This is the story of Jim Harrison's captivating heroine, Dalva, and her peculiar and remarkable family. It encompasses the voices of Dalva's grandfather, John Northridge, the austere half-Sioux patriarch; Naomi, the widow of his favourite son and namesake; Paul, the first Northridge son, who lived in the shadow of his brother; and Nelse, the son taken from Dalva at birth who has now returned to find her. It is a family history drenched in suffering and joy, imbued with fierce independence and love, rooted in the Nebraska soil, and intertwined with the destiny of whites and Native Americans in the American West. Epic in scope, stretching from the close of the nineteenth century to the present day, The Road Home is a stunning and trenchant novel written with humour, humanity, and an inimitable evocation of the American spirit.
This is the story of England's most famous, and notorious, king. The facts of Henry VIII's life and reign were more astonishing, poignant and outlandish than the plot twists of most fiction. Henry's character was complex: he was a charismatic, ardent - and brash - young lover who married six times; a scholar with a deep love of poetry and music; an energetic hunter who loved the outdoors; a monarch whose lack of a male heir haunted him incessantly; and a ruthless leader who would stop at nothing to achieve his desires. His monumental decision to split from Rome and the Catholic Church was one that would forever shape the religious and political landscape of Britain. Combining magnificent storytelling with an extraordinary grasp of the pleasures and perils of power, Margaret George delivers a vivid portrait of Henry VIII and Tudor England and the powerhouse of players on its stage: Thomas Cromwell, Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More and Anne Boleyn. It is also a narrative told from an original perspective: Margaret George writes from the King's point of view, injecting irreverent comments from Will Somers - Henry's jester and confidant.
An award-winning and highly distinguished documentary film-maker, Leslie Woodhead has written a funny, sad and highly atmospheric memoir of what it was like to be hurled into maturity amidst the peculiar circumstances of the Cold War. In the spring of 1956, like two million other men of his generation, the eighteen-year old Leslie Woodhead received a summons to serve Her Majesty. Charting his progress from the austerity of post-war Halifax, via comically bleak RAF training camps and the grim, isolated Joint Services School for Linguistics, My Life As A Spy takes us finally to Berlin and the front line of the Cold War. In the ruins of a city gripped by espionage and paranoia, Leslie Woodhead discovered adulthood and his vocation as an observer and documenter of people. A slice of Cold War history and a poignant tale of how our lives can be formed by events and experiences we barely comprehend at the time. '[a] delightfully irreverent memoir. . . Woodhead's memories exude a wonderful sense of nostalgia for a world of lost innocence that to anyone over 60 is instantly recognisable' Sunday Times
Roderick Copper, retired Major, and Benny Gold, elderly London cabbie, apply on the same morning for residential places with the Rudyard Trust for Retired Officers and Gentlemen. But its eccentric and drunken Director tells them the Trust is technically bankrupt, its multi-million pound assets about to be divided between the founder's descendants - a curious, motley crew. Banker Mark Treasure is called in when Copper and Gold's bizarre scheme to preserve the charity goes wrong with terrifying consequences - kidnap, stabbing and sudden death - involving one of the bank's clients, ex-President Cruba of Ngonga, exiled in London with his sensuous third wife, his 15-year-old son, and Gerard Opac, his handsome, ambitious aide.A wonderfully sophisticated piece of detective fiction, Copper, Gold and Treasure - the fifth Mark Treasure mystery - is sure to delight with its comedic wit.
Joe Beech, a London publisher, is in his fifties. Strong and healthy, married for twenty-five years with two grown children, with many friends and attractive to women, his life would seem good - yet he is haunted by a sense of pain and foreboding. A family skiing holiday in Austria with friends seems to promise respite, yet under the brightness of the snow, the physical exhilaration, the shared jokes and memories from other holidays, something dark still seems to be working. Whom or what are threatened? His children? His son's beautiful girlfriend? His marriage? An old friend? Himself? In the six days in the mountains which, physically and temporally, form the book's compass, Joe finds himself travelling far back in his mind to re-visit the past: as a young child in 1939 he was despatched from this same country to the safety of England by his Jewish parents, never to return except as a stranger. For him, Vienna, his birthplace, has become loaded with the significance of a city known only from dreams, and the prospect of spending some days there after the holiday - and secretly meeting a woman-friend there - fills him with both excitement and dread. In what sense will this be the journey's end? What, finally, is waiting there for him? Gillian Tindall has always been interested in the way in which people are governed by past events, by their own perception of those events and by their complex relationships with places. To The City is one of her finest and most subtly constructed novel to date. 'Remarkable for its penetration into another world, another life.' Spectator 'Tindall's novel is powerful, intricate, skilled and moving.' Publishing News 'Desperately true to life . . . wholly convincing, full of thought, feeling and wisdom.' Sunday Times
Could the take-over of Rigley's Patent Footbalm by the giant American Hutstacker Chemical Corporation really be scuppered by Mrs Ogmore-Davies's parrot finding a body in Panty Harbour? It looked like it, but banker sleuth Mark Treasure took a different view when a second body was discovered the morning after he arrived in the little West Wales sailing village close to St David's. By then Treasure had already survived a murderous assault aboard the Fishguard Express, a pitched battle on Whitland Station, and the inexplicable disappearance of a battered Australian clergyman. And that was only the start of his exceedingly unquiet weekend.The fourth in David Williams' superb series of Mark Treasure mysteries, and a finalist for the 1980 Gold Dagger Award, Murder for Treasure is a superbly witty whodunnit.
'It is our secret. No one guesses that we are nightspinners. No one knows how much we talk, or about the words we weave between us. We work in silence, and when our mother eases the door open she rewards us for what she assumes is our sleep. She whispers "e;You are such a good girl."e; She says it just once, to both of us, as if we were one. Which, in fact, we are. We are two peas in a pod. Marina and me. Mirror images. We are twins.' Twenty years later Marina is dead, horrifically murdered, her body discovered only three days after the killer struck. But what haunts Susannah the most is the phone call she never returned, the last chance to make amends with her estranged twin sister. Until, that is, Susannah herself becomes victim to a stalker, someone who pursues her with an uncanny knowledge of her fears, her regrets and her secret history . . .
Abandoned outside an orphanage as a newborn baby, spirited Maddie March has had to fight her way through life. So when she finds a home at Few Farm with Frank Brackenbury and his household, she welcomes the chance for a fresh start. Work on the farm is hard, but believing herself truly loved for the first time in her young life by the farmer's son, Michael, even the animosity of the housekeeper Mrs Trowbridge cannot mar Maddie's newfound happiness. 1947 brings harsh winter, sweeping devastation over the farm and threatening the Brackenburys' livelihood. All seems lost, until Maddie has an idea that might save them all from poverty. But then she discovers she is pregnant . . . The Tulip Girl is Margaret Dickinson's captivating Lincolnshire saga about the endurance of true love in the face of adversity.
When a cannon ball is reported missing from the historic caste of Lodden in Sussex, Hugh Curtis - a very new reporter on the Daily Record - is sent to cover the trivial episode by way of a punishment, because he had "e;fallen down"e; badly on a story the previous day. Digruntled, he makes up his mind to find the wretched cannon ball at any cost. In fact, it nearly costs him his life-and Mollie Bourne hers, too. Mollie is the beautiful girl reporter of the rival paper-"e;the Courier's spoiled darling,"e; according to Hugh. But she proves to be a good companion in a tight spot, for finding the cannon ball is only a prelude to a series of terrifying experiences. Luck, however, is on their side-"e;beginner's luck,"e; Hugh modesty calls it, when he lands the scoop of the year.
It began with the Night News Editor of the Record, in a foul temper, sending Hugh Curtis out on a time-wasting chase to confirm a totally uninteresting rumour. It developed into the biggest scoop the paper had ever known and one of the most unusual and dangerous stories which Hugh had ever covered. The tip-off, which might have rated three lines in an early edition, concerned a bogus telephone message which sent a certain Mrs. Ward hurrying to a London suburban hospital. The pay-off was a disappearance which sent Hugh to a desolate rendezvous with men who were holding a nation to ransom. For once he was one step ahead of Mollie Bourne of the Courier and it was not in Mollie's nature to play second fiddle to anyone. Pursuing her own line of investigation she too was swept into the weird and thrilling climax to Paul Somers' absorbing new story which is a fast-moving and exciting successor to Beginner's Luck.
When Frank Roscoe saves their young son from drowning, Sally and John Mellanby are understandably grateful, and offer their help to the ex-Army officer while he establishes himself in the local area. They invite him into their home, offer him a car and even an interest-free loan if he needs it. Slowly Roscoe's manner changes and the family become trapped in a nightmare of fear and suspicion which threatens to destroy their tranquil way of life. A gripping and all too plausible story of blackmail and deceit set in the soft beauty of Somerset, The Golden Deed is a simple yet effective tale of a couple whose good intentions bring a treacherous force into their lives. 'Has the priceless gift of telling a story with apparent simplicity, but unfailing grip' Times Literary Supplement
The disappearance of Commander Clive Easton, a naval hero with access to his Government's secrets, makes him look like a traitor. Just what he wants. Easton is actually hiding on Megstone, a barren rock in the ocean. He thinks he's just hiding for a fortnight but when rescue doesn't come, suspects he might be marooned there. What started as an affair with his friend's sultry and avaricious wife, Isobel, and a money-making plot that would net him and his lover a fortune, looks like it might cost him his life. This is the story of a fraud to catch a fortune, from the master of plot, Andrew Garve. First published in 1956, this is classic crime fiction from a master of the genre and a founding member of the Crime Writers' Association. Reading classic crime, brought back into ebook by Bello, is like watching a classic film: if you enjoy watching The Third Man or North by Northwest, you'll love this book.
It is one thing to commit a murder, another to confess to it, as mystery writer Walter Haines finds out. When popular TV actor Max Ryland is stabbed to death in his cottage, Walter is safely in Portugal. His wife had run off with Max so Walter has every reason to be bitter and vengeful, but enough to commit murder? Then Walter, for his own reasons, chooses to confess to the crime. The police insist that he re-enact the murder exactly as he alleged he committed it and they lie in wait to time him and trap him at every turn. Can Walter convince the police of his guilt by breaking a perfect alibi? And which is genuine, the alibi-or the confession? 'I was thrilled to read this book. Garve is a master; every word made you want to read the next. A superb work of art. A great book.' Dick Francis 'A distinctly original variation on the whodunit.' Maurice Richardson, Observer 'A beautifully conceived and executed story.' Birmingham Post
Life hadn't held much except the bottle for Robert Farran in the months since his beloved wife had died. Though a once-celebrated actor and impersonator, he didn't even have a career any more. Then terrorists kidnapped the young wife of a politician and demanded as ransom the release of one of their number serving a life sentence for killing a security guard. The politician, a wealthy man, offered a quarter of a million as ransom. The gang said they weren't interested, but Robert Farran was. Suppose he impersonated the gaoled terrorist long enough to ensure the kidnap victim's release, couldn't he be paid the money offered to the terrorists? It was risky - but the prospect of a fortune was tempting, and he had nothing to lose but his life. Could he manage to convince the politician, the police and the Government that his ploy was worth trying? Could he impersonate a man he did not know well enough to fool those who knew him intimately? Farran was prepared to try, but somewhere along the line things went wrong. He still had his life to lose but he no longer stood to gain a fortune.
'I think there must be some mistake.' James Lester is a rising star in the political world and all signs point to his becoming the next Prime Minister, but the appearance of a mystery girl, claiming to have a history with the MP, threatens a scandal capable of wrecking his campaign. Lester denies the association, but each new revelation by the girl is more damning and dramatic than the last. As the scandal grows, a small number of journalists take up his cause and resolve to properly investigate the case. Who is Shirley Holt? And how does she know so many details about an event that Lester claims never to have taken place? Told through media reports and diary entries, Andrew Garve delivers another ingenious thriller. 'Garve at his most irresistibly cunning' New York Times 'In all the excellently varied books Garve has given us he surely cannot have found a better plot' The Times
Young Dr. Martin West has just arrived to take up an important medical post on a British island colony in the Tropics which is on the verge of being granted self-government, and where corruption is rife. His chief, Dr. Garland, shows him over an isolation establishment for lepers on a neighbouring island which is to be developed. Soon he is involved in a conflict of personalities and a maze of violent events. At a fiesta, when the population goes crazy with joyous abandon and fancy-dress is worn, a masked murderer kills Dr. Garland's assistant. A second murder follows. Susan Anstruther, the girl Martin falls in love with, almost becomes the third victim. Then Martin goes on the warpath. For a time he finds himself with a lot of riddles and no answers, until Dr. Garland's glamorous wife Celeste gives a dramatic turn to events and precipitates the climax.
Have you ever wondered what undiscovered gems lie waiting to be found in your garden? Lawrence Quilter, a man in a position of power, finds some interesting records amongst his great grandfather's papers. This leads him to uncover a labyrinth of secret underground caves that have been hidden for decades. Julie, Lawrence's long-suffering wife, knows that her husband is an obsessive man with a quirky personality but she stands by him all the same. That is until her husband's behaviour becomes increasingly worrying and she is forces to reconsider the man she has married. One moment brings about a tragic chain of events which affects both Lawrence and his wife. This is an exciting and unusual story which takes us into the realms of the frightening as well as the fantastically beautiful and delves into the very depths of human nature.
When Edward Latimer is accused by a pretty girl of assaulting her in a train, and two unimpeachable witnesses say they saw him do it, he's in deep water. This is only the beginning of his troubles, for a few days later the girl's dead body is found in the lonely nearby saltings and all the evidence points to Edward as her killer. It takes all the intelligence of his sons, Quentin and Hugh, and the wit of Hugh's fiancee, Cynthia, to produce an alternative theory about the murder-and an alternative suspect. With persistence and unshakeable faith they unravel the plot and in a dramatic reconstruction demonstrate the incredible truth.
Sir 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.
The 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.
Mark Treasure has no idea that accompanying his actress wife on location to a picturesque West Country town could possibly lead to murder . . .The merchant banker is asked by Chiversley's Area Bishop to become involved in the financial affairs of the local covent - one with only three nuns left in residence and assets worth eleven million pounds. But this simple challenge develops into a double murder mystery when it becomes clear that one of the people already responsible for managing the convent finances has died in suspicious circumstances, and when a second is found half-naked and strangled soon after leaving an important dinner party. And what of a callous arson attack on the convent itself? Convinced that the police are about to arrest the wrong suspect, Treasure must use all his experience and ingenuity to uncover important evidence and unravel a complex web of deception. But time is against him and a killer is on the loose . . .Packed full of humour and red herrings, Treasure by Post is classic mystery writing at its finest.
Hardly 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.
Mike Conway, an ocean-going yachtsman down on his luck in a tropical port, welcomes the chance to repair his fortunes when he is approached to undertake a dangerous and illegal, but highly lucrative mission. For Victor Metaxas, who planned the enterprise, it is an expansive, millionaire's gesture on behalf of his country. For the hero-worshipping Leanda, who helped him, it is a passionate crusade. This proves to be the biggest obstacle that Conway, a self-styled "e;mercenary,"e; has to contend with. When the yacht Thalia slips out of Mombasa Harbour at the start of the adventure, the prospects seem reasonably good-but there are complications, villainous and romantic, ahead-and the trickiest part of the whole project turns out to be the journey back. Andrew Garve has once more set a gripping and original story against an unusual background. A Hero for Leanda triumphantly achieves the high standards of realism and suspense which this author always sets himself.
Toby is a very plausible young scoundrel: good at winning confidences - and also at staving off troublesome emotions. On the point of leaving Cambridge, he meets Maisie, who is beautiful, tense and vulnerable. She falls in love. He does not. He takes what he can, as young men do. But Maisie tries to force the issue, and he makes off - warned by a friend's disastrous shotgun marriage. There will always be other girls, more cheerful and just as willing . . . And Toby never worries about minor problems like the way separation wounds its victim. The bitter surprises still in store disconcert him only briefly. After all, a good listener will always get by. 'With her characteristic mixture of sense and sensibility, Pamela Hansford Johnson creates a whole gallery of convincing characters, entangled in a web of drifting relationships.' Sunday Telegraph 'Beautifully rendered . . . memorable settings and lively characters' Financial Times 'The light shining steadily through each page of Pamela Hansford Johnson's new novel is the light of quality' The Times 'A stunning performance' Nina Bawden, Daily Telegraph
When the Foreign Editor of London's Morning Call newspaper resigns, his assistant Edgar Jessop seems, at least to himself, the obvious choice to replace him. Particularly as he has been passed over for promotion on so many occasions in the past. Jessop is, therefore, outraged to learn that one of the young, upstart reporters, Cardew, is to be awarded the position, and Jessop is to be shipped off to Malaya to report on the recent disturbances: a seeming punishment for all his years of hard work. Driven to despair, Jessop hatches a plan to take revenge on the staff at the Morning Call. When one of the journalists is poisoned, the whole press-team become suspects to murder. For no one would suspect shy, retiring Jessop of this heinous crime, would they? It is up to Chief Inspector Haines to investigate . . .
When events don't go to plan, who knows where you will end up? Four teenagers, all eager to impress each other, embark on a seemingly straight forward robbery. But when events don't go to plan the four youths find themselves on the run from the police. Each of them are keen to avoid the authorities whilst also saving face amongst each other, and so things go from bad to worse as the night progresses. 'King' Macey emerges as the natural leader and takes charge of the situation. Welding his gun in hand, he feels invincible, but the other three teenagers start to have reservations about King Macey's judgements. When they take the nearby lighthouse as their fortress, Macey truly feels King of the castle. In the confines of the small lighthouse, the four teenagers are pitted together against the three gentle lighthouse keepers and the fierceness of the elements surrounding them. As King Macey asserts his authority and the number of dead bodies increases, the inhabitants of the lighthouse have to decide exactly what matters most to them . . . 'Splendidly taut story' Times Literary Supplement 'He is a past master at this sort of suspense story' Sunday Times
A tense, cleverly devised game of bluff and double-bluff . . . Most successful men make enemies but Robert Quarry, a rich and ruthless industrialist, had more than his share. Feeling was running high at Quarry's strike-bound factory in the Midlands. Threats were commonplace. When his battered body was found in a wrecked car, everything pointed to the strikers . . . But one thing puzzled Detective Chief Superintendent Burns - why had Quarry fixed an alibi for himself on the night he was killed? 'A tightly written and plotted exercise in deduction, quite absorbing' Yorkshire Post
Alan 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. "e;A master of suspense at the top of his form."e; Evening News "e;Guaranteed to bring gasps at his ingenuity."e; Sun "e;Distinctly gripping study of a coldly narcissistic salesman-seducer . . ."e; Observer
When British correspondent for Russia Lord Tim Quainton falls in love with Marya Razcinski whilst on leave in London, little does he know what a web of intrigue he is entering. Quainton's suspicions are first awakened when he discovers a secret about Marya's father and his suspicious past. But Quainton must immediately push his fears out of his mind and embark upon a lengthy assignment into the heart of the Ukraine. Soon, though, Quainton finds himself suddenly hotly pursued through perilous, icy conditions by a sinister enemy who won't rest until he is dead. What does this terrifying turn of events have to do with Quainton's furtive enquiries into Raczinski's past? And will he make it back to London in time to find out? 'Exciting to the very end.' Times Literary Supplement 'One can always rely on him for either an original idea or a fresh treatment of an old one.' Guardian 'Of all the English writers of detection one of the most original, certainly the most versatile in subject, is Andrew Garve.' Daily Telegraph
When Anthony Bliss - roguish ladies man and con-artist extraordinaire - meets gorgeous Corinne Lake, whose wit, charm and eye for the finer things in life make her utterly irresistible, sparks fly. Their combination of passion and intellect make them perfect partners - in crime. Putting their heads together, they dream up a scheme for success - by smuggling a crooked financier out of England they could stand to make a fortune. In an action-packed race against time, the pair go over every detail of their plan - but is it enough to pull off the heist of a lifetime? 'It is impossible for Andrew Garve to be anything but supremely readable' Guardian 'The ensuing complications and surprises are highly ingenious, making this Andrew Garve's best for several books' Sunday Times
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