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Romeo and Juliet: With Introduction And Notes
by William ShakespeareRomeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou.... Oh wait, he's hanging around in the garden again. Will young Romeo and his Juliet ever be able to express their raging hormones? Or will their feuding families make this romance blossom into a poisoned flower? Either way, both their houses are totally plagued!
Palo Alto: Storys
by James FrancoPalo Alto is the debut of a powerful new literary voice. Written with an immediacy and sense of place. Palo Alto traces the lives of an extended group of teenagers as they experiment with vices of all kinds, struggle with their families and one another, and succumb to self-destructive, often heartless nihilism. Franco presents his characters in all their raw humanity, while at the same time providing insight into the teenage mind.In the classic American tradition of story-cycles such as Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, Palo Alto presents a stark, vivid, disturbing, but, above all, compassionate portrait of lives on the rough fringes of youth.
The Way to Santiago
by Arthur Calder-Marshall'A fast-driven, maturely manipulated political thriller . . . Europe is at war - a Fascist coup is imminent as arms are exchanged for Mexican oil.' KirkusWhen newspaperman Henry Van Dyle is assassinated in Mexico City, agency stringer Jimmy Lamson, who was having an affair with Van Dyle's wife, is driven to investigate the mystery of his death. The clues point to a sinister cabal manipulating politics - and orchestrating Nazi interests - in Mexico City. But who is 'Señor Tom', the codenamed personage identified in Van Dyle's notebooks as the man pulling the strings?Arthur Calder-Marshall lived in Mexico before the outbreak of war and drew on his experiences to lend fidelity to this pacey, suspenseful, superbly written novel, first published in 1941, which Orson Welles tried to adapt for the cinema before making Citizen Kane.
Lethal Profit: An International Conspiracy Thriller (Eva Scott Thriller)
by Alex BlackmoreInspired by Henning Mankell's heroes, combined with the action of a Harlan Coben thriller and the conspiracy undertones of a Robert Ludlum plot, Lethal Profit is a high-octane conspiracy thriller that will have you gripped til the last page.In the darkest parts of the City of Light Eva Scott is searching for her brother's killers.She is caught up in a tangle of deception he left behind, facing violent assault, brutal murderers and deeply embedded corporate corruption.At the heart of it is a dirty biotech business making a lethal profit from compromising human health.Behind that, an organisation with a devastating viral blackmail tool.Their targets? Global power, capital and manipulation.And Eva.--------------------------'This is immensely lively fare, delivered with a skill that belies the fact that this is the author's first novel' - Crime Time'An exciting, fast-moving conspiracy thriller in the classic Hitchcock mould' - bestselling author, Emlyn Rees'A down-and-dirty tale of survival, a la Taken; a hi-tech corporate thriller; a '70s style political conspiracy; a Bond-style spy drama. That's a heady, intoxicating mix' - Crime Thriller Fella
Thimble Wonga Bonkers (Thimble)
by Jon BlakeMum goes away on a spa week, leaving Dad to look after their son Jams, and pet monkey Thimble. But after Mum gives Thimble the shopping money everything goes bananas! Can Jams save the day when Dad decides to sell his soul to repay their debts?
Stranger At Home: A George Sanders Mystery
by George SandersFour years. That's how long it took Californian playboy Michael Vickers to regain his memory and come home. Four years. That's how long Vickers spent battered, bruised and south of the border, following the attack which sought to end his life - all because he'd mistaken a mortal enemy for a friend. Or a lover. And now Vickers is looking for four years' worth of payback from the devil responsible for his near-demise. But within days of Vickers' return, a murder attempt is made on one of his suspects - and this time it succeeds. Enter a very shrewd detective, whose eyes are on everyone. Especially Vickers. In Stranger at Home, the second George Sanders mystery novel, we are taken to a world removed from the backstage comic mystery of Crime on My Hands, but nonetheless a milieu very familiar to the actor - Southern California in the 1940's. A world of stars and millionaires, but also vice, organized crime and shattered dreams. And Michael Vickers himself is a hero very much after the mould of Sanders' irresistibly attractive screen persona - gilded and charming, languid and pleasure-seeking... but with a steely, remorseless core.
Fatal Legacy: The compelling crime series (DCI Andrew Fenwick #2)
by Elizabeth CorleyThere was a cloying chemical smell in the car, which he recognised but couldn't name. The fear was back now, real, smothering fear that made him feel sick and caused his whole body to shake.'What's going on? Tell me, please!'The well-known face turned towards him and stared him straight in the eye.'It's simple. You're dying. Sleep tight.'When the managing director of Wainwright Enterprises dies in suspicious circumstances, his shocking will throws his business and his family into turmoil. Then another member of the firm is brutally murdered and DCI Andrew Fenwick is called in to investigate. Uncovering layers of curruption at every turn, Fenwick realises the Wainwright family has more than its fair share of skeletons in the closet.
Dear Room
by Hugo WilliamsDear Room is a worthy successor to Billy's Rain (1999), whose preoccupations and occasions it continues and ramifies, charting the 'angles, signals, orders, murmurs, sighs' of love, separation and loss. With grave good humour, ruefully exact timing and a scruple reminiscent of Thomas Hardy, these poems register the goodbye look of things, and ponder the difference between a good memory and an inability to forget. By turns candid, caustic and drastically self-accusing, the many tenses and afterlives of desire are parsed - in sawn-off monologues, short stories in verse, thumbnail dramas, splintery photographs. In poem after poem Hugo Williams joins a sense of things missed and missing to a redemptive act of imaginative capture, and Dear Room uncovers an ethics of the present, reminding us in the words of Philip Larkin that 'days are where we live'.'Possibly the most original poet of his generation in England'. - Edna Longley'Williams is a poet of such intimate charm, such grace and cunning, and such ordinary comical sadness, that he wins your affection and admiration' - Hermoine Lee, Guardian'His great subject is time, and time's power to consume both what is hated and what is loved'. - Helen Dunmore, Observer'Not since Thom Gunn's Collected Poems has there been a Collected as startling and poignant as Hugo Williams's Collected Poems. Williams shows us, like no other contemporary poet, what is so strangely undramatic about our personal dramas'. - Adam Phillips, Observer Books of the Year
The Best American Mystery Stories, 2010 (The Best American Mystery Stories)
by Otto PenzlerA state of the Art collection: the world's bestselling crime writer complies his pick of the year's best crime writing.This year's guest editor is Lee Child, the creator of Jack Reacher and a simultaneous bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic.Featuring twenty of the year's standout crime short stories handpicked by one of the world's best thriller writers, Best American Mystery Stories 2010 showcases not only the very best of the crime genre, but the best of American writing full stop. Within its pages, literary legends rub shoulders with the hottest new talent. Contributors in the past have included James Lee Burke, Jeffrey Deaver, Michael Connelly, Alice Munro and Joyce Carol Oates.
The Feiquon Heist
by D.C.J Wardle"Three people, three problems, one solution. That's why the three of us have to rob this bank. What's more, we have to do it tonight!" The colossal roll of thunder that roared from the night sky, close above, shaking the floor and rattling the windows in their frames did nothing to steady Kheng's frayed nerves or suppress his increasing anxiety as he cautiously led his co-conspirators through the dark corridors of the Maklai Provincial Bank. Still, once they'd made it through to the safe room, all they had to do was take the money that they needed and make their way back out. It was a simple plan, and would solve the ever-growing burden of problems that had been forming since Old Papa Han had passed away. It had never occurred to Kheng that his co-conspirators might have some very different ideas of their own about how the robbery should eventually play out. He was even less aware that he was far from alone in his attempts to capitalise on the evolving circumstances of recent weeks. Deciding to plan a heist of the provincial bank in a sleepy backwater town in South East Asia wasn't going to be the straightforward solution that Kheng had imagined, even if he did have the advantage of being the bank's longest-serving night guard.
Road Closed: A Detective Geraldine Steel Mystery (A DI Geraldine Steel Thriller #2)
by Leigh Russell‘COMPELLING’ – PETER JAMES * ‘UNMISSABLE’ – LEE CHILD * ‘A RARE TALENT’ – DAILY MAILWhen a man dies in a gas explosion, the police suspect arson. But the case takes on a new and terrible twist when the prime suspect, a local felon, is viciously attacked. As police enquiries lead from the expensive Harchester Hill estate to the local brothel, their key witness dies in a hit-and-run. Coincidence? Or cold-blooded murder?With so many lives lost already, DI Geraldine Steel must put her problems aside, to protect others. After all, in the race for justice, sacrifices must be made.'A well-written, soundly plotted, psychologically acute story' - TimesFor fans of Peter James, Helen Durrant and Angela MarsonsLook out for more DI Geraldine Steel investigations in Cut Short, Road Closed, Dead End, Death Bed, Stop Dead, Fatal Act, Killer Plan, Murder Ring, Deadly Alibi, Class Murder and Death RopeDon't miss the DI Ian Peterson series: Cold Sacrifice, Race to Death and Blood Axe
Beneath the World, a Sea: From the Arthur C. Clarke Award winning author of the Eden Trilogy
by Chris Beckett'A disturbing descent into a surreal world, written with a deft hand.' Adrian Tchaikovsky, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2016South America, 1990. Ben Ronson, a British police officer, arrives in a mysterious forest to investigate a spate of killings of Duendes. These silent, vaguely humanoid creatures - with long limbs and black button eyes - have a strange psychic effect on people, unleashing the subconscious and exposing their innermost thoughts and fears. Ben becomes fascinated by the Duendes, but the closer he gets, the more he begins to unravel, with terrifying results...Beneath the World, A Sea is a tour de force of modern fiction - a deeply searching and unsettling novel about the human subconscious, and all that lies beneath.'Beckett is superb at undercutting reader assumptions with a casual line of dialogue or acute psychological observation: the book reads like Conrad's Heart of Darkness reimagined by JG Ballard.' Guardian
Milo and One Dead Angry Druid: The Milo Adventures: Book 1 (The Milo Adventures #1)
by Mary ArriganOn the Bring-Something-Old-to-School day, Milo’s best friend Shane brings part of a carved ancient stone from his granny’s wild garden. When it is presented in class, Willie Jones’s lizard goes crazy and leaps from its glass container in terror. Milo realises this is no ordinary old stone. Afraid that his granny, Big Ella, will be annoyed with him for taking the carved stone, Shane asks Milo to mind the stone until the coast is clear. However, Milo encounters a shadowy figure wearing a tall hat shuffling about in the garden. This is the ghost of Mr Lewis, someone from the past and who is caught in a kind of limbo. He too is searching for the piece of ancient stone, which is part of a druidstone. He needs to find both pieces of the stone to lift a curse put upon him many years ago. But where is the other half of the stone?
A Season in Abyssinia: An Impersonation of Arthur Rimbaud
by Paul StrathernMarseilles, 1891: as Arthur Rimbaud lies dying in hospital, his mind wanders fitfully - taking him back to Commune-era Paris, and the scandalous life he led with Verlaine. But, above all, he is transported to Harar, Abyssinia, where he ventured in 1880 to seek his fortune, having chucking in the disreputable game of writing poetry...Paul Strathern's second novel, published in 1972, won a Somerset Maugham Award both for its superb evocation of the colour, squalor and hurlyburly of Harar and for its inspired 'impersonation' of Rimbaud - restless, ragged self-overcomer, would-be explorer-imperialist, and genius poet repulsed by his past literary life. In a new preface to this edition Strathern discusses the mercurial personality of Rimbaud, his novel's bold shifts between first and third person, and his own travels in East Africa that informed the book.
Half the World in Winter
by Maggie JoelIt is London, 1880, and Lucas Jarmyn struggles to make sense of the death of his beloved youngest daughter; his wife, Aurora, seeks solace in rigid social routines; and his eighteen-year-old daughter Dinah looks for fulfilment in unusual places. Only the housekeeper, the estimable Mrs Logan, seems able to carry on. A train accident in a provincial town on the railway Lucas owns claims the life of a young child and, amid the public outcry, a father journeys to London demanding justice. As he arrives in the city on a frozen January morning he finds a family with a terrible secret tearing their lives apart.
Brother's Blood: A Mediaeval Mystery (Book 4) (Mediaeval Mystery Ser. #4)
by C.B. Hanley1217: The war for the throne of England is far from over but as commoner-turned-earl’s-man Edwin Weaver waits to see where his lord’s loyalties lie, a messenger arrives from Roche Abbey: one of the monks has been murdered. The abbot needs help to find the killer and Edwin soon finds himself within the unfamiliar and claustrophobic confines of the abbey, where faces are hidden and a killer stalks unnoticed. Drawn ever deeper into a web of lies and deceit, Edwin not only has to discover the identity of the murderer, but must also decide where his real duty lies. The fourth book in C.B. Hanley’s popular Mediaeval Mystery series, following Whited Sepulchres.
Summer of My Amazing Luck: A Novel
by Miriam Toews'Toews's debut is a tart, affectionate look at welfare mothers...Toews is especially good on the "rollicking, happy, impoverished family" of the projects [and] scathing about the humiliations of poverty.' New York TimesLucy and her eight-month-old son live in a Winnipeg housing project filled with single mothers on the dole. Still dealing with her own mother's sudden death, and new to the ever-multiplying complications of life on welfare, Lucy strikes up a friendship with her neighbour, Lish. On the whole, they're pretty happy . . . But Lucy wants to make sure they stay happy. And she has a plan.Told with Toews's signature scalding wit and deep compassion, Summer of my Amazing Luck is a brilliantly funny book about the intricacies of friendship, grief, and poverty.'[A] picaresque account of two welfare moms having loopy adventures and getting by in the city... The novel's voice [is] amused, warm, curious, alive on the page.' The New Yorker
Magicians of Scotland, The: Enhanced eBook Edition with Audio
by Ron Butlin‘A lively collection of poems that will entertain, move and frequently amuse . . . this book confirms [Butlin] as one of our finest contemporary poets’ - Alexander McCall Smith on The Magicians of Edinburgh ‘The poetical genius of Butlin . . . Ron Butlin is the voice of Edinburgh’ - FringeReview.com ‘Butlin is the best, the most productive Scottish poet of his generation’ - Douglas Dunn The Magicians of Scotland will build upon the success of The Magicians of Edinburgh (reprinted five times) and on that book’s critical acclaim. Ron Butlin was the Edinburgh Makar and this collection will have an Edinburgh emphasis while seeking to celebrate and interrogate Scotland and its people at a crucial turning point in our country’s history. Just as The Magicians of Edinburgh’s themes ranged from Sir Walter Scott to the new parliament, from Greyfriar’s Bobby to the trams, the themes of the new collection will include Scotland’s past, present and future, its landscape and people, its myths and politics - from Bannockburn, Flodden to Faslane, the Loch Ness Monster, wind farms, Hutton to Higgs, Bonnie Prince Charlie to Donald Trump. It will be accessible, serious and entertaining.
Dead in Devon: The beautiful countryside holds a sinister secret (The Devon Mysteries #1)
by Stephanie AustinJuno Browne is a self-appointed Domestic Goddess. From cleaning to dog-walking to caring for the elderly, she flits around the picturesque village of Ashburton in her trusty van ready to turn her hand to anything.Despite warnings to the contrary, she ventures into the shady world of antiques dealing when she takes on a new client, Old Nick, who has a reputation for conducting business by the back door. When Juno prevents two menacing thugs from giving Nick a beating, it’s clear one of his deals has gone horribly wrong – and it isn’t long before Nick is found dead.As the police search for answers starts to stall, Juno begins her own investigation. But when one of her suspects is killed and Juno is herself the subject of unwanted attention, she must piece the puzzle together before she becomes the next victim.
Salad Anniversary (Pushkin Collection)
by Machi TawaraAn exquisite collection of Japanese poetryThis internationally bestselling book took the world by storm on its publication. Covering the discovery of new love, first heartache and the end of an affair, these poems mix the ancient grace and musicality of the tanka form with a modern insight and wit. With a light, fresh touch and a cool eye, Machi Tawara celebrates the small events in a life fully lived and one that is wonderfully touched by humour and beauty. This book will stay with you through the day, and long after you have finished it.
The Circle
by Elaine Feinstein'Feinstein's triumph is to write so well that she makes Lena's predicament not only moving, in a perfunctory dismissive way, but also painful ... [she has] an accurate and acute feeling for language, and pauses, and silence.' Guardian Lena's seemingly contented family life is coming apart at the seams. Her husband Ben has been having an affair with the au pair, and as their relationship slides he retreats more and more into his work in a science lab. Sons Alan and Michael may appear happy enough, but this is far from the case - both are responding to a physical world which they alone inhabit. And Lena - desperately lost and seeking an identity of her own, both inside and outside of her family unit - increasingly finds solace at the bottom of a bottle. An exploration of just how lonely - and how magic - a marriage can be, The Circle is a poignant, poetic and incredibly assured debut novel.
Stigmata (Edge of the World)
by Colin Falconer1205 AD: Philip of Vercy sails away from the roasting wasteland where he has passed the last year. As a Knight of the Realm, he has fought the infidel in the Holy Land. Now, after twelve months of savage, bloody warfare in the scorching sun, he is finally coming home to his castle, to peace, and to his beloved wife. But France offers neither comfort or peace. His wife has died in childbirth, his young son is dying of a wasting disease, and, in the south, his Cathar countrymen are being brutally persecuted. When Philip hears rumours of a healer in the Languedoc, a young woman blessed by God and marked with Christ's Stigmata, he rides out on a desperate quest to save his son. His journey takes him into a vision of hell that outstrips even what he saw in Outremer. Disgusted by the senseless slaughter, Philip gradually becomes embroiled in the Cathar cause. And then he finds his miracle: Fabrisse Berenger, the beautiful, loving daughter of Cathar parents. She is bewildered by her strange wounds, but Philip is fascinated by them... and more fascinated by the serene goodness of Fabricia herself. Together, the pair must flee persecution under cover of darkness - but they cannot hold off the Pope's soldiers forever. Their destiny will be decided in the snows of the Black Mountains where Fabricia and Philip must make choices not just to save their lives, but their souls.
The Break: The powerful tale of love, loss and violence, endorsed by Margaret Atwood
by Katherena VermetteLonglisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2018Crime Book of the Month, Sunday Times, February 2018'A tough, close-up look at a side of female life that's often hard to acknowledge: the violence girls and women sometimes display towards other girls and women ... An accomplished writer who will go far.' - Margaret AtwoodStella, a young Métis mother, lives with her family by the Break, an isolated strip of land on the edge of their small Canadian town. Glancing out of her window one winter's evening Stella spots someone in trouble; horrified, she calls the police. But when they arrive, no one is there, scuff marks in the compacted snow the only sign anything may have happened.What follows is a heartbreaking and powerful tale of a community in crisis as the people connected to the victim, a young girl on the edge of a precipice, begin to lay bare their stories leading up to that fateful night. From Lou, a social worker grappling with the end of a relationship, to Cheryl, an artist mourning the premature death of her sister. And from Phoenix, a homeless teenager released from a youth detention centre with no one to turn to, to Officer Scott, a Métis policeman caught between two worlds. Through the prism of one extended, intergenerational family, Vermette's urgent story shines a light on the power, violence and love shared between women of all cultures, creeds and ages.
The Mystery Feast: Thoughts on Storytelling
by Ben Okri‘In every moment, we are part of the infinite stories that the universe is telling us and that we are telling the universe.’Packed with ideas and inspiration, The Mystery Feast offers numerous pathways into the magical world of storytelling. Beginning with a poem, ‘All we do’, Booker prize-winning novelist Ben Okri presents his considered thoughts on the purpose and meaning of stories, concluding with a series of condensed ‘Notes to the modern storyteller’. The collection is completed with a ‘stoku’ – a brief tale on the theme.Based on decades of honing his art, this stimulating booklet gives a glimpse into the mind of a master of contemporary storytelling.
The Favourite
by S. V. BerlinWelcome to the dark heart of the family – the secrets we keep, the memories we treasure and the relationships we feel bound to, but long to escape. Edward and Isobel haven’t spoken for years and live on opposite sides of the Atlantic. When their mother, Mary, dies unexpectedly, they are thrown together to sort through the family home. With Julie, Edward’s diffident but devoted girlfriend, making an awkward third, each stumbles through the practicalities and funeral preparations, trying to make sense of their emotions and their feelings towards one another. Then Isobel makes a disturbing discovery and her fateful decision has consequences for them all, challenging their beliefs about the past, hopes for the future, and understanding of Mary’s role in keeping them at once apart and together. This utterly immersive novel is rich with insightful and wickedly comic observations of family members behaving badly in stressful situations – of sibling rivalries, a parent torn between the two, and a grieving process that takes time to unfold. Beginning in a small coastal town during the Spring Bank Holiday, the novel moves forward through the point of view of each of the characters in turn, and culminates on Christmas Eve.