Welcome to the world of Frantz Schmidt: citizen of Nuremberg executioner of 394 unfortunates & torturer of many hundreds more. Most unusually for his times Frantz was also a diarist. Drawing deeply on this exceptional & overlooked record that he kept for over forty-five years The Faithful Executioner takes us deep inside his world & his thinking. But the picture that emerges is not of a monster. Could a man who routinely practiced such cruelty also be insightful compassionate
- even progressive? Young Frantz enters the trade as the Apprentice following in his father's footsteps. Later as the Journeyman he travels the roads of Franconia learning to reconcile his desire for respectability with his violent work. After a lifetime working amid human cruelty tragedy injustice & simple misfortune as the Master in Nuremberg Frantz has become a moralist & storyteller the Sage. & in the closing chapters of his life retired now from his role as executioner he is the Healer running the large medical practice that he always viewed as his true vocation. The Faithful Executioner is the biography of an ordinary man struggling to overcome an unjust family curse & a panorama of a Europe poised on the cusp of modernity a world with startling parallels to our own.
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The course of Frank Mackeys life was set by one defining moment when he was nineteen. The moment his girlfriend Rosie Daly failed to turn up for their rendezvous in Faithful Place failed to run away with him to London as they had planned. Frank never heard from her again. Twenty years on Frank is still in Dublin working as an undercover cop. Hes cut all ties with his dysfunctional family. Until his sister calls to say that Rosies suitcase has been found. Frank embarks on a journey into his past that demands he reevaluate everything he believes to be true. ...

The Fawcett Green bell-ringers arent particularly surprised when Simone Hollingsworth fails to turn up at practice. Her fellow campanologists just assume that bell ringing has become the latest in a long list of abandoned hobbies. But then the increasingly strange behaviour of Simones husband Alan begins to raise neighbourly suspicions about her whereabouts. & when the discovery of a body draws Chief Inspector Barnaby to the village it becomes clear that unravelling the couples tangled lives will have painful repercussions for the whole village... ...

A walk in the woods takes a sinister turn for police chief Jeffrey Tolliver & medical examiner Sara Linton when they stumble across the body of a young girl. Incarcerated in the ground all the initial evidence indicates that she has quite literally been scared to death. But as Sara embarks on the autopsy something even more horrifying comes to light. Something which shocks even Sara. Detective Lena Adams talented but increasingly troubled is called in from vacation to help with the investigation
- & the trail soon leads to the neighbouring county an isolated community & a terrible secret...
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A powerfully addictive novel from the No. 1 bestseller Martina Cole Gabby looked at the woman she had hated nearly all her life. Then she sat down on the ladder-backed chair put her face into her bloodied hands & cried. To the outside world Cynthia Tailor is a woman to envy; she has a devoted husband a lovely home & two gorgeous children. But Cynthia is deeply unhappy with her lot; she has always craved the best things in life & is determined to see that she gets them. Cynthia will let nothing stand in her way even if it means devastation & tragedy for those nearest to her. & the casualties are many: her husband Jimmy weak & unable to fight the wife he can never please; her sister Celeste from whom Cynthia steals her most precious possession; & her parents Mary & Jack who pick up the pieces. But the victims who suffer the most are Cynthias children. For James Junior & Gabby the pain she causes will stay with them for ever... ...

Every girl likes a bad boy... And Max's current boyfriend is as bad as they come. She knows her family would freak if they saw his tattoos & piercings. So when her parents turn up unannounced Max grabs the most wholesome guy she can to play her boyfriend. But Cade Winston is so perfect that Max needs him to keep playing the part. & the more they have to fake their relationship the harder it gets to just pretend. ...

The destruction of the trapped German forces in the Falaise pocket in August 1944 is one of the most famous episodes of the Normandy campaign. But myths have grown up around accounts of the battle & its impact on the course of the war is sometimes misunderstood. In this meticulously researched & perceptive study Anthony Tucker-Jones dispels misconceptions about the battle describes the combat in graphic detail & reassesses the outcome in the context of the campaign to liberate Europe. He takes a broad view of the sequence of operations that culminated in the battle at Falaise tracing the course of the campaign mainly from the German viewpoint. For two bloody months the Germans held the Allies at bay following the D-Day landings but then they were blocked in at Falaise & the area became a killing ground. Some liken the event to Hitler's defeat at Stalingrad while others argue the victory was flawed because so many German troops escaped. ...

The battle around Falaise in Normandy during August 1944 saw the destruction of the German Seventh army; this title details the chain of events which led to the German retreat & the ensuing liberation of France. The British & American breakout battles had released motorised units to wage a more mobile war against the German static defensive tactics & at Falaise the armoured units of US Third Army encircled the German Seventh Army & squeezed them into an ever-smaller cauldron of chaos crushed against the advancing British Second Army. The results were devastating: those troops able to escape the disaster fled whilst those who remained were killed or captured & vast quantities of armour & equipment were lost. ...

'A single ball came through at deck level It struck a burst of sparks from the steel hull like Brocks Fireworks at Crystal palace brilliant orange even in the strong sunlight & the hole it tore through Black Joke's plating was fringed with bare jagged tongues of metal like the petals of a silver sunflower.' In search of a father they barely remember Zouga & Dr Robyn Ballantyne board Mungo St John's magnificent clipper to speed them to Africa. But long before they sight that mighty continent Robyn knows that she & Mungo will battle with all the fury of natural enemies -- & love with all the desperation of those unable to evade the commands of fate. For if she can bring hope & healing to Africa's fever-ridden shores he a lawless trader in human cargo will possess any man -- or woman -- he chooses... ...

Meet the Diamond Brothers the world's worst private-detective agency in this Chandler-esque spoof from the creator of the Alex Rider" series. When a dwarf comes into the office & leaves a package Tim Diamond the world's worst private-detective is faced with his toughest case yet. The office is ransacked & the package is found to contain simply a box of Maltesers. Who was the dwarf...and why was he murdered shortly after his visit? The " Diamond Brothers'" exposure is at an all-time high with br&-new covers for the entire series. Part of the " Diamond Brothers" series that also

Includes:: " The Four of Diamonds" (four novellas in one book) " Public Enemy Number Two" & " South by South East"."

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