A Miami based attorney, psychologist, and mother tackles child molestation head-on by pointing out commonly held myths and informing parents what individuals are more likely to molest children, which children are most at risk, and how parents can discuss this sensitive topic with their children in the best manner to protect the child. Candid, compelling, and absolutely essential reading for families.
Carol Cope is a 1980 graduate of the University of Miami School of Law and a practicing attorney in addition to being a published non-fiction author. Cope's first book, In the Fast Lane: A True Story of Murder in Miami (published in 1990 by Simon & Schuster in hardcover and in paperback by St. Martin's Press), tells the tale of the notorious murder of Miami contractor Stanley Cohen in 1986. The book became a regional bestseller and has been the basis for several TV documentaries in which Cope was interviewed on camera.
Her second book, Stranger Danger: How to Keep Your Child Safe, was written in response to the broad daylight abduction, rape and murder of eight-year-old, Jimmy Ryce, in South Florida. This case resulted in passage of Florida's Jimmy Ryce Law to identify and confine child sexual predators.
Cope's new book, MURDER ON THE HIGH SEAS: The True Story of the Joe Cool's Tragic Final Voyage, was just published by Berkley Books, a division of Penguin. This book explores the investigation into the Joe Cool, a mysterious "ghost boat" which simply disappeared on a sunny Saturday in September 2007 on what should have been a quick, one-way trip from Miami Beach to Bimini in the Bahamas to drop off two charter passengers. The young charter captain, his wife, his brother and a friend were never seen again. Thanks to an expert team of federal investigators and prosecutors, a bizarre tale of treachery and murder unfolded in a Miami federal courtroom.
The case resulted in one plea, two federal criminal jury trials, another federal civil suit, and a nearly three-year struggle in Miami Family Court over custody of two tiny children orphaned by the disappearance of their parents at sea. During her research for this book, Cope attended the trials and interviewed investigators, friends and family members, and prosecutors, culminating in a chilling, face-to-face interview with a murderer in a federal maximum security prison at USP Pollock, Alexandria, Louisiana.
