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Sorry to Disrupt the Peace: A Novel
by Patty Yumi CottrellHelen’s adoptive brother has killed himself. Helen’s adoptive family is estranged. Helen has decided that she alone is qualified to launch a serious investigation into her brother’s suicide and to ‘be a supportive beam of light' for her adoptive parents. Compulsive, unstable, likeable, and high energy, Helen is hard work for the people in her life, and she may not be as useful at home as she expects. Sorry to Disrupt the Peace is a dark comedy about loss, grief, solitude, and ghosts.
The Excursion Train: The bestselling Victorian mystery series (Railway Detective series #2)
by Edward MarstonA perplexing new case for the Railway DetectiveOn the shocking discovery of a passenger’s body on the Great Western Railway excursion train, Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant, Sergeant Victor Leeming, are dispatched to the scene. Faced with what initially appears to be a motiveless murder, Colbeck is intrigued by the murder weapon – a noose. When it emerges that the victim had worked as a public executioner, Colbeck realises that this must be intrinsically linked to the killer’s choice of weapon. However, the further he delves into the case, the more mysterious it becomes. And when a second man is strangled by a noose on a train, Colbeck knows he must act quickly; can he catch the murderer before more lives are lost? Set in Victorian England and rich in historical detail, The Excursion Train will hold you captivated from the beginning to the end of its journey.
The Dead Beat
by Doug JohnstoneMeet Martha. It's the first day of her new job as intern at Edinburgh'sThe Standard. But all's not well at the ailing newspaper, and Martha is carrying some serious baggage of her own.Put straight onto the obituary page, she takes a call from a former employee who seems to commit suicide while on the phone, something which echoes with her own troubled past.Setting in motion a frantic race around modern-day Edinburgh,The Dead Beat traces Martha's desperate search for answers to the dark mystery of her parents' past. Soundtracked by and interspersed with a series of gigs from the alternative music scene of her parents' generation in the early '90s, Doug Johnstone's latest page-turner is a wild ride of a thriller, and a perfect follow-on to his #1 Kindle bestseller, Hit & Run.
Alex Sparrow and the Really Big Stink (Alex Sparrow #0)
by Jennifer KillickAlex Sparrow is a super-agent in training. He is also a human lie-detector. Working with Jess – who can communicate with animals – they must find out why their friends, and enemies, are all changing into polite and well-behaved pupils. And exactly who is behind it all. ALEX SPARROW is a funny, mid-grade novel full of farts, jokes and superhero references. Oh, and a rather clever goldfish called Bob. In a world where kids’ flaws and peculiarities are being erased out of existence, Alex and Jess must rely on what makes them different to save the day.
The Haunting of Mount Cod: A Laura Boxford Mystery
by Nicky StrattonLady Laura Boxford lives with her pug, Parker in the retirement complex of Wellworth Lawns, formerly her family home. One day she and her friend Venetia see the ancient actor, Sir Repton Willowby arriving. He’s Venetia’s cousin by marriage and Venetia says he murdered his wife. He lives at the Edwardian pile, Mount Cod and he says he’s being haunted by the ghost of an eighteenth century serving wench called Rosalind. Laura is convinced he’s a charlatan using the ghost as a ruse for finding a new wife. She determines to get to the bottom of the mystery on account of Venetia’s daughter who stands to inherit Mount Cod. But did Sir Repton murder his wife and is the house haunted?
Traitor's Field (Archives of Tyranny #2)
by Robert WiltonEngland has been torn apart by Civil War. Plots and intrigues abound - but it is the struggle between two powerful spies which will decide the eventual fate of a nation.It is 1648 and Britain is at war with itself. The Royalists are defeated but Parliament is in turmoil, its power weakened by internal discord. Royalism's last hope is Sir Mortimer Shay, a ruthless veteran of decades of intrigue who must rebuild a credible threat to Cromwell's rule, whatever the cost. John Thurloe is a young official in Cromwell's service. Confronted by the extent of the Royalists' secret intelligence network, he will have to fight the true power reaching into every corner of society: the Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey.
wonder.land
by Moira BuffiniAly is struggling with all the pressures of being a teenager: family, school, friends and her own insecurities. Then she discovers wonder.land - a mysterious online world where, perhaps, she can create a whole new life. The web becomes her looking-glass - but will Aly see who she really is?A new musical inspired by Lewis Carroll's iconic story, Moira Buffini's wonder.land was created with Damon Albarn and Rufus Norris and premiered at the Manchester International Festival in July 2015 in a co-production with the National Theatre, London, where it transferred in November of the same year.
Alice Next Door (Alice And Megan Ser. #1)
by Judi CurtinBest friends NEED to be together. Don't they? Poor Megan! Not alone is she stuck with totally uncool parents, and a little sister who is too cute for words, but now her very best friend, Alice, has moved away. Now Megan has to go to school and face the dreaded Melissa all on her own. The two friends hatch a risky plot to get back together. But can their secret plan work? 'engrossing story with a real insight into the world of pre-teen girls' Publishing News
Chicken Mission: Danger in the Deep Dark Woods (Chicken Mission #1)
by Jennifer GrayHilarious, hen-sational new adventure series by the author of bestselling ATTICUS CLAWYoung chicken Amy Cluckbucket dreams of escaping from Perrin's farm to a life of chicken adventure. One day Amy receives a summons to the Kung Foo School for Poultry in Tibet where she learns she is to become part of an elite chicken squad whose mission is to defeat their evil predators. It sounds like a dream come true for Amy but she's disappointed to find that fellow squad members, Ruth and Boo, don't seem to want to make friends. Ruth is too busy inventing things and Boo has problems of her own.The chickens travel to Chicken HQ to meet their mentor, Professor Rooster. When their first mission flops it is Amy who persuades the others that they should stick together to restore Professor Rooster's faith in them. Through a series of egg-citing adventures and hilarious mishaps the three young chickens learn the value of friendship and teamwork. But will they be ready for their biggest mission so far - to save the chicks of St Eggbert's Primary School from the jaws of their mortal enemy, Thadeus E Fox?
The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories
by Ann VanderMeer Jeff VanderMeerSHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH FANTASY AWARDSA landmark, eclectic, leviathan-sized anthology of fiction's wilder, stranger, darker shores.The Weird features an all star cast of authors, from classics to international bestsellers to prize winners: Ben Okri George R.R. MartinAngela Carter Kelly LinkFranz KafkaChina MiévilleClive BarkerHaruki MurakamiM.R. James Neil GaimanMervyn PeakeMichael ChabonStephen KingDaphne Du Maurier and more... Exotic and esoteric, The Weird plunges you into dark domains and brings you face to face with surreal monstrosities; You will find the boldest and downright most peculiar stories from the last hundred years bound together in the biggest Weird collection ever assembled.
Find My Way Home: The hard-boiled exploits of a South London Private Eye (Nick Sharman Ser. #12)
by Mark TimlinThe twelfth novel in the Nick Sharman series by bestselling author, Mark Timlin. Harry Stonehouse had been a cop, a good one - and straight, unlike Nick Sharman. After taking early retirement he'd landed a job at a security firm. Now he's dead, and his wife wants Nick to find out who killed him and why. Nick's been taking a close look at hell recently and doesn't care too much about anything beyond the next Jack Daniels. But Harry had been a friend, and Nick had screwed his wife and he feels sorry for her. Big mistake. In an unlikely partnership with ex-DI Robber, escaping from resentful retirement at his sister's, Sharman sets off in pursuit - and finds himself swept along in the deadly aftermath of a £20 million heist. And with that much money at stake, betrayal, double-crossing and murder are just for starters...
Pawns: Ireland's War of Independence
by Brian GallagherIn a time of war, how much would you risk to help a friend? Young Johnny Dunne works hard at Balbriggan’s Mill Hotel, but still finds time to enjoy life with his friends, Alice and Stella. Though the three come from different backgrounds – Johnny had a harsh childhood in an orphanage, Alice is the daughter of the hotel owner and Stella the daughter of the Commanding Officer at the nearby RAF Gormanston. – they’re inseparable, living at the hotel and playing together in the town band. But with the War of Independence raging, the friends face difficult decisions. Stella is pro-British, Johnny is pro-independence, and Alice is somewhere in between. Then Johnny’s secret role, spying for the IRA on the Crown forces, puts him in danger. And Stella and Alice have hard choices to make – choices that threaten their lives …
Gustave Flaubert: The Ambiguity of Imagination
by Giuseppe CafieroWhat would happen if a character, even if only roughly sketched in the mind of a writer, decided to take on a life independent of his creator in order to take revenge against all the other characters that this author had created in his other books? This is what happens to the legendary writer Gustave Flaubert, when his character Harel-Bey comes to life with a grudge to bear. Even the imaginary characters of books that Monsieur Flaubert has never actually written, but had long pondered and discussed with his most intimate friends, begin to stir with their own motivations. Quite unexpectedly, Harel-Bey begins a long and difficult journey through the writings of Monsieur Flaubert to try to understand the reasons that induced the writer to write so many books and stories, but never the one that would have had him as leading protagonist. As a vengeful killer, Harel-Bey is determined to murder all of the protagonists of the books and stories Flaubert has written. In the company of a certain Monsieur Bouvard, himself the star of another book which Flaubert had started but never finished, Harel-Bey seeks his revenge. There’s will be a mission rich in disturbing discoveries, revealing the reasons and the irrationalities of fictionalised reality and unreal fiction.
Patience
by Toby LittMeet Elliott.Elliott is hugely intelligent. He’s an incredible observer. He has a beautiful and unusual imagination. To know him is to adore him.But Elliott is also stuck. He lives in an orphanage in 1979. He spends his days in a wheelchair, in an empty corridor, or wherever the Catholic Sisters who run the ward have decided to park him.So when Jim, blind and mute but also headstrong, arrives on the ward and begins to defy the Sisters’ restrictive rules, Elliott finally sees a chance for escape. Together, they could achieve a magnificent freedom – if only for a few hours.But how can Elliott, unable to move or speak clearly, communicate all this to Jim? How can he even get Jim to know he exists?Patience is a remarkable story of love and friendship, courage and adventure. It is also about finding joy in the most unlikely of settings. Elliott and Jim are going to have fun.
The Knowledge: A Richard Jury Mystery (The Richard Jury Mysteries #24)
by Martha GrimesIn the new mystery in the bestselling Richard Jury series, Martha Grimes brings London's finest on a double-homicide case that involves Kenyan art, rare gems, astrophysics and a long-fermented act of revenge.'Read any one [of her novels] and you'll want to read them all.' - Chicago TribuneRobbie Parsons is one of London's finest, a black cab driver who knows every street, every theatre, every landmark in the city by heart. In his backseat is a man with a gun in his hand - a man who shot Robbie's previous pair of customers point-blank in front of the Artemis Club, a rarefied art gallery-cum-casino, then jumped in and ordered Parsons to drive. As the killer eventually escapes to Nairobi with ten-year-old Patty Haigh - one of a crew of stray kids who serve as the cabbies' eyes and ears at Heathrow and Waterloo - in pursuit, superintendent Richard Jury comes across the double-homicide in the Saturday paper. Two days previously, Jury had met and instantly connected with one of the victims, a professor of astrophysics at Columbia and an expert gambler. Jury considers the murder a personal affront and is soon contending with a case that takes unexpected turns into Tanzanian gem mines, a closed casino in Reno, and a pub that only London's black cabbies, those who have 'the knowledge,' can find.
The Four Marys: A Quartet of Contemporary Folk Tales
by Jean RaffertyLongisted for the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered prize 2015 "Powerful stories." - Marina Warner. Obsession, longing, deceit and even murder feature in this quartet of provocative novellas, which gives a modern twist to tales of women for whom all is not necessarily as it seems. Drawing on history, culture and lore, this is a riveting exploration of the complexities of motherhood: edgy and engrossing, moving, yet at times, disturbing.
The Rising of Bella Casey
by Mary Morrissy'a wonderful book from one of our finest writers' Colum McCann Bella is a bright, clever girl who trains as a school teacher, determined to escape the limitations of her genteel impoverishment and become a “mistress of her own life”. However, the manager of her school, the Rev Archibald Leeper, a married clergyman, develops a morbid attachment to her, which is to colour the rest of her life. Leeper places Bella in an untenable position; her only escape is to seduce a young army corporal, Nicholas Beaver, to hide the fact that her reputation has been ruined by the clergyman. She marries Nicholas and they have five children. However, when Nicholas dies at the age of 40 from syphilis, Bella realizes belatedly that she is not the only one who has been keeping sexual secrets. Bella Casey was the sister of the playwright, Sean O’Casey. Tellingly, though, her brother chose to kill her off prematurely in his autobiography – at least 10 years before her actual demise.
Sign of the Black Dagger (Kelpies Ser.)
by Joan LingardOne day, Will and Lucy's dad just ... vanishes.They have no idea why he's disappeared until a creepy stranger reveals their dad was keeping a BIG secret. Then there's the second clue: an old diary they find hidden in the walls of their Royal Mile house, with a sinister black dagger on it. Will and Lucy must solve a mystery that's over two hundred years old if they want to find their dad and bring him home. But can they find the answers in time to rescue him?
Noah's Child
by Eric-Emmanuel SchmittFrom one of the world's biggest selling authors comes another million-copy worldwide bestseller: A beautiful and tender fable seen through the eyes of a Jewish child living in Belgium under the Nazi occupation. It is 1942 and the Jews are being deported from Belgium. Separated from his parents, seven-year-old Joseph must go into hiding. He is taken in the dead of night to an orphanage, the Villa Jaune, where the benign and enigmatic Father Pons presides over a motley assortment of children. With the ever-present threat of the Gestapo growing closer, Joseph learns that the secret of survival is to conceal his Jewish heritage. Soon Joseph also discovers that Father Pons has a secret of his own: he is risking his life not only for the boys in his care, but for the Jewish faith itself. Sensitive, funny and deeply humane, Noah's Child is a simple fable that reveals the complexities of faith, bravery and the human condition.
Hag's Nook: A Gideon Fell Mystery
by John Dickson Carr‘The Starberths die of broken necks’ goes the legend in the village of Chatterham . . .'The Starberth family governed the now-abandoned Chatterham prison for many years, and each male heir must spend the night of his twenty-fifth birthday there, alone, overlooking the hanging site of Hag’s Nook.Meanwhile, after a chance encounter on a railway platform, Dorothy Starberth and young American graduate Tad Rampole fall in love. Rampole is here in rural Lincolnshire to see Gideon Fell. The following day, Dorothy’s brother is found dead of a broken neck, just as his father and grandfather before him.Ingeniously plotted and packed with atmosphere, Hag’s Nook will not disappoint mystery lovers.
Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation
by John CarlinNow filmed as INVICTUS directed by Clint Eastwood, and starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2008As the day of the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup dawned, and the Springboks faced New Zealand's all-conquering All Blacks, more was at stake than a sporting trophy. When Nelson Mandela appeared wearing a Springboks jersey and led the all-white Afrikaner-dominated team in singing South Africa's new national anthem, he conquered the hearts of white South Africa. Playing the Enemy tells the extraordinary human story of how that moment became possible. It shows how a sport, once the preserve of South Africa's Afrikaans-speaking minority, came to unify the new rainbow nation, and tells of how - just occasionally - something as simple as a game really can help people to rise above themselves and see beyond their differences.
Ascension
by Jeannie van RompaeyMeet the MUTANT HUMANOIDS. They may look a little different from us, but inside they're much the same as you and me. Left on a diseased Earth, they live in windowless compounds, safe from the contaminated wilderness outside. Safe, yes, but their lives are restricted. When the mutant humanoids discover that some complete human beings, COMPLETES, have also survived and are living greatly improved lives on satellites, they determine to rectify this imbalance and claim their share of Earth's heritage. Three-headed RA rules the humanoids with ruthless precision, but others are involved in a power struggle to depose him. Who will succeed in being the next CEO of Planet Earth? Sixteen -year-old MERCURY plans to start a new life on Oasis. Will it prove the Utopia he expects it to be? ASCENSION, the first novel in Jeannie van Romper's Oasis Series, explores with humour and compassion the way humans respond to change. The future worlds of Earth and Oasis mirror our contemporary society. The division between the haves and have-nots widens and the lust for power leads to corruption. But there are idealists determined to build a fairer, more egalitarian society.
Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports
by Christopher Hitchens'I suppose that, if this collection has a point, it is the desire of one individual to see the idea of confrontation kept alive' -- Christopher HitchensChristopher Hitchens is widely recognized as having been one of the liveliest and most influential of contemporary political analysts. Prepared for the Worst is a collection of the best of his essays of the 1980s published on both sides of the Atlantic. These essays confirmed his reputation as a bold commentator combining intellectual tenacity with mordant wit, whether he was writing about the intrigues of Reagan's Washington, a popular novel, the work of Tom Paine, the man George Orwell, or reporting (with sympathy as well as toughness) from Beirut or Bombay, Warsaw or Managua.Hitchens writes clearly, from a well-stocked mind, and is free of the cant that affects many political journalists. - Publishers Weekly
Freshwater
by Akwaeke EmeziAda was born with one foot on the other side. Having prayed her into existence, her parents Saul and Saachi struggle to deal with the volatile and contradictory spirits peopling their troubled girl.When Ada comes of age and heads to college, the entities within her grow in power and agency. An assault leads to a crystallization of her selves: As?ghara and Saint Vincent. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these selves - now protective, now hedonistic - seize control of Ada, her life spirals in a dark and dangerous direction.Narrated from the perspectives of the various selves within Ada, and based in the author's realities, Freshwater explores the metaphysics of identity and being. Feeling explodes through the language of this scalding novel, heralding the arrival of a fierce new literary voice.
Lady Audley's Secret
by Mary Elizabeth Braddon'Women are never lazy. They don't know what it is to be quiet. They are Semiramides, and Cleopatras, and Joan of Arcs, Queen Elizabeths, and Catharine the Seconds . . . To call them the weaker sex is to utter a hideous mockery. They are the stronger sex, the nosier, the more persevering, the most self-assertive sex.'The beautiful and innocent-seeming Lady Audley is uncovered in this stunning novel that combines a crime thriller with historical drama to create an unputdownable tale that has been perennially popular since its publication in 1862.