Download or read book The Girl in the Leaves written by Robert Scott and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-12-31 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shocking true crime story of one of the most bizarre mass murders ever recorded—and the girl who escaped with her life. In the fall of 2010, in the all-American town of Apple Valley, Ohio, four people disappeared without a trace: Stephanie Sprang; her friend, Tina Maynard; and Tina’s two children, thirteen-year-old Sarah and eleven-year-old Kody. Investigators began scouring the area, yet despite an extensive search, no signs of the missing people were discovered. On the fourth day of the search, evidence trickled in about neighborhood “weirdo” Matthew Hoffman. A police SWAT team raided his home and found an extremely disturbing sight: every square inch of the place was filled with leaves and a terrified Sarah Maynard was bound up in the middle of it like some sort of perverted autumn tableau. But there was no trace of the others. Then came Hoffman’s confession to an unspeakable crime that went beyond murder and defied all reason. His tale of evil would make Sarah’s survival and rescue all the more astonishing—a compelling tribute to a young girl’s resilience and courage and to her fierce determination to reclaim her life in the wake of unimaginable trauma.
Download or read book After the Leaves Fall written by Nicole Baart and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-01-31 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Julia DeSmit can't wait for her life to begin. After her mother leaves when Julia is nine years old, she's raised by an unassuming, gentle father and a saintly, matriarchal grandmother until her father dies just as Julia is becoming a young adult. On the cusp of womanhood, Julia feels jaded by her circumstances and longs for a new identity. College seems like the perfect place to start over. But when Julia makes a mistake that will change her life forever, she returns to her grandmother's farm, defeated and convinced of her own worthlessness. Only through the gentle prodding of her loving grandmother does Julia begin to accept the imprint her childhood has left on her life and look for hope in a loving God who longs to make all things new.
Download or read book House of Leaves written by Mark Z. Danielewski and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2000-03-07 with total page 738 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A novelistic mosaic that simultaneously reads like a thriller and like a strange, dreamlike excursion into the subconscious.” —The New York Times Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth -- musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies -- the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children. Now this astonishing novel is made available in book form, complete with the original colored words, vertical footnotes, and second and third appendices. The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story -- of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.
Download or read book The Girl I Used to Be written by April Henry and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Olivia's parents were killed fourteen years ago. Now, new evidence reopens the case . . . and she finds herself involved"--
Download or read book The Girl in the Leaves written by Robert Scott and published by Berkley. This book was released on 2022-07-05 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scott, an experienced true-crime writer, chronicles the bizarre and shocking true story of 13-year-old Sarah Maynard, who was the lone survivor in a crazed killer's spree that occurred in Apple Valley, Ohio, in the fall of 2010. Available in a tall Premium Edition. Original.
Download or read book Perfect Victim written by Christine McGuire and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-03-12 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A true story of riveting psychological intensity by the assistant D.A. who prosecuted the captor of "the girl in the box". Called the "sex slave," and "the girl in the box" case, this is the story behind Colleen Stan's terrifying, seven-year-long imprisonment by Cameron Hooker as told by the district attorney who tried the case. Too bizarre to be anything but true, it is a tale of riveting intensity and gripping courtroom drama.
Download or read book Darker than Night written by Tom Henderson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-10-03 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the bitter cold of 1985, two buddies embark on a hunting trip from suburban Detroit to rural Michigan, unaware they would soon become the hunted. Darker than Night tells the chilling true story of the mystery that haunted a community and baffled the police for two decades. The eerie silence surrounding their sudden disappearance is broken after nearly two decades when a relentless investigator inspires a terrified witness to break her silence. The witness narrates a haunting scene that had unfolded years back, pointing fingers at the prime suspects–the Duvall brothers. With no bodies unearthed, the justice system is riveted by the startling revelations during an electrifying trial in 2003. The brothers, Raymond and Donald Duvall, had bragged about the murders, evocatively explaining how they dismembered their victims and fed them to pigs. Despite the shocking confession, the case holds its ground purely on a single witness's account, taking the courtroom through a labyrinth of dark secrets and sinister acts. This gripping thriller presents a vivid tale of crime that reveals the devastating power of evil.
Download or read book The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane written by Lisa See and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thrilling new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa See explores the lives of a Chinese mother and her daughter who has been adopted by an American couple. Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. There is ritual and routine, and it has been ever thus for generations. Then one day a jeep appears at the village gate—the first automobile any of them have seen—and a stranger arrives. In this remote Yunnan village, the stranger finds the rare tea he has been seeking and a reticent Akha people. In her biggest seller, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, See introduced the Yao people to her readers. Here she shares the customs of another Chinese ethnic minority, the Akha, whose world will soon change. Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, translates for the stranger and is among the first to reject the rules that have shaped her existence. When she has a baby outside of wedlock, rather than stand by tradition, she wraps her daughter in a blanket, with a tea cake hidden in her swaddling, and abandons her in the nearest city. After mother and daughter have gone their separate ways, Li-yan slowly emerges from the security and insularity of her village to encounter modern life while Haley grows up a privileged and well-loved California girl. Despite Haley’s happy home life, she wonders about her origins; and Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. They both search for and find answers in the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for generations. A powerful story about a family, separated by circumstances, culture, and distance, Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane paints an unforgettable portrait of a little known region and its people and celebrates the bond that connects mothers and daughters.
Download or read book The Girl in the Woods written by Gregg Olsen and published by Pinnacle Books. This book was released on 2014-10-28 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An intricate thriller that begins with a missing girl and ends up in unexpected territory” from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of If You Tell (RT Book Reviews, 4 stars). A schoolgirl found it on a nature hike. A severed human foot wearing pink nail polish. A gruesome but invaluable clue that leads forensic pathologist Birdy Waterman down a much darker trail—to a dangerous psychopath whose powers of persuasion seem to have no end. Only by teaming up with sheriff’s detective Kendall Stark can Birdy hope to even the odds in a deadly game. It’s a fateful decision the killer wants them to make. And it’s the only way Birdy and Kendall can find their way to a murderer who’s ready to kill again . . . Praise for Gregg Olsen’s Novels “Grabs you by the throat.”—Kay Hooper “An irresistible page-turner.”—Kevin O’Brien “Olsen writes rapid-fire page-turners.”—The Seattle Times “Frightening . . . a nail-biter.”—Suspense Magazine “A work of dark, gripping suspense.”—Anne Frasier “Truly a great read.”—Mystery Scene Magazine "Olsen writes rapid-fire page-turners." —Seattle Times "Grabs you by the throat." —Kay Hooper “The fifth Waterman and Stark thriller from the very talented Gregg Olsen . . . it’s truly a great read.” —Mystery Scene Magazine
Download or read book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves written by Lucille Colandro and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get ready to fall over laughing in this autumnal-themed story featuring everyone's favorite old lady! That lovely old lady is ready for her fall comeback! What can you make from leaves, clothes, a pumpkin, and rope? Only this old lady knows the secret!With rhyming text and funny illustrations, this lively version of the classic song will appeal to young readers with every turn of the page--a fun story to get ready for the fall season.
Download or read book Girl of the Limberlost written by Gene Stratton-Porter and published by Applewood Books. This book was released on 2006-07 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint. Originally published: New York: Grosset & Dunlap, A1909.
Download or read book The Lovely Bones written by Alice Sebold and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Susie Salmon is just like any other young American girl. She wants to be beautiful, adores her charm bracelet and has a crush on a boy from school. There's one big difference though – Susie is dead. Add: Now she can only observe while her family manage their grief in their different ways. Susie is desperate to help them and there might be a way of reaching them... Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones is a unique coming-of-age tale that captured the hearts of readers throughout the world. Award-winning playwright Bryony Lavery has adapted it for this unforgettable play about life after loss.
Download or read book An Unnecessary Woman written by Rabih Alameddine and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A happily misanthropic Middle East divorcee finds refuge in books in a “beautiful and absorbing” novel of late-life crisis (The New York Times). Aaliya is a divorced, childless, and reclusively cranky translator in Beirut nurturing doubts about her latest project: a 900-page avant-garde, linguistically serpentine historiography by a late Chilean existentialist. Honestly, at seventy-two, should she be taking on such a project? Not that Aailiya fears dying. Women in her family live long; her mother is still going crazy. But on this lonely day, hour-by-hour, Aaliya’s musings on literature, philosophy, her career, and her aging body, are suddenly invaded by memories of her volatile past. As she tries in vain to ward off these emotional upwellings, Aaliya is faced with an unthinkable disaster that threatens to shatter the little life she has left. In this “meditation on, among other things, aging, politics, literature, loneliness, grief and resilience” (The New York Times), Alameddine conjures “a beguiling narrator . . . who is, like her city, hard to read, hard to take, hard to know and, ultimately, passionately complex” (San Francisco Chronicle). A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award, An Unnecessary Woman is “a fun, and often funny . . . grave, powerful . . . [and] extraordinary” Washington Independent Review of Books) ode to literature and its power to define who we are. “Read it once, read it twice, read other books for a decade or so, and then pick it up and read it anew. This one’s a keeper” (The Independent)
Download or read book The Last Leaves Falling written by Fox Benwell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Japan, teenaged Abe Sora, who is afflicted with "Lou Gehrig's Disease," finds friends online and elicits their help to end his suffering.
Download or read book The Girls Are Gone written by Michael Brodkorb and published by Wise Ink. This book was released on 2018-10-23 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the evening of April 19, 2013, Samantha and Gianna Rucki disappeared. Two of five children born to David Rucki and Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, the teenage sisters vanished in the midst of their parents' divorce. The girls' father, David Rucki, worked tirelessly with law enforcement to search day and night for his two missing daughters, following every lead while raising three remaining children at home. Their mother, Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, used her newfound freedom to vacation around the world, abandoning her children. And as the investigation intensified, catching the attention of the media, Sandra also disappeared. The Girls Are Gone is the true story of two sisters who went missing, the father who kept searching, and the adults who conspired to keep the truth hidden. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: Michael Brodkorb's reporting on the Samantha and Gianna Rucki case began with the Star Tribune in 2015. He is currently a columnist with MinnPost. A lifelong resident of Minnesota, Michael is also an experienced communication, public affairs, and research consultant. He lives in Eagan, Minnesota, with his family. Allison Mann is a paralegal and has worked on the Samantha and Gianna Rucki case since 2012. She lives in Lakeville, Minnesota, with her family. AUTHOR HOME: Minneapolis, MN
Download or read book Where the Crawdads Sing written by Delia Owens and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE—The #1 New York Times bestselling worldwide sensation with more than 18 million copies sold, hailed by The New York Times Book Review as “a painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature.” For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life—until the unthinkable happens. Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
Download or read book The Girl in the Picture written by Alexandra Monir and published by Delacorte Press. This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A dark and addictive mystery that had me flying through the pages: best read late at night under the covers with the doors locked!"—Kara Thomas, author ofThe Darkest Corners One dead body, one photograph, one comprimising secret. Everyone's a suspect in this classic "whodunit" murder mystery from Timeless author, Alexandra Monir. Nicole Morgan has been labeled many things—the geeky music girl, the shy sidekick of Miss Popularity, and the girl with the scar. Now only one name haunts her through the halls of Oyster Bay Prep. The girl in the picture. After heartthrob Chace Porter is found dead in the woods near the school, the police search for the girl snuggled up next to him in a picture discovered among his personal effects. A girl no one knew was even close to him—and whose best friend, Lana Rivera, was his girlfriend. Nicole is that girl, and now she’s the primary suspect in his murder. What happened that night? Were Nicole and Chace dating behind Lana’s back? Were he and Lana over? Could either of the girls have killed him? In alternating points of view—that of suspect Nicole Morgan and that of Lana Rivera—and weaving between present-day, flashbacks, and the characters' surreal subconscious, The Girl in the Picture is a unique tale of teen friendship, romance, and deadly secrets. "This is a murder mystery with tightly tucked-in clues. Perfect for readers who enjoy fancy prep-school tales or mysteries."--Booklist "Monir effectively keeps readers guessing until nearly the end. VERDICT Teens will enjoy the cleverly crafted ride of this whodunit."--SLJ "Mystery lovers will find Oyster Bay Prep just to their liking."--The Bulletin
