In this masterly collection of stories, Isaac Bashevis Singer once again weaves bewitching fables from seemingly ordinary lives, showing us with subtlety & compassion humanity at its most mundane & mysterious. From modern apartments in Miami to nineteenth-century Polish villages, from bravery in wartime Warsaw to a different kind of courage in Lisbon, these tales span the world & the range of human life. ...

Why should distinguished Edwardian Cabinet minister Edwin Strafford resign at the height of his parliamentary career? Why does the woman he loves so suddenly & coldly reject him? Why, seventy years later, should people go to such lengths
- even as far as murder
- to prevent the truth from being revealed? Martin Radford, history graduate, disaffected & unemployed, leaps at the chance to get to the island of Madeira & begin the hunt for a solution to the intriguing secret of Edwin Strafford's fall from grace. However, his seeming good fortune turns to nightmare as his investigation triggers a bizarre & violent train of events which remorselessly entangles him & those who believed they had escaped the spectre of crimes long past but never paid for

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1910: Distinguished MP Edwin Strafford resigns at the pinnacle of his career, removing himself from the public eye. The woman he loves, & for whom he was willing to sacrifice everything, suddenly & coldly rejects him. All the reasons for his fall from grace are shrouded in darkness.

Seventy years later, historian Martin Radford is down on his luck when a mysterious benefactor offers him the opportunity of a lifetime: to uncover what exactly happened to Edwin Strafford. But this apparent good fortune swiftly turns into a nightmare. Radford

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With old friends like these, who needs enemies? It's a question detective Edward Newson is forced to ask himself having in romantic desperation logged on to the Friends Reunited website searching for girlfriends from his past. Meanwhile, back in the present, Newson is secretly in love with Natasha, his lovely but very attached sergeant, & completely failing to solve a series of baffling & gruesome murders. When a school reunion is planned, history begins to repeat itself & the past crashes headlong into the present. In Past Mortem, Ben Elton delivers both a heart-stopping thriller & a killer comic romance. ...

This friendly, accessible & stylish cookbook from a master chef will prove indispensable for all who love unfussy yet utterly delicious food. Simplicity is the keynote in this handsome recipe book, imbued with the flavours of the Italian countryside. For too long the ingredient in the store cupboard brought out for last minute dinner emergencies, pasta ...