Their eyes met across a crowded room. She was just a poor servant girl & he was the son of a rich industrialist. Er no this is a Christopher Brookmyre novel although the eyes meeting across a crowded room part is true. Where it differs from the fairy tales is that the room in question was crowded with hostages & armed bank-robbers & his eyes were the only part of him she could see behind the mask. He is an art-thief par excellence & she is a connoisseur of crooks. Her job is to hunt him to extinction; his is to avoid being caught & he also has a secret agenda more valuable than anything he might steal. There are risks he can take without jeopardising his plans. He can afford to play cat-&-mouse with the female cop whos on his tail; it might even arguably be necessary. What he cant afford is to let her get too close: he could could end up in jail or even more scary he could end up in love.. . Visit the authors website at www.brookmyre.co.uk ...

Fast-paced & intelligent blending historical fact with persuasive fiction The Sacred Bones is an addictively compelling thriller that calls into question many of modern religions most deeply-held beliefs. Jerusalem is a ticking time bomb.. . An ancient artefact is stolen from beneath Temple Mount. With thirteen Israeli soldiers dead & the Palestinians outraged over the desecration of the sacred ground tensions are running high. Detectives must work against the clock to identify the stolen relic & the thieves before civil unrest escalates to deadly proportions. Meanwhile in Vatican city American scientist Charlotte Hennesey & Italian anthropologist Giovanni Bersei have been secretly summoned to analyse a mysterious artefact that could prove to be historys darkest secret: a human skeleton Approx. 2 000 years old & bearing the unmistakeable marks of crucifixion.. . With the malevolent eye of Vatican security expert Salvatore Conte watching her every move Charlotte must work against the clock to uncover an astonishing truth that threatens the very foundations of belief. And theres a more immediate question to face: whether the Vatican will allow this information
- & Charlotte
- to see the light of day...

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For the first time in decades The Eternal City is paralysed by a blizzard. & a gruesome discovery is made in the Pantheon
- one
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Sartaj the only Sikh inspector in the whole of Mumbai is used to being identified by his turban beard & the sharp cut of his trousers. But the silky Sikh is now past forty his marriage is over & his career prospects are on the slide. When Sartaj gets an anonymous tip-off as to the secret hideout of the legendary boss of the G-company hes determined that hell be the one to collect the prize... ...

The thinkers of ancient Egypt Greece & India recognized that numbers governed much of what they saw in their world & hence provided an approach to its divine creator. Robert Lawlor sets out the system that determines the dimension & the form of both man-made & natural structures from Gothic cathedrals to flowers from music to the human body. By also involving the reader in practical experiments he leads with ease from simple principles to a grasp of the logarithmic spiral the Golden Proportion the squaring of the circle & other ubiquitous ratios & proportions. Art & Imagination These large-format gloriously-illustrated paperbacks cover Eastern & Western religion & philosophy including myth & magic alchemy & astrology. The distinguished authors bring a wealth of knowledge visionary thinking & accessible writing to each intriguing subject. ...

This book is the winner of the 1992 Booker prize. Gripping... Sacred Hunger" covers a period between 1752 & 1765...it concerns the entangled & conflicted fortunes of two cousins: Erasmus Kemp the son of a Lancashire merchant & Matthew Paris a scholar & surgeon just released from prison for denying Holy Writ...the Liverpool Merchant is the vessel on which the whole of the novel hinges & it carries the reader deep into the history of mans iniquitous greed... As regards its dramatic breadth & energy no recent domestic novel has come within a mile of it
- Anthony Quinn in the " Independent"."
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SACRED LAND will enable you to discover the hidden secrets & meaning of the landscape around you town or country modern or old wherever you live in Britain. There has been a dramatic growth in interest in our own history buildings landscape sacred places beliefs & culture over the last few years & this book will equip you with the tools to unlock the meaning stories & history that are literally embedded in our landscape. It takes us from street names to churches; from hill forts to burial mounds; from the way a road bends to the shapes of fields in order to understand better the land that lies beneath our feet. In the literal shape of our countryside can be detected the eddies of time politics belief warfare passion & the durability of the human existence. SACRED LAND is a fascinating accessible read & the perfect reference guide to have in your home or in your car. It will be of interest to everyone who loves history sacred places & sacred history & those who like to explore their ancestry & roots. ...

As humans evolved on Earth they used plants for everything imaginable
- food weapons baskets clothes shelter & medicine. Indigenous
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Constantinople 1204: the holy city is razed to the ground by Crusaders
- the streets awash with blood. Modern day Istanbul: an
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Masonic secrets are of great interest to a wide audience
- whether Freemasons or not. The popularity of Dan Browns books has shown
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