On the shortest day of the year as the Castle is lit with candles & everyone prepares to celebrate Wizard Apprentice Septimus Heap marks his fourteenth birthday. He has reached a new stage in his Apprenticeship: Darke Week. Awe-inspiring terrifying unbelievably important Septimuss future will depend on what happens during this week. He chooses a dangerous mission to restore his good friend Alther from Banishment. But as he embarks on this trial something Darke & terrible engulfs the Castle. Septimus & his friends are about to face their most perilous challenge yet.. . ...

Septimus is on the threshold of his fourteenth birthday which falls on the shortest day of the year. While everyone celebrates & the Castle is lit with the traditional candles Septimus has greater concerns on his mind. He has finally reached the period in his Apprenticeship known as Darke Week. During this crucial time he hopes to undertake the very dangerous mission of restoring Alther from Banishment following the attempted invasion of the Castle of Syren. But while this preoccupies him other Darke things are afoot in the Castle. ...

Returning safely to England after the dramatic capture of Martinque Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho finds an all too brief respite from war & politics in the arms of his mistress Catherine Somervell. But the shadow of a new conflict already darkens the horizon. The old enemy France forges an uneasy alliance with America
- threatening the safety of British trade routes. Although ordered immediately to the Indian Ocean for the first time Bolitho thoughts are not of glory but his own
- & the Navys
- past. Both Nelson & Collingwood died in their countrys service. For the navys newest Admiral is there life beyond the sea itself?


...

This is the climactic novel in Lara Adrian's New York Times" bestselling " Midnight Breed" series. " Darker After Midnight" invites readers to enter a thrillingly sensual world where danger meets desire. After existing in secret for many centuries maintaining a fragile peace with the humans who walk beside them unaware one single act of retaliation has put the entire vampire nation at risk of discovery. & it falls to the Order
- a select society of Breed warriors pledged to protect their own & humankind alike
- to stop Dragos the power-hungry vampire at the centre of the conflict before his lust for domination can explode into catastrophe. At the centre of the Order's quest is Stirling Chase a troubled Breed warrior whose biggest conflict is the one he wages against his own savage nature. With addiction beckoning him towards eternal darkness Chase's path to redemption lies in the hands of a mysterious & beautiful young woman who may be something much more than she seems... Praise for the " Midnight Breed" Series: " Evocative enticing erotic". (J R Ward). " Adrenaline-fuelled sizzlingly sexy darkly intense.. .addictively readable series". (" Chicago Tribune"). "A gut-wrenchingly new paranormal series by hot talent Adrian.. .terrific supernatural entertainment". (" Romantic Times"). " Smart sexy & compelling". (" Fresh Fiction")."

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Val Mc Dermid creator of TV's Wire in the Blood mixes fact with fiction dealing with one of the most important & symbolic moments in recent history. Twenty-five years ago the daughter of the richest man in Scotland & her baby son were kidnapped & held to ransom. But Catriona Grant ended up dead & little Adam's fate has remained a mystery ever since. When a new clue is discovered in a deserted Tuscan villa -- along with grisly evidence of a recent murder -- cold case expert DI Karen Pirie is assigned to follow the trail. She's already working a case from the same year. During the Miners' Strike of 1984 pit worker Mick Prentice vanished. He was presumed to have broken ranks & fled south with other 'scabs'! but Karen finds that the reported events of that night don't add up. Where did he really go? & is there a link to the Grant mystery? The truth is stranger -- & far darker -- than fiction. ...

John Harvey has been described as the master of British crime & in A Darker Shade of Blue he has collected together some of his very best writing. From the killing fields of the East Midlands to the mean streets of London from the jazz clubs & clip joints of Soho to the barren fenlands of East Anglia this is a world of broken families & run-down estates revenge killings & prostitution drugs guns & corruption; a world of overstretched police forces & underpaid detectives men & women who strive nonetheless for a kind of justice; a world in which everything even friendship has a price. Featuring characters like Frank Elder who tried to turn his back on police work & failed; Jack Kiley ex-copper & one-time professional footballer now a London-based PI; & the renowned jazz loving & much-loved Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick John Harveys finely-crafted vignettes perfectly encapsulate life in the badlands of modern Britain. ...

Imagine a serial killer who has already struck a horrific number of times. A killer who discovers people's secrets
- the deepest
...

The Todd family are strangers to city life when they move into a flat on the Scotland Road; their previous home was a canal barge. Harry gets a job as warehouse manager & his wife Martha works in a grocer's shop whilst Seraphina trains as a teacher Angela works in Bunney's Department Store & young Evie starts at regular school. Then circumstances change & Seraphina takes a job as a nippy in Lyon's Corner House. Customers vie for her favours including an old friend Toby. When war is declared the older girls join up leaving Evie & Martha to cope with rationing shortages & the terrible raids on Liverpool which devastate the city. Meanwhile Toby is a Japanese POW working on the infamous Burma railway & dreaming of Seraphina... Darkest Before Dawn is a warm passionate story that makes it easy to see why Katie Flynn is one of Britain's most popular saga writers. ...

The concluding part of this darkly funny horror series Darren Shan called deliciously nightmarish. Kyle is a bit of a problem child. He wont do what his dad tells him. But thats because his dad wants Kyle to unleash the scuttling screaming killer creatures of the Darkest Corners & bring about the end of the world. Now might be a good time to rebel... ...

The Night People are safe at last. After all the ugly pranks & vicious murders things have finally started to return to normal. The friends who are left try to forget & move on taking comfort by meeting up at their old hang out Nights. It was the ancient spirit of Angelica Fear that caused all the trouble. & now she's been destroyed once & for all. Burned in a fire. But if it's true that the horror is dead what did Angelica mean when her voice cried out from the flames?... The Evil Lives!"" ...