The year is 1911 when twenty-year-old heiress Peggy Batternberg is invited to spend the summer in America’s Playground.

But the invitation to Coney Island is unwelcome. Despite hailing from one of America’s richest families, Peggy would much rather spend the summer working at the Moonrise Bookstore than keeping up appearances with New York City socialites...

With a myriad of motives, the question is who?

Detective Sergeant Michael Brennan of the Wigan Borough Police has no time for tales of ghosts and the afterlife, or of the dead contacting the living. 

So, when he finds himself investigating the case of a recently widowed young woman, Alice Goodway, who has suddenly developed ‘the Gift’ of mediumship and has...

England, 1941. And the battleship Bismarck is about to set sail.

Undercover agent Xanthe Schneider has returned to England, following her mission in Berlin, with vital information… and a baby growing inside her.

In the months that lead up to the birth, Xanthe occupies herself with work and regular visits to Bletchley Park, but this does little to take her...

Harriet has begun to despair of her life.

With a failed relationship behind her, a business on the rocks and a flat that’s falling apart around her ears, she could really use some luck.

Elena Banbury, née Guseva, an elderly but imposing Russian woman who is Harriet’s neighbour and landlady, frequently entertains the punters at Harriet’s jewellery stall with...

Summer, 1940.

American Xanthe Schneider finds herself catapulted into the world of British espionage, and is sent into the heart of Nazi Germany: Berlin.

Her task? To find out whether Ralph Lancing-Price – a former government minister she had known briefly in London – is a patriot or traitor.

And what of the code he talked about so abstrusely? Using her guise...

It’s 1943, and Captain Hook is at sea aboard a hijacked German U-boat.

Hook has heard all the Peter Pan-themed jokes about his name—he knows that humour can be an indispensable tool for survival in war. And now, as his crew embark on their most daring mission yet, they may need it more than ever.

The crew set off for the French port of La Rochelle, with the...

Leeds, Autumn 1936.

During a British Union of Fascists rally, a body is found.

War veteran Detective Sergeant Urban Raven is tasked with finding the killer.

But with virtually no clues, no witnesses, and no obvious motive, he has few leads to start the investigation.

Leeds has become a shadow of its former self. Once a bright, vibrant and progressive...

Sometimes, a snake is just a snake. And sometimes…

First-century Rome.

Senator Gaius Lucius Nerva is taken ill at a dinner party and dies a few days later. His heartbroken wife, Flavia, is told it was a natural death. Calidus, Nerva’s recently freed slave, suspects otherwise.

As he embarks upon the funeral ceremonies, Calidus becomes more and more...

Would you like me to decide how many strokes you deserve? I'll tell you what. You think how many you deserve and I will as well. If my number is less than yours, we will do yours and if yours is less than mine, we will do both...’ 

With a conceited arrogance born of ignorance, Julie Markham embarks on a game whose rules she does not know and over three short...

This charming collection of stories and fables inspired by Britain's native trees is written by six leading British authors. 

Abridged from the full collection by nineteen authors, Why Willows Weep is edited by Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of Girl With a Pearl Earring and contains short stories by authors including Salley Vickers and Ali Smith. With...

The authors of such literary classics as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë were extraordinary not only because they were successful female writers in Victorian England, but also because they were sisters.

Growing up, all three sisters’ writings were significantly influenced by each other, but perhaps most...

In this new thought-provoking thrill-ride, Simon presents a fascinating thesis exploring humanity’s relation to technology and how it could shape the future of our world... 

Death Logs Out will raise new questions about everything we thought we knew about the very foundations of life – from religion, to science and technology – even the meaning of life...

London, 1873. Walter Balanchine returns home from his travels with an air of mystery and magic about him. His lockets, potions and spells soon attract a favourable audience in Victorian London. But a labyrinthine path of sorcery, scandal and mortal danger unfolds when Walter encounters the beautiful and brooding Tamara. 

A “comprehensive history of Satan’s snuff” (GQ), Tim Madge’s critically acclaimed White Mischief: A Cultural History of Cocaine. This informative, intriguing and often challenging account provides an overview of changing attitudes toward cocaine, from the wonder cure when it was first discovered 150 years ago, right through to its champagne status today.

Mary seems like an ordinary 46-year-old divorcee, beginning a new life in rural England, but she has depths of pent-up pain, the result of 20 years of marital infidelities and abuse. All she needs is a trigger to unleash savage emotions. 

When she becomes entangled with Jonas, a married man, Mary suddenly finds herself in the opposite role of the ‘other...

Millions of dollars in World Bank aid has been promised to the Middle East - if Israeli and Palestine leaders can keep the peace.

But their dream of rebirth is soon jeopardized by a cult of organized fanatics seeking war with a vicious new form of terrorism. The water supply of a Jewish settlement has already been poisoned with a viral toxin. Now, with two...