1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The master of the legal thriller” (Associated Press) teams up with “the godfather of the innocence movement” (Texas Monthly) to share ten harrowing true stories of wrongful convictions.
“Each of these stories is told with astonishing power.”—David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon
“Gripping . . . compelling . . . What makes [Framed] important reading isn’t the shock value advertised in the title. It’s the exposure of the infuriating, recurrent factors involved in so many unrighteous convictions.”—The Washington Post
John Grisham is known worldwide for his bestselling novels. He has a real-life passion for justice. This passion led to his work with Jim McCloskey of Centurion Ministries. Centurion Ministries is the first organization dedicated to exonerating innocent people who have been wrongly convicted. Together they offer an inside look at the many injustices in our criminal justice system.
A fundamental principle of our legal system is a presumption of innocence. However, once someone is found guilty, there is very little room to prove doubt. These ten true stories shed light on Americans who were innocent but found guilty. They were forced to sacrifice friends, families, and decades of their lives to prison. Meanwhile, the guilty parties remained free. In each of the stories, John Grisham and Jim McCloskey recount the dramatic hard-fought battles for exoneration. They explore what leads to wrongful convictions. They examine racism, misconduct, flawed testimony, and corruption in the court system. These factors can make them so hard to reverse.
Impeccably researched and told with page-turning suspense. Only John Grisham can deliver such captivating storytelling. Framed is the story of winning freedom when the battle seems lost. The deck is stacked against you.
Look for John Grisham’s forthcoming legal thriller, The Widow. This time, the verdict isn’t the end of the story.
Tag: #TrueCrime
Unraveling the 1937 Alice Parsons Kidnapping Mystery
A new look at the 1937 abduction of a wealthy wife and mother, based on previously classified FBI documents—includes photos.
In 1937, Alice McDonell Parsons was kidnapped from Long Meadow Farm in Stony Brook, New York. She was the heir to a vast fortune among Long Island’s wealthy elite. The crime shocked the nation and was front-page news for several months.
J. Edgar Hoover personally assigned his best FBI agents to the case. Within a short time, Parsons’s husband and their live-in housekeeper, Anna Kupryanova, became prime suspects. Botched ransom attempts, clashes between authorities, and romantic intrigue kept the investigation mired in drama. The crime remained unsolved. Now, in this book, former Suffolk County detective Steven C. Drielak reveals previously classified FBI documents—and pieces together the mystery of the Alice Parsons kidnapping.
About the Author
Matt Weisgerber is the narrator of over a dozen audiobooks, including YA, children’s, horror, western, sci-fi, and comedy titles. His voice has been described as friendly, smooth, unique, and conversational, and he has a knack for character voices. Matt is easy to work with, and loves creating engaging and believable performances.
Steven C. Drielak is an internationally recognized expert in the area of Hot Zone Forensic Attribution. He received his master’s degrees from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He has more than thirty years of law enforcement experience. Steven established the Suffolk County Environmental Crime Unit in New York. He commanded that unit for sixteen years. Steven has directed within the EPA’s Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training. His role spanned both the Homeland Security and Criminal Enforcement national programs. As the director of the EPA’s National Criminal Enforcement Response Team, he led the effort. He deployed environmental forensic evidence collection teams. These teams responded to BP Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay oil pipeline failures. They also addressed the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. Steven has served as a senior forensic attribution instructor. He worked at the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia. There, he was a program developer. He served for seventeen years as a National Academy Instructor for the EPA’s criminal enforcement program. He has also provided environmental forensic attribution training for the FBI’s Hazardous Materials Response Unit. He has provided international training to numerous countries within the European Union. He has authored and coauthored six textbooks in the areas of environmental crimes, weapons of mass destruction and forensic attribution. He has also authored two historical fiction novels. He was an appointed member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Environmental Crimes Committee. He served on the President’s Interagency Microbial Forensics Advisory Board.
The Day Lincoln Was Shot
“This classic of popular history vividly dramatizes a pivotal moment in the life of our country . . . a happy blend of good scholarship and good storytelling.” —AudioFile
The Day Lincoln Was Shot is a gripping, hour-by-hour account of April fourteen, 1865: the day President Abraham Lincoln was tragically assassinated.
It chronicles the movements of Lincoln and his assassin John Wilkes Booth during every movement of that fateful day. Author and journalist Jim Bishop has fashioned an unforgettable tale of tragedy, more gripping than fiction, more alive than any newspaper account.First published in 1955, The Day Lincoln Was Shot was a huge bestseller, and in 1998 it was made into a TNT movie, with Rob Morrow as Booth.
“Everything that concerned Lincoln’s assassination from 7:00 A.M. Friday until 7:22 A.M. Saturday, the moment of his death. A new kind of Lincoln book.” —The New York Times
“Startling, tabloid immediacy . . . police-blotter facts.” —Time
“A great news story brilliantly recaptured.” —New York Herald Tribune
“Reads like a novel—holds you in suspense like a detective story!” —Pittsburgh Press
“History with the impact of a Page One news story.” —Syracuse Herald American
“Terror and suspense.” —Cleveland News
Ride the Devil’s Herd
Wyatt Earp’s Epic Battle Against the West’s Biggest Outlaw Gang
The story of how a young Wyatt Earp and his brothers defeated the Old West’s biggest outlaw gang, by the New York Times–bestselling author of Texas Ranger.
Wyatt Earp is regarded as the most famous lawman of the Old West, best known for his role in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. But the story of his two-year war with a band of outlaws known as the Cowboys has never been told in full.
The Cowboys were the largest outlaw gang in the history of the American West. After battles with the law in Texas and New Mexico, they shifted their operations to Arizona. There, led by Curly Bill Brocius, they ruled the border, robbing, rustling, smuggling and killing with impunity until they made the fatal mistake of tangling with the Earp brothers.
Drawing on groundbreaking research into territorial and federal government records, John Boessenecker’s Ride the Devil’s Herd reveals a time and place in which homicide rates were fifty times higher than those today. The story still bears surprising relevance for contemporary America, involving hot-button issues such as gang violence, border security, unlawful immigration, the dangers of political propagandists parading as journalists, and the prosecution of police officers for carrying out their official duties. Wyatt Earp saw it all in Tombstone.
Praise for Ride the Devil’s Herd
A Pim County Public Library Southwest Books of the Year 2021
A True West Reader’s Choice for Best 2020 Western Nonfiction
Winner of the Best Book Award by the Wild West History Association
“A marvelous book. By means of meticulous research and splendid writing John Boessenecker has managed to do something never before attempted or accomplished, tying together the many violent clashes between lawmen and outlaws in the American southwest of the 1870-1890 period and showing how depredations by loosely organized gangs of outlaws actually threatened “Manifest Destiny” and the successful taming of the Wild West.” —Robert K. DeArment, author and historian
“A ripsnortin’ ramble across the bloodstained Arizona desert with Wyatt Earp and company. . . . Boessenecker displays a fine eye for period detail. . . . A pleasure for thoughtful fans of Old West history, revisionist without being iconoclastic.” —Kirkus Reviews

