Jack Olsen Books in Order

Four climbers become trapped on the Eiger’s notorious north face in 1957, prompting a desperate international rescue effort. Jack Olsen reconstructs their struggle against injuries, exposure and treacherous conditions, alongside the controversy surrounding the expedition’s outcome.

Jack Olsen explores the people, history, and social peculiarities of bridge. Anecdotes about champions, ordinary players, tournaments, and spectacular blunders show how a card game became an obsession capable of inspiring comedy, rivalry, and unexpected mayhem.

Charles Goren shares lessons from a lifetime of bridge, written in collaboration with Jack Olsen. Famous hands, personal anecdotes, and practical quizzes illustrate advice on bidding, partnerships, doubles, and using judgment rather than relying entirely on conventions.

Jack Olsen follows Cassius Clay’s transformation from celebrated boxing champion to a controversial public figure. Interviews with the fighter and those closest to him explore the private doubts, religious commitments and racial politics behind his confident public persona.

Jack Olsen investigates the treatment of Black athletes in American colleges and professional sports. Interviews expose discrimination, academic neglect and barriers to leadership, challenging the assumption that success on the field meant equality beyond it.

Quarterback Fran Tarkenton recounts his football career in collaboration with Jack Olsen. He explains the improvisation behind his scrambling style and recalls teammates, pressure on the field, and his difficult relationship with Minnesota Vikings coach Norm Van Brocklin.

Two fatal bear attacks in Glacier National Park on a single night in 1967 shatter its record of visitor safety. Jack Olsen reconstructs the events and examines how food waste, human behavior and neglected warnings contributed to disaster.

During World War II, Allied volunteers attempt to turn explosive-laden bombers into remotely guided weapons against German targets. Jack Olsen reconstructs the desperate planning, primitive technology and deadly risks of Operation Aphrodite, including Joseph Kennedy Jr.’s final mission.

Jack Olsen investigates the Chappaquiddick crash that killed Mary Jo Kopechne and threatened Senator Edward Kennedy’s political future. Interviews and conflicting accounts frame his examination of the accident, its delayed reporting and unresolved questions about that night.

Jack Olsen investigates the systematic killing of predators across the American West for ranching interests. Examining poisons, traps and government involvement, he traces the ecological consequences of treating coyotes and other wild animals as obstacles to profit.

Fifteen women employed by a prestigious New York corporation discuss their work, relationships and ambitions. Jack Olsen assembles their candid accounts into a portrait of office competition and the gap between apparent liberation and daily dissatisfaction.

Veteran football player Alphabet Jackson is traveling to the Super Bowl when his team’s plane is hijacked. As the crisis develops, disturbing events from the season begin to suggest a larger scheme behind the threats facing the players.

Olsen records the lives of people working and surviving around San Francisco’s North Beach bars and strip clubs. Interviews with entertainers, bartenders, hustlers, and others reveal the relationships, ambitions, and unwritten rules sustaining a largely overlooked social world.

Fourteen young women describe life on American college campuses during the social upheavals of the 1970s. Their accounts explore independence, education, relationships, and the distance between parental expectations and a counterculture offering new freedoms and difficult choices.

Olsen investigates the Houston murders of nearly thirty boys and the circumstances that allowed the crimes to remain hidden for years. The account examines the killings and the failures of recognition that delayed their discovery.

An exceptionally tall former piano prodigy joins an NBA team as a publicity attraction and unexpectedly endures. Reporter Sam Forrester follows his difficult season, uncovering troubling questions about his past, an unusual insurance policy, and threats gathering around him.

Firefighter Charly Sprockett recounts the emergencies, quarrels, and camaraderie of a roving rescue unit. Alongside an unpopular commander and a changing crew, the firefighters face an arsonist who is setting vulnerable people on fire.

Watch commander Packer Lind struggles to keep a troubled police precinct functioning under mounting pressure. A serial murderer, an imitator, and sabotage inside the department threaten officers already burdened by the emotional costs of their work.

Severn Gamble’s wife enters a public building for a brief errand and disappears. Two incompatible police officers join his search, but further disappearances turn the investigation into an increasingly desperate effort to uncover what is happening.

When her estranged husband takes their young son for an overnight visit and fails to return, Lael finds little help from authorities. Her search across the Pacific Northwest and beyond tests her resourcefulness and determination to recover her child.

A series of attacks terrifies Spokane before police arrest Fred Coe, the son of a prominent newspaper editor. Olsen investigates his family, his victims, and how those closest to him failed to recognize his crimes.

After Claude Dallas kills two Idaho game wardens, a long manhunt turns the fugitive into a folk hero. Olsen reconstructs the killings and trial while examining the frontier mythology that shaped public sympathy.

A Houston couple is murdered in their home, and suspicion falls on their daughter and the man who loves her. Olsen follows the manipulation behind the crime and the investigator determined to uncover it.

For years, a trusted Wyoming doctor sexually assaults his patients while his standing protects him. Olsen follows the women who speak out and the divisions their accusations expose within a small community.

A Seattle serial rapist remains free while an innocent man is convicted of an attack. Olsen investigates the failures that enabled both injustices and the reporter who worked to expose the truth.

After his release from prison, Arthur Shawcross begins killing again in Rochester. Olsen reconstructs his life through victims, investigators, and mental-health professionals, examining the decisions that allowed a dangerous man to return to the community.

George Russell Jr.'s charm conceals the violence behind three Seattle-area murders. Olsen follows his life and the investigation, exploring how his public personality disguised a dangerous predator and obscured the suffering of his victims.

After twelve-year-old Brenda Gere disappears, her family faces years of uncertainty and devastating loss. Olsen centers the story on her mother Elaine, whose search for answers becomes a struggle to hold her family together.

Private investigator Fay Faron pursues a family accused of exploiting wealthy elderly people and hastening their deaths. Olsen follows her efforts to uncover financial manipulation and abuse despite authorities' reluctance to pursue the cases.

Black Panther leader Geronimo Pratt spends decades imprisoned for a murder he did not commit. Olsen traces the concealed evidence, government misconduct, and sustained legal campaign that eventually exposes the injustice behind his conviction.

Drawing on interviews, diaries, and court records, Olsen examines the life and crimes of Keith Hunter Jesperson. The account follows his development into a serial killer and the imprisonment of innocent people for one of his murders.

Drawing on survivor interviews and surviving records, Olsen reconstructs the Nazi killings of civilians around Monte Sole in 1944. He follows the lives of local farmers, clergy, and families before describing the destruction of their communities.

Olsen recalls his first eighteen years in Depression-era America, following a restless father whose baseball stories mixed accomplishment with invention. Family instability, his mother’s endurance, and life around Philadelphia’s ballparks shape his emerging understanding of people and their stories.

Olsen investigates campaigns to eradicate predators across the American West through poisoning, trapping, and government-backed killing. He examines the influence of ranching interests and the ecological consequences of treating wildlife as an obstacle to agriculture.