Books published by Hodder & Stoughton

'The best psychological thriller writer around.' - The Times The dark world of people smuggling beckons as Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs chase The Ghost, a notorious killer... Investigators Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are recruited to track down a cargo ship carrying two dozen illegal Chinese immigrants, as well as the notorious human smuggler and killer known only as the Ghost. But when the capture goes disastrously wrong, Lincoln and Amelia find themselves in a race to stop the Ghost before he can track down and murder the two surviving families who have vanished deep into the labyrinthine world of New York City's Chinese community.Over the next forty-eight hours the Ghost ruthlessly hunts for the families while Rhyme struggles desperately to find them first.Meanwhile, Sachs pursues a very different kind of policework - forming a connection with one of the immigrants that may have far reaching consequences for her relationship with her partner and lover, Lincoln Rhyme.

***NOW A MAJOR NBC TV SERIES***The third of the bestselling Lincoln Rhyme series sends the detective deep into North Carolina on the trail of a desperate kidnapper... You've followed a killer into a swampHopefully you'll find him before he gets to his next victimsBut you'd better watch out - The Insect Boy doesn't need his own hands to kill...Sick of his debilitating injuries, Lincoln Rhyme has travelled to a world-famous spinal cord injuries center in North Carolina for some risky, experimental surgery. It may make him a tiny bit better; it may kill him. But before he has a chance to undergo the operation, the local police department draft Rhyme and his partner Amelia into a shocking new case. Using their forensic skills the pair desperately try to track down two women kidnapped by a psychotic young man known locally as the Insect Boy.After a cat-and-mouse game through the abandoned swamps of North Carolina, Lincoln and Amelia finally manage to find him - except suddenly Amelia, convinced of his innocence, breaks the boy out of jail. And it's left to Lincoln to find them both, while Amelia uses all the skills her mentor and lover has taught her to evade him.But her actions are to have more disastrous consequences than either of them could anticipate ...'The most creative, skilled and intriguing thriller writer in the world . . . [Deaver] has produced a stunning series of bestsellers with unique characterisation, intelligent characters, beguiling plots and double-barrelled and sometimes triple-barrelled solutions.' - Daily Telegraph

DEAVER. DANGEROUSLY GOOD.Imagine you're in a bar. A man approaches you. He doesn't seem familiar but he knows your past, your job, your hobbies and your ex-boyfriend's name. You go for a drink. This is your first - and last - mistake. You're the latest victim of the latest killer. A man who can rip away the thin carapace protecting the secrets of your life - before ending it. Streetwise cop Frank Bishop has been charged with the job of halting the mounting body count. He enlists the help of Wyatt Gillette, a young hacker on the wrong side of the law.They must stalk this faceless criminal through both the real and the virtual universe, combining their old and new world skills to beat the mastermind. But how do you stop a man who knows your every move? You go into the blue nowhere...'One of the world's best plotters - his intricate twists and turns catch out even the hardened thriller reader' Daily Mail

DEAVER. DANGEROUSLY GOOD. When Detective Bill Corde looks at the beautiful face of the murdered girl in the mud, he does not know his own life is about to turn into a terrifyingly real nightmare. For the girl's killer is now on the trail of Corde and his unsuspecting family: his wife, teenage son, and imaginative but vulnerable daughter, Sarah. Sarah, who alone knows the identity of the killer...The lesson Bill Corde is about to learn - the lesson of her death - is an education that no one will ever forget.'The best psychological thriller writer around' The Times

DEAVER. DANGEROUSLY GOOD.Michael Hrubek, a young schizophrenic, has escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane. And he's making his way towards Lis Atcheson, the teacher who testified at his trial.Four people are racing to intercept him before he finds her. His psychiatrist; the hospital director; a professional tracker. And Lis's husband, who plans to stop Hrubek before the madman reaches his wife.But Michael's mind - with its delusions of murder and betrayal - is crystal clear about one thing. He knows Lis better than she knows herself. And he carries with him a monstrous secret that will tear apart many lives in the course of one horrifying night...'Seldom have more twists and turns, or more harrowing suspense, been packed into a single day - or between the covers of a single book...Superior' James Patterson

In 1943, when Grace and Leo Waterhouse married in Australia, they were part of a young generation ready to sacrifice themselves to win the war, while being confident they would survive. Sixty years on, as Grace recounts what happened to her doomed hero, she can say what she suspected then: that for many men, bravery is its own end. The tale she tells is one of great love, lost innocence, a charismatic but unstable Irish commander, dashing undercover missions against the Japanese in Singapore, and - in her eyes - reckless, foolhardy exploits. As fresh details continue to emerge, Grace is forced to keep revising her picture of what happened to Leo and his fellow commandoes - until she learns about the final piece in the jigsaw, and an ultimate betrayal. As absorbing as it is thought-provoking, this timely novel poses unsettling questions about what drives men to battle and heroic deeds, and movingly conveys the life-long effect on those who survive them.

'A compelling portrait of early 21st century casino capitalism ... essential reading.' - The Times On 13 September 2007, Robert Peston broke the news that Northern Rock had become a victim of the global credit crunch and was seeking an emergency loan from the Bank of England. It was the latest in a long line of scoops by this award-winning journalist. Over the weeks that followed, the Government found itself exposed to the Rock to the tune of 57 billion, or almost 2000 for every taxpayer.As Robert Peston shows in his fascinating new book, the seeds for the collapse of Northern Rock and the upheavals in the financial markets were sown years before.WHO RUNS BRITAIN? is the first time anyone has drawn all the threads together to weave a story that's rich in extraordinary characters and outrageous feats of economic bravado. This book is about the widening gap between the super-rich and the rest of us. It explores and explodes the myth that the financial creativity of those who are amassing these vast fortunes is good for the wider economy and for all of us. Whether you're a financial expert or just have a bank account, WHO RUNS BRITAIN? is a book you must read.pse of Northern Rock and the upheavals in the financial markets were sown years before. WHO RUNS BRITAIN? is the first time anyone has drawn all the threads together to weave a story that's rich in extraordinary characters and outrageous feats of economic bravado. This book is about the widening gap between the super-rich and the rest of us. It explores and explodes the myth that the financial creativity of those who are amassing these vast fortunes is good for the wider economy and for all of us. Whether you're a financial expert or just have a bank account, WHO RUNS BRITAIN? is a book you must read.

Enzo Secchi, harbourmaster for Massawa, Eritrea's main port, is a loyal Italian colonial servant. He takes pride in running the docks, enjoys the occasional drink with his gregarious friend Salvatore, colonel of the local Italian garrison, and listens to Caruso in his spare time. But he is lonely and when Salvatore suggests he find an Eritrean housekeeper to cook, clean - and maybe share his bed - Enzo takes the plunge and advertises. Salvatore's own tastes run to the young and nubile, but Enzo surprises himself by choosing Aatifa, a sharp-tongued woman in her 30s with a complicated family life, who takes the job as a last resort. What neither of them had counted on was falling in love.But it is 1935, Fascism is on the rise, and Mussolini does not intend Eritrea to remain a backwater for long. Italian forces bent on invading Ethiopia begin arriving at the port. And with them come new laws - including one forbidding 'Relationships of a Conjugal Nature' with Eritrean women . . .Meanwhile, Salvatore finds himself at the head of the invasion force bound for Ethiopia. Gone are the glory days of garrison life; it is a bitter campaign, laying bare all the brutality of Italian colonial ambition. Its consequences for Salvatore, and for Enzo and Aatifa as they contrive to hide their relationship in plain sight, will change all three lives for ever.

*****Part of the bestselling John Shakespeare series of Tudor spy thrillers from Rory Clements, winner of the Ellis Peters Historical Fiction Award*****'[Clements] does for Elizabeth's reign what CJ Sansom does for Henry VIII's' Sunday Times**********In London's smoky taverns, a conspiracy is brewing: a group of wealthy young Catholic dissidents plot to assassinate Elizabeth, free Mary Queen of Scots - and open England to Spanish invasion. But the conspirators have been infiltrated by Sir Francis Walsingham's top intelligencer, John Shakespeare.Shakespeare, however, is torn: the woman he loves stands accused of murder. In a desperate race against time he must save her from the noose and the realm from treachery. And then it dawns that both investigations are inextricably linked - by corruption very close to the seat of power . . .

Includes BONUS short story*****Part of the bestselling John Shakespeare series of Tudor spy thrillers from Rory Clements, winner of the Ellis Peters Historical Fiction Award*****'[Clements] does for Elizabeth's reign what CJ Sansom does for Henry VIII's' Sunday Times**********England is a Judas nest of conspiracyIt is 1582, and the conflict between Protestant and Catholic threatens to tear the country in two. While Queen Elizabeth I holds the reins of power, there are those whose loyalty lies with her imprisoned cousin, Mary Queen of Scots.On his first major mission for Sir Francis Walsingham, the young John Shakespeare is ordered to discover a conspiracy to free the Stuart queen from Sheffield Castle. All too soon, he realises that the tentacles of the plot reach deep into his native Warwickshire and threaten his own friends and family. His duty lies with Elizabeth - but how far will he go to protect those he loves?

Hidden in the language of Shakespeare's best-loved comedy Much Ado About Nothing, are several clues to an intriguing tale. It seems that the witty lovers Beatrice and Benedick had a previous youthful love affair which ended bitterly. But how did they meet, why did they part, and what brought them together again?Messina, Sicily, 1588. Beatrice of Mantua comes to the court of her uncle Leonato, to be companion to his daughter, Hero. That fateful summer, Spanish lordling Don Pedro visits for a month-long sojourn on the island with his regiment. In his company is the young soldier Benedick of Padua.Benedick and Beatrice begin to wage their merry war of wit, which masks the reality that they dance a more serious measure, and the two are soon deeply in love. But the pair are cruelly parted by natural disaster and man-made misunderstanding. Oceans apart, divided by war and slander, Beatrice and Benedick begin their ten-year odyssey back to Messina and each other.In a journey that takes us from sunlit Sicily to the crippled Armada fleet and from ancient superstition to the glorious Renaissance cities of the north, Marina Fiorato tells a story of intrigue, treachery and betrayal that will shed a new light on Shakespeare's most appealing lovers.'Captures the scents, passion and vigour of Italy' Booklist

The third unforgettable historical love story set in Italy from Marina Fiorato, author of the bestseller THE GLASSBLOWER OF MURANO. For fans of Philippa Gregory, Sarah Dunant and Alison Weir.Florence looks like gold and smells like sulphur . . .In the colourful world of fifteenth-century Italy, Luciana Vetra is young and beautiful, a part-time model and full-time whore. When she is asked to pose as the goddess Flora for Sandro Botticelli's painting La Primavera, she is willing to oblige - until the artist abruptly sends her away without payment. Affronted, she steals an unfinished version of the painting - only to find that someone is ready to kill her to get it back.As friends and associates are murdered around her, Luciana turns to the one man who has never tried to exploit her beauty, Brother Guido della Torre, a novice at the monastery of Santa Croce. Fleeing Florence together, Luciana and Guido race through the nine great cities of Renaissance Italy, desperately trying to decode the painting's secrets before their enemies stop them.

The second unforgettable historical love story set in Italy from Marina Fiorato, author of the bestseller THE GLASSBLOWER OF MURANO. For fans of Philippa Gregory, Sarah Dunant and Alison Weir.Bernardino Luini, favoured apprentice of Leonardo da Vinci, is commissioned to paint a religious fresco in the hills of Lombardy. His eye is caught by the beautiful Simonetta di Saronno, a young noblewoman who has lost her husband to battle, and whose fortune is gone. Captivated by her beauty and sadness, Bernardino paints Simonetta's likeness, immortalizing her as the Madonna in his miraculous frescoes in Saronno's church. As the sittings progress, artist and model fall in love, and Simonetta reciprocates Luini's genius by creating a drinnk for her lover from the juice of almonds - the famous Amaretto di Saronno.As the frescoes and the liqueur near their completion, the couple's affair distils into a heady brew of religious scandal which threatens their love, and ultimately their lives. Who is the mysterious Jew with a golden hand? And how does a mute young soldier affect Simonetta's destiny?

With the wit of Marina Lewycka, the piercing observation of Jane Gardam, and the bittersweet charm of Mary Wesley, this will appeal to all who loved Major Pettigrew's Last Stand or The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.Cecilia Banks has a great deal on her plate. But when her son Ian turns up on her doostep with the unexpected consequence of a brief fling, she feels she has no choice but to take the baby into her life. Cephas's arrival is the latest of many challenges Cecilia has to face. There is the matter of her cancer, for a start, an illness shared with her novelist friend Helen. Then there is Helen herself, whose observations of Cecilia's family life reveal a somewhat ambivalent attitude to motherhood. Meanwhile Tim, Cecilia's husband, is taking self-effacement to extremes, and Ian, unless he gets on with it, will throw away his best chance at happiness.Cecilia, however, does not have to manage alone. In a convent in Hastings sits Sister Diana Clegg who holds the ties that bind everyone not only to each other, but to strangers as yet unmet. As events unfold, and as the truth about Cephas is revealed, we are invited to look closely at madness, guilt, mortal dread and the gift of resilience. No one will remain unchanged.'Frank, courageous and entertaining. I felt better for reading it' Margaret Drabble

Shortlisted for the 2012 Miles Franklin Award, PAST THE SHALLOWS is a powerful and hauntingly beautiful novel from an extraordinary new Australian writer who is compared with Cormac McCarthy and Tim Winton. 'If you read only one book this year, make sure it's this' Sunday Times'I loved Past the Shallows' Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow BirdsEveryone loves Harry. Except his father.Joe, Miles and Harry are growing up on the remote south coast of Tasmania. The brothers' lives are shaped by their father's moods - like the ocean he fishes, he is wild and unpredictable. He is a bitter man, with a devastating secret.Miles does his best to watch out for Harry, the youngest, but he can't be there all the time. Often alone, Harry finds joy in the small treasures he discovers, in shark eggs and cuttlefish bones. In a kelpie pup, a mug of hot chocolate, and a secret friendship with a mysterious neighbour.But sometimes small treasures, or a brother's love are not enough.

For all readers of Robert Harris, William Boyd and John le Carre, The Suicide Club is a First World War spy thriller set in Occupied Belgium in 1917, and tells the dark, disturbing and untold story of the shadow espionage battle fought behind the lines. Andrew Williams is 'in the front rank of English thriller writers' (Daily Mail) and his novels possess 'a richness of characterisation and intelligence that few thrillers can match' (Sunday Times). August 1917. Britain is mired in bloody stalemate on the Western Front and questions are being asked in government about the leadership of the army. Soldier spy Sandy Innes is summoned from his undercover work in Belgium by the new Secret Service to investigate. Officially transferred to Field Marshal Haig's headquarters in France to prepare agents for the next big push, his secret mission is to spy on Haig's intelligence chiefs. At GHQ, no one is interested in Innes's inside knowledge. Instead, he is attached to an advance assault group dubbed 'The Suicide Club'. His fellow intelligence officers have little faith in the top secret information being fed to Haig by their superior, and as Innes digs deeper he begins to suspect treachery. The stakes could not be higher: the fate of hundreds of thousands of British soldiers.In a tense race against time, against the background of political machinations in government and at GHQ, Innes must survive membership of The Suicide Club, and then risk all by going back behind enemy lines to uncover the truth.

Like her bestselling THE GLASSBLOWER OF MURANO, Marina Fiorato's fifth unforgettable historical love story is set in Venice. For fans of Philippa Gregory, Sarah Dunant and Alison Weir.1576. Five years after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto, a ship steals unnoticed into Venice bearing a deadly cargo. A man more dead than alive, disembarks and staggers into Piazza San Marco. He brings a gift to Venice from Constantinople. Within days the city is infected with bubonic plague - and the Turkish Sultan has his revenge.But the ship also holds a secret stowaway - Feyra, a young and beautiful harem doctor fleeing a future as the Sultan's concubine. Only her wits and medical knowledge keep her alive as the plague ravages Venice. In despair the Doge commissions the architect Andrea Palladio to build the greatest church of his career - an offering to God so magnificent that Venice will be saved. But Palladio's own life is in danger too, and it will require all skills of medico Annibale Cason, the city's finest plague doctor, to keep him alive.But what Annibale had not counted on was meeting Feyra, who is now under Palladio's protection, a woman who can not only match his medical skills but can also teach him how to care.

Elizabeth Black is a hero. She is a cop who single-handedly rescued a young girl from a locked cellar and shot two brutal kidnappers dead. But she's also a cop with a history, a woman with a secret. And she's not the only one.Adrian Wall is finally free after thirteen years of torture and abuse. In the very first room he walks into, a boy with a gun is waiting to avenge the death of his mother. But that is the least of Adrian's problems.He was safer in prison.And deep in the forest, on the altar of an abandoned church, a body cools in pale linen. It is not the first to be found.This is a town on the brink. This is Redemption Road.Brimming with tension, secrets, and betrayal, brilliantly evoking an America of small towns and remote landscapes, of the abandoned, the derelict and the desperate, this is a novel so chillingly suspenseful and a story so full of twists and turns that you simply cannot stop reading. It marks a new high point in the writing of this bestselling master of the literary thriller.

In HOLY WAR, the final book of the Saladin Trilogy, telling the story of the legendary war leader who united Arabia, Saladin recaptures Jerusalem from the Crusaders, and prepares for his ultimate battle against Richard the Lionheart. A full-blooded historical adventure novel for all fans of Conn Iggulden, Bernard Cornwell, Anthony Riches, Ben Kane, Robyn Young and Simon Scarrow.While Saladin ruthlessly sets about uniting the whole of Arabia under his rule, the Kingdom of Jerusalem is torn apart by treachery and intrigue, and when the murderous knight Reynald of Chatillon raids a caravan heading from Damascus to Mecca and rapes Saladin's sister, the scene is set for war.In June 1187, Saladin marches into the Kingdom with an army of over 24,000 and imposes a crushing defeat on the Crusader forces at the Horns of Hattin. It is only a matter of time before he marches on a panicked and demoralized Jerusalem.But what about Saladin's longtime ally, the Saxon knight John of Tatewic? In the face of annihilation, is he friend or foe? It will take all John's knowledge of the man he calls his brother to negotiate a peaceful fate for Jerusalem - but this is not the end of the story. For in England the soon-to-be crowned King Richard has pledged revenge and a new Crusade . . .

In OSCAR WILDE AND THE MURDERS AT READING GAOL, the sixth in Gyles Brandreth's acclaimed Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries series featuring Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle, Reading Gaol's most famous prisoner is pitted against a ruthless and fiendishly clever serial killer. 'Intelligent, amusing and entertaining' Alexander McCall Smith It is 1897, Dieppe. Oscar Wilde, poet, playwright, novelist, raconteur and ex-convict, has fled the country after his release from Reading Gaol. Tonight he is sharing a drink and the story of his cruel imprisonment with a mysterious stranger. He has endured a harsh regime: the treadmill, solitary confinement, censored letters, no writing materials. Yet even in the midst of such deprivation, Oscar's astonishing detective powers remain undiminished - and when first a brutal warder and then the prison chaplain are found murdered, who else should the governor turn to for help other than Reading Gaol's most celebrated inmate?In this, the latest novel in his acclaimed Oscar Wilde murder mystery series, Gyles Brandreth takes us deep into the dark heart of Wilde's cruel incarceration.

The third book in the Insurrection trilogy, which tells the thrilling story of Robert the Bruce.1164. The young warrior Saladin joins a Saracen army headed for Egypt. He finds there a land of wonders - from the ancient pyramids and the towering lighthouse of Alexandria, to the caliph's luxurious palace - but also a land of unparalleled danger. In Egypt, no one can be trusted, not even his family. Saladin is surrounded by enemies and haunted by a secret that threatens to destroy him.Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, Saladin's closest friend, the former crusader John of Tatewic, has been branded traitor. Spared execution on condition that he serves King Amalric, he soon finds himself embroiled in court intrigue. Dark forces within Jerusalem conspire to seize the throne. As John confronts them, his loyalty to Amalric, and to his old friend Saladin, is put to the test.

In 1892 Arthur Conan Doyle, exhausted by his creation Sherlock Holmes, retires to the spa at Bad Homburg. But his rest cure does not go as planned. The first person he encounters is Oscar Wilde, and when the two friends make a series of macabre discoveries amongst the portmanteau of fan mail Conan Doyle has brought to answer - a severed finger, a lock of hair and finally an entire severed hand - the game is once more afoot. The trail leads to Rome, to the very heart of the Eternal City, the Vatican itself. Pope Pius IX has just died. These are uncertain times. To uncover the mystery and why the creator of Sherlock Holmes has been summoned in this way, Oscar and Conan Doyle must penetrate the innermost circle of the Catholic Church - seven men who have a very great deal to lose.

Salah ad-Din, or Saladin as he is known to the Franks, was a Kurd, the son of a despised people, and yet he became Sultan of Egypt and Syria. He united the peoples of Allah, recaptured Jerusalem, and drove the Crusaders to the very edge of the sea. He battled, and in the end tamed King Richard the Lionheart, who well deserved his savage name. He was a great man, the greatest man that I ever knew, but when I first met him, he was only a skinny child...- The Chronicle of Yahya al-Dimashq But alongside the legend of Saladin there is another story. When the Crusader army is routed beneath the walls of Damascus in 1148, a young Saxon named John is captured and enslaved. He is bought by Yusuf, a slight, bookish boy, for the price of a pair of sandals. And so begins the story of two enemies brought together by fate and of a friendship that will change the face of the Holy Land. Timid Yusuf will grow up to become the warrior Saladin, nicknamed 'the Eagle'; John will first teach his young master the art of war, before returning west to serve first the King of Jerusalem and then King Richard himself. From spectacular set-piece battles to the political manoeuvrings of the corrupt Crusader court, from the brutality of single combat to the sophistication of Islamic life, this is the first in a remarkable trilogy that will chart the story of the greatest leader the Middle East has ever known.

1212. The forces of Christendom are on the march again. There is much to avenge. Twenty-five years ago, the Christian army lay slaughtered on the desolate plain of the Horns of Hattin. Mighty Saladin, ruler of the Moslem world, went on to capture Jerusalem, crush the Crusaders and push back the remnants of the Latin empire to a thin line of threatened coastal forts. The Holy Land seemed lost. But now the Pope has called for crusade. Many take the cross for pilgrimage and battle. Among them is Otto, a young noble heading for the Holy Land in search of his vanished Hospitaller Knight father, and Brother Luke, a mysterious Franciscan on a mission of his own. And then there are the children, tens of thousands of them, pledged to recapture Jerusalem and find the True Cross, the holiest of relics lost to the forces of Islam. But what begins as a religious quest will turn into a harrowing nightmare of hardship and danger. For dangers press in and the way ahead is perilous. Some will not survive. What they seek is Truth. What they find is Hell.

The legendary Hospitaller Knights of St John, the last of the great surviving Christian chivalric orders, have retreated to the small island of Malta, fighting the tide of Islam around the Mediterranean, and robbing from rich traders to survive. But Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent now wants the Knights wiped off the map altogether, and dispatches one of the greatest armadas that ever set sail to annihilate them. The Order seems doomed until the extraordinary bravery of one Englishman, Christian Hardy, attracts the attention of the Grand Master himself. Accompanying Christian in this swashbuckling tale of love, revenge, and destiny is his band of close companions: the Moor, a genius inventor of demonic weapons, Luqa, a young orphan set on becoming Christian's prot? g? , Hubert, his longstanding friend and spiritual counsellor and Maria, a beautiful noblewoman who rejects the sanctuary of Sicily to be with him. With the help of these steadfast comrades, Christian must now summon all his courage to face an unbeatable enemy, and change the course of history . . . Set in a period of unparalleled brutality, and told with drama, sweep and passion, The Blood Rock is fiction on an epic scale.

In OSCAR WILDE AND THE NEST OF VIPERS, the fourth in Gyles Brandreth's acclaimed Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries series featuring Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle, the Prince of Wales asks Oscar to investigate a scandalous crime at the very heart of Victorian high society. 'Intelligent, amusing and entertaining' Alexander McCall Smith The story opens in the spring of 1890 at a glamorous reception hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Albemarle. All London's haut monde is there, including the Prince of Wales, who counts the Albemarles as close friends. Although it is the first time Oscar and Bertie have met, Oscar seems far more interested in Rex LaSalle, a young actor, who disarmingly claims to be a vampire.However, what begins as a diverting evening ends in tragedy. As the guests are leaving, the Duchess is found murdered, two tiny puncture marks in her throat. No one has entered the house; no one has left. Desperate to avoid another scandal, the Prince of Wales asks Oscar to investigate the crime. What he discovers threatens to destroy the very heart of the Royal Family.

This is a diary packed with famous names and extraordinary stories. It is also rich in incidental detail and wonderful observation, providing both a compelling record of five remarkable decades and a revealing, often hilarious and sometimes moving account of Gyles Brandreth's unusual life -- as a child living in London in the 'swinging' sixties, as a jumper-wearing TV presenter, as an MP and government whip, and as a royal biographer who has enjoyed unique access to the Queen and her family. Something Sensational to Read on the Train takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride from the era of Dixon of Dock Green to the age of The X Factor, from the end of the farthing to the arrival of the euro, from the Britain of Harold Macmillan and the Notting Hill race riots to the world of Barack Obama and Lewis Hamilton. With a cast list that runs from Richard Nixon and Richard Branson to Gordon Brown and David Cameron -- and includes princes, presidents and pop stars, as well as three archbishops and any number of actresses -- this is a book for anyone interested in contemporary history, politics and entertainment, royalty, gossip and life itself.

'Atmospheric and surprising' The Sunday Times 'Cotton's investigating is clever and fascinating' GuardianBook 1 in the Peter Cotton spy thriller series, for fans of John le Carr and Robert Harris. Spain, September 1944. The war in Europe is drawing to a close; formerly neutral Franco is edging closer to the Allies. Peter Cotton, a young Intelligence officer, is sent to investigate the activities.On his arrival, Cotton learns that a fellow British agent, May, has been found dead. May had spent much of the war in the remote outpost of Cadiz, monitoring the Spanish smuggling of raw materials to aid the Axis war efforts. But in the months leading up to his death he had severed all contacts with his London controllers.Cotton travels to Cadiz where he must work with sinister local police inspector Ramirez to investigate May's death. But they are not the only ones with an interest in May. Cadiz is a hotbed of rumours and shifting political alliances. And what Cotton discovers amid the stifling heat and dust could just tilt the emerging balance of post-war power.The Peter Cotton spy thriller series:Book 1: The Maze of CadizBook 2: Washington ShadowBook 3: IcelightBook 2: Black BearShort story: Redeemable

*****Part of the bestselling John Shakespeare series of Tudor spy thrillers from Rory Clements, winner of the Ellis Peters Historical Fiction Award*****'[Clements] does for Elizabeth's reign what CJ Sansom does for Henry VIII's' Sunday Times**********England may have survived the Armada threat of 1588, but when Spanish galleys land troops in Cornwall on a lightning raid seven years later, is it a dry-run for a new invasion? Revenge for the sacking of Spanish shipping and ports? A warning shot to Drake and Hawkins? Or is there, perhaps, a more sinister motive?The Queen is speechless with rage at Spain's temerity. Sir Robert Cecil demands answers. But as John Shakespeare tries to get a grip on events, England's secret defences begin to unravel as one by one his network of spies is horribly murdered. But what has all this to do with Thomasyn Jade, a girl driven to the edge of madness by the foul rituals of exorcism? And what is the link to a group of priests held prisoner in the bleak confines of Wisbech Castle?From the pain-wracked torture rooms of the Inquisition in Seville to the marshy wastes of fenland, from the wild coasts of Cornwall to the sweat and sawdust of the Elizabethan playhouses, and from the condemned cell at Newgate to the devilish stench of brimstone and fear as demons are driven out by unspeakable means, THE HERETICS builds to a terrifying climax that threatens the life of the Queen herself.

*****Part of the bestselling John Shakespeare series of Tudor spy thrillers from Rory Clements, winner of the Ellis Peters Historical Fiction Award*****'[Clements] does for Elizabeth's reign what CJ Sansom does for Henry VIII's' Sunday Times**********Spring 1593. England is a powder keg of rumour and fear. Plague rages, famine is rife, the ageing Queen's couriers scheme: Elizabeth's Golden Age is truly tarnished. Meanwhile Spain watches and waits - and plots.Into this turmoil a small cart clatters through the streets of London, carrying a deadly load. It is the first in a wave of horrific bombing attacks on the Dutch immigrant community that will change John Shakespeare's life for ever.Driven on by cold rage, Shakespeare's investigations will take him from magnificent royal horseraces to the opulent chambers of Black Luce's brothel, from the theatrical underworld of Marlowe and Kyd to the pain-wracked torture cells of priest-hunter Richard Topcliffe, and from the elegant offices of master tactician Robert Cecil to the splintering timbers of an explosive encounter at sea.As Shakespeare delves ever deeper, he uncovers intricate layers of mystery and deception that threaten the heart not only of the realm, but of all that he holds dear.