Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice Questura is shocked to hear that Brett Lynch a friend since a murder case at La Fenice has suffered a savage beating. The attack in the beautiful palazzo home of Flavia Petrelli reigning diva of La Scala had come with a message: ' Don't keep that appointment with Dottor Semenzato.' Then with the storm clouds gathering fast over the city a man's body is found.. . ...

In the brave new Japan of the 1870s Taka & Nobu meet as children & fall in love; but their relationship will test the limits of society. Unified after a bitter civil war Japan is rapidly turning into a modern country with rickshaws railways & schools for girls. Commoners can marry their children into any class & the old hatred between north & south is over
- or so it seems. Taka is from the powerful southern Satsuma clan which now dominates the country & her father General Kitaoka is a leader of the new government. Nobu however is from the northern Aizu clan massacred by the Satsuma in the civil war. Defeated & reduced to poverty his family has sworn revenge on the Satsuma. Taka & Nobus love is unacceptable to both their families & must be kept secret but what they cannot foresee is how quickly the tables will turn. Many southern samurai become disillusioned with the new regime which has deprived them of their swords status & honour. Takas father abruptly leaves Tokyo & returns to the southern island of Kyushu where trouble is brewing. When he & his clansmen rise in rebellion the government sends its newly-created army to put them down. Nobu & his brothers have joined this army & his brothers now see their chance of revenge on the Satsuma. But Nobu will have to fight & maybe kill Takas father & brother while Taka now has to make a terrible choice
- between her family & the man she loves...

...

Kusang never thought she would leave Tibet. Growing up in a remote mountain village she married a monk & gave birth to two children. But then the Chinese army invaded & their peaceful lives were destroyed forever. Thousands were tortured prison camps were set up & Kusangs monastery was destroyed. The family were forced to flee across the Himalayas in the depths of winter battling cold fear starvation & exhaustion. It took a month to reach India where they were then passed from one refugee camp to another all the while fighting hunger & disease. Kusangs husband & her younger child died but somehow Kusang & her daughter Sonam survived. In Across Many Mountains" Sonams daughter Yangzom born in safety in Switzerland has written the story of her inspirational mother & grandmothers fight for survival & their lives in exile. It is an extraordinary story of determination love & endurance." ...

Kevin & Sadie just want to be together but it's not that simple. Things are bad in Belfast. Soldiers walk the streets & the city is divided. No Catholic boy & Protestant girl can go out together
- not without dangerous consequences... This is the second of Joan Lingard's ground-breaking Kevin & Sadie books.
...

When a bridge collapses in the Highlands of Scotland dozens of people vanish into the river below. A car hired by a woman tourist was filmed pulling onto the bridge moments before it fell. Now numbered among the missing the woman seizes her chance to start her life over. But her new path takes her no farther than a wooden cabin on the riverbank where she seeks rebirth & freedom from her old self. There she lives with Silva an illegal immigrant whose husband & daughter have not been seen since the day of the bridges collapse. The women are befriended by the boatman Ron & together they create a fragile sanctuary. Lost souls all they keep secrets from each other yet connect in ways none of them expects as they strive to reconcile their past histories with the present & shape for themselves an elusive longed-for future. ...

From the author of The Grafton Girls comes the story of one Liverpool family preparing for the onslaught of World War Two but feuding amongst themselves... Jean & Vi are twins but couldn't be more different. Jean's proud of her honest hardworking husband & their children but there's never a penny to spare. Vi's equally proud of her husband's new role as a local councillor & their elegant new house & has raised her children to expect the best. As war breaks out agonising decisions must be faced. Should the oldest children enlist? Should the youngest be evacuated? All the traditional certainties are overturned. Then the twins' own younger sister singer Francine returns home unexpectedly & stirs up the past even in the midst of present danger. This is a tremendous saga of fighting spirit & family closeness & the belief that even though today is full of destruction & pain there is hope for a better tomorrow. ...

In his black-walled fortress at Inuyama the murderous warlord Iida Sadamu surveys his famous nightingale floor. Constructed with exquisite skill it sings at the tread of each human foot. No assassin can cross it unheard. Brought up in a remote mountain village among the Hidden a reclusive & spiritual people Takeo has learned only the ways of peace. Why then does he possess the deadly skills that make him so valuable to the sinister Tribe? These supernatural powers will lead him to his violent destiny within the walls of Inuyama
- & to an impossible longing for a girl who can never be his. His journey is one of revenge & treachery honour & loyalty beauty & magic & the passion of first love.
...

The War is just over. In Venice a city elaborately & affectionately described the American Colonel Richard Cantrell falls passionately in love with Renata a young Italian countess who has a profile that could break your or anyone elses heart. Cantrell is embittered war-scarred & old enough to be Renatas father but he is overwhelmed by the selflessness & freshness of the love she is offering. But this is no fairy tale. The fighting may be ended but the wounds of war have not yet healed. & for some the longed-for peace has come too late. A lesser known classic by one of the great American writers of the twentieth century Across the River & Into The Trees is still vintage Hemingway. ...

Kyffin Williams remained faithful to the subjects around him the rugged mountains & the shadowy valleys of Snowdonia; the stonebuilt cottages of Gwynedd & sunlight over the Menai Strait. This volume offers insight into the vision of one of Waless greatest artists. ...

Amy has left the life she loves for a world 300 years away Trapped in space & frozen in time Amy is bound for a new planet. But fifty years before shes due to arrive she is violently woken the victim of an attempted murder. Now Amys lost on board & nothing makes sense
- shes never felt so alone. Yet someone is waiting for her. He wants to protect her; & more if shell let him. But who can she trust amidst the secrets & lies? A killer is out there
- & Amy has nowhere to hide...

...