Crime Expert BURL BARER. Edgar Award Winner and NYT Bestselling Author

Rhonda Glover and Other Killer Subjects. Non-Fiction Thrillers & True Crime!

 

"Burl Barer writes true crime so realistically, it jumps off the page." -- Jack Olsen

"Journalistic integrity and powerful narrative drive." -- Gary C. King

"Burl Barer is one of my favorites!" --Lis Wiehl, Fox News

 "Burl Barer is the Elmore Leonard of True Crime." -- Tod Goldberg

 

FATAL BEAUTY

Rhonda Glover and Jimmy Joste met in 1989 and there was an immediate attraction between the two. Rhonda was a former beauty queen who had started her own staffing business. Jimmy, 15 years her senior, was a Texas trust fund baby who'd made millions in the oil industry.  Rhonda, a victim of mental illness worsened by drug use, eventually pumped Jimmy full of bullets from a Glock 9mm. 

 Fatal Beauty is available from your favorite bookseller, or on-line from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Booksamillion, Alibris, and many others. It is in paperback and also in all ebook formats.

MOM SAID KILL

"I want a new bike. . . . Mom says that if I help kill Jerry I can have one” 

Barbara Opel promised her 13 year old daughter a new dirt bike if she would help murder her employer.  It is no spoiler to tell you that the kid never got the dirt bike.  A shocking true story of the "world's worst mother" and the little girl who knew always to mind her mother.

         BODY COUNT

By day, Robert Lee Yates, Jr., was a respected father of five, a skilled helicopter pilot who served in Desert Storm and the National Guard, and a man no one suspected of a deadly hidden life. By night he prowled the streets where prostitutes gathered, gaining their trust before betraying them with a bullet to the head. On August 26, 1997, the decomposed bodies of two young women were discovered in Spokane, Washington. Within months four more women were added to the mounting death toll. In 2000, Yates pleaded guilty to 13 murders to avoid the death penalty. But in 2001 he was convicted of two more murders and is now on death row in Washington State, waiting for the day when he will die by lethal injection.

                HEAD SHOT

Paul St. Pierre was an alcoholic driven by an urge to kill all the time. He bullied his younger brother, Chris, into committing unspeakable acts. His childhood friend, Andrew Webb, took drugs, talked to skulls, and dreamed about eating human flesh. It was only a matter of time before the trio terrorized a quiet neighbourhood near Tacoma, Washington, with the brutal murders of innocent victims caught in a storm of senseless rage. Then the twisted triad turned on each other - over money. Paul shot Andrew in the stomach. Chris called the cops. But with tortured individuals like these, justice opened the doors to more surprising revelations...

 

A Burl Barer True Crime Extravaganza for the Holidays!

Yep, tis the season to stock up on true crime non-fiction thrillers by Burl Barer!

If you're getting a Kindle or Nook for Christmas, load that baby up with books by Burl Barer!

If you love those paperbacks, I keep em comming!

FATAL BEAUTY -- Rhonda Glover pumps Jimmy Joste full of hot lead because she believes that he and G.W. Bush are having sex with clones in a cave under her house. In Texas, that's not going to get you an insanity defense. 

While you're grabbing FATAL BEAUTY, make sure you also grab Murder in the Family, Broken Doll, Mom Said Kill, Head Shot and Body Count.

 

Order them today online from your favorite bookseller such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Booksamillion, Indibound, Alibris and many others....remember BUY THEM NEW, NOT USED!!

 

NYPD cold case expert -- live on TRUE CRIME UNCENSORED Sat. 2pm PT/5pm ET -- http://outlawradio.tv/listenlive.html

The Non-Fiction Thriller -- Redefining True Crime.

Thrillers provide such a rich literary feast. There are all kinds. The legal thriller, spy thriller, action-adventure thriller, medical thriller, police thriller, romantic thriller, historical thriller, political thriller, religious thriller, high-tech thriller, military thriller. The list goes on and on, with new variations constantly being invented. In fact, this openness to expansion is one of the genre's most enduring characteristics.

”

—James Patterson,

Despite the plethora of true crime television shows and radio broadcasts, "True Crime" as a literary genre is undergoing a transformation.  Also known as "fact crime" (that is the classification by the Mystery Writers of America), true crime books range from rush-to-market exploitation quickies cranked out to cash in on the public's interest in a high profile case, to comprehensive works of investigative research spanning twenty five years or more.  Most, however, are mass market paperbacks exploring cases of homicide and extreme social deviancy that occured in the past five to ten years.  In 2012, as publishers grappled with seizmic changes in the industry, the presentation and marketing of "true crime" books underwent changes as well.

The Non Fiction Thriller -- Yes, that is the new name for true crime at Kensington Publishing Group, home of the Pinnacle imprint.  This is the publishing company for whom i have been writting books for over a decade. I love my relationship with Kensington's editorial staff, and everyone there has been a delight.  I like the term "Non Fiction Thriller," but I don't know how thrilled the writers of "fiction thrillers" will be with the term.  Thrillers, as a genre, have certain established characteristics.

"...what gives the variety of thrillers a common ground is the intensity of emotions they create, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, of excitement and breathlessness, all designed to generate that all-important thrill. By definition, if a thriller doesn't thrill, it's not doing its job."
—James Patterson,   Obviously the rules are different for "Non-Fiction Thrillers."

True crime stories invariably begin with the conclusion -- we know whodunit from page one, or even the book jacket. There is no surprise reveal, no shocking twist to the tale,no last minute revelation, no spectacular act by the protagonist that defeats the villain, and saves the country, the world or the universe from destruction. The closest thing to a thriller amongst my true crime books is Murder in the Family, and that's because of the decidely cinematic nail-biting chase and capture of the escaping murderer and child rapist, Kirby D. Anthoney.  

Body Count: The True Story of the Spokane Serial Killer spans over a decade of police investigation and dead ends searching for the killer who shoots women behind their left ear with a small caliber weapon, covers the wound with a paper towel, then wraps the head in a plastic bag to keep blood from getting everywhere.  For years police speculated on why he shot the women in the head, at zero range, behind the left ear.  To me, the explanation was immediately obvious -- perhaps something I should tell my therapist. The book is about the investigation, the lives of the women prior to their date with death, and the final capture and conviction of this Desert Storm veteran, married father of five, and hard working church goer who had developed an addiction to murder.  It is all true. But is it a "thriller?"  For purposes of marketing, yes it is. 

Now, here is the challenge for me. While i have yet to select the case for my next non-fiction thriller, when I do, and my editor approves it, do it write it as if it were a "thriller." or as if it were a true crime book?  I bet I know the answer I'll get from the wonderful Michaela Hamilton -- it will be something along the lines of "Write the book; tell the story."  The process of doing that, I assure you, has all the edge of your seat anxiety, suspense and breathless anticipation of any thriller.