A well-read old dear has an unhealthy interest in murder, in this sharp, witty, and refreshingly original cozy crime novel.Retired librarian and bookshop owner May Morrigan lives in the affluent village of Blackheath with Fletcher, her best friend since they met decades ago, and May's two dogs. What could be more normal? But May is not your average little old lady . . .After an unpleasant church volunteer and an annoying local butcher meet their untimely ends...

SWORD AND SCIMITAR is the gripping tale of the Great Siege of Malta from Simon Scarrow, bestselling author of the Eagles of the Empire series. A must read for fans of Conn Iggulden and Robert Harris.1565, Malta: a vital outpost between the divided nations of Europe and the relentlessly expanding Ottoman Empire. Faced with ferocious attack by a vast Turkish fleet, the knights of the Order of St John fear annihilation. Amongst those called to assist is disgr...

Written in alternating prose and poetry, La Vita Nuova (The New Life) is a profound reflection on the nature of love, devoted to Dante’s muse Beatrice. Following Beatrice’s death in 1290, Dante became obsessed with the young Florentine woman, whom he only ever knew from a distance. He believed his love for her was a form of divine love, and saw her as an image of salvation itself a theme that is later explored in his masterpiece The Divine Comedy, where she guides him through heaven. La Vi...

Broadland is the first in a chilling series of serial killer books, which will rapidly convert followers of Faith Martin, Joy Ellis and Damien Boyd into David Blake devotees.When a girl’s body is found strangled, raped, and horrifically mutilated by a boat’s propeller, deep in the heart of the Norfolk Broads, newly arrived Detective Inspector John Tanner is asked to assist with the investigation. At first, all the evidence points to a man who had a multi-million-pound reason to kill...

Oliver Twist is a poor orphan in a cruel society. Maltreated from birth, he escapes only to become an accidental member of a gang of pickpockets and robbers. Briefly rescued, he is then kidnapped as part of a plot to defraud him of his inheritance, and his prospects seem as bleak as his surroundings. But one member of the gang won’t let hope die whatever the cost. Charles Dickens transformed this dark fable on the Poor Laws into one of the bestloved books in English, filling it with brilli...

BOOK TWENTY ONE IN THE DALZIEL AND PASCOE SERIESHe may have been in a coma but it would take an act of God to put Superintendent 'Fat' Andy Dalziel down for good. In the meantime, He'll settle for a few weeks' bed-rest.Sandytown, a pleasant seaside resort devoted to healing, seems just the ticket. And when a fellow newcomer appears in the shapely form of psychologist Charlotte Heywood, Dalziel develops an unexpected passion for alternative therapy.But Sandytown's wa...

'Fantastic, timely, eye-opening' Armando Iannucci, New Statesman, Books of the Year'Captures a collective sense of anger and awakening' Matt Haig, Observer, Books of the YearBehind our democracy lurks a powerful but unaccountable network of people who wield massive power and reap huge profits in the process. In exposing this shadowy and complex system that dominates our lives, Owen Jones sets out on a journey into the heart of our Establishment, from the lobbies of Westmins...

London, 1882. Alec Lonsdale, a young reporter on the Pall Mall Gazette, is working on a story about a fatal house fire. But the postmortem on the victim produces shocking results: Patrick Donovan's death was no accident. But why would someone murder a humble shop assistant and steal part of his brain? When a second body is discovered, its throat cut, and then a third, Lonsdale and his spirited female colleague, Hulda Friederichs, begin to uncover evidence of a conspiracy that reaches to th...

A trail of secrets. A dangerous discovery. A deadly turn.Police officer Sebastian Clifford never planned on becoming a private investigator. But when a scandal leads to the disbandment of his London based special squad, he finds himself out of a job. That is, until his cousin calls on him to investigate her husband's high-profile death, and prove that it wasn't a suicide.Clifford's reluctant to get involved, but the more he digs, the more evidence he finds....

St. Benet's is a gripping crime thriller, the second in a chilling series of serial killer books, ones which will rapidly convert followers of Faith Martin, Joy Ellis and Damien Boyd into David Blake devotees.When the body of an old man is found lying in the ruins of St Benet’s Abbey, his throat cut, a knife resting in his open hand, DI John Tanner and DC Jenny Evans are given no choice but to accept a ruling of death by misadventure. But when the body goes missing from its tomb, a...

Menacing texts lead to murder in an English village, in this unmissable, witty mystery by the Dagger Award–nominated author of A Most Unusual Demise.May Morrigan is in her bookshop one morning when she—and everyone else in the shop—receives an anonymous text. It contains a reference to a Shakespeare quotation—and seems to be aimed at the vicar and his partner, Juan. The next morning, one of them is dead.Meanwhile, May's elderly mother, Minty, is stay...

The first installment of Bernard Cornwell’s New York Times bestselling series chronicling the epic saga of the making of England, “like Game of Thrones, but real” (The Observer, London)—the basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit Netflix series.In the middle years of the ninth century, the fierce Danes stormed onto British soil, hungry for spoils and conquest. Kingdom after kingdom fell to the ruthless invaders until but one realm remained. A...