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Lola's Secret: Pink Popular Penguins
by Monica McInerneyEvery family has its troubles, and Lola Quinlan's is no exception. She's at a crossroads in her life and isn't sure which path she should take. As the holiday season approaches, she decides to do something different. She sends her family away and invites a number of mystery guests to her motel in South Australia's picturesque Clare Valley.But who are all these people, and why aren't they spending the festive season with their own loved ones? As the big day draws closer and Lola's family dramas threaten to unravel her plans, she discovers that magic can happen in every family - especially your own.From the bestselling author of At Home with the Templetons and Those Faraday Girls comes a funny, sad and moving novel about memories and moments, and the very meaning of life.'Lola's Secret encourages us all to see the potential in chance meetings. Prepare yourself for a rollercoaster of wit, wisdom and wondering, what if?'U Magazine, Ireland 'Some novels are simply very special. This is one of those . . . 'Hello!magazine.com
Coup d'Etat (Dewey Andreas #1)
by Ben CoesEx-Special Agent Dewey Andreas has retreated to rural Australia to escape the turbulent forces he once fought against. US National Security Advisor, Jessica Tanzer, has her own reasons for wanting him home. But there is someone else who has a much more sinister agenda. Someone who seeks revenge and who will not rest until he finds the man who has ruined his life. Meanwhile in the border region of Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan is escalating. As the situation quickly spins out of control, it becomes clear that world peace is in jeopardy. With just hours to head off disaster, the US President joins forces to help avert a worldwide crisis. There is only one man he can trust to carry out the near impossible task. Can he be found in time, and can he be persuaded to carry out the most difficult and dangerous mission of his career?
Jenny's War
by Margaret DickinsonFeaturing some of the characters from Sons and Daughters, Jenny's War is an epic story of loss and heartbreak from Margaret Dickinson.Is it possible for a ten-year-old girl to fall in love? Jenny Mercer thought so. Evacuated to Lincolnshire from the East End of London at the outbreak of war, she is frightened of the wide open spaces and the huge skies. At first, she is treated badly by the two spinsters with whom she is billeted. But the kindly Thornton family soon makes her feel welcome. And no one more so than Georgie, the handsome RAF fighter pilot, who is caught up in the battle for Britain's survival. When Georgie is posted missing, presumed killed, Jenny is devastated and there is more heartbreak when her mother demands that she return home to the dangerous city streets now under almost daily attack from enemy bombers. Dot never hides the fact that her daughter's birth was a mistake and kindness and care towards Jenny comes, not from her mother, but from their neighbours across the street, the Hutton family. The only other person to show concern for Jenny is, strangely, Dot's 'fancy man', Arthur Osborne, who moves into the terraced house. But is Arthur only interested in the girl because she can be useful to him? No one will suspect a ten-year-old of being involved with the Black Market. When the law comes a little too close for Arthur's comfort, the family flees in the night under the protection of the blackout, heading north out of the city. But to Jenny's disappointment, it is not back to Lincolnshire but into the hills and dales of Derbyshire where they are always on the move, always on the run. There, Jenny is caught up in a life of deception, obliged to do whatever her mother and Arthur demand of her, when all she really wants is to go back to Lincolnshire. For Jenny has never given up hope that one day, Georgie will come back . . .
The Innocent (Will Robie series #1)
by David BaldacciThe Innocent is another action-packed thriller from David Baldacci, one of the world's most popular writers. HE COULD NO LONGER REMEMBER THE NAMES OF ALL THE PEOPLE WHOSE LIVES HE HAD ENDED.Master assassin Will Robie is the man the US government call to eliminate their most ruthless enemies at home or abroad. He never questions his orders, and he never misses his mark.He’s just returned from a covert assignment in Edinburgh to neutralize a growing threat, having drawn upon all his expertise to complete his mission and disappear without a trace. The odds were stacked against him, but that’s never made a difference before.But now he’s facing the most difficult operation of his career. Dispatched to kill a US government employee, he does the unthinkable when things don’t add up – he refuses to pull the trigger. In doing so, Robie finds himself becoming the target. On the run from his own government and with everything on the line, does he need to change sides to save lives – including his own?The Innocent is the first novel in David Baldacci's blockbuster Will Robie series.
Gone Missing: A Thriller (Kate Burkholder series #4)
by Linda CastilloWhen an Amish teenager disappears, it’s only the beginning . . . ‘Becca slogged through a deep drift and stumbled toward the front of the shanty. A padlock hung from the hasp, but it wasn’t engaged. Shaking with cold, she shoved open the door. The interior was dark and hushed. The air smelled of kerosene and fish. Out of the wind, it was so quiet she could hear the ice creaking beneath her feet. Her breath puffing out in clouds of white vapour, she pulled out the candle and matches she’d brought from home and lit the wick. The light revealed a small interior with plywood walls and a shelf covered with fish blood and a smattering of silver scales. A lantern sat on the shelf. A coil of rope hung on the wall . . .’ Three teenagers have vanished from Ohio’s Amish country. The only thing they have in common, other than their religion, is they are keen to leave the Plain Life. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called in to consult by Agent John Tomasetti as her Amish roots will be invaluable in an investigation involving this sectarian society. They travel to the small town of Monongahela Falls to investigate the latest disappearance – that of seventeen-year-old Annie King. The only evidence left behind is a satchel – and a pool of blood. The case moves closer to home for Kate when a young relative, Sadie Miller, vanishes. With her own past resonating, Kate delves into the lives of the missing teens. Soon, a sinister pattern emerges along with a vital clue that changes everything. While following up on a lead, Kate makes an appalling discovery and unearths a secret no one could have imagined—thrusting her into a fight to the death with a merciless killer.
The Guardian
by David HospWhen a CIA informant from Kandahar is gunned down in a suburban area of Virginia outside D.C., special Agent Jack Saunders is tasked with uncovering a plot that could alter the fate of Afghanistan and unsettle a tepid peace in the Middle East. But when a raid on a radical safe house goes horribly wrong, Jack finds himself without support within his own government. Determined to find answers on his own, Jack enlists the aid of Cianna Phelan, a disgraced former war hero trying to put her life back together. When Cianna’s brother, Charlie, returns to South Boston from active duty in Afghanistan and immediately goes missing, Cianna and Jack find themselves in a race against time not only to save his life, but to prevent an international conspiracy at the highest levels of the US intelligence community. As lives are lost in the warrens of Boston’s clannish underworld, Jack and Cianna realize they are on the trail of one of the most sacred artefacts in all of Islam. And when the bullets start to fly, they realize they can never know whom to trust, and nothing is what it seems. Praise for David Hosp ‘Red-hot fiction rooted in stone-cold fact – a legal thriller to rival the best from Grisham or Turow’ Lee Child 'It is the detail and subplots that make Hosp such a gripping writer. He creates real dilemmas for his characters and saves the most touching resolution to the very end... Hosp is growing and developing with each new book' Daily Express
The Killing 1: Book 2 (The Killing #1)
by David HewsonDavid Hewson's The Killing 1 is the novelization of the first series of the hit Danish crime drama, The Killing.'Through the dark wood where the dead trees give no shelter Nanna Birk Larsen runs . . . There is a bright monocular eye that follows, like a hunter after a wounded deer. It moves in a slow approaching zigzag, marching through the Pineseskoven wasteland, through the Pentecost Forest. The chill water, the fear, his presence not so far away . . . There is one torchlight on her now, the single blazing eye. And it is here . . .' Sarah Lund is looking forward to her last day as a detective with the Copenhagen police department before moving to Sweden. But everything changes when nineteen-year-old student, Nanna Birk Larsen, is found raped and brutally murdered in the woods outside the city. Lund's plans to relocate are put on hold as she leads the investigation along with fellow detective Jan Meyer. While Nanna's family struggles to cope with their loss, local politician, Troels Hartmann, is in the middle of an election campaign to become the new mayor of Copenhagen. When links between City Hall and the murder suddenly come to light , the case takes an entirely different turn. Over the course of twenty days, suspect upon suspect emerges as violence and political intrigue cast their shadows over the hunt for the killer.
The History Room
by Eliza GrahamAfter her soldier husband is seriously injured and her marriage begins to fall apart, Meredith Cordingley returns to teach at Letchford, the grand Cotswold private school run by her father, who outwardly appears to be a typically English headmaster. The setting provides Meredith with a tranquil refuge from her own heartache until one September afternoon, when a shocking discovery is made in the history room. The police are called, but all is not what it seems. Meredith is determined to discover the culprit and becomes convinced that a manipulative member of staff is controlling the sinister goings-on at her beloved Letchford, and exerting a calculating influence on a vulnerable and troubled young student, but on her journey to untangle the truth Meredith risks her father’s reputation, as well as her own. As the mystery unravels Meredith comes to discover that there is more than one person at Letchford School hiding a past filled with complicated secrets. What follows is a gripping mystery, a tale of war, grief, love and second chances.
My Daughter, My Mother
by Annie MurrayIn 1984 two young mothers meet at a toddler group in Birmingham. As their friendship grows, they share with each other the difficulties and secrets in their lives:Joanne, a sweet, shy girl, is increasingly afraid of her husband. The lively, promising man she married has become hostile and violent and she is too ashamed to tell anyone. When her mother, Margaret is suddenly rushed into hospital, the bewildered family find that there are things about their mother of which they had no idea. Margaret was evacuated from Birmingham as a child and has spent years avoiding the pain of her childhood - but finds that you can't run from the past forever.Sooky, kind and good-natured, has already been through one disastrous marriage and is back at home living with her parents. But being 'disgraced' is not easy. Her mother, Meena, refuses to speak to Sooky. At first her silence seems like a punishment, but Sooky gradually realizes it contains emotions which are far more complicated and that her mother may need her help. Meena has spent twenty years trying to fit in with life in Birmingham, and to deal with the conflicts within her between east and west, old ways and new.My Daughter, My Mother by bestselling saga author Annie Murray, is the story of two young women discovering the heartbreak of their mothers' lives, and of how mothers create daughters - and learn from them.
The Tinder Box
by Minette WaltersA chilling tale of prejudice, ambition and cunning, The Tinder Box is a novella from crime queen Minette Walters. In the small Hampshire village of Sowerbridge, Irish labourer Patrick O’Riordan has been arrested for the brutal murder of elderly Lavinia Fanshaw and her live-in nurse, Dorothy Jenkins. As shock turns to fury, the village residents form a united front against Patrick’s parents and cousin, who report incidents of vicious threats and violence. But friend and neighbour Siobhan Lavenham remains convinced that Patrick has fallen victim to a prejudiced investigation and, putting her own position within the bigoted community in serious jeopardy, stands firmly by his family in defence of the O’Riordan name. Days before the trial, terrible secrets about the O’Riordans’ past are revealed to Siobhan, and the family’s only supporter is forced to question her loyalties. Could Patrick be capable of murder after all? Could his parents’ tales of attacks be devious fabrications? And if so, what other lies lurk beneath the surface of their world? As the truth rapidly unfurls, it seems that Sowerbridge residents need to be very afraid. For beneath a cunning façade, someone’s chilling ambition is about to ignite . . .
Rosy is My Relative: A Novel (Pan Heritage Classics #11)
by Gerald DurrellWritten with Gerald Durrell's usual sharp eye for observing humour in any situation, Rosy is my Relative will delight fans both old and new.At the age of thirty, Adrian Rookwhistle's life hasn't quite turned out the way he'd have hoped. Working an unfulfilling job as a clerk in the city and living under the tyranny of his fearsome landlady, he can't help but think that there is more to life.However, all of this suddenly changes when he receives a curious letter from his dying uncle who has bequeathed him £500 and an elephant by the name of Rosy who has a seemingly unquenchable thirst for liquor. At a loss of what to do with his unexpectedly gargantuan - and rarely sober - inheritance, Adrian sets forth on a journey believing to have the answer to his dilemma; he'll give her away to the circus. Together Adrian and Rosy carve a trail of destruction through the peaceful countryside of southern England, meeting a curious cast of misfits along the way. Drunk or sober, Rosy spreads chaos in her wake, until the full weight of the law finally catches up with her . . .
Marrying Off Mother and Other Stories: And Other Stories (Pan Heritage Classics #7)
by Gerald Durrell'Which of these stories is true and which is semi-true I have, of course, not the slightest intention of telling you, but I hope this will not detract from your enjoyment . . .'Gerald Durrell introduces an eccentric cast of characters in this entertaining collection of stories, first published in 1991.In the title story, part of the inspiration behind the ITV drama The Durrells, we join his family in Corfu, where Gerry joins forces with Larry and Margo in encouraging Mother to consider finding a new husband, only to rue the consequences. Highlights from the other tales in this collection are the acquisition of a strongly perfumed pig named Esmerelda, a foul-mouthed parrot called Moses, and a compulsive gambler who inspires a miracle.Written with Durrell's usual sharp eye for observing humour in a situation, Marrying Off Mother will delight fans both old and new.
Prescription for Murder (Mark Treasure Mysteries #14)
by David WilliamsThe Closter Drug company is going to double in value as soon as it perfects its cure for migraine: most of the directors are set to make sizeable fortunes as they float the company on the Stock Exchange. When a group pledged to stopping experiments on animals demonstrates at a Closter news conference, the action is seen as no more than embarrassing. But the kidnap of one of the Closter directors that follows cannot be so easily ignored, especially when, instead of a ransom, the kidnappers demand that the other directors sell their company shares at a crippling loss...No one understands what the kidnappers themselves are gaining by this, until banker Mark Treasure - the non-executive Chairman of Closter Drug - returns from an American trip and works out what's really happening. Even so, he is too late to prevent two murders and the stock market skulduggery that decimates Closter management and threatens to wipe out the company.The fourteenth of David Williams' elegant and intelligent Mark Treasure murder mysteries, Prescription for Murder is a perfect corporate puzzle with a cast of truly unique characters.
Wedding Treasure (Mark Treasure Mysteries #9)
by David WilliamsMarton Manor, in rural Herefordshire, makes a romantic setting even for a hastily organised wedding. And it is a quickly-arranged ceremony indeed that Fleur Jarvas is demanding - even though marrying before her twenty-first birthday means forfeiting a large inheritance. Naturally all the guests, including banker-turned-sleuth Mark Treasure and his wife Molly, are dying to know why. But that's only the first mystery lurking beneath the surface of this increasingly sinister country weekend. The real question is why the long-straying father of the bride shows up uninvited... As the wedding-eve rituals gather pace, so does the tension. And when the next day dawns, it is not to bells and confetti but to two unexplained deaths, a pointed disappearance - and a testing case for Treasure.
Divided Treasure (Mark Treasure Mysteries #11)
by David WilliamsLlanegwen - on the coast of North Wales - used to be an attractive, healthy place for respectable people. But now it's changed beyond recognition - there's a masked rapist stalking the streets, a petty thief who's willing to take enormous risks, not to mention the anonymous businessmen who have taken over the local sweet factory after a highly convenient death...Drawn into the factory workers' fight to save their jobs and pension funds, Treasure needs all his skills as a banker to uncover the layers of greed and deceit at the factory. And he must turn sleuth again when a saucy scamper around the shop-floor ends in a bizarre double murder. Can he get to the heart of the mystery before everything goes sour and another life is lost?The eleventh installment in Williams' brilliantly witty Mark Treasure series, Divided Treasure is a perfectly plotted thriller like no other.
The Prisoner's Friend
by Andrew GarveOf the six convicts Robert Ashe tries to help on his weekly visit to the prison, Terry Booth is the most “promising”. It seems that Terry, only twenty-four years old, has gained something positive from Ashe’s confidence and friendship: that on his release he might make a new start and put behind him the first terrible crime that led to his conviction and imprisonment. Upon his discharge, Ashe helps Terry with a possible job in a garage. He meets the owner of the garage, Laurence Winter, and his charming, but somewhat coy wife, Mavis, who both seem happy to give Terry a chance at ‘going straight’. Terry has a violent past but Ashe is almost sure he can be trusted. That is, until it is discovered that someone has attempted to steal some cash from the garage office, and then a dreadful murder is committed—and Terry has disappeared.
Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes
by Billy Collins‘Billy Collins is one of my favourite poets in the world’ Carol Ann Duffy Readers will only have to open this book at random to realize the privation a life without Billy Collins has been. A writer of immense grace and humanity, Billy Collins shows how the great forces of history and nature converge on the tiniest details of our lives - and in doing so presents them in a new radiance. He is also unbelievably funny. ‘The most popular poet in America’ New York Times ‘Billy Collins writes lovely poems . . . Limpid, gently and consistently startling, more serious than they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides’ John Updike ‘Billy Collins’ medium is a rare amalgam of accessibility and intelligence. I’d follow this man’s mind anywhere. Expect to be surprised’ Michael Donaghy ‘Smart, his strings tuned and resonant, his wonderful eye looping over the things, events and ideas of the world, rueful, playful, warm voiced, easy to love’ E. Annie Proulx
Murderer's Fen
by Andrew GarveAlan Hunt is ambitious and unpleasant – a caravan salesman with good looks, youth and charm. He is engaged to be married to Susan, a plain girl with a beautiful fortune. Just two weeks before the wedding, Gwenda Nicholls turns up, a pretty redhead he seduced on holiday in Norway: lovely, trusting – and pregnant. She threatens Hunt’s new way of life, insisting on marriage, so he forms a plan to get rid of her – permanently – and knows the perfect site to hide the body. “A master of suspense at the top of his form.” Evening News “Guaranteed to bring gasps at his ingenuity.” Sun “Distinctly gripping study of a coldly narcissistic salesman-seducer . . .” Observer
Treasure in Oxford: A mystery involving Constable sketches, a yellow bicycle and a heroic banker (Mark Treasure Mysteries #12)
by David WilliamsIt's high summer in Oxford. The university vacation has just begun. The eight governors of the Moneybuckle Endowment architectural library are assembling at All Saints College for the annual dinner before their meeting under chairman Mark Treasure, merchant banker.The talk at the table is of some pricey sketches said to be by Constable, and an offer from a dealer in the town. But the talk turns to shock when murder is done in Walton Street, with the sketches as the obvious motive. The police are quick to make an arrest, but Treasure is sure they've got the wrong suspect - even though all other likely culprits are Moneybuckle governors, or Moneybuckle's custodian himself...Treasure in Oxford marks the twelfth outing for David Williams' utterly charming banker-turned-detective in a cleverly plotted mystery that is sure to delight.
Holy Treasure! (Mark Treasure Mysteries #13)
by David WilliamsHardly anyone attends St Martin's Church, Kengrave Square, in West London, and it's very nearly falling down. But when news gets out that it's to be closed, and possibly sold, there's a significant flurry of interest. The site is worth millions. Aziz Developments are after it, and so is the Community of Investors for Jesus - a curious American group of televangelists. Enter Kengrave Square resident, the Honourable Mrs Monica Lodey, whose grandfather built the church. The venerable Mrs Lodey is determined to save St Martin's. She's not only rich but she can also exert huge influence: her brother is Chairman of Grenwood, Phipps, the merchant bankers, where Mark Treasure is Chief Executive.When the vicar's wife launches a fund to repair St Martin's, there's a rowdy parish meeting where Treasure's actress wife Molly is the first to promise money. Treasure hopes that can be the extent of his involvement. But when a sudden death follows, spawning more dramatic events, both he and Molly find themselves gradually drawn into yet another investigation, and this time very close to home.As cleverly plotted and wryly funny as ever, Holy Treasure! is another thrilling escapade from fiction's best banker-detective.
Snow in the Desert (Short Reads)
by Neal AsherIn the parched, arid wastes of this far-flung Polity world, Snow is being hunted. With a prize on his head and his life in danger, trust is a luxury he can’t afford. Hirald, pale and deadly in the blistering heat, is an ambiguous presence. But who is she? What does she want from him?Mankind has sought Snow’s secret for thousands of years, and blood will flow in the desert before it’s revealed.Snow in the Desert is compelling, brutal and lingers long after the final word: the perfect introduction to Neal Asher’s Polity universe fiction.
Catherine Carter
by Pamela Hansford JohnsonCatherine Carter tells of two ardent people who loved each other passionately and who have to fight to bring their love to fulfilment. They also have to fight a conflict between themselves, for, despite their love, their ambitions clash head-on. This conflict is presented without any softening of the truth, and no such relation has ever been treated with greater warmth, compassion, depth of understanding. Set in the theatrical London of the 1880’s, the story opens when Henry Peverel is a youngish actor rising to the height of his power and fame. He has every needful gift, but he cannot bear competition. Into his company is introduced an aspiring actress, Catherine Carter, fifteen years younger, just at the start of her career. Almost at once she loves and venerates Henry; but she believes that she can become his artistic equal. Much has to happen before he returns her love and the two are united on this plane while on the artistic plane, both continue to struggle with the other’s nature and their own.
Night and Silence, Who is Here?
by Pamela Hansford JohnsonFollowing his appearance in The Unspeakable Skipton, Matthew Pryar returns as the hero of Pamela Hansford Johnson’s novel, Night and Silence, Who is Here? On any count, Pryar is a memorable character, and his experiences as a Visiting Fellow of Cobb, a liberal arts college in New Hampshire, U.S.A., will delight all who appreciate satirical comedy and brilliantly entertaining writing. Pryar arrives at Cobb to assume his Visiting Fellowship in a mood of expectant complacency. He expects to spend a comfortable, fruitful year completing his long-deferred monograph on the work of the celebrated and awful poetess Dorothy Merlin and to be mildly lionized in the process. He reckons without the nightmare quality of the domestic arrangements, the profusion and variety of the eccentricities of his colleagues and the unheralded and unwanted descent of the poetess herself. The complexities of the situation are considerable and they are compounded by Pryar’s newly-born ambition to abandon belles-lettres in favour of college administration. Pamela Hansford Johnson, as one would expect, handles her narrative and her marvellous cast of characters with such dexterity and wit that this New Hampshire winter story has all the pace and gaiety of Carnival in high summer.
Murder in Advent (Pan Heritage Classics #8)
by David WilliamsThe cathedral town of Litchester is more used to carols by candlelight during the festive period than flames and intrigue, but the proposed sale of its 1225 copy of the Magna Carta in order to raise funds turns out to have far-reaching consequences.Merchant banker Mark Treasure has been invited down to arbitrate the vicious disagreement between members of the cathedral chapter regarding the sale and finds himself dealing with more than he bargained for when the Dean's verger is discovered murdered, his body left to burn, along with the ecclesiastical library.As his investigation progresses and the evidence points to mayhem and skulduggery, he discovers that Litchester is a town full of sins and secrets rather than peace on earth.
Banking on Murder (Mark Treasure Mysteries #17)
by David WilliamsSir Ray Bims is about to be charged as the principal in a Caribbean bank that's laundering international drug money. Lord Grenwood, octogenarian chairman of Grenwood, Phipps, the London merchant bankers, is appalled. Three years ago he sold Bims the family football club - the Eel Bridge Rovers - and now his lordship wants to buy it back to avoid being tainted by Bims' disgrace. Only hours after refusing Grenwood's offer for the Eels, Bims commits suicide - except that Detective-Inspector Jeckels of the Fulham CID suspects that it was murder. And he discovers a string of people with motive and opportunity to dispose of Bims - among them the husband of Bims mistress; the Eels' manager whom Bims had been about to fire; a well-known concert pianist; a curiously religious pest controller; not to mention several Eels players, and Bims wife and ex-wife.Banking on Murder was David Williams' seventeenth, and final, Mark Treasure mystery, and is just as full of charm, wit and thoroughly British laughs as its predecessors.