Commissario Guido Brunetti is kicking his heels pondering the recent lack of crime in Venice when a beautiful young woman appears at his office door. Now calling herself Maria Testa his visitor is more familiar to Brunetti as Suor'lmmacolata the nun who once cared for his mother at the casa di cura in Dolo. But Maria has recently left her convent after the unexpected deaths of five patients. Brunetti offers to make some enquiries but finds now obvious cause for concern. Is Maria simply creating fears to justify abandoning her vocation? Or has she stumbled on to a deeply rooted far more sinister scenario
- & put her own life in very grave danger.. .?
...

Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) is best known for War & Peace & Anna Karenina commonly regarded as amongst the greatest novels ever written. He also however wrote many masterly short stories & this volume contains four of the longest & best in distinguished translations that have stood the test of time. In the early story Family Happiness Tolstoy explores courtship & marriage from the point of view of a young wife. In The Kreutzer Sonata he gives us a terrifying study of marital breakdown in The Devil a powerful depiction of the power of sexual temptation & in perhaps the finest of all The Death of Ivan Ilyich he portrays the long agony of a man gradually coming to terms with his own mortality. ...

The Alliterative Morte Arthure"
- the title given to a four-thousand line poem written sometime around 1400
- was part

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The master of historical fiction presents the iconic story of King Alfred & the making of a nation. As the ninth century wanes England appears about to be plunged into chaos once more. For the Viking-raised but Saxon-born warrior Uhtred whose life seems to shadow the making of England this presents him with difficult choices. King Alfred is dying & his passing threatens the island of Britain to renewed warfare. Alfred wants his son Edward to succeed him but there are other Saxon claimants to the throne as well as ambitious pagan Vikings to the north. Uhtreds loyalty
- & his vows
- were to Alfred not to his son & despite his long years of service to Alfred he is still not committed to the Saxon cause. His own desire is to reclaim his long lost lands & castle to the north. But the challenge to him as the king s warrior is that he knows that he will either be the means of making Alfred s dream of a united & Christian England come to pass or be responsible for condemning it to oblivion. This novel is a dramatic story of the power of tribal commitment & the terrible difficulties of divided loyalties. This is the making of England magnificently brought to life by the master of historical fiction.

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The ultimate Rome story The young Julius Caesar is serving on board a war galley gaining a fearsome reputation. Then his ship is captured & he is abandoned on the North African coast. After gathering a legion of men powerful enough to gain vengeance on his captors & to suppress an uprising in Greece he returns to Rome a hero. At the moment of his triumph Julius finds he must fight again. A savage rebellion threatens the city led by a gladiator named Spartacus... The second instalment in the bestselling Emperor series. ...

When Rosie a successful radio presenter hears that her father has had a stroke her life is thrown into disarray & she finds herself making reckless decisions that make little sense to those around her. As she strives towards building some kind of future for herself & her father he quietly plots his own death.. . Set on the east coast of Scotland the novel covers events in the weeks following the stroke & the lives of this small cast of captivating but very real characters. Exploring the impact of memory & conscience it tackles a family at a time of crisis delving into the complexities of emotions & family history with compassion humour & grace. In subtle distinctive prose alive with wit & verve Sue Peebles has written a captivating lovable & unusual novel
- a domestic canvas where every detail counts.
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When governess Anna Arbuthnot arrives at Ridley Hall she finds a house in deep mourning. Lyndon Wilder oldest & most beloved son of Lord & Lady Charles has been killed in the Napoleonic Wars leaving behind him a now orphaned daughter Lottie & other undiscovered troubles. Anna finds it easy to establish a bond with her young charge but other relationships in the house begin to strain under the weight of Lyndon's absence. When Thomas Wilder the younger son & new heir returns from war he finds his family in chaos & Lyndon's legacy threatening Ridley Hall's future. As executor of his brother's will & guardian of his daughter Thomas is forced to leave the military life he loves & is confined to the faltering estate of his childhood. It is only with Anna's help that Thomas can save Ridley & most crucially protect his parents from the truth about Lyndon Wilder... ...

A dead witness. A forgotten crime. Hamish Macbeth never had it so hard as in this newest Highlands mystery! When a local woman tells Sergeant Hamish Macbeth that she doesn't remember what happened the previous evening he's not unduly worried. After all she's been out drinking & he'd prefer not to be bothered with such an arrogant & annoying woman. But when her body is discovered in a ditch Hamish is forced to investigate a crime that the only known witness
- now dead
- has forgotten...

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Its the sweltering summer of 1911 & one Friday evening a young aristocrat arrives into the custody of detective Jim Stringer a man recently found guilty of murdering his father in the sleepy village of Adenwold. He warns Jim of another murder likely to happen in the same village
- that of his brother a reclusive intellectual. When Jim & his wife Lydia arrive at Adenwold they encounter a host of likely suspects & the intended victim & suddenly Jim has one weekend in which to stop a murder & unravel a conspiracy of international

Dimensions...


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An airline stewardess is entrusted with a list of names which could threaten the lives of her 700 passengers...A young woman is tortured by terrifying nightmares until she finds a gramophone record that unlocks the door concealing a dark memory... Lottery-winner turned amateur detective Alvirah Meehan returns from a trip to England to find the body of a Broadway starlet in their wardrobe... Peopled by a colourful cast of characters & brimming over with bizarre twists & turns this collection is further proof of Mary Higgins Clarks ingenious touch & superlative skill. Start reading
- & you wont be able to stop.
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