Toru Okada's cat has disappeared His wife is growing more distant every day Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has recently been receiving As this compelling story unfolds the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague & blameless life spent cooking reading listening to jazz & opera & drinking beer at the kitchen table are turned inside out & he embarks on a bizarre journey guided (however obscurely) by a succession of characters each with a tale to tell ...

Following a personal tragedy florist Persimmon ' Simmy' Brown has moved to the beautiful region of the Lake District content to lose herself in her work But the peace she has found is shattered when at the wedding of a millionaire's daughter the bride's brother is found dead in the lake As the wedding florist & one of the last people to talk to Mark Baxter alive Simmy gradually becomes involved with the grief-ridden & angry relatives & when events take another sinister turn Simmy becomes a prime witness finding herself at the heart of a murder investigation The chief suspects are all intimidating volatile & secretive
- but which one is a killer?
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A moving Yorkshire saga The Windfell Family Secrets is the much anticipated follow up to Diane Allen's The Mistress of Windfell Manor Twenty-one years have passed since Charlotte Booth fought to keep Ferndale Mill & her home at Windfell Manor following her traumatic first marriage Now highly regarded in local society & happily married to her childhood sweetheart Archie Atkinson she seeks only the best for their children Isabelle & Danny But history has a habit of repeating itself when Danny's head is turned by a local girl of ill repute despite his promise of marriage to the far more respectable Harriet Armstrong Meanwhile the beautiful & secretive Isabelle shares all the traits of her biological father the notorious Joseph Dawson & when she announces that she is to marry John Sidgwick the owner of High Mill in Skipton her mother quickly warns her against him An ex-drinking mate of her late father who faces bankruptcy Charlotte fears his interest in Isabelle is founded more upon self-preservation than any notions of love What she doesn't realize is how far he's willing to go to protect his future ...

It was only through Amelia Gentleman's tenacious investigative & campaigning journalism that it emerged that thousands were in Paulette's position In The Windrush Betrayal Gentleman tells the story of the scandal & exposes deeply disturbing truths about modern Britain ...

Herman Wouk's sweeping epic of World War II which begins with THE WINDS OF WAR & continues in WAR & REMEMBRANCE stands as the crowning achievement of one of America's most celebrated storytellers Like no other books about the war Wouk's spellbinding narrative captures the tide of global events
- the drama the romance the heroism & the tragedy of World War II
- as it immerses us in the lives of a single American family drawn into the very centre of the maelstrom

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A lively course from an expert teacher The Wine Bible grounds the reader deeply in the fundamentals while layering on informative asides tips amusing anecdotes definitions glossaries photos (all new for this edition) maps labels & recommended bottles Karen Mac Neil's information comes directly through primary research; for this second edition she has tasted more than 10000 wines & visited dozens of wine regions around the world New to the book are wines of China Japan Mexico & Slovenia & through it all the reader becomes ever more informed How to taste with focus & build a wine-tasting memory Understand the subtle interplay of variety vineyard & vintner What makes a great wine great? How oak affects flavour The reason behind Champagne's bubbles & because of the author's unique voice always entertained In great years Petrus is ravishing elegant & rich
- lngrid Bergman in red satin Or describing a Riesling A laser beam A sheet of ice A great crackling bolt of lightning
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Patrick O' Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written To commemorate the 40th anniversary of their beginning with Master & Commander these evocative stories are being re-issued in paperback with smart new livery This is the sixteenth book in the series At the opening of a voyage filled with disaster & delight Jack Aubrey & Stephen Maturin are in pursuit of a privateer sailing under American colours through the Great South Sea Stephen's objective is to set the revolutionary tinder of South America ablaze to relieve the pressure on the British government which has blundered into war with the young & uncomfortably vigorous United States The shock & barbarity of h&-to-hand fighting are sharpened by O' Brian's exact sense of period his eye for landscape & his feel for a ship under sail ...

Journey to the clouds & back with The Winged Horse Race the first in a fun & fast-paced magical adventure series that will have you flying 256 pages George Kallie ...

A social-climbing young woman gains a foothold in the late Victorian upper crust by virtue of her wealthy & cultured aunt's social connections but finds marriage to her true love a poor hack journalist incompatible with her new station She cooks up a plan to use her lover to bilk a guileless & fabulously wealthy American woman of her considerable fortune but putting the scheme into action sparks painful conflicting emotions A sleek adaptation of the eponymous Henry James novel with the source material's bitterness tempered by a more sympathetic characterization of its heroine Academy Award nominations 4 including Best Actress--Helena Bonham Carter; Best Adapted Screenplay Best Costume Design & Best Cinematography ...

The Winner Stands Alone is the enthralling new novel by the incomparable Paulo Coelho The story is set during the Cannes International Film Festival & the entire action plays out over 24 hours Igor is a wealthy Russian businessman His wife Ewa left him two years ago & Igor has never really come to terms with their break up especially as Ewa is now remarried to a famous fashion designer Hamid Hussein Igor is insanely jealous & when Ewa left him he told her that he would destroy 'whole worlds' in order to get her back & he intends to keep his promise Igor has followed Ewa & her new husband to Cannes & his plan is to cause as much violence & destruction as possible until Ewa realises how much he loves her & comes back to him Ewa loved Igor but she was absolutely terrified of him She knows that Igor has killed people in the past when he was a soldier but she also knows a dark secret
- that he once cold bloodedly murdered a beggar who was bothering them in a restaurant Igor is clearly unhinged & he will stop at nothing to regain her love & so he goes on a ruthless killing spree until he tracks down Ewa The star-studded film festival acts as a backdrop to Igor's maniacal murdering spree & we are ntroduced to various characters along the way all of whom are desperately trying to get their big break in the shallow world of show business; Gabriela a young & naive actress who is being exploited by her agent & Jasmine a troubled young Rwandan refugee working as a model The Winner Stands Alone is a gripping fast-paced thriller & Coelho cleverly weaves in elements of social satire poking fun at our celebrity & money obsessed culture
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