Central Kansas Library System

Convicted murderer Melvin Mars is counting down the last hours before his execution -- for the violent killing of his parents twenty years earlier -- when he's granted an unexpected reprieve. Another man has confessed to the crime. Amos Decker, newly hired on an FBI special task force, takes an interest in Mars's case after discovering the striking similarities to his own life: Both men were talented football players with promising careers cut short...

The enchanted place is an ancient stone prison, viewed through the eyes of a death row inmate who finds escape in his books and in re-imagining life around him. A female investigator searches for buried information from prisoners' pasts that can save those soon-to-be-executed. Digging into the background of a killer named York, she uncovers wrenching truths that challenge familiar notions of victim and criminal, innocence and guilt, and reveals shocking...

In June 2010, police found Michael Ballard drinched in blood, fleeing a crime scene. In the home of Ballard's ex-girlfriend, police make a gruesome discovery: Denise Merhi and three others had been repearedly stabbed.

Grieving the death of his wife, private investigator Mark Novak reluctantly accepts a case from a suspected murderer who may or may not be innocent. Novak knows all too well that some crimes never get solved. But it's not often that the man who many believe got away with murder is the one calling for the case to be reopened. Ten years ago, a teenage girl disappeared inside an elaborate cave system beneath rural farmland. Days later, Ridley Barnes...

In their own voices--raw and uncensored--inmates sentenced to death as teenagers talk about their lives in prison, and share their thoughts and feelings about how they ended up there. Susan Kuklin also gets inside the system, exploring capital punishment itself and the intricacies and inequities of criminal justice in the United States.

Masterfully told and as suspenseful as it is haunting, The Green Mile is Stephen King's classic #1 New York Times bestselling dramatic serial novel and inspiration for the Oscar-nominated film starring Tom Hanks.
Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk "the Green Mile," the lime-colored linoleum corridor leading to a final...

"Laced with atmospheric poetry and literature and set in the heart of Denver's black community, this gripping crime novel pits three characters in a race against time to thwart a gross miscarriage of justice-and a crooked detective who wreaks havoc...with deadly consequences. What happens to a deferred dream-especially when an innocent man's life hangs in the balance? Langston Brown is running out of time and options for clearing his name and escaping...

Leaving Virginia in search of peace and quiet, Dr. Kay Scarpetta journeys to Florida, where a series of baffling murders entangles her in an international conspiracy that confronts her with the most unexpected circumstance of her life.

It takes audiences deep into the backwaters of steamy 1960s South Florida, as investigative reporter Ward Jansen and his partner Yardley Acheman chase a sensational, career-making story. With the help of Ward's younger brother Jack and sultry death-row groupie Charlotte Bless, the pair tries to prove violent swamp-dweller Hillary Van Wetter was framed for the murder of a corrupt local sheriff.

A death row inmate in a Southern prison possesses the unusual gift of healing. A guard discovers the inmate's miraculous power and begins to question the man's guilt.