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Elegy for April: Quirke Mysteries Book 3 (Quirke Mysteries #3)
by Benjamin BlackNow a major TV series: Quirke starring Gabriel Byrne and Colin Morgan and written by Conor McPherson 1950s Ireland. As a deep, bewildering fog cloaks Dublin, a young woman is found to have vanished. When Phoebe Griffin, still haunted by the horrors of her past, is unable to discover news of her friend; Quirke, fresh from drying out in an institution, responds to his daughter’s request for help. But as Phoebe, Quirke and Inspector Hackett speak with those who knew April, they begin to realise that there may have been more behind the young woman’s discretion and secrecy than they could have imagined. Why was April so estranged from her family? What is her close-knit circle of friends hiding? And who is the shadowy figure who seems to be watching Phoebe’s flat at night, through the frozen mists? As Quirke finds himself distracted from his sobriety by a beautiful young actress, Phoebe watches helplessly as April’s family hush up her disappearance, and all possible leads seem to dry up, bar one she cannot bear to contemplate. But when Quirke makes a disturbing discovery, he is finally able to begin unravelling the great, complex web of love, lies, jealousy and dark secrets that April spun her life from . . . ‘Quirke is an endearing hero . . . A beguiling read’ The Times ‘Vivid and compelling’ Marie Claire
Glitter Girls (Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls #5)
by Meg CabotGlitter Girls is the fifth book in Meg Cabot's hilarious series for younger readers, Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls.Allie is mega excited when Erica's big sister Missy enters the regional Twirltacular baton competition and Erica is allowed to bring all her best friends to watch. But Allie is also invited to Brittany Hauser's birthday party on the same day and will be driven in a stretch limo to the famous Glitterati store, followed by a night in a five-star hotel. Allie really wants to see Missy perform and she thinks Brittany and her friends are snobby, but riding in a limo is a lifelong dream! She decides a little white lie is the best way to keep everyone happy – until everything goes spectacularly wrong and Allie realizes she's made a big mistake. Allie has to learn the hard way that bending the rules is a dangerous game . . .
A Fragment of Fact (Short Reads)
by Chris MassieChris Massie – A Fragment of Fact Lost in the mist, thirsty and exhausted, a young man cycling across the moors sees hope ahead at last – a warm light shines through the darkness. But his saviour is odd – and guards his territory fiercely . . . Pan Macmillan are proud to present a brand new reissue of the first ever edition of The Pan Book of Horror Stories. Fiendish, fantastic and downright chilling, these tales were originally selected for Pan by legendary horror anthologist Herbert van Thal. Fifty years on, they are as compelling, evocative and macabre as ever. Highlighted by a new introduction from Johnny Mains, ‘A Brief History of the Horrors’, the legacy of this astonishing collection – that became a defining influence on the genre – is self-evident. We have made an exclusive few available digitally, so choose your next nightmare here . . .
Richard
by Ben MyersIn February 1995, Richey Edwards checked out of a London hotel instead of flying to the US with the rest of the Manic Street Preachers. There were a few subsequent sightings but then nothing. His body was never found, and he was declared legally dead in November 2008. Now Richard tells the story of his life – and disappearance – as he might have told it. ‘This moving, tender novel tells the story of a lost boy adrift in a world that he can’t make sense of’ Marie Claire ‘Myers deserves credit not only for adding a third dimension to Edwards, but for trying a fourth, for attempting to document a period of his life that seems destined to remain a mystery’ The Times ‘A sympathetic and sad imagining of the boy who became a reluctant pop idol’ Time Out ‘Harrowing and hauntingly sad’ Mojo
Old Man's War (The Old Man’s War series #1)
by John ScalziThe universe is a dangerous place in John Scalzi's Old Man's War, the first in The Old Man's War series.At seventy-five years old, John Perry is after a fresh start - so, naturally, he joins the army. Earth's military machine can transform elderly recruits, restoring their lost youth. But in return, its Colonial Defence Force demands two years of hazardous service in space. This is how Perry finds himself in a new body, crafted from his original DNA. A genetically enhanced and upgraded new body, ready for battle.But upgrades alone won't keep Perry safe. He'll be fighting for his life on the front line as he defends humanity's colonies from hostile aliens. He'll pay the price for his choices, and he'll discover the universe is even more dangerous than he imagined.
Water Gypsies
by Annie MurrayIt is 1942, and after a childhood of suffering in Birmingham, Maryann Bartholomew has built a life of happiness and safety with her husband Joel and their children, working the canals on his narrowboat, the Esther Jane. But the back-breaking work and constant childbearing take their toll on Maryann, and the tragic loss of her old friend Nancy, followed by a further pregnancy lead her to a desperate act which nearly costs her her life.The walls of her security are broken down when Joel suffers an accident, and to keep the boats working, Maryann is forced to allow Sylvia and Dot, two wartime volunteers, into the privacy of their life. And when she discovers that someone keeps calling for her at Birmingham's Tyseley Wharf, the dark memories of her past begin to overwhelm her life. For that someone, who seems to be watching her every move, is becoming more dangerous that even she could imagine . . . Sequel to The Narrowboat Girl, Water Gypsies by Annie Murray is the gripping story of life on the Birmingham canals.
The Sands of Ammon: The Sands Of Ammon (Alexander #2)
by Valerio Massimo ManfrediContinuing the international bestselling saga of Alexander the Great, Valerio Massimo Manfredi's The Sands of Ammon brilliantly describes his quest to conquer Asia, the limitless domain ruled by the Great King of the Persians. In a seemingly impossible venture, the mighty Alexander and his men storm Persian fortresses and harbours, crippling King Darius's domain. Even the legendary Halicarnassus is defeated by the Macedonian armies. But there is danger ahead. The island city of Tyre and the towers of Gaza prove to be formidable obstacles. Embattled but undeterred, Alexander's army surges forth over land and sea to the mysterious deserts of Egypt. There, in the sands, lies the Oracle of Ammon, waiting to reveal an amazing truth to Alexander. One that will change his already astonishing life . . .
The Ends of the Earth: The Ends of the Earth (Alexander #3)
by Valerio Massimo ManfrediIn Valerio Massimo Manfredi's The Ends of the Earth Alexander's epic quest continues through the heart of Asia and on towards the mystery of India. The Macedonian Army march in search of limitless glory, crushing resistance at every turn. The beauty of Babylon is ravaged, the Palace of Persepolis burnt to ashes. An empire is destroyed and a new and bloody era begins. But there are other things on the great conqueror's mind. An ambitious project to unite the peoples of the empire in one homeland begins to obsess him, until the curious beauty of Queen Roxanna gives Alexander the strength to fulfil his destiny . . . A truly compelling and romantic book and a breathtaking conclusion to the bestselling Alexander trilogy.
Shades of the Sublime & Beautiful
by John KinsellaAustralian John Kinsella is one of the most highly regarded poets currently writing in English. Taking Edmund Burke’s 250-year old masterpiece A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful as his template, Kinsella has produced his most accomplished and broadly representative work to date. Shades of the Sublime & Beautiful is a warm, human, anecdotally rich book, concentrating many of the themes that have obsessed its author over the last twenty years: language, love, the invocation of place, the mysteries of the Australian wilderness, and our mediations between the human and natural realms. Together, these lyric meditations build towards a profound thesis on the ecology of the imagination, and are always conducted in concrete, vivid and exuberant language that is unmistakably Kinsella’s own. ‘Kinsella’s poems are a very rare feat: they are narratives of feeling. Vivid sight – of landscapes, of animals, of human forms in distant light – becomes insight. There is, often, the shock of the new. But somehow awaited, even familiar. Which is the homecoming of a true poet’ George Steiner ‘John Kinsella is an Orphic fountain, a prodigy of the imagination . . . he frequently makes me think of John Ashbery: improbable fecundity, eclecticism, and a stand that fuses populism and elitism in poetic audience’ Harold Bloom
The Question of Bruno: Stories (Vintage International)
by Aleksandar Hemon‘You will go a long way to find anything better than this’ Edward Docx ‘There is simply more history and more drama in Hemon’s stories than in a shelf and a half of the usual dayglo Anglo-American entertainment’ Guardian The Question of Bruno is an elegy for the vanished Yugoslavia and a journey through the intertwined history of a family and a nation, written in prose of unparalleled daring, invention and wit. ‘Amazing. The personal fall-out of political failure has never been so searing’ Time Out ‘Like Nabokov, Hemon writes with the startling peeled vision of the outsider, weighing words as if for the first time; he shares with Kundera an ability to find grace and humour in the bleakest of circumstances’ Observer ‘A storyteller, funny and sad in equal measure, and always entertaining’ Scotland on SundayThe Question of Bruno is an elegy for the vanished Yugoslavia and a journey through the intertwined history of a family and a nation, written in prose of unparalleled daring, invention and wit.
Grain
by John GlendayThough John Glenday has long been admired for his lyrically delicate and emotionally powerful poetry, he has remained something of a well-kept secret. His third collection, Grain, makes his singular talent available to a wider audience. Sometimes Glenday’s poems are forcefully direct; sometimes they are so quiet they feel as if they were composed within a capacious listening, as a form of secular prayer. Glenday’s seamless lyric can also disguise some wild and surreal tales: the Beauty and the Beast told in reverse, a bizarre list of new saints, or a can of peaches waiting for the invention of the tin-opener. However, the lasting impression is of a genuinely spiritual poet, one with the ability to turn every earthly detail towards the same clear light. Grain announces Glenday as an essential voice in contemporary poetry.
Red Leech: Red Leech (Young Sherlock Holmes #2)
by Andrew Lane MacmillanSherlock knows that Amyus Crow, his mysterious American tutor, has some dark secrets. But he didn't expect to find a notorious killer, hanged by the US government, apparently alive and well in Surrey - and Crow somehow mixed up in it. When no one will tell you the truth, sometimes you have to risk all to discover it for yourself. And so begins an adventure that will take Sherlock across the ocean to America, to the centre of a deadly web - where life and death are cheap, and truth has a price no sane person would pay . . .
Death in Seville
by David HewsonIt is Holy Week in Seville and the heat is rising. A murderer is on the loose and visiting academic Maria Gutierrez can see something in his ways that the police are missing. But her insight does nothing to help her popularity in the force - and draws her to the attention of the killer. The Angel Brothers, two controversial modern artists, are found dead in a killing that emulates a famous painting, and an old lady remembers the atrocities of the Civil War. Maria was supposed to be an observer to the police investigation. But her own past in the city soon puts her one step ahead of the cops . . . and in the killer’s sights.David Hewson's Death in Seville was first published as Semana Santa in 1996 by HarperCollins.
Love Life
by Ray KluunDan and Carmen are hip, healthy and wealthy. They have their own companies, plenty of money and friends and are the proud parents of one year-old Luna . . . They live the cool life in Amsterdam, until beautiful and optimistic Carmen is diagnosed with breast cancer. With that their world transforms into a roller-coaster ride of doctors and hospitals. As his way of coping, the hedonistic Dan faithfully accompanies Carmen to her chemo and radiotherapy treatments, but spends his nocturnal hours crazily immersed in the nightlife and women of Amsterdam and Miami. Love Life is the account of a relationship and a terminal illness, devoid of fake sentiment and told with humour and deep humanity. And it is very much an ode to love. 'A wonderful novel about courage, helplessness and real love' Cosmopolitan Germany
Sow the Seed (Fleethaven Trilogy #2)
by Margaret DickinsonThe second part of the Fleethaven Trilogy, Sow the Seed is a moving and evocative wartime saga from Margaret Dickinson.Lincolnshire, 1926. Kate Hilton is devastated when her mother tells her she is to be sent away to boarding school. For the more Esther tries to keep her from her childhood sweetheart, Danny, the more determined she is to marry him.It isn't until she is eighteen, and finally told the bitter truth about her family's past, that Kate is forced to see why she and Danny can never marry. Torn apart by these revelations, Kate finds unexpected release with the outbreak of war, when she leaves Fleethaven Point to become a driver in the WAAF.In the chaos and destruction of the war years, Kate will witness many things. For as well as all the pain, suffering and loss, she will experience her first taste of a love that finally allows her to leave the past behind . . .The Fleethaven Trilogy concludes with Reap the Harvest.
Red Sky in the Morning
by Margaret DickinsonRed Sky in the Morning is an unputdownable historical story from Margaret Dickinson, richly evocative of the Lincolnshire landscape.A young girl stands alone in the cobbled marketplace of a small Lincolnshire town, bedraggled, soaked through and very afraid. Who is she? Where has she come from and from whom is she running away? No one knows or cares. Only kindly farmer Eddie Appleyard recognizes something in the girl that touches his heart. In a drunken haze and scarcely realizing what he is doing, Eddie takes her home, even though his wife is a tyrant, who will believe the worst. 'Is this your fancy piece?' Bertha accuses and turns Anna out into the cold, wet night.Eddie hides the girl in the hayloft and, later, in a tumbledown shepherd's cottage that becomes her new home. Anna's arrival will change their lives; Eddie's, Bertha's and even that of their young son, Tony, torn between his warring parents and the mysterious stranger. It will take years for the secrets of Anna's former life to be revealed, but Bertha bides her time and awaits her moment, little realizing the tragedy her vengeance will unleash.
Against Gravity
by Gary GibsonAgainst Gravity is a stunning sci-fi thriller from Gary Gibson, author of the Shoal Sequence.In the late twenty-first century, you will find a very different world. Little is as it used to be, and many are not what they seem. Kendrick Gallmon, survivor of an infamous research facility called the Maze, is trying to pick up the pieces of his life, even though he knows the Labrat augments are slowly killing him. Then one day his heart stops beating, forever, and a ghost urges him to return to the source of all his nightmares, a long-abandoned military complex filled with entirely real voices of the dead.
Edward Trencom's Nose: A Novel of History, Dark Intrigue and Cheese
by Giles MiltonEdward Trencom has bumbled through life, relying on his trusty nose to turn the family cheese shop into the most celebrated fromagerie in England. But his world is turned upside down when he stumbles across a crate of family papers. To his horror, Edward discovers that nine previous generations of his family have come to sticky ends because of their noses. When he investigates further, Edward finds himself caught up in a Byzantine riddle to which there is no obvious answer . . . Giles Milton’s deliciously comic debut novel is a mouth-watering blend of Louis de Bernieres, Tom Sharpe and P. G. Wodehouse with every page permeated by the pungent odour of cheese. 'The pong of ripe Limburger lingers impressively' - Observer 'Comic novels are difficult to write: any old halfwit can produce 400 pages of stinking high seriousness, but it takes a real wit to manage 400 pages of mild, fragrant good humour' Guardian
Something Like Love
by Catherine DunneAfter twenty years of marriage, Ben ups and leaves his wife Rose, their children and their family home in Dublin. Just like that: no words of regret, no compromise, no note - only a simple 'I don't love you anymore'. It has taken Rose all this time to get her life together again: she's brought up her three children, Lisa, Brian and Damien single-handedly, and not without difficulty for never again does she want to be completely broke, or to have to revisit that night in hospital with Damien hovering between life and death. To think about it just makes her shudder. Now Rose is concentrating on her business, the 'Bonne Bouche' bakery, and all the clients she's won, all the friends she's made. Her accounts are in order, the business is blooming. Life really doesn't seem too bad. Until Ben returns, again without warning, and it is soon clear that he expects to infiltrate Rose's carefully created world in the most unwelcome of ways. A stunning sequel to In the Beginning, Catherine Dunne's first novel, Something Like Love is an astonishing portrait of a marriage, and of how the ties that bind are sometimes there forever.
Rust and Bone: Stories
by Craig DavidsonRust and Bone conjures a savage world of prizefighters, gamblers and sex addicts; dogs fight to the death and bare-knuckled men fight for survival on the most extreme margins. And yet these gritty stories are tempered by gentleness, the quiet understanding in the most intimate relationships. A whale trainer’s accident, a boy’s life endangered – where human vulnerability is so close to the surface, the humanity of these characters heralds redemption and hope.
And Justice There is None (Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James #8)
by Deborah CrombieOn a winter's evening in Notting Hill, Dawn Arrowood drives home after a doctor's appointment confirming her pregnancy. She is terrified. Her older husband has made it clear that he wants no children, and Dawn is not even sure that the child is his. But as Dawn arrives home, she is attacked as she gets out of her car. In the ensuing struggle, her assailant whispers in her ear 'I'm sorry'. And he cuts her throat. Gemma Jones and Duncan Kincaid are called to the crime scene. The gripping case that develops forces them to investigate 1960s Notting Hill and its racial tensions, the Russian mafia and a possible serial killer. . . And at the same time, Gemma, pregnant herself with Kincaid's child, has to cope with her own rollercoaster of emotions in a case that is rather too close to home for comfort.
A Finer End (Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James #7)
by Deborah CrombieJack Montfort grew up in the shadow of Glastonbury Tor in a town revered as the mythical burial place of King Arthur, and, according to New Age followers, a source of strong druid power. Montfort has little more than a passing interest in the history of the area - until he comes across an extraordinary chronicle almost a thousand years old . . . The unsettling way this record comes into his hands brings Montfort into contact with a disparate group of townspeople, including Nick Carlisle, a student of Glastonbury's myths; Faith Wills, a pregnant teenage runaway; and Winnie Catesby, the Anglican priest who is now Jack's lover. When a member of Jack's circle is attacked and left for dead, he appeals to his cousin, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, for help. For something terrible and bloody shattered Glastonbury Abbey's peace long ago - and now it is about to spark a violence that will reach forward into the present . . .
Clean Kill (Gunnery Sergeant Kyle Swanson series #3)
by Donald A. Davis Jack CoughlinAt a 15th Century castle outside of Edinburgh, Sir Geoffrey Cornwell, overseer of Task Force Trident and a former colonel, is in the process of brokering an unprecedented agreement. Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and the Israeli Foreign Minister are scheduled to sign an historic peace treaty - that is, until their meeting is violently interrupted by a missile strike that leaves the Foreign Minister of Israel dead and the Prince injured.Gunnery Sergeant Kyle Swanson is immediately called to the UK, where he thwarts another attempt on the prince of Saudi Arabia's life. The attackers are Middle Eastern, but they aren't working for Al Qaeda - they're employed by foreign operatives opposed to the peace agreement and determined to claim Saudi oil reserves for themselves. Meanwhile, Juba comes out of hiding. One of the best snipers in the world and Kyle's nemesis, Juba remains determined to exact revenge on the man who nearly took his life.With scenes of tremendous suspense that span the globe, Clean Kill pits our hero against a group whose greed and vengeance know no limits . . .
The Princess Diaries: After Eight (The\princess Diaries #Bk. 8)
by Meg CabotAfter Eight is Princess Mia's eighth fabulous adventure in the phenomenal The Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot.The new school year's only just begun - and already there have been some big surprises. Not least, Tina's revelation that Lilly's probably Done It with J.P.! And what about Mia's new haircut, which has turned out kind of . . . extreme? But then Michael drops a bombshell. He has been accepted on a year-long computer science course . . . in Japan! Can Mia's perfect prince really love her if he can go away for a year? And what would it take to make him stay?
Woman with Birthmark (The Van Veeteren series #4)
by Håkan NesserA Swedish crime writer as thrilling as Mankell, a detective as compelling as Wallander . . . Woman with Birthmark by Håkan Nesser is the fourth title in his atmospheric Van Veeteren series.A young woman shivers in the December cold as her mother's body is laid to rest in a cemetery. The only thing that warms her is the thought of the revenge she will soon take . . . Then a middle-aged man is killed at his home, shot twice in the chest and twice below the belt. He had recently received a series of bizarre phone calls where an old song is played down the line – evoking an eerie sense of both familiarity and unease. Before the police can find the culprit, a second man is killed in the same way. Chief Inspector Van Veeteren and his team must dig far back into each man's past – but with few clues at each crime scene, can they find the killer before anyone else dies?Woman with Birthmark is followed by the fifth book in the series, The Inspector and Silence.