The first biography in nearly a century of the legendary Revolutionary War patriot and our country’s first spy. Few Americans know much more about Nathan Hale than his famous last words: “I only regret that I have one life left to give 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, readers 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: The Life and Death of America's First Spy

Biographies & Memoirs

Phelps, M. William

Historical

Thomas Dunne Books

When 45-year-old Detective Linda Kane is called to investigate the disappearance of a local teenager, Cassie Caldwell, she is instantly triggered-thrust back to her best friend's disappearance 30 years ago. The new case rattles Royal Oaks, a quaint farming community in northern Connecticut, as Linda wrestles with both guilt and unanswered questions. With eerily similar circumstances, Linda must once again look into her own friend's death, bringing up present-day evil and a troubled relationship with her own daughter. Is there a dark side of Linda she has been afraid to confront? The nature of both disappearances suggests a Norman Rockwellian town harboring dark secrets, as Cassie's life exposes a pantheon of suspects who have reasons to hide behind bucolic bliss. Then, the brutalized body of a second teen is discovered behind Royal Oaks High School. As Linda delves further into Cassie's disappearance, she wonders if all three are the work of a disturbed serial killer who has returned after three decades. Who's next? Linda realizes time is running out-and wonders when the next body will show up. An anonymous tipster leads Linda and her team to Freddie Banks-a local Black bar owner, and Cassie's mother's former lover. In this mostly white town, racism beats an ugly drum as all fingers point to Freddie for the abduction and murder of Cassandra. Enter "Black Lives Matter." Linda is now dealing with police brutality and another shocking murder as Royal Oaks is divided along the line of racial ignorance. Working off a hunch that her mother's live-in boyfriend, and the mother herself, are behind Cassie's disappearance, Linda wonders if the answers might have been staring at her in the mirror the entire time. As Linda Kane gets close to finding the truth, after arresting Cassie's mother, she is drawn into a web of disturbing memories and twisted revelations-and the truth behind her best friend's disappearance 30 years before. A savage killer among them. There, in front of everyone the entire time, the killer is closer to Linda than she could have ever imagined. Now Linda must confront the past in order to resolve the demons of the present as the clues add up. The shocking conclusion leads to a far more dangerous truth than she can face.

The Girl Left Behind (A Linda Kane Thriller)

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Suspense Publishing

An unflinching investigation into an American tragedy details the high-profile case of Lisa Montgomery, who brutally attacked eight-months-pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett and kidnapped her unborn baby, revealing a woman with a tortured history of sexual abuse, abandonment, and desperation that molded her into a sociopath.

Murder in the Heartland

True Crime

Kensington Pub. Corp

Murder in the Heartland: Levi Edition

In this exploration of how the emotions of teenagers can sometimes lead to savage and senseless violence, an investigative journalist follows the case of Christine Paolilla, who brutally murdered four people with the help of her boyfriend, who later committed suicide.

Never See Them Again

Kensington

Devil's Right Hand: The Tragic Story Of The Colt Family Curse

The epic story of a great American dynasty, beset by scandal, tragedy, and a dark curseFrom the author of The Devil's Rooming House and the New York Times Bestseller Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America's First Spy comes the horrific legacy of death and destruction in the gunmaking Colt family during the nineteenth century, a legacy largely remembered for a lurid murder case that inspired Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Oblong Box”—but one that encompassed so much more. . . .
M. William Phelps reveals an unfathomable pattern surrounding repeating arms inventor Samuel Colt—from the death of all the Colt children, including Sam’s sea captain son’s mysterious demise aboard his yacht, to the eccentric and pious life of Sam Colt’s widow. But the tip of this iceberg was the 1841-42 murder case of John C. Colt, one of New York’s most sensational scandals. Printer Samuel Adams went to collect a debt from bookkeeper and author John Colt and was never seen alive again. Shocking revelations followed: Did John shoot Adams with one of his brother’s Colt firearms before hacking him up and packing him in an oblong box? Did Sam Colt invent the revolving pistol, or steal the idea?
Part historical true-crime, part family biography and cultural history, The Devil’s Right Hand is a stirring narrative about a darkly cursed American dynasty.

History

Americas

LYONS PRESS+

A silent, simmering killer terrorized New England in 1911. A heat wave unlike any that had come before killed people in the streets, caused others to drown in the waters where they sought relief, and drove still others to suicide. As more than 2,000 people died during the natural disaster, another silent killer began her own murderous spree. Amy Archer-Gilligan operated the Archer Home for Elderly People and Chronic Invalids in Windsor, Connecticut. What was thought to be a respectable business run by a pioneering woman was exposed as little more than a murder factory. Amy would be accused of murdering both her husbands and dozens (as many as sixty) of her elderly patients with cocktails of lemonade and arsenic—all for money. She would be convicted and sentenced to hang, and her story would shock turn-of-the-century America and provide the inspiration for the Broadway sensation and classic film Arsenic and Old Lace. Acclaimed crime writer and New York Times bestselling author M. William Phelps has written the first book to tell the true story of greed and murder even more shocking than its fictional counterpart.
Readers will enter a kind of Twilight Zone where a Bible-thumping caretaker and entrepreneur of the nursing home industry became one of history’s most evil female serial killers. With first-hand accounts from Amy’s “inmates,” riveting trial transcripts, and accounts from the investigative journalists who covered the case, Phelps puts readers face-to-face with a woman who was both a Black Widow and an Angel of Death. And Phelps paints a vivid, spine-chilling portrait of turn-of-the-century New England.
This is historical true crime at its best.

Devil's Rooming House: The True Story Of America's Deadliest Female Serial Killer

Bestselling true-crime author M. William Phelps, star of the new investigative television series “Dark Minds,” takes readers to his own backyard in these eight bloodcurdling murder cases. Think New England is all bucolic landscapes and Robert Frost poems? Think again.
 In Murder, New England, Phelps explores different motives, themes, and community reactions to horrific crimes: 
** Murder by Blood: The Strange Death of Rebecca Cornwell (1673, Narragansset Bay, RI). A 73-year-old widow burned to death in front of her bedroom fireplace…
** William Beadle: Husband, Father, Murderer (1782, Wethersfield, CT). A man murders his wife and kids before taking his own life... 
** The Angry Man: Murder in Manchester (1821, Manchester, NH). A poor widow killed in her home by a “ruffian” looking for food and drink...
** Better Off in Heaven: John Kemmler Kills His Three Children (1879, Holyoke, MA). After losing his mill job, a man kills his daughters because he fears they will become prostitutes... 
** Birth of the “Big Seven”: Gaspare Messina’s Mafioso (1917, Boston). An ol’ fashioned Mafia murder tale...
** Electronic Kill Machine: “Forensic Files” Murder (2001, Somerville, MA). Teenage slackers, the show “Forensic Files,” and the murder of a grandmother blamed on TV, youth, drugs, sex, money, and rock-n-roll...
** Sings of Life (2006, Lanesborough, MA). A woman employs the help of her cocaine-snorting daughter and Goth son to help her get rid of their step-father.
** Sesame Street Murder: Death on Big Bird’s Estate (2008, Woodstock, CT). A young woman out for a jog murdered by the groundskeeper of an estate owned by the puppeteer who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. 
[Page Two of spread] 
A chilling scene unfolds on the Woodstock, Connecticut, estate of the Sesame Street puppeteer who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch: 
Near the end of the access road was a picnic area with a large pagoda-like structure topped by an A-framed roof. Two paddle boats were stored under the ceiling of the open-air building. The pagoda had that sacred, spiritual look one would expect of a place to relax and meditate. Here was a haven separated from the main living space where one could retreat and disconnect from the world.
 What upset the serenity of the scene was the trail of blood. It lead from the roadway directly to the pagoda—and yet stopped in the center of the ground under the ceiling. The paddle boats, investigators noticed, had blood spatter and smudge marks on them. But what did it mean that the trail of blood just stopped?
 As they continued to search, troopers looked above them and spied a set of pull-down stairs. There was a storage area or attic within the pagoda’s A-frame. 
 The blood trail had stopped directly beneath the pull-down stairs.

Murder, New England: A Historical Collection Of Killer True-Crime Tales

In 1993, Donna Palomba was raped by a masked assailant in her own home. Yet, her story is more than a victim’s tale of physical and emotional recovery. It is a story of one woman’s hunt for justice while fending off attacks by institutions designed to defend and protect her—the police department, the local government, and a community clinging to an outrageous claim that Donna had invented the crime to cover up a sexual affair.
 From the night of the attack, the botched crime scene investigation, and the abuse as authorities attempted to close the case by discrediting her, Donna was left as a victim with no name and no identity. Meanwhile, there was one courageous detective, later to become chief of police, who broke a cops’ code of silence in the name of justice. As they fought on, a legal battle ensued after the Waterbury Police Department—now with media support—refused to let go of its allegations against her and admit wrongdoing. Finally, after eleven years of struggle, Donna learned the identity of her attacker from the chief of police, who explained that the DNA from the rape kit taken a decade ago had turned up a shocking match. 
 In 2007, Donna Palomba was the subject of a special two-hour Dateline episode about her case. Suddenly, she was Jane Doe no more, launching the Jane Doe No More organization and becoming a promoter of the rights of women and victims of sexual assault. With the help of crime investigator and author M. William Phelps, this is her story.

Jane Doe No More: My 15-Year Fight To Reclaim My Identity--A True Story Of Survival, Hope, And Redemption

Palomba, Donna

Community & Culture

The Devil's Right Hand chroniclesthe legacy of death and destruction in the gunmaking Colt family during the nineteenth century, a legacy largely remembered for a lurid murder case that inspired Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Oblong Box”—but one that encompassed much more. . .
 New York Times and nationally bestselling author M. William Phelps reveals an unfathomable pattern surrounding repeating arms inventor Samuel Colt—from the death of all his children, including Sam’s sea captain son’s mysterious demise aboard his yacht, to the eccentric life of his widow. But the tip of this iceberg was the 1841-42 murder case of brother John C. Colt, one of New York’s most sensational scandals. Printer Samuel Adams went to collect a debt from bookkeeper and author John Colt and was never seen alive again. Shocking revelations followed: Did John shoot Adams with one of his brother’s Colt firearms before hacking him up and packing him in an oblong box? Did Sam Colt invent the revolving pistol, or steal the idea?
 Part historical true-crime, part family biography and cultural history, The Devil’s Right Hand is a stirring narrative about a darkly cursed American dynasty.

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

Books by Phelps, M. William

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

Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America's First Spy

The Girl Left Behind (A Linda Kane Thriller)

Murder in the Heartland

Murder in the Heartland: Levi Edition

Never See Them Again

Devil's Right Hand: The Tragic Story Of The Colt Family Curse

Devil's Rooming House: The True Story Of America's Deadliest Female Serial Killer

Murder, New England: A Historical Collection Of Killer True-Crime Tales

Jane Doe No More: My 15-Year Fight To Reclaim My Identity--A True Story Of Survival, Hope, And Redemption

Devil's Right Hand: The Tragic Story Of The Colt Family Curse