eBook Debut: Over Here, Buried Secrets, Murderer With a Badge

One of the great things about eBooks is the new life and audiences they can bring to an author's work. So I'm pleased to announce the publication today of three of my earlier titles in eBook editions by Diversion Books.

Over Here: How the G.I. Bill Transformed the American Dream, shares the stories of famed filmmaker Arthur Penn, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman, political leaders Bob Dole and George McGovern, and other men and women of the Greatest Generation who shared two things in common: they all fought in WW II, and they all used the original GI Bill to transform their own lives — and an entire nation. Over Here is, in short, the "after-the-war story" of the Greatest Generation. The original GI Bill opened college education to the masses, transformed America from a nation of renters into a nation of homeowners, and enabled an era of middle-class prosperity never before seen in the world.

The LA Times wrote of Over Here: "Deeply moving, alive with the thrill of people from modest backgrounds discovering that the opportunities available to them were far greater than anything they had dreamed of… Vivid… inspiring.. told with such warmth and enthusiasm."

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Buried Secrets: A True Story of Serial Murder, is my first book, a true-crime tale of drug-running, ritual murder and official incompetence on the Texas-Mexican border. When college student Mark Kilroy, nephew of a senior U.S. Customs official, disappeared during spring break in the border town of Matamoros, the manhunt led to a drug-smuggling cult ruled by a Miami priest of black magic, Adolfo Constanzo. Exposed with him was a cult that committed dozens of human sacrifices, followers drawn from the highest levels of Mexican law enforcement, and years of getting away with murder because U.S. border law-enforcement agencies were more interested in fighting one another than fighting crime.

Wrote the Washington Post: "Chilling… a masterful job." Publishers Weekly called Buried Secrets "one of the best true-crime tales in recent times," while Ann Rule, author of The Stranger Beside Me,  said it was "the definitive book on the most despicable yet fascinating criminal of our time."

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Murderer With a Badge: The Secret Life of a Rogue Cop, is the true story of the dirtiest cop in Los Angeles. Nicknamed “Mild Bill” for his unassuming manner, William Leasure, a seemingly ordinary traffic cop by day,  ran a ring of luxury yacht thieves and engineered murders for hire in his spare time. His home was a showcase of stolen property and stolen cars. He owned an airplane and a yacht — yet no one seemed to suspect Mild Bill of anything. Only a chance encounter aboard a stolen vessel led to his arrest. In writing this book, I had access to the investigators who made the case, and to Leasure himself as he sat in jail and handicapped his own trial day after day. That allowed me to  bring readers deep inside the story of what happens when the police investigate one of their own,  and into the mind of a cop who thinks he can get away with anything — and almost did.

The Flint Journal said of Murderer With a Badge: "a riveting glimpse of the dark side of human behavior... a fascinating walk on the wild side... Humes recounts Leasure's story with the skill of a master suspense novelist." The Miami Herald described the book as "Rife with vivid description… Disturbing." And Kirkus Reviews wrote: "Fascinating.. . a superbly crafted chronicle of one of the most complex, enigmatic criminals in memory. Far stronger and more compelling than most crime fiction."

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6 Game-Changers: An Update

One thing I love about my work is how it allows me to meet, interview and write about newsmakers and game-changers -- people on the cutting edge of environmentalism, science, the law, energy, the arts and more. Over the course of 12 nonfiction books, I've met quite a few, and readers often ask me what's become of them. So here are updates on six reader favorites, people who have changed lives and the world:

Doug and Kris Tompkins, environmental philanthropists

In Eco Barons, I wrote about Doug Tompkins, the cofounder of Esprit who cashed out to become one of the world's leading environmental crusaders. With his wife, Kris McDivett Tompkins, former CEO of Patagonia, he has created a million acres of parks and preserves in the Patagonia region of Chile and Argentina. Update: These days the Tompkins are battling hydro-electric dams in one of the world's last big wild places, while completing South America's Yellowstone, Patagonia National Park. Here's an excerpt about Tompkins from Eco Barons.

Roosevelt Dorn, the judge who would be king

When I spent a year inside the LA Juvenile Court for No Matter How Loud I Shout, Judge Dorn was at the epicenter of a system overloaded, undermanned and at war with itself. With the booming voice of a old-school preacher and a pistol tucked inside his robes, Dorn saved kids. But he didn't mind bending the rules, and he left office a polarizing figure. When he became mayor of Inglewood, his fall from grace was spectacular, ending with a public corruption conviction, as reported in the LA Times. Here's an excerpt about Dorn from No Matter How Loud I Shout.

Arthur Penn, from GI Bill to Hollywood icon

Over Here: How the G.I. Bill Transformed the American Dream featured Penn, the director of such groundbreaking films as Bonnie and Clyde and The Miracle Worker (not to mention the televised Kennedy-Nixon debates). Penn credited his success on his experience at the experimental, arts-centric Black Mountain College. A veteran of the decisive World War II Battle of the Bulge, Penn told me he would likely never have gone to college without the GI Bill -- one of the many stories I recounted in Over Here. Penn has since passed away at age 88, but the G.I. Bill continues to aid new generations of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. BTW, a new ebook edition of Over Here is in the works.

Judge John E. Jones III and the new Scopes Trial

In Monkey Girl I chronicled a modern-day Scopes Monkey Trial, which ended with Judge Jones's ruling that a creationism offshoot known as intelligent design could not be taught alongside evolution in a public school science class.  Jones didn't stop making news with that controversial Kitzmiller v. Dover case, however. These days he's in the middle of another no-holds-barred fight with national implications, as he presides over a suit brought against the natural gas industry by Pennsylvanians who claim their water and health has been destroyed by a newly popular method of drilling called fracking. Here's an excerpt from Monkey Girl.

Roxanne Quimby, Burt's Bees and the Maine Woods

When I wrote about Quimby in Eco Barons, the founder of Burt's Bees (who built a fortune from a company originally based in a log cabin with no electricity) was busily preserving large swaths of the vast Maine Woods that long ago enraptured Henry David Thoreau. Update: Quimby is trying to donate much of the land she purchased in order to create a new national park in Maine. Not everyone in the state is thrilled, and the would-be gift has turned into a battle, according to Forbes.