Big Ben chimes in the first seconds of the first day of 1900, the start of a fresh century. Inside London`s oldest gaol, preparations are afoot to hang Victorian England`s deadliest assassin, a man wanted for two decades` worth of murders. Cold-blooded killer Simeon Lynch has lived a brutal & glorious life in the employ of the House of Moriarty
- the most feared criminal enterprise in the world. Now, as he faces the noose, Simeon learns dark truths about his master, about Sherlock Holmes & about his own past. Truths that make him determined to escape & kill again... Follow Simeon`s bloody footsteps through the capital`s cobbled alleyways, wretched workhouses & flash taverns as he crosses swords with Sherlock Holmes & the villainous characters of Victorian London.
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Russia, 1915: Sixteen year old farmer`s son Georgy Jachmenev steps in front of an assassin`s bullet intended for a senior member of the Russian Imperial Family & is instantly proclaimed a hero. Rewarded with the position of bodyguard to Alexei Romanov, the only son of Tsar Nicholas II, the course of his life is changed for ever. Privy to the secrets of Nicholas & Alexandra, the machinations of Rasputin & the events which will lead to the final collapse of the autocracy, Georgy is both a witness & participant in a drama that will echo down the century. Sixty-five years later, visiting his wife Zoya as she lies in a London hospital, memories of the life they have lived together flood his mind. & with them, the consequences of the brutal fate of the Romanovs which has hung like a shroud over every aspect of their marriage... ...

It was known as `the vast prison without a roof`. From the beginning of the nineteenth century to the Russian Revolution, the tsarist regime exiled more than one million prisoners & their families beyond the Ural Mountains to Siberia. Daniel Beer`s new book, The House of the Dead, brings to life both the brutal realities of an inhuman system & the tragic & inspiring fates of those who endured it. This is the vividly told history of common criminals & political radicals, the victims of serfdom & village politics, the wives & children who followed husbands & fathers, & of fugitives & bounty-hunters. Siberia served two masters: colonisation & punishment. In theory, exiles would discover the virtues of self-reliance, abstinence & hard work &, in so doing, they would develop Siberia`s natural riches & bind it more firmly to Russia. In reality, the autocracy banished an army not of hardy colonists but of half-starving, desperate vagabonds. The tsars also looked on Siberia as creating the ultimate political quarantine from the contagions of revolution. Generations of rebels
- republicans, nationalists & socialists
- were condemned to oblivion thousands of kilometres from European Russia. Over the nineteenth century, however, these political exiles transformed Siberia`s mines, prisons & remote settlements into an enormous laboratory of revolution. This masterly work of original research taps a mass of almost unknown primary evidence held in Russian & Siberian archives to tell the epic story both of Russia`s struggle to govern its monstrous penal colony & Siberia`s ultimate, decisive impact on the political forces of the modern world.

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From the No. 1 bestseller & author of Richard & Judy pick The Savage Garden: a riveting tale of passion & murder set on the French Riviera in the 1930s for fans of Carlos Ruiz Zafon & Jed Rubenfeld France, 1935: At the poor man`s end of the Riviera sits Le Rayol, a haven for artists, expatriates & refugees. Here, a world away from the rumblings of a continent heading towards war, Tom Nash has rebuilt his life after a turbulent career in the Secret Intelligence Service. His past, though, is less willing to leave him behind. When a midnight intruder tries to kill him, Tom knows it is just a matter of time before another assassination attempt is made. Gathered at Le Rayol for the summer months are all those he holds most dear, including his beloved goddaughter Lucy. Reluctantly, Tom comes to believe that one of them must have betrayed him. If he is to live, Tom must draw his enemy out, but at what cost to himself & the people he loves!? ...

As a girl, Clara del Valle can read fortunes, make objects move as if they had lives of their own, & predict the future. Following the mysterious death of her sister, Rosa the Beautiful, Clara is mute for nine years. When she breaks her silence, it is to announce that she will be married soon to the stern & volatile landowner Esteban Trueba. Set in an unnamed Latin American country over three generations, The House of the Spirits is a magnificent epic of a proud & passionate family, secret loves & violent revolution. ...

A rich & unforgettable tragic-comic novel of sexual intrigue & political scheming, The House of Ulloa is one of the greatest works of nineteenth-century Spanish literature. The House of Ulloa follows pure & pious Father Julian Alvarez, who is sent to a remote country estate to put the affairs of the marquis, an irresponsible libertine, in order. When he discovers moral decadence, cruelty & corruption at his new home, Julian`s well-meaning but ineffectual attempts to prevent the fall of the House of Ulloa end in tragedy. Combining gothic elements with humour & social satire, The House of Ulloa is the finest achievement of Emilia Pardo Bazan, a prolific writer, feminist, traveller & intellectual, & one of the most dynamic figures of her time. Brilliantly balancing biting satire, gothic undertones & the rich sense of place of a Hardy or Zola, this is a wonderful novel that fully deserves to be ranked with the other great books of the period. The Countess Emilia Pardo Bazan was born in 1851 & married at sixteen. After separating from her husb&, she embarked on an affair with novelist Benito Perez Galdos. The House of Ulloa (1886) is generally considered as her masterpiece among her many literary works. Professor Paul O` Prey is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Roehampton, London. Lucia Graves has translated works by Robert Graves, Anais Nin, Katherine Mansfield & Carlos Ruiz Zafon, & is the author of a memoir, A Woman Unknown, & a novel, The Memory House. ” Pardo Bazan`s mastery of social types & of the political currents that swirled around the liberal revolution are unsurpassed in Spanish literature...O` Prey & Graves.. .avoid awkward literalisms while nonetheless remaining true to the spirit of the original”. (New Criterion). ...

` Then he saw the barrel of a gun aimed dead on target
- not at him, as he might have expected, but at the clergyman`s back.`
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For centuries following the fall of Rome, Western Europe was backward & benighted, locked into the Dark Ages & barely able to tell the time of day. Arab culture, however, was thriving, & had become a powerhouse of intellectual exploration & discussion that dazzled the likes of British adventurer Adelard of Bath. The Arabs could measure the earth`s circumference (a feat not matched in the West for eight hundred years); they discovered algebra; were adept at astronomy & navigation, developed the astrolabe, translated all the Greek scientific & philosophical texts including, importantly, those of Aristotle. Without them, & the knowledge that travelers like Adelard brought back to the West, Europe would have been a very different place over the last millennium. Jonathan Lyons restores credit to the Arab thinkers of the past in this riveting history of science
- from its earliest & most thrilling days.
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I hadn`t been planning on making Mexico my new home, but the little house on the sea was all that I had left.. . Intimate, honest & touching, this is the story of Deborah Rodriguez`s often hilarious journey of self-discovery. Forced to flee her life in Afghanistan, she leaves behind her friends, her possessions & her two beloved businesses: a hair salon & a coffee shop. But life proves no easier `back home`. After a year living in California where she teeters on the edge of sanity, Deborah makes a decision: she`s going to get the old Deb back. So, at the age of forty-nine, she packs her life & her cat, Polly, into her Mini Cooper & heads south to a pretty seaside town in Mexico. Home is now an unassuming little house on Carnaval Street. If you liked Eat, Pray, Love you will love The House on Carnaval Street. Rodriguez`s story speaks to every woman, mother, sister, wife
- to anyone who has ever questioned their relationships, their place in the world & the choices that they`ve made.
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