Bücher von Ted Botha

Mother. Nurse. Gold-digger. Cause célèbre. When Daisy de Melker stood trial in 1932, accused of poisoning her son and two husbands, the public couldn't get enough of her. Crowds gathered outside court baying for blood, and she waved to them like a celebrity. Against the backdrop of Johannesburg in its golden age, a booming metropolis of opulence and chaos nicknamed the 'City of Gold' and the 'University of Crime', she had quietly gone about her sinister business while around her sensational crimes grabbed the headlines. There was the marauding Foster Gang, which left at least ten people dead; a dashing German hustler; a local Bonnie and Clyde; an innocent student walking in Zoo Lake park at the wrong time and a man whoescaped death row to become one of South Africa's most revered authors. These interlinking stories are told in the style of a thriller and with riveting, kaleidoscopic detail. In Daisy de Melker, Ted Botha weaves together a fantastic cast of killers and con men, detectives and lawmen, journalists and authors - even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Herman Charles Bosman - to depict a grand and desperate city. For almost twenty years Daisy hid in the shadows but when someone finally spoke up about the suspicious deaths around her, it led to a trial like nothing the City of Gold had ever seen and spread her name across the world.

MORE THAN THIRTY MURDERS, NINE FUGITIVES, AND ONE OBSESSED MANIn this thrilling and fascinating account of Frank Bender and his work, readers will be drawn into the cases he has solved, the intricacies of his art, the colorful characters he encounters, and the personal cost of his strange obsession. Through breathtakingly realistic sculptures, Frank Bender reconstructs the faces of the missing and the dead based in part on forensic science, and in part on deep intuition, an uncanny ability to discern not only a missing face but also the personality behind it.His skills have led to the solving of many murders and other serious crimes, and have given faces to the victims, including the infamous case of the feminicidios-in which hundreds of murdered women were found outside Juarez, Mexico.With a conclusion as shocking as its story is gripping, The Girl with the Crooked Nose will haunt readers long after the last page is turned."A compelling glimpse into a gruesome profession."-Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman"Frank Bender is one of the unsung heroes of crime detection . . . In an original and highly readable nonfiction thriller, this book brims with authenticity and the complexities of crime-solving procedurals . . . [A] fascinating story of a brilliant forensic artist's quest to solve some of the most baffling murder cases ever. It is exceptional crime writing that is timely and informative."-Tucson Citizen"Action-packed . . . Botha's work relays Bender's surprising conclusions about the case and imparts more information about reconstructing the faces of the dead than most readers will expect." -Booklist"[A] crackling account of a quirky, maverick forensics artist, Frank Bender, and his largely successful efforts in facial reconstruction of murder victims . . . What is extraordinary is Botha's writing, with his unerring depiction of Bender's painstaking work and the eventual unraveling of the brutal crimes it solves . . . The tales in this book accurately capture the dark motives and complexities of senseless murder, and even the most savvy true crime reader will not be able to resist the author's insightful storytelling."-Publishers Weekly