When Tess Angel receives a solicitor's letter inviting her to claim her inheritance
- the Villa Sirena perched on a clifftop in
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THE VILLA GIRLS is the story of four young women who decide that wherever they are in the world & whatever theyre doing theyll meet every few years for a holiday together somewhere sunny. Despite life taking them in very different directions their snatched days in the sun in little hidden villas are crucial to them all. Escape celebration recovery
- over the years the holidays change their lives. Rosie was always the odd one out
- initially only invited as the others felt sorry for her but it seems that in the end she might be the one whose life is touched the most by her villa days. For its there that she meets Enzo. The eldest son of an olive oil dynasty in southern Italy he is being groomed to take over one day as head of the family. Rosie & Enzo have a holiday romance that seems set to become something more serious until she discovers he is not entirely what he seems. Years later they meet again & this time Rosie must decide how much she is prepared to compromise for the sake of love...

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When a young woman turns up dead in a peat bog near the banks of the River Tiber Teresa a maverick pathologist thinks shes got the victim of an ancient Roman ritual on her hands. Shes wrong. Leo Falcone the chief inspector knows this case is recent history & the horror is still very much alive. So begins an investigation that will take the police deep into the dark underworld of modern day Romes most disturbing & sinister secrets. Nic Costa is trying to stay off the drink. Gianni Peroni used to work vice until he was caught in one of his own departments stings. Emilio Neri the local mafia boss cant trust his own son & Vergil Wallis the American mobster is refusing to talk. Meanwhile someone is trying very hard to kill the pathologist. & now another beautiful young woman has gone missing.. . ...

Florence 1943. Two sisters Isabella & Caterina Cammaccio find themselves surrounded by terror & death; & with Italy trapped under the heel of a brutal Nazi occupation bands of Partisans rise up. Soon Isabella & Caterina will test their wits & deepest beliefs as never before. As the winter grinds on they will be forced to make the most important decisions of their lives. Their choices will reverberate for decades. In the present day Alessandro Pallioti a senior policeman agrees to oversee a murder investigation after it emerges the victim was once a Partisan hero. When the case begins to unravel Pallioti finds himself working to uncover a crime lost in the twilight of war the consequences of which are as deadly today as they were over sixty years ago. ' Grindle vividly evokes Florence as few tourists see it.. . Here is the perfect summer holiday read' Literary Review ' Grindle saves her best story-weaving to the thrilling denouement that creates a surprise as unexpected & delicious as the finest Florentine cuisine' Daily Express ...

The Village" by Nikita Lalwani the prize-winning author of " Gifted" is a disturbing & utterly gripping modern morality tale set in contemporary India & will appeal to readers of Kiran Desai's " The Inheritance of Loss" & Jhumpa Lahiri's " The Namesake". Ray a young British-Asian woman arrives in the afternoon heat of a small village in India. She has come to live there for several months to make a documentary about the place. For this is no ordinary Indian village
- the women collecting water at the well the men chopping wood in the early morning light have all been found guilty of murder. The village is an open prison. Ray is accompanied by two British colleagues & as the days pass they begin to get closer to the lives of the inhabitants of the village. & then it feels too close. As the British visitors become desperate for a story the distinction between innocence & guilt between good intentions & horrifying results becomes horribly blurred. Set in a village modelled on a real-life open prison in India " The Village" is a gripping story about manipulation & personal morality about how truly frail our moral judgement can be. Nikita Lalwani has written a dazzling heartfelt & disturbing novel which delivers on all the promise of her first. "A sparkling funny & poignant study of a young maths prodigy struggling with her gift & a difficult family". (Gerard Woodward " Books of the Year" (" Gifted") " Observer). Nikita Lalwani was born in Rajasthan & raised in Cardiff. Her first novel " Gifted" was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize & shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award & won the Desmond Elliott Prize. She lives in London."
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' People in Fairacre simply won't stand for their children being uprooted & carted away in buses like so many
- er so many-' '
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This is a story of survival set in a small fishing village near Bombay. Lila & Hari aged 13 & 12 struggle to keep the family including two young sisters going when their mother is ill & their father usually the worse for drink. When Hari goes to Bombay to find work Lila seems to be responsible for everything. Although the book paints a picture of extreme poverty it demonstrates the strength of the family even in the most extreme circumstances & offers a powerful picture of another culture. ...

Village Centenary welcomes us back to Fairacre just in time for the one hundredth anniversary of the village school. Such a centenary should be celebrated & all of Fairacre is quick to offer suggestions
- from a tea party to a pageant. Deciding how best to stage the grand occasion however is only one of Miss Read's problems. The ancient skylight in the school is leaking & Mr Willet the school caretaker fears that replacing it will be a difficult job. The new teacher Miss Briggs fresh from college & full of idealistic theories proves a thorn in Miss Read's side. The vicar has decided to keep bees. & Mrs Pringle is her usual dour self. But the seasons continue to change & the centenary year unfolds with its hopes & fears its memories & forecasts its friendships & feuds. Village Centenary marks yet another delightful year in the company of our favourite Fairacre friends.
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When Harry Dickenson arrives in Turnham Malpas the warm welcome he receives convinces him to stay. Handsome & charming Harry quickly earns his place in rural life. But despite his outward friendliness Harry is a troubled man hiding memories of a tragic past from which he is desperate to escape. Just as Harry finds some measure of peace he encounters the one woman in the village likely to turn any man's head. Soon Harry is caught in an obsessive love that threatens to ruin everything that he has accomplished
- & reveal his shocking secret to all. But Harry isn't the only man in the village to fall head-over-heels. Paddy Cleary the shy gardener is smitten. But will Paddy find the confidence to reveal his true feelings? & will the young lady return his affections? The villagers must wait & watch hoping the burgeoning friendship will lead to something more...
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With the Rector Peter Harris & his family back from Africa the villagers of Turnham Malpas heave huge sighs of relief
- everything
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