Top list: True stories

At just five years old, Dana learned that there was no one she could trust. Most devastating of all, even her own mother betrayed her and in the most unimaginable way. For years, Dana and her younger sister suffered at the hands of one of Britain's largest ever-known paedophile rings. And their mother did nothing to protect them.

Only now is Dana's nightmare coming to an end as she crusades to put her abusers behind bars. In June 2007 the truth was finally exposed. Dana bravely testified against her own mother. The woman who had subjected Dana and her sister to a lifetime of horror was sentenced to twelve years in prison. It was one of the most traumatic ordeals Dana has ever experienced. But a shocked world was finally forced to open its eyes to what happened to Dana. This is her story of survival.

Gaia was groomed, abused and enslaved – but then she fought back

Gaia Cooper is just 14 years old when she is groomed by a criminal gang and forced to commit organised credit card fraud.

Despite being placed in care – somewhere Gaia should feel safe – she is left even more vulnerable, and is horrifically abused and exploited by the men manipulating her.

Will the authorities save Gaia – or will she have to save herself?

A shocking true story that reveals how one woman was tormented to the very depths of despair by her husband through coercive control and continual physical and sexual abuse.

Broken in mind, body and spirit and completely isolated from the rest of the world, Hannah thinks she’ll never find the strength to escape, until one day an opportunity arrives…

An instant #1 New York Times bestseller—Jaycee Dugard’s raw and powerful memoir, her own story of being kidnapped in 1991 and held captive for more than eighteen years.

In the summer of June of 1991, I was a normal kid. I did normal things. I had friends and a mother that loved me. I was just like you. Until the day my life was stolen.

For eighteen years I was a prisoner. I was an object for someone to use and abuse. For eighteen years I was not allowed to speak my own name. I became a mother and was forced to be a sister. For eighteen years I survived an impossible situation.

On August 26, 2009, I took my name back. My name is Jaycee Lee Dugard. I don’t think of myself as a victim, I simply survived an intolerable situation. A Stolen Life is my story—in my own words, in my own way, exactly as I remember it.

A heart-stopping story of lies, brutality and fear. British girl Megan Stephens tells the true story of how an idyllic Mediterranean holiday turned into an unimaginable nightmare when she was tricked into becoming a victim of human trafficking and held captive for six years by deception, threats and violence.

While on holiday with her mother at a popular Mediterranean coastal resort, Megan fell in love. Just 14 years old, naïve and vulnerable, she had no reason to suspect that the man who said he loved her would commit the ultimate betrayal of her trust.

When her mother returned to England, Megan stayed with Jak, who said he would find her a job as a waitress and promised they would be together forever. But when Megan travelled to the city with Jak, his attitude quickly changed and instead of finding her work as a waitress, he allowed her to be raped and then sold her to a human trafficker.

Abandoned by Jak but still unable to accept that everything he’d told her had been a lie, Megan was coerced by threats and violence into working as a prostitute in private homes and brothels. Then the trafficker threatened her mother’s life and it was Megan’s turn to lie: sending her mother the staged photographs that had been taken of her apparently working as a waitress in a cafe, she told her she was happy.

Too frightened and bewildered to trust or reach out to anyone, Megan remained locked in a world of brutality and abuse for six years. In the end, there only seemed to be one way out.

Megan’s powerful story reveals the devastating realities of human trafficking and the fear that imprisons its victims more effectively than any cage could ever do.

NOW A BLOCKBUSTER MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY CLINT EASTWOOD—NOMINATED FOR SIX ACADEMY AWARDS, INCLUDING BEST PICTURE

From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. His fellow American warriors, whom he protected with deadly precision from rooftops and stealth positions during the Iraq War, called him “The Legend”; meanwhile, the enemy feared him so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle, who was tragically killed in 2013, writes honestly about the pain of war—including the deaths of two close SEAL teammates—and in moving first-person passages throughout, his wife, Taya, speaks openly about the strains of war on their family, as well as on Chris. Gripping and unforgettable, Kyle’s masterful account of his extraordinary battlefield experiences ranks as one of the great war memoirs of all time.

The 32nd fostering memoir from international bestseller Cathy Glass

Struggling to cope with three young children, Janie turns to experienced foster carer Cathy Glass. Helping the family each morning, Cathy soon uncovers how dangerous their situation has truly become.

Riley and his two little siblings, Jayden and Lola, are not safe at home.

With all three children in her care, will Cathy be able to rebuild their lives – and Janie’s?

This instant New York Times bestseller—“a jaw-dropping, fast-paced account” (New York Post) recounts SEAL Team Operator Robert O’Neill’s incredible four-hundred-mission career, including the attempts to rescue “Lone Survivor” Marcus Luttrell and abducted-by-Somali-pirates Captain Richard Phillips, and which culminated in the death of the world’s most wanted terrorist—Osama bin Laden.

In The Operator, Robert O’Neill describes his idyllic childhood in Butte, Montana; his impulsive decision to join the SEALs; the arduous evaluation and training process; and the even tougher gauntlet he had to run to join the SEALs’ most elite unit. After officially becoming a SEAL, O’Neill would spend more than a decade in the most intense counterterror effort in US history. For extended periods, not a night passed without him and his small team recording multiple enemy kills—and though he was lucky enough to survive, several of the SEALs he’d trained with and fought beside never made it home.

“Impossible to put down…The Operator is unique, surprising, a kind of counternarrative, and certainly the other half of the story of one of the world’s most famous military operations…In the larger sense, this book is about…how to be human while in the very same moment dealing with death, destruction, combat” (Doug Stanton, New York Times bestselling author). O’Neill describes the nonstop action of his deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, evokes the black humor of years-long combat, brings to vivid life the lethal efficiency of the military’s most selective units, and reveals details of the most celebrated terrorist takedown in history. This is “a riveting, unvarnished, and wholly unforgettable portrait of America’s most storied commandos at war” (Joby Warrick).

Christina O’Connor is the main prosecution witness from the Huddersfield Grooming scandal. In 2017, 11 men were convicted of a staggering 43 offences against her, including 22 counts of rape.

In this memoir, Christina will describe how, from being a happy child with a loving family, she fell into the clutches of a grooming gang whose abuse of children earned them a total of 221 years in prison. Christina’s helpless parents tried desperately to save their 13 year old daughter as she began playing truant, and was lured into sexual activities with complete strangers, in exchange for pizza, vodka and cannabis.

After five years of almost daily rape, Christina committed robberies under duress from the grooming gang and was jailed. She made a complaint to police about the abuse, but no action was taken.

She sees the prison term as her salvation; from this moment she turned her life around. Two years after her release, her police statement was found at the back of a filing cabinet, and Operation Tendersea, the investigation into the grooming gang was launched.

This is the first time Christina has spoken out. She has waived her right to anonymity and wants the world to hear her voice

Sold is a terrifying, gripping and true story about a young Russian girl who dreams of a better life, but instead falls victim to trafficking. Seventeen-year-old Natasja is attracted by an offer to work as a nanny in Sweden. Her ticket to freedom turns out to be a worse nightmare than she ever could have imagined. Time and time again, she is sold to different men. But even though she is slowly falling apart, Natasja refuses to give up and silently starts to plan her escape. In Sold, she talks about how she managed to get free against all odds.

For young listeners-the dramatic tale of how Howard Wasdin overcame a tough childhood to live his dream and enter the exciting and dangerous world of US Navy SEALS and Special Forces snipers.

The former head of the Pentagon program responsible for the investigation of UFOs—now known as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP)—reveals long-hidden truths with profound implications for not only national security but our understanding of the universe.

Luis “Lue” Elizondo is a former senior intelligence official and special agent who was recruited into a strange and highly sensitive US Government program to investigate UAP incursions into sensitive military installations and air space. To accomplish his mission, Elizondo had to rely on decades of experience gained working some of America’s most sensitive and classified programs. Even then, he was not prepared for what he would learn, and the truth about the government’s long shadowy involvement in UAP investigations, and the lengths officials would take to keep them a secret.

The stakes could not be higher. Imminent is a first-hand, revelatory account inside the Pentagon’s most closely guarded secret and a call to action to confront humanity’s greatest existential questions.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Groomed and procured by a woman, raped by several men and labelled ‘one of the most abused girl in Rotherham’, now Elizabeth Harper is fighting for answers as to why so many people paid to protect our children simply turned a blind eye.

Aged just 15, lonely and bullied by her peers, Elizabeth ‘El’ Harper felt like an outcast. But then a chance encounter in the street with a friendly woman suddenly brought hope to her world. A friendship between El and this benevolent stranger blossomed, and life began to feel worth living again.

As the months passed, El grew more and more distant from her family. One day, she didn’t return home to her parents at all …

Snatched is the shocking true story of how a young girl was taken from the streets and groomed into Britain’s biggest sex-trafficking ring, all at the hands of a woman.

It is also an inspiring account of how trauma can turn vulnerability to strength in the most extraordinary of ways.

The untold story behind the hit true crime podcast The Clearing, this unforgettable memoir traces one daughter’s moving quest to understand her larger-than-life childhood as she searches for the truth about her father, the serial killer Edward Wayne Edwards.

One evening in 2009, April Balascio was searching online, as she had been every night, for unsolved murders in the towns her family had lived growing up, when she stumbled across the latest investigations into the “Sweetheart Murders” cold case. All at once, the buried memories of her father’s dark history were awakened, and she knew she had to take action. She picked up the phone to call a detective and the rest is infamous true crime history.

In her unflinching memoir, Balascio bravely reveals an astonishing tale of a lifetime of manipulation, unexplained upheavals, and silent fear. Some part of her had always known what her father was capable of, but the full truth of how she came to these revelations is as riveting as it is quietly terrifying. Through searing storytelling, dedicated research, and intimate insight, Raised by a Serial Killer is a gripping, courageous memoir unlike any other.

Mystery. Manipulation. Murder. Cults are associated with all of these. But what really goes on inside them? More specifically, what goes on inside the minds of cult leaders and the people who join them? Based on the hit podcast Cults, this is essential reading for any true crime fan.

Cults prey on the very attributes that make us human: our desire to belong, to find a deeper meaning in life, to live everyday with divine purpose. Their existence creates a sense that any one of us, at any time, could step off the cliff’s edge and fall into that daunting abyss of manipulation and unhinged dedication to a misplaced cause. Perhaps it’s this mindset that keeps us so utterly obsessed and desperate to learn more, or it’s that the stories are so bizarre and unsettling that we are simply in awe of the mechanics that make these infamous groups tick.

The premier storytelling podcast studio Parcast has been focusing on unearthing these mechanics—the cult leaders and followers, and the world and culture that gave birth to both. Parcast’s work in analyzing dozens of case studies has revealed patterns: distinct ways that cult leaders from different generations resemble one another. What links the ten notorious figures profiled in Cults are as disturbing as they are stunning—from Manson to Applewhite, Koresh to Raël, the stories woven here are both spellbinding and disturbing.

Cults is more than just a compilation of grisly biographies, however. In these pages, Parcast’s founder Max Cutler and national bestselling author Kevin Conley look closely at the lives of some of the most disreputable cult figures and tell the stories of their rise to power and fall from grace, sanity, and decency. Beyond that, it is a study of humanity, an unflinching look at what happens when the most vulnerable recesses of the mind are manipulated and how the things we hold most sacred can be twisted into the lowest form of malevolence.

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER

A Divorced Woman. A Dangerous Man. A Devastating Affair.

‘You’re right. It is totally extraordinary. My life is like a film; you couldn’t make it up … But there’s something I have to tell you,’ he confided, as he leaned across the table towards me. ‘I’m not normal.’

Carolyn Woods was living happily in a quiet Cotswolds village when an attractive stranger abruptly arrived in her life.

Introducing himself as Mark Conway, he exuded confidence and to her surprise Carolyn quickly became captivated by this mysterious man. A rich Swiss banker (who later confessed to being a spy), he offered Carolyn companionship and introduced her to an exciting, glamorous world.

In fact, some things were so astonishing she began to question her new lover. Was all as it seemed?

The truth was even harder to believe. For a start, his real name was Mark Acklom, he was wanted by Interpol, and he was rich but for one reason only…

A true-crime story that reads like a thriller, Sleeping with a Psychopath is a blow-by-blow account of the power of manipulation and a testament to the human will to survive.

A fascinating and moving biography of Colin Anson, the German refugee who became an elite British commando

Born in Germany in 1922, Colin Anson's (Claus Ascher) childhood was marked by the trials of Nazism. His father was arrested by the Gestapo in 1937 and transported to Dachau, where he died shortly after. Colin, aged just seventeen, escaped to Britain in the Kindertransport. As soon as he was old enough, Colin volunteered in the Pioneer Corps. Then, in 1942, he was recruited for the elite commando unit X-Troop.

Colin took part in the invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943, where he sustained a near-fatal injury. But just months later, he returned to duty. He fought in the Yugoslav islands, became the first Allied soldier to liberate Corfu, and was stationed in postwar Frankfurt.

In this unique biography, Helen Fry traces the remarkable story of Colin's life. Drawing on extensive interviews, Fry recounts his actions in X-Troop and beyond in his own words—and sheds new light on the experience of refugees in the British forces.

The definitive insider's account of the U.S. Army's most elite and secretive special-ops unit, written by the legendary founder and first commanding officer of Delta Force.

In this splendid biography, Philip Freeman presents Julius Caesar in all his dimensions and contradictions. This book will captivate listeners discovering Caesar and ancient Rome for the first time as well as those who have a deep interest in the classical world.

The award-winning true-crime account of a Danish nurse accused of killing her patients—now a Netflix miniseries starring Josephine Park.

In the early hours of March 2015, the police receive a call from a nurse at a provincial Danish hospital. She suspects her colleague is deliberately killing patients and fears that it has just happened again.

Soon, several witnesses reveal that they too suspect the same nurse of poisoning patients; some have been harbouring their suspicion for years… so why has no one done anything about it before? And now that those patients’ bodies have long been cremated, where is the evidence?

To this day, the nurse, Christina Aistrup Hansen, maintains her innocence. Is this an example of small-town gossip snowballing out of control or a sinister case of serial sociopathic harm?

In this award-winning, best-selling account, Danish journalist Kristian Corfixen reconstructs the fateful night shift in 2015 when three patients die under mysterious circumstances, setting in motion one of Denmark’s most sensational criminal trials.

With thorough research and extensive source material – including medical records, autopsy reports, text and email correspondence, and police reports – Corfixen tells the true story of the events. The book includes testimonies from key players in the case, including the convicted nurse, Hansen, and the key witness, both of whom are speaking publicly about the case for the first time.

Kristian Corfixen is a Danish journalist. "The Nurse" ("Sygeplejersken", 2019), won critical acclaim and several awards while also raising debate about the rigorous vetting of caretakers and the role of indicative evidence in criminal courts.