New Releases by Samuel Edwards

From ex-convict to the head of the first known private detective agency, François Eugène Vidocq was the father of modern criminology. Perfect for fans of Tom Clavin, Hallie Rubenhold and Catherine Arnold. Long before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was creating Sherlock or Agatha Christie was inventing the adventures of Poirot, the life and cases of Vidocq were inspiring Victor Hugo, Edgar Allen Poe and Honoré de Balzac to create some of the first detectives in fiction, but as is so often the case, the truth is more fascinating than fiction. Using disguises, decoys and criminal stool pigeons, experimenting with fingerprints, inventing invisible inks, conducting blood and ballistic testing, devising methods for keeping records on all known criminals and pioneering handwriting analysis, are but a few of the real-life master sleuth's innovations. Noel B. Gerson's fascinating biography uncovers the life of the man who earned the respect of Emperor Napoleon after recovering Empress Josephine's stolen emerald necklace, attempted to reform ex-convicts and who revolutionized criminal investigations as the world's first private detective. "introduce[s] the reader to a man who was a genuine pioneer and, in addition, one of the great adventurers of the century." The New York Times "Powerful" Kirkus Reviews

"Everything Starts with You" is a quick read, with ideas that can help you not to hold yourself back from achieving your goals. This book starts off with self-love. Which is of utmost importance, mindset, legacy are some other topics. Start with yourself first then navigate your way towards your predetermined goal.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1810, Edwards' family moved to Ohio in 1812. Upon reaching adulthood, Edwards took up the life of a hunter in order to support his family. By means of hunting and tracking with dogs Edwards was able to make a comfortable life hunting bear, deer, racoon, wolf, wild cats, as well as by fishing the rivers. Life was full of danger from the wild animals as well as Indians and other hunters which inhabited the region. There were frequent battles with Indians over game, as Edwards relates: "I told the Indians this was my bear they had caught, and I was going to have it ... They did not like this disposition of their game, and one said, " No, me give you two dollars and keep the bear." I told him no, I would have the bear-skin, and the dog too; and if my dogs chased any more bear into the woods and they caught them, I should take them from them, and accordingly shouldered the skin and started for home. The Indians cast after me an angry look, but durst not follow me." On another occasion when forty Indians, accosted Edwards, he took on the entire group: "...This so enraged the Indians that one of them drew a club and struck me upon the nose, making it bleed badly. Before this, I had been very much frightened, but now all fear forsook me and I replied to his civility with a blow from my fist just over his eye, which laid him senseless at my feet. Another came furiously toward me and attempted to catch my legs...." Sometimes the table were turned on Edwards and his dogs by the prey they had tracked: "As he was passing the boat, I sprung upon his back and clinched him by the horns. The water was not quite so favorable a place for fighting with a sturdy buck as terra firma and the brave little animal soon had the best of the bargain, getting me underneath his feet and giving me such a drubbing as I never got from man or beast, before or since ...." Tracking bears was particularly fraught with dangers: "...I determined then, if I died, to die fighting. I turned about and met the bear face to face,-and most fortunately for me, poor Madge, whom we had left for mortally wounded, appeared just at this crisis for my deliverance, and attracted the bear's attention just as she was springing with open paws upon me ..." Edwards was not above staging a fight between a captured wolf and a dog for sport, as he relates: "...we took sharp sticks and struck at him until we made him mad, and then again set the dog upon him. A bloody battle ensued in which the wolf proved victorious, the dog being glad to retreat with the loss of one of his eyes." Interestingly, at this time in Ohio there were mammoth sturgeon plying its waters, which were too tempting for Edwards to pass up: "... I fastened a loop of the cord that was attached to the spear around my left hand, and with the instrument of death firmly clenched in my right, I made a bold start toward the young leviathan. I at length swam safely to the shore, the subjugated sturgeon following me at a rapid rate. My friends congratulated me upon having accomplished a very daring feat. We drew the fish ashore, and he measured nine feet in length." Edwards' book in an unvarnished, straight-forward and simple style give the reader an interesting look into the life of a backwoods Ohio hunter in the early 1800s, probably better than any other book.

Delves into the complexity of Paine's character as well as his efforts on behalf of popular causes in America, France, and England.

Fictionized biography of the wife of Rome's 5th century A.D. Emperor Justinian.