In AD 453 Attila with a huge force composed of Huns allies & vassals drawn from his already-vast empire was rampaging westward across Gaul (essentially modern France) then still nominally part of the Western Roman Empire. Laying siege to Orleans he was only a few days march from extending his empire from the Eurasian steppe to the Atlantic. He was brought to battle on the Cataluanian Plain & defeated by a coalition hastily assembled & led by Aetius. Who was this man that saved Western Europe from the Hunnic yoke? While Attila is a household name his nemesis remains relatively obscure. Aetius is one of the major figures in the history of the Late Roman Empire & his actions helped maintain the integrity of the West in the declining years of the Empire. During the course of his life he was a hostage first with Alaric & the Goths & then with Rugila King of the Huns. His stay with these two peoples helped to give him an unparalleled insight into the minds & military techniques of these barbarians which he was to use in later years to halt the depredations of the Huns. That this saviour of Rome was himself half Scythian is indicative of the complexity of the late Roman world. Ian Hughes assesses his fascinating career & campaigns with the same accessible narrative & analysis he brought to bear on Belisarius & Stilicho. This is a long-overdue biography of a major yet neglected player in the Late Classical world. ...

Would you risk everything for love? Bestselling childrens book writer Angelica is amused & flattered at the attention of Jack the owner of a vineyard in South Africa whom she meets at a dinner party. With his easy charm & reputation as a ladies man Jack makes her feel good about herself
- surely it cant do any harm to indulge in a mild email flirtation? After all she wouldnt risk her stable marriage & the happiness of her children. But things dont stop there & when Angelica is sent to Cape Town for a book tour the affair begins in earnest. On their last day together Jack confesses that he has an incurable disease: being with Angelica has enabled him to forget his mortality. Shocked & heartbroken she returns to London determined to save her marriage & put to good use all the emotional lessons she learnt during their brief time together.
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Featuring Jack Reacher hero of the new blockbuster movie starring Tom Cruise in his coolest sexiest punch-packing thriller yet March 1997. A woman has her throat cut behind a bar in Mississippi. Just down the road is a big army base. Is the murderer a local guy
- or is he a soldier? Jack Reacher still a major in the military police is sent in undercover. The county sheriff is a former U.S. Marine
- & a stunningly beautiful woman. Her investigation is going nowhere. Is the Pentagon stonewalling her? Or doesn't she really want to find the killer? Set just six months before the opening of Killing Floor The Affair marks a turning point in Reacher's career. If he does what the army wants will he be able to live with himself? & if he doesn't will the army be able to live with him?

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Charlotte Arkendale knew all there was to know about men. After all shed made a career out of steering marriage-minded women away from untrustworthy members of the opposite sex. Yet nothing could have prepared her for Baxter St. Ives
- an arresting stranger too daring too determined too dangerous to be her new man-of-affairs. Still perhaps he was the perfect person to help Charlotte investigate the recent murder of one of her clients. So she gave him a chance never realising that Baxter a gifted scientist would soon conduct a risky exploration into the alchemy of desire with Charlotte as his subject. But even as he sets out to seduce Charlotte a twisted killer lies in wait ready to part the lovers.. .or see them joined together forever
- in death.

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Indulgent & sensual outrageous & taboo but always highly erotic this new collection of Black Lace stories takes the illicit & daring rendezvous with a lover (or lovers) as its theme. Popular Black Lace authors like Portia Da Costa & Janine Ashbless contribute saucy tales as do a number of brand new passionate & edgy voices from the US. Packed with a broad & thrilling range of women's sexual fantasies. ...

And then there were eight
- Understandably Lord Burford had some misgivings about hosting another house party at Alderley his beautiful
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Charles Henstock rector of Thrush Green has difficulty living up to his predecessor when he moves to the parish of Lulling. He faces opposition from the fearsome Mrs Thurgood & her arty daughter Janet. Everyone in the district seems to be having their share of problems not least Albert Piggott who dreads the return of his wife Nelly. Meanwhile Kit Armitage returns to set elderly hearts fluttering. Could there be wedding bells in Thrush Green? ...

Set in & around the womens prison at Milbank in the 1870s AFFINITY is an eerie & utterly compelling ghost story a complex & intriguing literary mystery & a poignant love story with an unexpected twist in the tale. Following the death of her father Margaret Prior has decided to pursue some good work with the lady criminals of one of Londons most notorious gaols. Surrounded by prisoners murderers & common thieves Margaret feels herself drawn to one of the prisons more unlikely inmates
- the imprisoned spiritualist
- Selina Dawes. Sympathetic to the plight of this innocent-seeming girl Margaret sees herself dispensing guidance & perhaps friendship on her visits little expecting to find herself dabbling in a twilight world of seances shadows unruly spirits & unseemly passions.

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Welcome to the bizarre & dangerous world of Victorian London a city teetering on the edge of revolution. Its people are ushering in a new era of technology dazzled each day by new inventions. Airships soar in the skies over the city whilst ground trains rumble through the streets & clockwork automations are programmed to carry out menial tasks in the offices of lawyers policemen & journalists. But beneath this shiny veneer of progress lurks a sinister side. For this is also a world where lycanthropy is a rampant disease that plagues the dirty whorehouses of Whitechapel where poltergeist infestations create havoc in old country seats where cadavers can rise from the dead & where nobody ever goes near the Natural History Museum. ...

Sunday Times & New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton returns with another exciting thrilling & addictive adventure for her vampire hunting heroine Anita Blake. Had everyone bitten tonight caught this? The other bites had not looked like vampire bites. They'd been zombie or human looking. Was this infection something that vampires & shapeshifters could catch? If it was then it was something new. Some zombies are raised. Others must be put down. Just ask me Anita Blake Vampire Hunter. Before now I figured I could handle them. Before now I had never heard of any of them causing human beings to perish in agony. But that's all changed. Micah's estranged father lies dying rotting away inside from some strange ailment that has his doctor's whispering about 'zombie disease'. I make my living from zombies
- but these aren't the kind I know so well. These creatures hunt in daylight & are as fast & strong as vampires. If they bite you you become just like them. & round & round it goes... Where will it stop? Even I don't know.
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