The Man Who Robbed the Pierre

The Man Who Robbed the Pierre PDF Author: Ira Berkow
Publisher: Diversion Publishing Corp.
ISBN: 1626813868
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
This Pulitzer Prize–winning author’s true account of the thief behind the famed 1972 heist is “an engrossing crime biography . . . [and] a fast-paced romp” (Kirkus Reviews). Growing up in Rochester, New York, Bobby Comfort wanted to be a good something. It just so happened that he was great at being a criminal. In January 1972, men in tuxedos robbed the Pierre, the luxurious Manhattan hotel, and got away with eleven million dollars’ worth of cash and jewelry. The police were baffled by how such a large-scale operation could go off so smoothly. The answer lay in the leader of the thieves, a man by the name of Bobby Comfort. He had taken to crime from a young age with card sharping and petty theft. Eventually, taking money from the rich was where he excelled. Sort of like Robin Hood—except for the part where he kept the loot himself—Comfort masterminded what was, at the time, the most lucrative heist in history, while appearing to his neighbors like an ordinary suburban family man. In this blend of insightful biography and true crime, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Ira Berkow chronicles the story, using first-hand accounts to weave together a fascinating portrait of a criminal and “a corking good cops-and-robbers tale” (Library Journal).

The Man Who Robbed the Pierre

The Man Who Robbed the Pierre PDF Author: Ira Berkow
Publisher: Diversion Publishing Corp.
ISBN: 1626813868
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Get Book Here

Book Description
This Pulitzer Prize–winning author’s true account of the thief behind the famed 1972 heist is “an engrossing crime biography . . . [and] a fast-paced romp” (Kirkus Reviews). Growing up in Rochester, New York, Bobby Comfort wanted to be a good something. It just so happened that he was great at being a criminal. In January 1972, men in tuxedos robbed the Pierre, the luxurious Manhattan hotel, and got away with eleven million dollars’ worth of cash and jewelry. The police were baffled by how such a large-scale operation could go off so smoothly. The answer lay in the leader of the thieves, a man by the name of Bobby Comfort. He had taken to crime from a young age with card sharping and petty theft. Eventually, taking money from the rich was where he excelled. Sort of like Robin Hood—except for the part where he kept the loot himself—Comfort masterminded what was, at the time, the most lucrative heist in history, while appearing to his neighbors like an ordinary suburban family man. In this blend of insightful biography and true crime, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Ira Berkow chronicles the story, using first-hand accounts to weave together a fascinating portrait of a criminal and “a corking good cops-and-robbers tale” (Library Journal).

Harlem Shuffle

Harlem Shuffle PDF Author: Colson Whitehead
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385545142
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this gloriously entertaining novel is “fast-paced, keen-eyed and very funny ... about race, power and the history of Harlem all disguised as a thrill-ride crime novel" (San Francisco Chronicle). "Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked..." To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time. Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn't ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn't ask questions, either. Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the "Waldorf of Harlem"—and volunteers Ray's services as the fence. The heist doesn't go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes. Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs? Harlem Shuffle's ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem. But mostly, it's a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead. Look for Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Crook Manifesto!

The Bettencourt Affair

The Bettencourt Affair PDF Author: Tom Sancton
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 110198449X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
An NPR Best Book of 2017 Heiress to the nearly forty-billion-dollar L’Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt was the world’s richest woman and the fourteenth wealthiest person. But her gilded life took a dark yet fascinating turn in the past decade. At ninety-four, she was embroiled in what has been called the Bettencourt Affair, a scandal that dominated the headlines in France. Why? It’s a tangled web of hidden secrets, divided loyalties, frayed relationships, and fractured families, set in the most romantic city—and involving the most glamorous industry—in the world. The Bettencourt Affair started as a family drama but quickly became a massive scandal, uncovering L’Oréal’s shadowy corporate history and buried World War II secrets. From the Right Bank mansions to the Left Bank artist havens; and from the Bettencourts’ servant quarters to the office of President Nicolas Sarkozy; all of Paris was shaken by the blockbuster case, the shocking reversals, and the surprising final victim. It all began when Liliane met François-Marie Banier, an artist and photographer who was, in his youth, the toast of Paris and a protégé of Salvador Dalí. Over the next two decades, Banier was given hundreds of millions of dollars in gifts, cash, and insurance policies by Liliane. What, exactly, was their relationship? It wasn’t clear, least of all to Liliane’s daughter and only child, Françoise, who became suspicious of Banier’s motives and filed a lawsuit against him. But Banier has a far different story to tell... The Bettencourt Affair is part courtroom drama; part upstairs-downstairs tale; and part characterdriven story of a complex, fascinating family and the intruder who nearly tore it apart.

The Lufthansa Heist

The Lufthansa Heist PDF Author: Henry Hill
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493018965
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
The inside story—from the organizer himself--of the largest unrecovered cash haul in history. This full account brings readers behind the heist memorialized in Goodfellas, a crime that has baffled law enforcement for decades. From Henry Hill himself, The Lufthansa Heist is the last book he worked on before his 2012 death. On December 11, 1978, a daring armed robbery rocked Kennedy Airport, resulting in the largest unrecovered cash haul in world history, totaling six million dollars. The perpetrators were never apprehended and thirteen people connected to the crime were murdered in homicides that, like the crime itself, remain unsolved to this day. The burglary has fascinated the public for years, dominating headlines around the globe due to the story’s unending ravel of mysteries that baffled the authorities.One of the organizers of the sensational burglary, Henry Hill, who passed away in 2012, in collaboration with Daniel Simone, has penned an unprecedented “tell-all” about the robbery with never-before-unveiled details, particulars only known to an insider. In 2013, this infamous criminal act again flared up in the national news when five reputed gangsters were charged in connection to the robbery. This latest twist lends the project an extraordinary sense of timing, and the legal proceedings of the newly arrested suspects will unfold over the next year, continuing to keep the Lufthansa topic in the news.

Paparazzi Princess

Paparazzi Princess PDF Author: Jen Calonita
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0316040754
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
As the last season of Family Affair comes to a close, prime-time teen star Kaitlin Burke is no closer to deciding what she wants to do after the show ends. Struggling with career choices and bummed over a ridiculous catfight with her BFF, Liz, Kaitlin is so mixed up she even starts to semi-bond with her archnemesis, Sky. Worst of all, she falls in with two of Hollywood's biggest party fiends when one of them asks her, "Don't you ever do what you want to do?" Shopping sprees and the Tinseltown nightlife seem fun at first, but soon Kaitlin realizes that being a paparazzi princess just might be her downfall. You won't want to miss the fourth book in Jen Calonita's beloved six-book Secrets of My Hollywood Life series.

The Strange Affair of Madeleine Smith

The Strange Affair of Madeleine Smith PDF Author: Douglas MacGowan
Publisher: Birlinn Ltd
ISBN: 0857902725
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
Discover the true story of Victorian Scotland's trial of the century. It was a case that rocked Victorian society. Emile L'Angelier was a working-class immigrant from the Channel Islands who began a clandestine affair with prominent Glasgow socialite Madeleine Smith. Six weeks after Emile threatened to show Madeleine's father their passionate letters, on 23 March 1857, he was found dead from arsenic poisoning. The evidence against Madeleine seemed overwhelming as she went to trial for murdering her lover. Douglas MacGowan's vivid account reads by turns like a thriller, a love story and a courtroom drama. He quotes extensively from contemporary sources, notably the pathology reports, the trial testimony and the infamous correspondence between Madeleine and Emile, whose explicit content so shocked Victorian sensibilities. Ultimately it is up to the reader to judge Madeleine's guilt or innocence.

What Is Remembered (Storycuts)

What Is Remembered (Storycuts) PDF Author: Alice Munro
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448128501
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 21

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Book Description
A fleeting affair lingers in the memory of a woman. Thirty years after the event, when both husband and lover have died, she remembers one further detail. Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage.

All Our Worldly Goods

All Our Worldly Goods PDF Author: Irene Nemirovsky
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307743292
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
In haunting ways, this gorgeous novel prefigures Irène Némirovsky’s masterpiece Suite Française. Set in France between 1910 and 1940 and first published in France in 1947, five years after the author’s death, All Our Worldly Goods is a gripping story of war, family life and star-crossed lovers. Pierre and Agnes marry for love against the wishes of his parents and his grandfather, the tyrannical family patriarch. Their marriage provokes a family feud that cascades down the generations. This brilliant novel is full of drama, heartbreak, and the telling observations that have made Némirovsky’s work so beloved and admired.

Infidelity

Infidelity PDF Author: Stacey May Fowles
Publisher: ECW Press
ISBN: 1770411410
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Ronnie, an engaged hairdresser with a history of teenage recklessness and mystery childhood illnesses, feels stifled by the unavoidable pull of the predictable, comfortable life laid out before her. Charlie, an anxiety-ridden, award-winning writer, feels suffocated by his literary success and familial responsibility, including a bread-winning wife and a child with autism. When the unlikely pair meet at a holiday party where Ronnie’s fiancé is the caterer, a torrid affair, which begins on office desks and in Toronto hotel rooms, provides both with a false reality that offers solace in its secrets. Charlie becomes obsessed with the calm of Ronnie’s ordinariness, and Ronnie revels in the clandestine secrets and dramatic interludes of an otherwise predictable life. The two live in film scripts and prose, until the entire lie combusts in all its tragic beauty. Beautifully written and engaging, this novel calls into question society’s strict definition of right versus wrong while examining what it means to be a husband, wife, parent, and human being.

The Man With the Dancing Eyes

The Man With the Dancing Eyes PDF Author: Sophie Dahl
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1596917598
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
In the golden half light of a midsummer's evening, the sort where any kind of magic can occur, and often does, in the midst of a party held in a wild and rambling garden stood Pierre, teetering on highly unsuitable heels, surrounded by a symphony of overripe roses. Pierre is the heroine of this loveable love story, and the magic takes the form of a tap on her shoulder which induces her to look into the most wicked and dancing eyes she'd ever seen. These are the eyes of her future beloved, and the book charts the course of their romance, from the streets of London to the streets of New York. There are waltzes and sweet peas and bubbles, a tragic breakup, a romantic makeup, and whimsical line drawings to accompany it all. Delightfully silly, occasionally serious, The Man with the Dancing Eyes is all about love-its beginnings, its endings, and its wonderful re-kindlings. It is a hopeful tale about the place of old-fashioned romance in a modern-day world, and will warm the hearts of romantics the world over.