Books for the Armchair Detective in Your Life

The tragic story of the murders of three women committed over three decades by one cold-blooded man in Maine's North Woods.

Jennie Cyr disappeared in 1977. Jerilyn Towers vanished in 1982. Lynn Willette never came home on a night in 1994. Each woman had a relationship with James Hicks, who in 2000 confessed to murdering them, dismembering their bodies and burying the remains alongside rural roads in Aroostook County. This is their story.

Author Trudy Irene Scee follows Hicks from the North Woods to west Texas, detailing three decades of evasion, investigation and prosecution. She interviews police officers and victims' families--and meets Hicks at the state prison in Thomaston, where he remains remorseless as he lives out his days behind bars. Thoroughly researched and carefully documented, Tragedy in the North Woodsis the definitive history of one of Maine's most ruthless killers.

Maine has never been regarded as a pirate haven, but only because witnesses were few and far between. With a rugged coast and more than four thousand offshore islands, Maine's dark waters attracted sea raiders like Dixie Bull from the 1600s through colonial times. Pirate treasure still awaits discovery in Phippsburg and Machias, and pirate deceit prompted a massacre in ancient Fort Loyall. The infamous Captain Kidd may have prowled the waters off Deer Isle, while farther down the coast a woman and a bloodthirsty band of cutthroats lured ships to disaster at Isles of Shoals. Award-winning investigative journalist Greg Latimer separates historical fact from fiction and leads readers on an adventure through the state's foggy and treacherous past.

For 178 years, Maine State Prison peacefully coexisted with the town of Thomaston. In addition to its stately elms, the formidable brick facade overshadowed Main Street to the south and provided a stark contrast to the former sea captains' homes to the north. At the time of its closure in 2002, Maine State Prison was one of the oldest prisons still in use in the country. The decision to move from the antiquated prison to a state-of-the-art facility in nearby Warren was met with mixed emotions and even sadness. On February 12, 2002, round-the-clock operations moved Maine's most violent and dangerous prisoners, leaving behind unlocked doors and darkened cells. By June of that year, the old prison was demolished and buried in the ancient abandoned limestone quarry, although its memory continues to live on in the minds of those who knew it firsthand.