James Renner

An account of the author's lifelong fascination with true crime and his obsessive quest to find Maura Murray, a UMass student whose disappearance in 2004 has stumped authorities to this day.

How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray

True Crime Addict

Four years after a reclusive eccentric is murdered, self-exiled writer and grieving widower David is drawn into the victim's bizarre story, which becomes precariously entangled in David's obsessions and his wife's suicide. A first novel by the author of The Serial Killer's Apprentice. 25,000 first printing.

A Novel

The Man from Primrose Lane

Reporter James Renner investigates the kidnapping and murder of eleven-year-old Amy Mihaljevic in Northeast Ohio, 1989, revealing new clues about key suspects and sharing his own theory of what really happened to the young girl.

My Search for Her Killer: Secrets & Suspects in the Unsolved Murder of Amy Mihaljevic

Returning home to Ohio to care for his dementia-stricken father, history teacher Jack Felter is pulled into the search for a missing friend and subsequently teams up with a paranoid boy named Cole, with whom he must save the world from a program known asthe Great Forgetting.

The Great Forgetting

Muse

Little, Crazy Children

Discusses twelve cold cases in Northeast Ohio involing murders and abductions.

And 12 Other True Stories of Cleveland's Most Intriguing Unsolved Crimes

The Serial Killer's Apprentice

 In this timely and deeply personal true crime memoir, acclaimed journalist, author, creator of the True Crime This Week podcast, and former Boy Scout James Renner, explores the dark side of an American institution, its pervasive culture of sexual abuse, and the traumatic—even deadly—repercussions of its long-buried secrets.

In the summer of 1995, at the largest Boy Scout camp in Ohio, a night of sexual violence ended with one counselor dead and another hospitalized. The death was ruled “accidental.” It wouldn’t be the last death associated with Seven Ranges Reservation.

James Renner, too, was a counselor at Seven Ranges that year. He was always sure there must be more to the story of Mike Klingler’s death, because Renner also knew firsthand that the 900-acre camp was not the safe getaway it was portrayed to be. On Friday nights the boys were ushered into the woods for a frightening ceremony in which they learned the rules for becoming good young men—and, above all, that keeping secrets was a scout’s duty. No matter how dark the secrets were.

Determined to face his demons, Renner embarks on a journey back to that tumultuous summer and exposes a clandestine society that left indelible scars on the scouts and the staff who were there. For Renner himself, it meant opening up about his twisted upbringing, his issues with trust and sexuality, and a lifetime of self-medication. The result is a deeply personal, no-holds-barred, and vitally important true crime memoir. 

Sex, Death, and Secret Societies Inside the Boy Scouts of America

Scout Camp

Keepsakes

Turn on a night light, lock your door, and close the window blinds . . . Join investigative reporter James Renner as he looks into 13 tales of mysterious, creepy, and unexplained events in the Buckeye State, including: - The giant, spark-emitting Loveland Frog - The bloodthirsty Melon Heads of Kirtland - The lumber-wielding Werewolf of Defiance - The Mothman of the Ohio River - The UFO that inspired "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" - and more!

True Tales of the Weird, Wild, and Unexplained

It Came from Ohio

Amber Dermont

Tom Winter

Nick Dybek

From a stylish coming-of-age novel set in an elite world of Manhattan penthouses and exclusive sailing clubs, to a devious, dark and innovative murder mystery about dangerous obsession and the way it can influence our fates, this collection from Corsair is the perfect taste of our favourite fiction debuts. FREE chapters taken from four very different and compelling novels, by emerging new talents Amber Dermont, James Renner, Nick Dybek and Tom Winter. Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont Stylish American fiction at its best 'Engrossing ... captivating and inspired. Dermont adeptly charts the fine calibrations of teenage love and shame and belonging.' New York Times 'Touching, beautiful and deeply wise ... You will be enthralled.' Justin Cronin, author of The Passage The Man From Primrose Lane by James Renner Imagine an episode of Doctor Who written by Stephen King... 'A haunting, wickedly clever book.' Jonathan Carroll, author of The Ghost in Love 'Ambitious and innovative.' Washington Post When Captain Flint Was Still a Good Man by Nick Dybek An atmospheric thriller from a Granta magazine 'New Voices' emerging talent 'An authentic, atmospheric, coming-of-age story ... A terrific debut.' C. J. Box 'A thrilling yarn.' Economist Lost & Found by Tom Winter Two lost souls are brought together by a series of letters, in this touching and captivating novel

4 FREE extracts from the best new voices in fiction

Dazzling Debuts from Corsair

When history teacher Jack Felter gets a call that his father, a retired pilot suffering from dementia, is quickly losing his last, precious memories, he reluctantly returns to bucolic Franklin Mills, Ohio. It’s been years since he’s been home. Jack has been trying to forget about Franklin Mills ever since Sam, the girl he fell in love with, ran off with his best friend, Tony. But Tony is gone, now. Vanished. Everyone assumes the worst. Soon Jack is pulled into the search for Tony, but the only one who seems to know anything is Tony’s last patient, a paranoid boy named Cole. As Cole pulls Jack into his web of conspiracy theories, the two of them team up to follow Tony’s trail---and maybe save the world.

A journalist investigates a cold case that has haunted him since childhood: the 1989 disappearance of 10-year-old Amy Mihaljevic from Bay Village, OH. Filled with mysterious riddles, incredible coincidences, and a cast of unusual but very real characters, his investigation quickly becomes a riveting journey in search of the truth.

Secrets and Suspects in the Unsolved Murder of Amy Mihaljevic

Amy: My Search for Her Killer

An investigative journalist confronts 13 of Northeast Ohio’s most intriguing unsolved crimes and attempts to crack open dark secrets that have baffled Clevelanders for years, including: • Abduction—In 2003, sixteen-year-old Georgina DeJesus disappeared on a West Side street corner, almost exactly one year after teenager Amanda Berry vanished just blocks away. • Stolen Identity—Joseph Newton Chandler of Eastlake was not who he claimed to be. Some think he was the Zodiac killer; others say he was D.B. Cooper, or even Jim Morrison. • Suicide or murder?—Joseph Kupchik hid gambling problems from friends and family until he was found at the bottom of a nine-story parking deck in downtown Cleveland—with multiple stab wounds. • Heist—In 1969, Lakewood bank employee Ted Conrad nabbed $215,000 from the vault one day after his twentieth birthday. The FBI still shows up at his high school reunions. • Controversy—Jeffrey Krotine was thrice tried for the grisly 2003 murder of his wife and ultimately acquitted, to the frustration of Cuyahoga County prosecutors, detectives, and even jurors. These stories venture into dark alleys and seedy strip clubs, as well as comfortable suburbs and cozy small towns, where some of the region’s most horrendous crimes have occurred. Renner’s unblinking eye for detail and unwavering search for the truth make this book a gripping read.

MAN FROM PRIMROSE LANE

FORGET HISTORY (ESPECIALLY 2016). READ THE LATEST GENRE-BENDING NOVEL FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE MAN FROM PRIMROSE LANE. When history teacher Jack Felter gets a call that his father, a retired pilot suffering from dementia, is quickly losing his last, precious memories, he reluctantly returns to bucolic Franklin Mills, Ohio. It’s been years since he’s been home. Jack has been trying to forget about Franklin Mills ever since Sam, the girl he fell in love with, ran off with his best friend, Tony. But Tony is gone, now. Vanished. Everyone assumes the worst. Soon Jack is pulled into the search for Tony, but the only one who seems to know anything is Tony’s last patient, a paranoid boy named Cole. As Cole pulls Jack into his web of conspiracy theories, the two of them team up to follow Tony’s trail—and maybe even save the world.

A mind-bending, genre-twisting debut novel In West Akron, Ohio, there lived a reclusive elderly man who always wore mittens, even in July. He had no friends and no family; all over town, he was known as the Man from Primrose Lane. And on a summer day, someone murdered him. Fast-forward four years. David Neff, the bestselling author of a true-crime book about an Ohio serial killer, is a broken man after his wife's inexplicable suicide. When an unexpected visit from an old friend introduces him to the strange mystery of "the man with a thousand mittens," David decides to investigate. What he finds draws him back into a world he thought he had left behind forever. And the closer David gets to uncovering the true identity of the Man from Primrose Lane, the more he begins to understand the dangerous power of his own obsessions and how they may be connected to the deaths of both the old hermit and his beloved wife. Deviously plotted and full of dark wit, James Renner's The Man from Primrose Lane is an audacious debut that boasts as many twists as a roller coaster. But beneath its turns, it's a spellbinding story about our obsessions: the dangerous sway they have over us and the fates of those we love.

James Renner

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