Books
ghostwritten by Nicola Stow.
The Real-life Murder Clubs: Citizens Solving True Crimes
Publication date July 2022.
Find book here (Amazon)
"What happens when ordinary people, in real-life murder clubs, set out to investigate crimes, both recent and cold cases?"
The Netflix hit Don’t F**k with Cats was based on the 2012 Montreal murder of thirty-three-year-old Lin Jun by his porn-star boyfriend, Luka Magnotta. Previously Magnotta had anonymously posted videos of himself killing kittens. This spurred horrified Facebook sleuths into working tirelessly to uncover his identity and location.
Other investigations include:
A self-taught forensic artist, who uses computer software and coroners’ photographs to help identify victims by showing how they looked when alive.
The mother who swore at her murdered daughter’s graveside that she would get the gang who had sprayed her car with bullets. It took fourteen years in the case of one gang member, but she finally entrapped him via the fake profile she had created on MySpace.
The retail clerk turned citizen sleuth who helped to match a photo of a missing man to a skull found in a bucket, which resulted in the conviction of the victim’s best friend.
Websleuths matched the IP address of a suspicious contributor to a lottery-winning victim’s financial advisor, which led to his body being found beneath a newly poured concrete slab in his advisor’s boyfriend’s garden.
Sometimes citizen sleuthing goes wrong, though, with innocent people being targeted, or accused of crimes they haven’t committed, with tragic results.
The real-life version of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club is grittier, with intrepid amateur investigators delving into truly gruesome unsolved crimes in pursuit of justice..
Mirror Books (Publisher page)
Amazon (UK)
Cops and Horrors: Uncut Tales from the Frontline, Matt Calveley offers an up close and personal view into the life of a dedicated officer serving in one of the biggest police forces in the world.
Highly decorated, Matt lived a varied career, meaning he is able to give readers an eye–opening insight into the job from all angles.
On the Met’s front line, he fought violent criminals, arrested hundreds, dealt with horrific death scenes every day – and got bitten by a squirrel monkey called Clive.
Matt served as Custody Sergeant, provided jury protection during a huge corruption trial, and qualified as a mass fatality specialist.
He also gives an unprecedented, detailed account of law enforcement on London’s roads. From dealing with arrogant motorists, catching drink drivers and facing catastrophic road deaths, to white-knuckle car chases and painstakingly reconstructing crash scenes, Matt has seen – and survived – it all.
Cops And Horrors
Find book here (Amazon)
"My life will always be in danger. My beautiful sister Banaz Mahmod was murdered in an ‘honour killing’ ordered by our father and uncle. If those evil men find me, they will kill me too."
Bekhal Mahmod was one of six siblings from a Sunni Muslim family in Iraqi Kurdistan who sought a new life as asylum seekers and arrived in London in 1998.
When Bekhal's father tried to force her into an arranged marriage at 15, she ran away. This caused her father to ‘lose respect’ within the Kurdish community and Bekhal became the target of an honour killing and her younger sisters Banaz and Payzee were quickly married off to restore the family's reputation.
When Banaz left her husband, claiming he'd beaten and raped her, Mahmod decided this 'shame' to the family meant Banaz must die. Within weeks, she had vanished.
Her body was finally discovered, crammed into a suitcase and buried in a garden in Birmingham. Banaz, age 20, had been raped and killed in a sickening plot orchestrated by her father and uncle.
Still fearing for her own life, Bekhal bravely faced her father and uncle in court - making her the first daughter in British legal history to give evidence against family members in an honour killing trial - and won justice for her beloved sister Banaz.
Bekhal now has a new identity after entering the police witness protection programme. She lives in terror of her father’s release from jail.
This is her story.
No Safe Place: Murdered By Our Father
Book on Amazon
"It’d be easy for me to go back to my old life, but I know where that old life leads you. You’re either behind prison bars or six feet underground."
Terroll Lewis has lived a crazy life. Growing up on Brixton's Myatt's Field estate, he was surrounded by gang culture, and like so many other young people, he found it hard to resist the lifestyle. By the time he was 15, he had already joined a gang, been stabbed, shot at, and was selling drugs.
A chance to play professional football offered a way out, but the lure of an easier life — the promise of girls, money, and cars — led him back to South London and the notorious OC, or Organised Crime, gang.
Violence and drug dealing were the norm in OC, but Terroll has long since turned his back on this world, though the association with OC endures through the ink on his skin.
These days Terroll's giving something back; Block Workout, a street-gym he founded in his old neighbourhood, gives young men an opportunity to follow a different road to the one he took during his adolescence — helping them develop their minds as well as their bodies — and the chance to live a better life.
One Chance
by Terroll Lewis
Cabin Fever: “The Sizzling Secrets Of A Virgin Air Hostess”
by Mandy Smith
Shortlisted for The People’s Book Prize 2015.
BUCKLE UP FOR THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE...
Mandy Smith spent twelve years strutting down the aisles as one of Richard Branson’s sexy and sassy flight attendants. In Cabin Fever she tells the good, the bad and the downright naughty tales of life in the air.
From dealing with projectile vomit and celebrity tantrums to sipping Manhattans and shopping in New York, this is riotous good fun. Set against a backdrop of exotic locations, the cast of zany characters includes everyone from Courtney Love to Sir Richard himself.
Mandy’s jet-setting job allowed her to search the globe for Mr Right, which led her to many steamy love affairs. She even joined the Mile High Club, though not with a clumsy quickie in the toilet but a leisurely bonk in a Cessna. She’s no Virgin, and in-flight entertainment has never been so risqué!
‘This fun read dishes on what it's like to live with your head literally in the clouds - from in-flight fist fights to sneaky sex at Luna Park during a Sydney stopover.’
Cosmopolitan
Coming soon: Taking Back My Power: Our Bodies. Our Consent.
Publication date: October 26, 2023
Georgia Harrison's story as you've never heard it before. Explosive and inspiring, Georgia reveals the shocking truth of how she suffered revenge porn at the hands of her ex - and how she fought to get her life back.
'One woman's campaign for justice for herself and for all victims of image-based sexual abuse. Georgia writes with unflinching honesty and, perhaps most powerfully, with hope'
-ELIZABETH DAY
In 2020, Georgia Harrison's ex-boyfriend Stephen Bear shared intimate footage of her online without her consent. With the click of a button, Georgia's innocence and dignity were stolen. But now she's taking her power back. This is not a sad story - it's a story about the power of hope, a journey to justice, and a rallying cry for change.
In court, Georgia was finally allowed to tell her side of the story - and Bear was found guilty of revenge porn and voyeurism in what became the most talked-about case in the British media. This culminated in a 21-month jail sentence, a ruling that has cemented Georgia as a feminist icon.
This is Georgia's story like you've never heard it before. Unfiltered and unflinching, Georgia pulls back the curtain on the nightmare that could have crushed her, but that made her who she is today. Georgia is proud to be a voice for women, determined to help victims of image-based sexual abuse seek justice. Holding nothing back, she shines a light on how to navigate traumatic times - the importance of hope, building resilience and a positive mindset.
Taking Back My Power is more than just a memoir; it's an entire movement.
Coming soon: Unspoken: The Silent Truth Behind My Lifelong Trauma as a Forced Adoptee
“I was two when the woman I called Mummy told me, ‘You came out of another mummy’s tummy.’ I grew up thinking that my birth mother didn’t want me. I assumed there must’ve been something inherently wrong with me – why else would a mother give up her baby?”
In 1974, Liz Harvie – born Claire Elaine Watts – was given up for adoption by her birth mother Yvonne. Claire was just eight weeks old when her adoptive parents took her in – and renamed her Elizabeth.
Although brought up in a ‘perfect’ household, the emotional – and physical – trauma of being taken from her biological mother would never leave Liz. She constantly wondered: what does my real mum look like? Will she come back for me? Why did she abandon me? But whenever Liz voiced such questions, she invariably received the same response: “Your birth parents were not married. They couldn’t look after you.”
Years later, aged twenty-eight, Liz reconnected with her birth mother – and finally learned the shocking truth surrounding her adoption. Yvonne had not abandoned her daughter. A social worker had snatched her ten-day-old baby from her arms. “I didn’t even get a final cuddle. She just took her away from me,” says Yvonne.
Liz became one of 185,000 victims of forced adoption between 1949 and 1976 in England and Wales. As a young unmarried mum, Yvonne was deemed unfit as a parent by the government, churches, adoption agencies and her father – and made to give up her child against her will.
Although reunited, Liz and Yvonne are still struggling to cope with the agony resulting from their devastating separation. As Liz says, “We can’t just skip hand in hand into the sunset. The trauma of being a forced adoptee is lifelong.”
Born Ganster
by Jimmy Tippett Jnr
Amazon
A fast-paced and funny, honest and uncompromising, this is the story of one of London’s most connected crime bosses.
Jimmy Tippett Junior is from gangster aristocracy. Son of the legendary boxer and South London heavy, Jimmy Tippett, he has lives his life rubbing shoulders with the most recognizable faces in British organized crime, including Ronnie and Reggie Kray. Jimmy is a natural raconteur who has led an incredible life as a career criminal; from violent gang warfare to affairs with well-known models and porn stars, he’s seen and done it all. But as he descended into the underworld, mired in cocaine and paranoia, his operation began to come off the rails. Jimmy even made Daily Mail headlines in February 2013 when busted for a £250,000 jewel heist.
Above and Beyond (Lume Books, June 2021)
Saskia Swann is in deep trouble.
Heavily in debt, and earning peanuts as a ‘trolley dolly’, she desperately needs to get her life back on track. After a chance meeting, she lands a job as cabin crew – but this time on a private jet.
Suddenly she is transported into a glittering world of oligarchs and billionaires where the hostesses wear Prada, seven-course meals are served on fine china, and the bodyguards all carry guns. And the mile-high shenanigans take place in luxury bedrooms, and sometimes in the cabin itself.
But the job is not quite what it seems; Saskia’s billionaire boss Pavel has multiple mistresses, and he expects far more from his hostesses than cocktails and snacks.
How far is Saskia willing to go to hang onto a job that has transported her into a world of luxury? And what risks is she prepared to run?
Above and Beyond is a gripping exposé of the world of the mega-rich that is both shocking and revealing.
