured and sold from the prison.Thomas ended up making a living by giving backpackers tours of the prison - he became a fixture on the backpacking circuit and was named in the Lonely Planet guide to Bolivia. When he was told that for a bribe of $5000 his sentence could be overturned, it was the many backpackers who'd passed through who sent him the money. Written by lawyer Rusty Young, Marching Powder - sometimes shocking, sometimes funny, is a riveting story of survival. ...Show more

Hotel Kerobokan by Kathryn Bonella

$19.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

From the internationally bestselling author of Snowing in Bali and Operation Playboy and co-author of Schapelle Corby's autobiography, this is the shocking inside story of Bali's most notorious jail."A fascinating insight into the prison, Hotel Kerobokan included shocking testimonies and black humour" I rish Examiner"Bonella casts a cool, journalistic eye over some horrific events" Sun HeraldWelcome to Hotel Kerobokan, the ironic nickname for Kerobokan Jail, Bali's most notorious prison, which has been home to a procession of the infamous and tragic: the Bali Bombers, Gold Coast beautician Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine, among many others.Backed up by hundreds of prisoner interviews, the truth about Hotel Kerobokan explodes off the page. In these filthy and disease-ridden cells, a United Nations of prisoners live crushed together in misery. Petty thieves and small-time drug users share cells with killers, rapists and gangsters. Hardened drug traffickers sleep alongside unlucky tourists, who've seen their holiday turn from paradise to hell over one ecstasy tablet.Hotel Kerobokan reveals the wild 'sex nights' organized by corrupt guards for prisoners who have the money to pay, the rampant drug use, the suicides and killings, and days out at the beach. It exposes the jail's role in supplying high-grade drugs to the outside, the gang that rules the jail through terror, the corruption that means anything is for sale, and the squalor and misery endured by prisoners. ...Show more

Cops, Drugs, Lawyer X and Me by Paul Dale; Vikki Petraitis

$32.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

'How did a kid from the country who dreamed of joining the Victoria Police, end up on the wrong side of the bars? There are a lot of reasons, and I hope this story will help clarify some of them, not only for you, the reader, but for me too, because a lot of the time I am left shaking my head, wondering how things went so wrong.' Paul Dale knows he is tainted. After almost fifteen years as a cop, working in Homicide and rising to the rank of Detective Sergeant in the Victorian Drug Squad, he had seen the worst of what people can do. But when he was accused and jailed firstly for drug offences and then for murder, Dale realised the murky world he was navigating was going to take him under too. In the Major Drug Investigative Division, Dale dealt with crims like Carl Williams, Terry Hodson and Tommy Ivanovic in the underbelly of Melbourne streets. But when a burglary ended in Hodson's arrest, Dale's life started to unravel. He turned to Nicola Gobbo, a lawyer and friend he thought could help: the lawyer who became known as Lawyer X. Eventually exonerated of any crimes, Paul Dale's story reveals the shocking deals done at the highest levels of the Victorian Police Force and the damage wrought by Victoria Police's use of Lawyer X. ...Show more

Shark Arm by Phillip Roope; Kevin Meagher

$32.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

Truth can be stranger than fiction. In a Coogee aquarium in 1935 a shark coughed up a man's tattooed arm. The authors of Shark Arm have unravelled an extraordinary tale of high-class smuggling around Sydney Harbour and police collusion that has eluded many investigations into this famous cold case.   ...Show more