University of Pennsylvania professor Rafael Robb was in a class of his own. An expert on game theory, his colleagues and students marveled over his brilliance. But his wife, Ellen, knew his dark, calculating side...and in December 2006, after years of alleged psychological abuse, she was finally ready to leave him. Her divorce papers were nearly in order and she was about to sign a lease on a new home—and a new life. Until she was found dead in the home she shared with Rafael and their daughter, Olivia.

Rafael claimed that Ellen was the victim of a fatal intrusion. Many of Ellen's friends and family suspected that Rafael committed the crime. Now, a high-stakes showdown was about to begin between local investigators and one of academic world's greatest masterminds. But the police had almost no evidence—and the professor had only one strategy: to win at all costs...

Cruel Games: A Brilliant Professor, A Loving Mother, A Brutal Murder is Rose Ciotta's shocking true crime book about an intelligent man who used his genius to kill ...