Twelve extraordinary tales of crime and punishment: a collection of true crime writing by New Zealand's award-winning master of non-fiction. A court is a chamber of questions. Who, when, why, what happened and exactly how - these are issues of psychology and the soul, they're general to the human condition, with its infinite capacity to cause pain. The brutal murder of a wife and daughter ... A methamphetamine ring, a snitch and a hooker ... The hit-and-run banker ... The top cops and the historic rape allegations ... The Peter Falconio mystery ... Rolf Harris ... In the hands of award-winning journalist and author Steve Braunias these and other extraordinary cases become more than just courtroom dramas and sensational headlines - though they are certainly that, too. They become a window onto another world - the one where things go badly wrong, where once invisible lives become horrifyingly visible, where the strangeness just beneath the surface is revealed. Acutely observed, unflinchingly reported and brilliantly written, this collection from the courts and criminal files of the recent past depicts a place we rarely enter, but which exists all around us nonetheless.