In the chilly summer of 1888, the city of London was introduced to an innovation in evil. A brutal series of prostitute murders cast the city into a frenzy of fear and suspicion, pushing it to the brink of ethnic strife not seen in centuries. Jack the Ripper had arrived."'The Passion of the Ripper' is a different kind of Ripper story: not a whodunit, but an unflinching exploration of the killer, his city, and his times. It tells this well-known story from the inside out, from the points of view of the cops, his final victim, and the man who--years later--became the case's prime suspect. Contrary to legend, Jack's career didn't end with his last mutilation. After chasing a phantom for years, will Scotland Yard see Jack's handiwork in a series of seemingly unrelated murders? Will the world's most notorious serial killer be brought to justice at last?"A disturbing, engrossing tale. Nicastro takes you to hell and back with the larger than life mystery--and the man--behind the name Jack the Ripper."--Doug Clegg, author of "Neverland""A strong new entry in the world of Ripper fiction..."--Ripperologist Magazine
"Welcome to the bloody end of bleeding Kansas..."Based on true events, this unforgettable novel tells the story of the Bloody Benders, a family of grifters and thieves running an isolated feed store on the Kansas plains, boarding travelers along the Great Osage Trail.Beautiful Kate Bender was mysterious and well-versed in the dark arts; Ma and Pa were quiet and foreboding, speaking in guttural tones; and young John Bender was thought to be insane. On land soaked with the blood of conflict, the Benders made their home. And one by one, prairie travelers began to disappear...Rooted in history, this is a vivid tale of the Benders' origins, and how they became some of the most horrific figures in early post-Civil War America."This meticulously researched, vividly told story marries an almost biblical poetry to the rough action of a Western. Readers who can stomach its violence will find a bleak beauty in this portrayal of one of the American prairie's ugliest stories.A heavenly retelling of a hellish tale."- Kirkus Reviews"'Hell's Half-Acre' is a powerful and involving work. Nicastro's anti-heroine, Kate Bender, is so winningly characterized he made me pull for her in a very unexpected way. But what sticks with me most is the land as the austere staging for this drama. The world is a stage and it's as stark as all of Kansas with nowhere to hide. Nicastro's language is equal to it."- Lamar Herrin, author of "The Unwritten Chronicles of Robert E. Lee" and "The Lies Boys Tell"
It is a tale of two cities--the legendary duel between haughty, democratic Athens and brutal, unbeaten Sparta. After seven years of bloody conflict, a barren island in a remote corner of Greece becomes the stage for what promises to become a second Thermopylae. Four hundred Spartan soldiers are cut off by enemy ships on a narrow strip of land, starving, without supplies, yet sworn to uphold their indomitable heritage. Meanwhile, all around them, the powerful Athenian Navy masses for the inevitable assault. As the war of nerves wears on, Spartan nobles and Athenian demagogues maneuver in the background--and two estranged Spartan brothers serve together for the first time. The eldest, Antalcidas, is a legendary warrior hobbled by a damaging secret. His brother Epitadas is envied, popular, and cruel. Together they must overcome a lifetime of hostility to survive the battle of their lives."With 'The Isle of Stone', Nicholas Nicastro joins the illustrious pedigree of Mary Renault, Valerio Massimo Manfredi and Steven Pressfield with great style and enormous panache. His hero's checkered life story is used to frame a dark and darkening history of Sparta between a hugely destructive natural disaster, a great earthquake in 464 BC, and a self-inflicted, man-made debacle during the prolonged and even more destructive Peloponnesian War. Nicastro knows his ancient sources intimately, but also has the born novelist's instinct to flesh out their bare bones all too plausibly. Nicastro's antiheroes of the isle of Sphacteria are the dark side of Pressfield's heroes in Gates of Fire: both demand and repay the attention of all lovers of expert historical fiction."--Paul Cartledge, Professor of Greek History, University of Cambridge, and author of "Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past""From its explosive first pages, 'The Isle of Stone' draws you into the gritty reality of Sparta during the Peloponnesian War. Nicastro writes powerful prose, but this is no exercise in debunking. With drama, passion, and a sure touch for the facts, Nicastro reveals the heroism behind the humiliation of the shocking day when some of Sparta's unconquerable soldiers surrendered. His images of life and death under the Mediterranean sun hit you like the glare of a polished shield." --Barry Strauss, author of The Battle of "Salamis: The Naval Encounter that Saved Greece - and Western Civilization" and Professor of History and Classics, Cornell University"Having brought John Paul Jones and Alexander the Great to life, Nicastro ('Empire of Ashes') turns his formidable skills as a historical novelist on an obscure episode in the Peloponnesian War, that almost three-decade conflict between Athens and Sparta, which he labels antiquity's 'war to end all wars.' The choice to have a narrow focus, rather than an all-encompassing epic sweep, proves a wise one, as it enables Nicastro to go into nitty-gritty detail about the lifestyles of Greece in 425 B.C., making the harsh Spartan attitudes, for example, comprehensible, if not acceptable, to a modern sensibility. The author instills emotional depth in his three main characters-Damatria, a wealthy Spartan woman, and her two sons, Antalcidas and Epitadas-and the supporting cast through adept use of the telling descriptive phrase. The careful research and study that went into this book should enthrall fans of the classics, military history buffs and general readers." --Publisher's Weekly
On a cool November evening in 1901, Ella Maud ("Nell") Cropsey went out on her porch with her long-time boyfriend, Jim Wilcox. It was an evening like many before, in a town like any other, where extraordinary things rarely happened. Except this time Nell did not return.The mystery of her disappearance is still unsolved, haunting the community where it unfolded. It is the archetype of the modern news "event", followed by millions around the nation and abroad at the dawn of the 20th century. Later, it became a celebrated Big Trial, straining primitive wire services as they struggled to give readers the descriptions, pictures, and details they craved. Finally, it became an unlikely redemption story, as voices around the nation rose up against what many viewed as a miscarriage of justice. The tragedy of Nell Cropsey contains the seeds of a thousand true-life sagas of despoiled innocence, of vanishing and murder and exoneration in the hot light of media scrutiny, down to today.In this speculative novel, Nicholas Nicastro marshals contemporary accounts, forensic science, psychology and the skills of a veteran historical novelist to reimagine Nell's person, family, world and legacy. Did Jim Wilcox have something to do with her fate? Or did the rush to judge him conceal another, more troubling reality--one that could not be washed away by the oily waters of the Pasquotank River? In the middle of it all, Wilcox remained curiously still, hardly defending himself, as the argument raged in the town and around the nation: what befell Nell Cropsey?"In this novel set in the early 1900s, one act tragically ruins the lives of two families. Based on a true story, this work of speculative fiction explores the murder of Ella Maud 'Nell' Cropsey, the attractive, 19-year-old standout of a large family of transplanted Northerners in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. After a breakup with Jim Wilcox, her longtime beau, Nell disappears. Some speculate that she ran off to seek her fortune in a large metropolis while others fear that she harmed herself. But after her body pops up in a local river weeks later, suspicion falls on rough-edged Jim...There's a palpable sense of opportunities lost because of her death at such a young age. In this well-researched book, Nicastro cannily reveals just enough about Nell's death to make readers uneasy until just before the wistful conclusion. Nell is gone, but her death also effectively ends the lives of Jim, Ollie, William, and Mary, the sisters' long-suffering mother. The author skillfully makes his point that one misdeed produces many victims. The author continues his successful run of historical fiction with this thought-provoking crime tale."- Kirkus Reviews
Galileo, Leonardo, Newton, Tesla – all revered him. As an engineer, Archimedes of Syracuse almost single-handedly held off the world’s most powerful army. In an era of abacuses and sundials, he designed geared calculating devices that accurately modeled the solar system. As a mathematician, he knew more in 212 BCE than all of Europe for the next seventeen centuries. In this bold reimagining, modern polymath Nicholas Nicastro shines new light on Archimedes’ life and work. Far from the aloof, physically inept figure of historical myth, he is revealed to be an ambitious, combative and fiercely competitive man. A genius who challenged an empire, Archimedes emerges as the world’s first fully modern scientist – millennia before his intellectual descendants transformed our world.
Book Description Athens, 440 BC. Under Pericles, the democracy is building its imperial legacy in blood, stone, and ballots. Ruling the stage, Sophocles premieres the tragedy of Antigone, earning renown that propels him to an honorary generalship. But the honor turns serious when war breaks out with the powerful island of Samos. Can Sophocles the playwright now direct real soldiers in a war that will decide the fate of Athens sea empire? ............................. Author Bio: Nicholas Nicastro was born in Astoria, New York in 1963. He has also worked as a film critic, a hospital orderly, a newspaper reporter, a library archivist, a college lecturer in anthropology and psychology, an animal behaviorist, and an advertising salesman. In addition to Antigone s Wake, his published novels include The Eighteenth Captain (1999), Between Two Fires (2002), Empire of Ashes (2004), and The Isle of Stone (2005). His writings also include short fiction, travel and science articles in such publications as The New York Times, The New York Observer, Film Comment, and The International Herald Tribune. ........................... Reviews: Nicastro is an author who clearly relishes his subject. Each sentence bursts with juicy, nurturing historical detail and considered thought about the hopes, aspirations, ideals and troubles of those who lived in the distant past. We follow the triumphs and travails of Sophocles as he struggles to create his art and also be what Athens wants him to be a brilliant general. Athens as a great civilization is constructed in front of our eyes. Nicastro brings to life both the back-streets of the city and the sea-battle-lanes of its Empire. The towering giants of Western history; Sophocles, Euripides, Pericles and his consort Aspasia are, through his vivid imagination, given a voice. This book allows the reader to inhabit the Golden Age of Athens, and to taste its grit as well as its glory. Bettany Hughes, PBS and BBC, author of Helen of Troy: The Story Behind the Most Beautiful Woman in the World
