The murder of a young Tibetan nun by the hands of Chinese border guards at the rooftop of the world offers a unique parable for the tale of modern Tibet. In August 2006, two young Tibetan women left their hillside village in Biru county to make their way to Dharamsala India. Frustrated by their inability to practice the tenets of Buddhism or Tibetan culture under oppressive Chinese rule, best friends Dolma & Kelsang were determined to secure their right to freedom-and sought comfort in the fact that they might seek counsel with their exiled spiritual leader, his Holiness the Dalai Lhama. Through a secretive underground network of Tibetan guides, the two friends, along with four dozen other refugees, embarked on a perilous journey that would lead them to Nepal along a dangerous former trade route: the Nangpa La Path, through Cho Oyu Mountain. On September 30, 2006, after weeks of harrowing travel, as they were nearing the border of Nepal, the band of refugees was fired at by the Chinese Army Guards. Kelsang, sick, frost-bitten, & delirious in the high altitude was struck by a bullet from behind. Her death was not unusual in its circumstance: Chinese police are instructed to take any measures necessary to protect the border of Tibet. What was unusual on this freezing September morning was that a gaggle of Western climbers, stationed on Cho Oyu's advance base camp, had silently witnessed the event. One of them was Louis Benitez-a fearless Colorado mountain guide who led Himalayan trips for wealthy western thrill seekers. Another was Sergui Matei, a Romanian hiker, who captured Kelsang's murder on video. Both men had a choice-to preserve their climbing careers & turn a blind eye-or to alert the world to the grand scale of human injustice played out daily in Tibet. In Murder in the High Himalayas, intrepid journalist Jonathan Green investigates the clash of cultures at the rooftop of the world. As he gains entrance to a fascinating network of Tibetan guides & safe-houses operating in the name of freedom, investigates the tradition of extreme mountaineering in Chinese-occupied Tibet, & establishes contact with surviving refugees (including Dolma), he affects a rare, & lasting parable for the plight of modern Tibet. ...

On a bright July morning in 1870 the British explorer George Hayward was brutally murdered high in the Hindu Kush. Who was he, what had brought him to this wild spot, & why was he killed? Told in full for the first time, this is the gripping tale of Hayward`s journey from a Yorkshire childhood to a place at the forefront of the ` Great Game` between the British Raj & the Russian Empire, & of how, driven by `an insane desire, ` he crossed the Western Himalayas, tangled with despotic chieftains & ended up on the wrong side of both the Raj & the mighty Maharaja of Kashmir. It is also the tale of the conspiracies & controversies that surrounded his death, while the author`s own travels in Hayward`s footsteps bring the story up to date, & reveal how the echoes of the Great Game still reverberate across Central Asia in the twenty-first century. ...

In this memoir-turned-cookbook, Alice B. Toklas describes her life with partner Gertrude Stein & their famed Paris salon, which entertained the great avant-garde & literary figures of their day. With dry wit & characteristic understatement Toklas ponders the ethics of killing a carp in her kitchen before stuffing it with chestnuts; decorating a fish to amuse Picasso at lunch; &, travelling across France during the First World War in an old delivery truck, gathering local recipes along the way. She

Includes:: a friend's playful recipe for ' Haschiche Fudge', which promises 'brilliant storms of laughter & ecstatic reveries', much like her book.

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Murder, stolen plans, a mysterious death & a menage a trois
- four intriguing novellas featuring Hercule Poirot... How did a
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When Professor Julius Arnell breathes his last in the hushed atmosphere of the British Museum Reading Room, it looks like death from natural causes. Who, after all, would have cause to murder a retired academic whose life was devoted to Elizabethan literature? Inspector Shelley`s suspicions are aroused when he finds a packet of poisoned sugared almonds in the dead man`s pocket; & a motive becomes clearer when he discovers Arnell`s connection to a Texan oil millionaire. Soon another man plunges hundreds of feet into a reservoir on a Yorkshire moor. What can be the connection between two deaths so different, & so widely separated? The mild-mannered museum visitor Henry Fairhurst adds his detective talents to Inspector Shelley`s own, & together they set about solving one of the most baffling cases Shelley has ever encountered. ...

When Daisy Wells & Hazel Wong set up their very own secret detective agency at Deepdean School for Girls, they struggle to find any truly exciting mysteries to investigate. (Unless you count the case of Lavinia`s missing tie. Which they don`t.) Then Hazel discovers the Science Mistress, Miss Bell, lying dead in the Gym. She assumes it was a terrible accident
- but when she & Daisy return five minutes later, the body has disappeared. Now Hazel & Daisy not only have a murder to solve: they have to prove one happened in the first place. Determined to get to the bottom of the crime before the killer strikes again (and before the police can get there first, naturally), Hazel & Daisy must hunt for evidence, spy on their suspects & use all the cunning & intuition they can muster. But will they succeed? & can their friendship stand the test? ” Ripping good fun”. (The Times). ”A skilful blend of golden era crime novel & boarding school romp... The novel works both as an affectionate satire & an effective murder mystery, & Stevens can go places Enid Blyton never dreamt of... Top class”. (Financial Times).” Plotting is what sets this book apart; this is about who was where at the time of the murder, & it`s about finding the chink in the alibi”. (Telegraph).
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Duchlan Castle is a gloomy, forbidding place in the Scottish Highlands. Late one night the body of Mary Gregor, sister of the laird of Duchlan, is found in the castle. She has been stabbed to death in her bedroom
- but the room is locked from within & the windows are barred. The only tiny clue to the culprit is a silver fish`s scale, left on the floor next to Mary`s body. Inspector Dundas is dispatched to Duchlan to investigate the case. The Gregor family & their servants are quick
- perhaps too quick
- to explain that Mary was a kind & charitable woman. Dundas uncovers a more complex truth, & the cruel character of the dead woman continues to pervade the house after her death. Soon further deaths, equally impossible, occur, & the atmosphere grows ever darker. Superstitious locals believe that fish creatures from the nearby waters are responsible; but luckily for Inspector Dundas, the gifted amateur sleuth Eustace Hailey is on the scene, & unravels a more logical solution to this most fiendish of plots. Anthony Wynne wrote some of the best locked-room mysteries from the golden age of British crime fiction. This cunningly plotted novel
- one of Wynne`s finest
- has never been reprinted since 1931, & is long overdue for rediscovery.




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Christmas Eve. While the world sleeps, snow falls gently from the sky, presents await under the tree.. . & murder is afoot. In this collection of ten classic murder mysteries from the best crime writers in history, death & mayhem take many festive forms, from the inventive to the unexpected. From a Santa Claus with a grudge to a cat who knows who killed its owner on Christmas Eve, these are stories to enjoy
- & be mystified by
- in front of a roaring fire, mince pie to h&.

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A scream rings out through the theatre. The man on stage is dead! Who killed him? Alfie has a few suspects in his sights. But when the spotlight turns on Alfie himself, the search for the murderer becomes a fight for his own survival. He & his gang must pick their way through a deadly web of revenge to unmask the true villain. ...

Another runaway adventure with glamorous heroine Phryne Fisher! When Phryne Fisher arranges to go to Ballarat for a week, she eschews the excitement of her Hispano-Suiza for the sedate safety of the train. But as the passengers sleep, they are all overcome by chloroform poisoning. In the morning Phryne is left to piece together all the clues: a young girl suffering from amnesia, the body of an old woman missing her emerald rings & rumours of white slavery & black magic...the last thing Phryne was expecting of this train journey was that she will have to use her trusty Beretta. 32 to save lives! ...