Christmas Eve, the Drama Club, by Adam Teicholz (January 2014)

Small-town gay bars are unusually tight-knit environments. Within the walls, a sort of safety and sense of camaraderie exists—even for men and women who would never find themselves together in the outside world. In Houma, Louisiana, the Drama Club used to be just that sort of place, a jolly haven for people who didn’t quite fit in anywhere else in Cajun country. That is, until a brutal crime splintered the community and left many members wondering—is there anywhere that is safe?

Michael Lewis: Did Goldman Sachs Overstep in Criminally Charging Its Ex-Programmer?, by Michael Lewis (September 2013)

A month after ace programmer Sergey Aleynikov left Goldman Sachs, he was arrested. Exactly what he’d done neither the F.B.I., which interrogated him, nor the jury, which convicted him a year later, seemed to understand. But Goldman had accused him of stealing computer code, and the 41-year-old father of three was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. Investigating Aleynikov’s case, Michael Lewis holds a second trial.

Silent War, by Michael Joseph Gross (July 2013)

On the hidden battlefields of history’s first known cyber-war, the casualties are piling up. In the U.S., many banks have been hit, and the telecommunications industry seriously damaged, likely in retaliation for several major attacks on Iran. Washington and Tehran are ramping up their cyber-arsenals, built on a black-market digital arms bazaar, enmeshing such high-tech giants as Microsoft, Google, and Apple. With the help of highly placed government and private-sector sources, Michael Joseph Gross describes the outbreak of the conflict, its escalation, and its startling paradox: that America’s bid to stop nuclear proliferation may have unleashed a greater threat.

Syria’s Unspoken Crimes, by Janine Di Giovanni (July 2013)

There have been reports that in war-torn Syria, rape has become an epidemic as both sides seek to de-stabilize, frighten, and ruin the other. But unearthing the stories of these widespread atrocities is difficult, and often impossible. Women in Syria face dire political, personal, and familiar consequences if they admit to being victims—no matter how awful the tale. Janine Di Giovanni traveled into the country and through the surrounding refugee camps to trace the few stories that rape survivors dared to speak aloud.

The Shooting Star and The Model, by Mark Seal (June 2013)

When Oscar Pistorius—the South African “Blade Runner,” who overcame a double amputation to compete in the Olympics last year—shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s Day, the millions he’d inspired were faced with a shocking possibility: that their hero was also a killer. With Pistorius claiming that Steenkamp’s death was an accident, Mark Seal delves into the murder case that has rocked the country, and the paths the couple took to that fatal night.

The Body in Room 348, by Mark Bowden (May 2013)

The corpse at the Eleganté Hotel stymied the Beaumont, Texas, police. They could find no motive for the killing of popular oil-and-gas man Greg Fleniken—and no explanation for how he had received his strange internal injuries. Bent on tracking down his killer, Fleniken’s widow, Susie, turned to private investigator Ken Brennan, the subject of a previous Vanity Fair story. Once again, as Mark Bowden reports, it was Brennan’s sleuthing that cracked the case.

Town of Whispers, by Bethany McLean (February 2013)

Many in the picturesque Maine town of Kennebunk—a short trip from the Bush-family compound—knew that the sweet, friendly Zumba teacher was leading a double life. But then police charged that Alexis Wright’s prostitution sideline included sharing videotapes of her client sessions with her married lover, a part-time P.I. As Kennebunk speculates feverishly and officials release the names of more than 60 suspected clients involved, Bethany McLean gauges the damage done.