“Anything by Phelps is always an eye-opening experience.” —Suspense MagazineSheila Davalloo was young, attractive, and successful. When she started a new job at a cutting-edge research lab in Stamford, Connecticut, she met the man of her dreams. Nelson Sessler had no idea how violently Sheila would react when he began seeing a co-worker, Anna Lisa Raymundo. Sheila eliminated her rival in a bloody knife attack—and then turned her rage on another victim she saw as an obstacle to her passions. M. Williams Phelps recounts the riveting story of a white-collar love triangle gone horribly wrong…and the terrifying infatuation that drove one woman to kill.“Phelps is the Harlan Coben of real-life thrillers.” —Allison Brennan“M. William Phelps dares to tread where few others will: into the mind of a killer.” —TV Rage

OBSESSED

Biographies & Memoirs

M.William Phelps

True Crime

BRILLIANCE AUDIO ^

I'd Kill For You

After her mother's untimely death, Clara Schwartz became distant, withdrawn. Her father, a renowned DNA researcher, lived in a farmhouse outside Leesburg, Virginia, where in December 2001 he was fatally stabbed by what seemed to be a ninja-style sword. Police arrested Kyle Hulbert, a troubled teen―and aspiring vampire. Kyle was Clara's friend, one of a circle obsessed with role-playing games.Drawing on exclusive interviews with the killer, bestselling author M. William Phelps reveals a frightening subculture, the tragic collision of two young people's dark worlds, and its deadly consequences.

Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio

Few Americans know much more about Nathan Hale than his famous last words: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” But who was the real Nathan Hale? M. William Phelps charts the life of this famed patriot and Connecticut’s state hero, following Hale’s rural childhood, his education at Yale, and his work as a schoolteacher. Even in his brief career, he distinguished himself by offering formal lessons to young women. Like many young Americans, he soon became drawn into the colonies’ war for independence, becoming a captain in Washington’s army. When the general was in need of a spy, Hale willingly rose to the challenge, bravely sacrificing his life for the sake of American liberty. Using Hale’s own journals and letters as well as testimonies from his friends and contemporaries, Phelps depicts the Revolution as it was seen from the ground. From the confrontation in Boston to the battle for New York City, listeners experience what life was like for an ordinary soldier in the struggling Continental army. In this impressive, well-researched biography, Phelps separates historical fact from long-standing myth to reveal the life of Nathan Hale, a young man who deserves to be remembered as an original American patriot.

Nathan Hale

Historical

In September 2001, Carmen Rodriguez, a beautiful 32-year old Hartford mother of four, went missing. At first police were stymied…until a killer’s crucial mistake led investigators down a long, dark road of cold, calculated murder…  “Phelps is a first-rate investigator.” – Dr. Michael M. Baden  In 1987, single mother Mary Ellen Renard was strangled, repeatedly stabbed, and left for dead in her New Jersey apartment. Her vicious assailant had already killed once…and would kill again. But unlike the fiend’s other victims, Mary Ellen lived to tell the tale…  “Phelps gives readers an exclusive, insider’s look.” – Anne Bremner  Clean-cut, popular and on the fast track at a multinational computer firm, Rutgers grad Edwin “Ned” Snelgrove shocked friends and colleagues with a plea bargain for Renard’s brutal attack – and the heinous 1983 murder of college girlfriend Karen Osmun. Vowing never to be caught again, Ned spent his time in prison obsessively studying the violent career of his idol Ted Bundy…then was released ten years early for good behavior…  “Phelps proves that truth is more shocking than fiction.” – Allison Brennan  Unflinching and brilliantly researched, this is an exclusive tour into the twisted mind of an all-American killer…and a state attorney’s tireless efforts to lock him away forever.

I'll Be Watching You

Cruel Death

A life gone murderously wrong… Erika Sifrit was once a high school basketball star and an honors student. Then she married Navy SEAL Benjamin Sifrit. Some say Erika was abused by “B.J.” Some say she pulled his strings. But by the time they reached Ocean City, MD, Erika was packing a gun in her Coach bag and was caught in the grip of a new American death ride… A trail of blood and body parts… In the sun-kissed, sea-swept resort town, a loving couple crossed paths with Erika and B.J. Sifrit. Shortly thereafter, Erika was wearing a bloody wedding ring on her necklace, while what remained of two dismembered vacationers was buried in a Delaware landfill, and a modern-day “Bonnie and Clyde” story was being written – a lurid tale of madness, money, sex and murder… “[Phelps] shockingly reveals that unimaginable evil sometimes comes in pretty packages.” — Gregg Olsen “One of our most engaging crime journalists.” — Katherine Ramsland

The missing-persons case of Heather Strong, a young, beautiful suburban mother, baffled Florida detectives. When the file was handed to a veteran investigator, he knew Heather was dead. The challenge was to find her body—and whoever killed her. Soon, a sordid triangle of sex, jealousy, and rage came to light. The killers were cunning, manipulative, depraved—and they were as close to Heather as a man and a woman could possibly be. Vividly recreated by master investigative journalist M. William Phelps, this riveting account of seething small-town passions is a classic tale of crime and justice.

To Love and to Kill

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Cold StorageIn May 2003, an Arizona man who’d bought dozens of sealed boxes at an auction of unclaimed property made a horrifying discovery: the bodies of three plastic-wrapped infants, one of which had become mummified over the years. Police traced them to Dianne Odell, 50, a mother of eight children, who admitted the babies were hers but claimed that they’d died of natural causes.Justice DeferredIn 1989, police had found the remains of a long-dead infant in a suitcase in the trunk of a car Odell had abandoned. The statute of limitations on manslaughter had saved her then from prosecution. She maintained that the fetus was the product of a rape by her father, and stillborn.Baby-Killer’s FateOdell said her own domineering mother had forced her into teen prostitution and murdered what she viewed as “bastard children.” Both parents were dead and unable to contradict her. Would Odell’s stories sway the jury and buy her the mercy her babies were never granted? Or would she be forced to face the consequences of bringing innocent lives into the world – only to end them in cold blood....

The gripping tale of a legendary, century-old murder spree***
A silent, simmering killer terrorized New England in1911. As a terrible heat wave killed more than 2,000 people, another silent killer began her own murderous spree. That year a reporter for the Hartford Courant noticed a sharp rise in the number of obituaries for residents of a rooming house in Windsor, Connecticut, and began to suspect who was responsible: Amy Archer-Gilligan, who’d opened the Archer Home for Elderly People and Chronic Invalids four years earlier. “Sister Amy” would be accused of murdering both of her husbands and up to sixty-six of her patients with cocktails of lemonade and arsenic; her story inspired the Broadway hit Arsenic and Old Lace. 
The Devil’s Rooming House is the first book about the life, times, and crimes of America’s most prolific female serial killer. In telling this fascinating story, M. William Phelps also paints a vivid portrait of early-twentieth-century New England.

The Devils Rooming House The True Story of America's Deadliest Female Serial Killer

History

Americas

LYONS PRESS+

Love Her to Death

Pinnacel Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by M.William Phelps. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by M.William Phelps