Dr Forle is a scientist on a river station deep in the heart of the South American jungle: the last inhabited point before the impassable interior. He is studying the eerie forest glades that the local tribes call 'devil's gardens'. Who or what has created these cursed & poisoned places? The answer, he hopes, will change the way we think about life itself. But as The Devil's Garden opens, work on the station is thrown into chaos by the arrival of a ruthless Colonel & a sinister Judge. They claim to be registering the indigenous peoples to vote & yet that night Forle witnesses an act of torture that he cannot ignore. From that moment on, he is drawn deeper & deeper into a world of brutality & corruption until he finds himself in the midst of a small war involving remote tribes, renegade soldiers, cocaine growers & the woman he has come to love. When one of his assistants is murdered, Forle is forced to abandon his life's work & take sides. What kind of a man is he? ...

For nearly two years the two most infamous dictators in history actively collaborated with one another. The Nazi-Soviet Pact stunned the world when it was announced, the Second World War was launched under its auspices with the invasion & division of Pol&, & its eventual collapse led to the war`s defining & deciding clash. It is a chapter too often skimmed over by popular histories of the Second World War, & in The Devils` Alliance Roger Moorhouse tells the full story of the pact between Hitler & Stalin for the first time, from the motivation for its inception to its dramatic & abrupt end in 1941 as Germany declared war against its former partner. Using first-hand & eye-witness testimony, this is not just an account of the turbulent, febrile politics underlying the unlikely collaboration between these two totalitarian regimes, but of the human costs of the pact, as millions of eastern Europeans fell victim to the nefarious ambitions of Hitler & Stalin. ...

A novel of intrigue, violence & conflicted loyalties from the author of The Street Philosopher. What price to take hold of the devil`s right hand? Spring, 1853. After a triumphant display at the Great Exhibition in London, the legendary American entrepreneur & inventor Colonel Samuel Colt expands his gun-making business into Engl&. He acquires a riverside warehouse in Pimlico & sets about converting it into a pistol works capable of mass producing his patented revolvers on an unprecedented scale
- aware that the prospect of war with Russia means huge profits. The young, ambitious Edward Lowry is hired by Colt to act as his London secretary. Although initially impressed by the Colonel`s dynamic approach to his trade, Edward comes to suspect that the American`s intentions in the Metropolis are not all they appear. Meanwhile, the secretary becomes romantically involved with Caroline Knox, a headstrong woman from the machine floor
- who he discovers is caught up in a plot to steal revolvers from the factory`s stores. Among the workforce Colt has gathered from the seething mass of London`s poor are a gang of desperate Irish immigrants, embittered refugees from the potato famine, who intend to use these stolen six-shooters for a political assassination in the name of revenge. As pistols start to go missing, divided loyalties & hidden agendas make the gun-maker`s factory the setting for a tense story of intrigue, betrayal & murder.

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A darkly humorous & brilliantly observed teen drama about the intensity of teenage friendships & disaffected youth. When Dean first appears at school, Jack knows right away that there`s something different about him. The two form a fast bond & dream of starting a band together, but underneath all the usual teenage posturing of drinking, drugs & rebellion against authority, there`s a darker side to Dean that needs more
- more wildness, more violence. Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant & dyslexic readers aged 12+
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DIPLOMACY, n. The patriotic art of lying for one`s country In 1881 Ambrose Bierce, journalist & former soldier for the Union army in the Civil War, began writing satirical definitions for the San Francisco Wasp, & then for William Randolph Hearst`s San Francisco Examiner. Bierce was launched on a journalistic career that would see him liked & loathed in equal measure
- & earn him the title of `the wickedest man in San Francisco`. In his column, Bierce, a contemporary of Mark Twain, brought his biting black humour to bear on spoof definitions of everyday words, writing deliberate mistranslations of the vocabulary of the establishment, the Church & the politics of his day, & shining a sardonic light on hypocrisy & deception. These columns formed the beginnings of a dictionary, first published in 1906 as The Cynic`s Word Book. Over 100 years later, Bierce`s redefinitions still give us pause for thought
- REPORTER, n. A writer who guesses his way to the truth & dispels it with a tempest of words; UN-AMERICAN, adj. Wicked, intolerable, heathenish; POLITICS, n. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage
- making for a timely new edition of this irreverent & provocative satire.


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For lovers of Sherlock, Shardlake & Ripper Street. A hugely enjoyable heart-pounding Victorian thriller: murder, a celebrity chef & a great detective double-act. Long-listed for a CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger` Wonderful.. . The Devil`s Feast proves to be a sumptuous treat` The Times` Criminally good.. . I love this mystery series
- it just gets better & better` Woman & Home London, 1842. There has been a mysterious & horrible death at the Reform, London`s newest & grandest gentleman`s club. A death the club is desperate to hush up. Captain William Avery is persuaded to investigate, & soon discovers a web of rivalries & hatreds, both personal & political, simmering behind the club`s handsome facade
- & in particular concerning its resident genius, Alexis Soyer, `the Napoleon of food`, a chef whose culinary brilliance is matched only by his talent for self-publicity. But Avery is distracted, for where is his mentor & partner-in-crime Jeremiah Blake? & what if this first death was only a dress rehearsal for something far more sinister?

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Dr Forle is a scientist on a river station deep in the heart of the South American jungle: the last inhabited point before the impassable interior. He is studying the eerie forest glades that the local tribes call `devil`s gardens`. Who or what has created these cursed & poisoned places? The answer, he hopes, will change the way we think about life itself. But as The Devil`s Garden opens, work on the station is thrown into chaos by the arrival of a ruthless Colonel & a sinister Judge. They claim to be registering the indigenous peoples to vote & yet that night Forle witnesses an act of torture that he cannot ignore. From that moment on, he is drawn deeper & deeper into a world of brutality & corruption until he finds himself in the midst of a small war involving remote tribes, renegade soldiers, cocaine growers & the woman he has come to love. When one of his assistants is murdered, Forle is forced to abandon his life`s work & take sides. What kind of a man is he? ...

Three journeys. Three thousand years. One destination. The Devil`s Highway is a thrilling, epic & timely tale of love, loss, fanaticism, heroism & sacrifice. ` Brilliant.. . a powerful meditation on the damages
- & the good
- we have wrought, & will wreak, on the living world` Robert Macfarlane, Book of the Year His fingers fastened about Her stone. He brought it to the light & held it to his nose. There was lightning locked inside. He rolled the stone in his palm to give it the heat of his body. She had come to him, catching his eye where she lay among dull flints. She alone among the stones had spoken. An ancient British boy, discovering a terrorist plot, must choose between his brother & his tribe. In the twenty-first century, two men
- one damaged by war, another by divorce
- clash over their differing claims on the l&, & a young girl is caught between them. In the distant future, a gang of feral children struggles to reach safety in a burning world. A Roman road, an Iron Age hill fort, a h&-carved flint, & a cycle of violence that must be broken. As gripping as it is dazzling, The Devil`s Highway is a bold & intimate novel that spans centuries & challenges our dearest assumptions about what it means to be civilised.



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Three journeys. Three thousand years. One destination. The Devil`s Highway is a thrilling, epic & timely tale of love, loss, fanaticism, heroism & sacrifice. ` Brilliant.. . a powerful meditation on the damages
- & the good
- we have wrought, & will wreak, on the living world` Robert Macfarlane, Book of the Year His fingers fastened about Her stone. He brought it to the light & held it to his nose. There was lightning locked inside. He rolled the stone in his palm to give it the heat of his body. She had come to him, catching his eye where she lay among dull flints. She alone among the stones had spoken. An ancient British boy, discovering a terrorist plot, must choose between his brother & his tribe. In the twenty-first century, two men
- one damaged by war, another by divorce
- clash over their differing claims on the l&, & a young girl is caught between them. In the distant future, a gang of feral children struggles to reach safety in a burning world. A Roman road, an Iron Age hill fort, a h&-carved flint, & a cycle of violence that must be broken. As gripping as it is dazzling, The Devil`s Highway is a bold & intimate novel that spans centuries & challenges our dearest assumptions about what it means to be civilised.



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Witness the scene. In a Parisian restaurant Aleister Crowley, the notorious occultist, chances on Major-General Sir Hector Mc Donald: once one of the greatest heroes of the British Empire, now facing ruin in a shocking scandal -- & vulnerable to Crowley`s curious offer of help. Follow this unlikely pair on an extraordinary night of revelation & transgression. Be transported to the battlefields of Sudan, the backstreets of Edinburgh & the sultry tropics of Ceylon. & discover Sir Hector`s tragic secret. In this enthralling tale of imperialism, sexuality & the nature of belief, Jake Arnott probes beneath the surface of Victorian conformity & captures a world trembling on the brink of a brutal new era. ...