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Dancing with the octopus : a memoir of a crime / by Harding, Debora,author.;
"For readers of Educated and The Glass Castle, a harrowing, redemptive and profoundly inspiring memoir of childhood trauma and its long reach into adulthood. One Omaha winter day in November 1978, when Debora Harding was just fourteen, she was abducted at knifepoint from a church parking lot. She was thrown into a van, assaulted, held for ransom, and then left to die as an ice storm descended over the city. Debora survived. She identified her attacker to the police and then returned to her teenage life in a dysfunctional home where she was expected to simply move on. Denial became the family coping strategy offered by her fun-loving, conflicted father and her cruelly resentful mother. It wasn't until decades later - when beset by the symptoms of PTSD- that Debora undertook a radical project: she met her childhood attacker face-to-face in prison and began to reconsider and reimagine his complex story. This was a quest for the truth that would threaten the lie at the heart of her family and with it the sacred bond that once saved her. Dexterously shifting between the past and present, Debora Harding untangles the incident of her kidnapping and escape from unexpected angles, offering a vivid, intimate portrait of one family's disintegration in the 1970s Midwest, a rusted landscape where the loss of white male power can flare into unspeakable violence. Written with dark humor and the pacing of a thriller, Dancing with the Octopus is a literary tour de force and a groundbreaking narrative of reckoning, recovery, and the inexhaustible strength it takes to survive"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; True crime stories.; Harding, Debora.; Abduction; Kidnapping victims;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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When the stars go dark : a novel / by McLain, Paula,author.;
"Anna Hart is a seasoned missing persons detective in San Francisco with far too much knowledge of the darkest side of human nature. When unspeakable tragedy strikes her personal life, Anna, desperate and numb, flees to the Northern California village of Mendocino. She spent summers there as a child with her beloved grandparents, and now she believes it might be the only place left for her to heal. Yet the day she arrives, she learns a local teenage girl has gone missing. Anna is in no condition to become involved with the search--until a childhood friend, now the village sheriff, pleads for her help. Then, just days later, a twelve-year-old girl is abducted from her home. The crimes feel frighteningly reminiscent of the most crucial time in Anna's childhood, when a string of unsolved murders touched Mendocino. As past and present collide, Anna realizes that she has been led to this moment. The most difficult lessons of her life have given her insight into how victims come into contact with violent predators. As Anna becomes obsessed with these missing girls, she must learn that true courage means getting out of her own way and learning to let others in. Weaving together true crime, trauma theory, and a hint of the metaphysical, this tense, affecting story is about fate, unlikely redemption, and what it takes, when the worst happens, to reclaim our lives--and our faith in one another"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Kidnapping victims; Young women; Women detectivesCalifornia; Resilience (Personality trait)California;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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When the stars go dark [sound recording] / by McLain, Paula,author.; Ireland, Marin,narrator.;
Read by Marin Ireland."Anna Hart is a seasoned missing persons detective in San Francisco with far too much knowledge of the darkest side of human nature. When unspeakable tragedy strikes her personal life, Anna, desperate and numb, flees to the Northern California village of Mendocino. She spent summers there as a child with her beloved grandparents, and now she believes it might be the only place left for her to heal. Yet the day she arrives, she learns a local teenage girl has gone missing. Anna is in no condition to become involved with the search--until a childhood friend, now the village sheriff, pleads for her help. Then, just days later, a twelve-year-old girl is abducted from her home. The crimes feel frighteningly reminiscent of the most crucial time in Anna's childhood, when a string of unsolved murders touched Mendocino. As past and present collide, Anna realizes that she has been led to this moment. The most difficult lessons of her life have given her insight into how victims come into contact with violent predators. As Anna becomes obsessed with these missing girls, she must learn that true courage means getting out of her own way and learning to let others in. Weaving together true crime, trauma theory, and a hint of the metaphysical, this tense, affecting story is about fate, unlikely redemption, and what it takes, when the worst happens, to reclaim our lives--and our faith in one another"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Audiobooks.; Kidnapping victims; Resilience (Personality trait)California; Women detectivesCalifornia; Young women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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In light of all darkness : inside the Polly Klaas kidnapping and the search for America's child / by Cross, Kim(Kimberly Hisako),1976-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Paced like a thriller and full of insider information on the history and science of Crime Scene Investigation, In Light of All Darkness embeds readers in one of the most famous true-crime stories of our generation--the kidnapping of Polly Klaas--a case as pivotal in the history of the FBI as the Unabomber or Oklahoma City bombing. On October 1, 1993, a 12-year-old girl was kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom in Petaluma, California, during a sleepover with two friends, while her mother slept soundly in the room next door. This rarest of all kidnappings--a stranger abduction from the home--triggered one of the largest manhunts in FBI history. Riddled with red herrings, grave mistakes, dead ends, and false leads, from fake ransom calls to junior high pranks to dramatic SWAT raids, the 65-day search for "America's Child" became every FBI agent's--and every parent's--worst nightmare. Many Americans remember Polly's face, which appeared on the national news every night, on the cover of People magazine, and on more than 8 million flyers distributed as far as China. The emotional gravity of Polly's story touched every agent, police officer, and forensic technician who worked on her case. Many of these investigators have never shared their stories--until now. New York Times bestselling author Kim Cross has written the first comprehensive account of what happened on that fateful night in October, as well as how the case forever transformed the Bureau's approach to solving crimes. With unprecedented access to files, crime scene photos, a videotaped murder confession, and inside sources, In Light of All Darkness follows the investigators who pieced together the evidence that led to the arrest and conviction of the kidnapper--a man currently on death row--and made the victim a household name and a girl who will never be forgotten. The book will be published on the 30th anniversary of Polly's disappearance"--
Subjects: True crime stories.; Klaas, Polly Hannah, 1981-1993.; Kidnapping victims; Kidnapping; Murder victims; Murder;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Victim F : from crime victims to suspects to survivors / by Huskins, Denise,author.; Quinn, Aaron,author.; Egan, Nicole Weisensee,author.;
"The shocking true story of a bizarre kidnapping and the victims' revictimization by the justice system In March 2015, Denise Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, awoke from sound sleep to a nightmare. Armed men bound and drugged them, then abducted Denise and warned Aaron not to call the police or she would be killed. Aaron agonized about what to do. Finally he put his trust in law enforcement and dialed 911. But instead of searching for Denise, the police accused Aaron of her murder. His story, they told him, was just unbelievable. When Denise was let go, the police turned on her, dubbing her the "real-life Gone Girl," saying she had faked her own kidnapping. In Victim F, Aaron and Denise recount the horrific ordeal that almost cost them everything. Like too many victims of sexual violence, they were dismissed, disbelieved, and dragged through the mud. With no one to rely on except each other, they took on the victim blaming, harassment, misogyny, and abuse of power running rife in the criminal justice system. Their story is, in the end, a love story, but one that sheds necessary light on sexual assault and the abuse by law enforcement that all too frequently compounds crime victims' suffering"--
Subjects: Biographies.; True crime stories.; Huskins, Denise.; Quinn, Aaron.; Victims of crimes; Criminal investigation; False arrest; Police misconduct;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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