When a young girl is found murdered in a field the scientific examination of the exhibits is just a routine job for the staff of Hoggatts forensic science laboratory. But nothing could have prepared them for the brutal death of one of their own. When the senior biologist is found dead in his laboratory Commander Dalgliesh is called to the bleak fens of East Anglia where the murderer is lying in wait to strike again. ...

The most hated man in the most dour town in Scotland is sleeping with the fishes or
- more accurately
- has been dumped into

...

The most hated man in the most dour town in Scotland is sleeping with the fishes or
- more accurately
- has been dumped into

...

The Black Dragons fall upon the world of Antagonis summoned to combat the plague of undeath that has engulfed the planet. Allying themselves with Inquisitor Werner Lettinger & a force of Sisters of Battle the Black Dragons endeavour to save the souls of the Imperial citizens who have succumbed to the contagion. But there is more than a mere infection at play
- the dread forces of Chaos lie behind the outbreak & the Black Dragons stand in the way of the Dark Gods' victory -
...

Hazlehurst housing estate Glasgow Christmas Eve 2010. Fifteen-year-old Marnie & her little sister Nelly have just finished burying their parents in the back garden. Only Marnie & Nelly know how they got there. Lennie the old guy next door has taken a sudden interest in his two young neighbours & is keeping a close eye on them. He soon realises that the girls are all alone & need his help -- or does he need theirs? As the year ends & another begins the sisters friends their neighbours & the authorities -- not to mention the local drug dealer whos been sniffing around for their father -- gradually start to ask questions. & as one lie leads to another darker secrets about Marnies family come to light making things even more complicated. Written with fierce sympathy & beautiful precision The Death of Bees" is an enchanting & grimly comic tale of three lost souls who unable to answer for themselves can answer only for each other." ...

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

...

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.

...

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. ...