Showing results by publisher "John Blake" in All Categories

Burying a child is every parent's nightmare. But Marie McCourt has spent over 30 years yearning to do just that. On 9 February 1988, Marie's 22-year-old daughter, Helen, left her office in Liverpool city centre and began her usual commute home. But she was never seen again. . . Within days, local pub landlord Ian Simms was charged with her murder. Despite Helen's body not being found, overwhelming DNA and circumstantial evidence at his trial secured his conviction, and he was sentenced to life.

If you've heard any news report on the upsurge in knife crime recently, you'll have heard the words 'county lines'. From the street slang that was once known as 'going country' - it sees powerful drugs gangs supplying outside of the capital through an underworld 'emerging markets enterprise', using children as young as 12 and vulnerable men and women to do their dirty work. Teens whose bereaved relatives assume they led ordinary lives, who tell us they were 'good kids', suddenly end up stabbed to death with no seeming motive.

Rob Driscoll, former sergeant with 42 Commando, Royal Marines, served tours in Iraq, Kuwait and Kosovo. A born leader of fighting men, with the medals to prove it, he also endured three tours in Afghanistan. The third of those will go down in history as one of the UK military's darkest hours, for it marked the first time a British serviceman has been tried for a murder on the battlefield since the Second World War.

Two Owls at Eton - a classic British tale of eccentricity, education and owls. Witty, poignant and nostalgic, this best-selling memoir continues to find new fans and delight young and old alike. Now available for the first time in audiobook. When Jonathan Franklin takes two baby tawny owls back to Eton, he has no idea how chaotic the following months will be. The birds show no respect for Etonian routine and tradition. They trash his room and rule his daily life and are known throughout the school as 'Dum' and 'Dee'.

HMP Wakefield. 'Monster Mansion'. Hell to be inside. Almost impossible to escape. This prison has seen some of the most infamous prisoners of all time pass through its cells - from Levi Bellfield to Harold Shipman, Ian Huntley and Charles Bronson. Jonathan Levi and Emma French are the perfect authors to give chilling insight into all the terrible men who have served time there. After detailing the shocking truth of life in Britain's most high-profile psychiatric hospital in their bestselling book Inside Broadmoor, now they will take readers behind bars in this the UK's most notorious prison.

On 28 November 2004, banker and father-of-two Alistair Wilson was shot three times on his doorstep in a killing more commonly associated with inner city gang wars than a sleepy seaside town in the Scottish Highlands. All these years later, the question remains: why? Over the years, lines of enquiry have been investigated and dismissed, gossip has spread, theories offered and rumours debated at length. And yet, so long after Alistair's death, no arrest has ever been made and precious few motives have been made public.

Roughly ten per cent of all murders in the UK go unsolved. Here, Britain's top ex-undercover cop shines new light on cases up and down the country in search of answers. Peter Bleksley's life has been devoted to investigating. As an undercover detective for the Metropolitan Police and in his ability to get to the bottom of a case was legendary as he dealt with some of the world's most feared criminals. His success rate in solving murders as a serving officer was one hundred per cent.

With the constant threats now posed by gangs, drugs turf wars and terrorism, the world of police protection has changed almost beyond recognition. But the story of these incredible officers is also the story of Britain's most dramatic and traumatic news events. In Bodyguard: The Real Story we meet individuals with first-hand recollection of these indelible events with powerful stories to tell.