Books published by Saraband

In The Blackbird Diaries, Karen Lloyd shares her deep-rooted affection for all our treasured garden wildlife. Over the four seasons, she intimately chronicles the drama and the joy, the perils and the pleasures of the natural world as it all unfolds in her garden and on her daily walks in Cumbria's South Lakeland.

'The creme de la creme of crime debuts.' Al Guthrie. Shona is a proud former pupil of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls. Impeccably educated and an accomplished martial artist, linguist and musician, Shona is less successful when it comes to solving a murder mystery.

Maggie and Wilma are back, and this time Maggie means business. Intent on clearing her late husband's name, she's burning the candle at both ends, trying to keep her teenaged kids out of trouble and working the private investigating business to keep the wolf from the door.

Wise-cracking investigator Dominic Queste is on the trail of a serial killer. But this is no mask-wearing, chainsaw-wielding maniac targeting young teens. The killer begins to taunt Queste, to shadow him, to terrorise him. It's all part of a game of death and Queste doesn't know the rules. And he's not the only one in the line of fire.

In 2020, Britain is at breaking point, society on the edge. The country is a bomb waiting to explode... and then it does. This provocative literary thriller cleverly lays bare the true state of our nation with an all-too-plausible `what if?' scenario. Told from the wildly differing perspectives of a myriad of voices, it is a parable for our times.

Max Rushmore is re-hired by the CIA to return to Moscow and investigate the death of a beautiful nuclear waste disposal expert. So begins a game of cat-and-mouse that takes Max across Russia, as he follows his only clue: a rare Siberian diamond. All the breathless tension of classic espionage novels: a pageturner of the old school.

Family revelations prompt Brian Johnstone to turn a poet's eye on his 1950s childhood and explore his parents' lives before and during World War II. In a memoir sure to resonate with baby-boomers and anyone who has lost and found unknown relatives, Brian vividly evokes a post-war upbringing, under whose conventional surface so much was hidden.

A surprising, gritty, sometimes darkly humorous tale that combines police corruption, gangs and murder with a paean to friendship, loyalty and how 'women of a certain age' can beat the odds.

Narrating the twisted tale of a backstage double murder, Gypsy Rose Lee, the queen of the striptease, provides a tantalising glimpse into the underworld of burlesque theatre in 1940s America.

There does not appear to be anything remarkable about the fatal car crash on the A35. But one question dogs Inspector Georges Gorski: where has the victim, an outwardly austere lawyer, been on the night of his death? The troubled Gorski finds himself drawn into a mystery that takes him behind the respectable veneer of a sleepy French backwater.

The remarkable inside story of Archangels, the oldest and one of the biggest business angel syndicates in the world.

Chrissie Docherty returns to the southern Africa of her childhood and tracks down Evelyn Fielding, the woman at the centre of an explosive scandal involving a traditional colonial officer and a gifted black African artist. Together, the two women uncover the secrets that shattered a remote expatriate outpost in the Zambian bush in the 1970s.

In 1950s London, a literary agent finds fame when he secretly steals a young woman's brilliant novel manuscript and publishes it under his own name, Lewis Carson. Two days after their meeting, the woman is found strangled: did Lewis purloin the manuscript as an act of callous opportunism, or as the spoils of a calculated murder?

Revealing the most fascinating stories of Earth's half a million islands, this book considers the unique geography, politics and economics of islands and their cultures. It traces their singular place in literature, religion and philosophy, and disentangles the myths and the facts to reveal why islands exert an insistent grip on the imagination.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2016.WINNER, Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year 2016.The year is 1869. A brutal triple murder in a remote community in the Scottish Highlands leads to the arrest of a young man by the name of Roderick Macrae. A memoir written by the accused makes it clear that he is guilty, but it falls to the country's finest legal and psychiatric minds to uncover what drove him to commit such merciless acts of violence. Was he mad? Only the persuasive powers of his advocate stand between Macrae and the gallows.Graeme Macrae Burnet tells an irresistible and original story about the provisional nature of truth, even when the facts seem clear. His Bloody Project is a mesmerising literary thriller set in an unforgiving landscape where the exercise of power is arbitrary.

"e;A dark, fascinating exploration of man's nature."e; - The Lancet. A riveting thriller about greed, power, hormones, illicit sex, and women - and the monstrous megalomaniac who believes he can have it all. Vainglorious Mordechai de Paauw is ruthless: in the years before World War II, the Dutch pharmaceutical entrepreneur is on the cutting edge of science and determined to develop the contraceptive pill - no matter what the cost. Testing hormonal treatments on his female workers, and sexually exploiting them, Mordechai's secret immoral life and his successful company are threatened by the rise of Hitler and, years later, a shocking scandal involving his brash son. Will Mordechai ever find redemption, and will the women he manipulates regain control over their own bodies?

Introducing Dominic Queste. Glasgow's mean streets may be deadly, but Queste is a mean, wisecracking private investigator who won't be led a dance. Queste's is a vicious world of brutal gangsters, merciless hitmen, dark family secrets and an insatiable lust for power in the highest echelons of politics.

"e;Unsentimental and unsparing, Last Tour does for PTSD what Slaughterhouse 5 did for survivor guilt."e; - Robert Morace. Since returning from active service in Afghanistan, reservist Archie Forbes has been watching his life collapse. Suffering from severe PTSD, he sees his family being torn apart, his high-flying career hitting the rocks. Now he's on the streets, struggling to cope in Austerity Britain. He's dislocated, unravelling, and in desperate need of the basic necessities: food, shelter, human kindness. Nevertheless, he works hard to try to rebuild his life, until his therapist goes missing and it seems he's the prime suspect. The Last Tour of Archie Forbes offers an utterly convincing - often frightening, sometimes bleakly funny - take on contemporary life. A dazzling portrayal of a deeply troubled family, this novel takes us to the very margins of society, a place where compassion can be in short supply.

A novel sure to appeal to fans of Outlander. A modern love story in the Scottish islands runs parallel with the darker 18th-century tale of Henrietta Dalrymple, kidnapped by the formidable Manus McNeill and held against her will.

"e;An utter delight"e; Jennifer Tetlow. Renowned nature writer Jim Crumley gets up close and personal with some of Britain's most iconic and loved animals - here, the fox. ?The Encounters in the Wild series not only offers insights into their extraordinary lives, but also considers the conservation efforts to protect them and how the future looks for these much loved animals.

Longisted for the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered prize 2015 "e;Powerful stories."e; - 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.

"e;The best nature writer working in Britain today."e; - The Los Angeles Times. Eagles, more than any other bird, spark our imaginations. These magnificent creatures encapsulate the majesty and wildness of Scottish nature. But change is afoot for the eagles of Scotland: the golden eagles are now sharing the skies with sea eagles after a successful reintroduction programme. In 'The Eagle's Way', Jim Crumley exploits his years of observing these spectacular birds to paint an intimate portrait of their lives and how they interact with each other and the Scottish landscape. Combining passion, beautifully descriptive prose and the writer's 25 years of experience, 'The Eagle's Way' explores the ultimate question - what now for the eagles? - making it essential reading for wildlife lovers and eco-enthusiasts.

Moving, poetic and quietly provocative' - The Independent. City life in the early nineteenth century was never short of drama: poverty and pollution preyed on all but the lucky few, and 'resurrection men' prowled the streets to procure corpses for anatomists to experiment on. Life is improving, however, for young William Lang, who begins courting Jenny, a fine needlewoman, and forms an unlikely friendship with botanist Dr Thomas Brown while working in the physic garden for a leading professor of surgery. At first, William relishes the opportunity to extend his knowledge of plants and their healing properties while foraging in the countryside in the service of his new friend. The young couple's relationship blossoms, until seeds of trouble threaten to grow out of control.