1986 The Panama Hotel The old Seattle landmark has been boarded up for decades but now the new owner has made a startling discovery in the basement: personal belongings stored away by Japanese families sent to interment camps during the Second World War. Among the fascinated crowd gathering outside the hotel stands Henry Lee & as the owner unfurls a distinctive parasol he is flooded by memories of his childhood. He wonders if by some miracle in amongst the boxes of dusty treasures lies a link to the Okabe family & the girl he lost his young heart to so many years ago. WITH OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE THIS CAPTIVATING DEBUT IS A STORY OF THE SACRIFICES ONE BOY MAKES FOR LOVE & FOR HIS COUNTRY. ...

The very aptly named Mr Pong had the kind of breath that could stun at over ten feet... This wasnt just bad
- there was something
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The Sunday Times Bestseller When Swiss-born Hugues Martin sees a small run-down hotel in New York for the rough diamond it is he transforms it into a beautiful boutique hotel of impeccable elegance run with the precision & attention to detail he learned through his hotelier training in Europe. Renowned for its unparalleled service the Hotel Vendome soon becomes the ideal New York refuge for the rich & famous as well as a perfect home for Hugues' beautiful wife & their young daughter. But when his wife tires of his obsession for the hotel she walks out on him for a notorious rock star leaving Hugues a single parent to four-year-old Heloise. Heloise & her family live happily amid a colourful exciting & sometimes mysterious milieu of celebrities socialites politicians world travellers & hotel employees
- & their inevitable intrigues. As unexpected challenges arise the hotel is the centre of their world. & when Heloise grows us she longs to follow in her father's footsteps & one day run the Hotel Vendome. The lessons she learned at his side will carry her through it all in a story no reader will forget.
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This is a heart-rending page turner which sweeps from war-torn Europe to Thailand & back again.. . As a child Julia Forrester spent many idyllic hours in the hothouse of Wharton Park estate where her grandfather tended the exotic flowers. So when a family tragedy strikes Julia returns to the tranquility of Wharton Park & its hothouse. Recently inherited by charismatic Kit Crawford the estate is undergoing renovation. This leads to the discovery of an old diary prompting the pair to seek out Julia's grandmother to learn the truth behind a love affair that almost destroyed Wharton Park. Julia is taken back to the 1940s where the fortunes of young couple Olivia & Harry Crawford will have terrible consequences on generations to come. For as war breaks out Olivia & Harry are cruelly separated... ...

This is a heart-rending page turner which sweeps from war-torn Europe to Thailand & back again.. . As a child Julia Forrester spent many idyllic hours in the hothouse of Wharton Park estate where her grandfather tended the exotic flowers. So when a family tragedy strikes Julia returns to the tranquility of Wharton Park & its hothouse... See Judys Review See Richards Review See Lucinda Riley talk about her book Reading Group Questions Read our exclusive Q&A with Lucinda Riley Write a Review for Room Judys Review This debut novel is a real saga describing the secret history of an ancient Norfolk stately home & the chequered shady pasts of its most recent inhabitants which has led to the gradual decay of the fortunes of the great Wharton Park estate. Our heroine is Julia Forrester a world-acclaimed concert pianist who has just lost her husband & little boy in an horrific car crash. They had been living in France; now she returns to her childhood roots in Norfolk to grieve alone. But once back in close proximity to Wharton Park where her grandfather worked as head gardener she meets Kit Crawford the young man who has inherited the title & the estate. Now forced to sell the grand house & land because the estate is so heavily in debt he renovates the old cottage once lived in by Julias grandparents as a humble place to stay. But there he finds a secret diary; thinking it was written by Julias grandfather he gives it to her. But what is revealed in the diary is earth-shattering. It takes Julia & the reader back in time to the story of Harry & Olivia Crawford a young couple who once seemed so in love but whose marriage was torn apart by the Second World War. Harry its revealed had a secret life in Thailand; & the exotic blooms the rare & delicate orchids for which the Wharton greenhouse is famed & which Julias grandfather devoted his life to nurturing assume a new darker meaning. Richards Review What really fascinates me about this novel is the account of how a standard upper-class English marriage especially one in which property inheritance & the responsibility of looking after an historic estate on which the livelihoods of hundreds of local people depend could be almost instantly shattered by the terrible reality of war. Young Lord Harry Crawford is married to the beautiful Olivia who is expecting his child. But he fin" ...

In the early 20th century in the English-speaking world Arthur Conan Doyle & Harry Houdini were two of the most feted & famous men alive. & their relationship is extraordinary: As strange as it may seem Arthur Conan Doyle the creator of the ultra-rational detective Sherlock Holmes was a believer in Spiritualism. He came to his belief that one could communicate with the dead after his son was killed in World War I & became an expert in the field. Harry Houdini the worlds foremost magician was a friend of Conan Doyles but was sceptical of his belief in the supernatural. Houdini took every opportunity to use his knowledge of illusion to expose psychics who he thought were fakes particularly incensed by their exploitation of grief & insecurity. Based on original research this sensational dual biography of two popular geniuses conjures up the early 20th century & the fame personality & competing beliefs. ...

The Hound of the Baskervilles is the classic detective chiller. It features the worlds greatest detective Sherlock Holmes in his most challenging case. The Baskerville family is haunted by a phantom beast with blazing eyes & dripping jaws" which roams the mist-enshrouded moors around the isolated Baskerville Hall on Dartmoor. Now the hound seems to be stalking young Sir Henry the new master of the Baskerville estate. Is this devilish spectre the manifestation of the family curse? Or is Sir Henry the victim of a vile & scheming murderer? Only Sherlock Holmes can solve this devilish affair. The Valley of Fear is a dark powerful tale which provides the great detective with a most perplexing case & opens with a vile murder. " Lying across his chest was a most curious weapon a shotgun with the barrel sawn off in front of the triggers. It was clear that it had been fired at close range & that he had received the whole charge in the face blowing his head almost to pieces". Sherlock Holmes arch enemy the criminal genius Professor Moriarty is back! But the solution to the riddle found after many surprising twists & high dramas lies far away half across the world in a location known as The Valley of Fear. This is Conan Doyles last Holmes novel & in the opinion of many of his fans it is the best!" ...

Never in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more savage more appalling more hellish be conceived than that dark form & savage face. The coroner may have ruled death by natural causes. but Sherlock Holmes knows theres something more sinister behind Sir Charles Baskervilles demise. The question is could he really have fallen victim to the legendary phantom hound the curse said to have haunted his ancestors for generations? Or is this the work of a very real & calculating murderer? ...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles" gripped readers when it was first serialised & has continued to hold its place in the popular imagination to this day. This " Penguin Classics" edition is edited with an introduction & notes by Christopher Frayling. Could the sudden death of Sir Charles Baskerville have been caused by the gigantic ghostly hound that is said to have haunted his family for generations? Arch-rationalist Sherlock Holmes characteristically dismisses the theory as nonsense. & immersed in another case he sends Dr Watson to Devon to protect the Baskerville heir & observe the suspects at close h&. With its atmospheric setting on the ancient wild moorland & its savage apparition " The Hound of the Baskervilles" is one of the greatest crime novels ever written. Rationalism is pitted against the supernatural & good against evil as Sherlock Holmes sets out to defeat a foe almost his equal. This edition contains a full chronology of Arthur Conan Doyle's life & works an introduction by renowned horror scholar Professor Christopher Frayling discussing the background to the novel & the legends & events that inspired the story with further reading & explanatory notes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was born in Edinburgh where he qualified as a doctor but it was his writing which brought him fame with the creation of Sherlock Holmes the first scientific detective. He was also a convert to spiritualism & a social reformer who used his investigative skills to prove the innocence of individuals. If you enjoyed " The Hound of the Baskervilles" you might enjoy Conan Doyle's " The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" & " The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" also available in " Penguin Classics". " Arthur Conan Doyle is unique.. . Personally I would walk a mile in tight boots to read him to the milkman." (Stephen Fry)." ...

The master of deduction Sherlock Holmes & his acolyte Dr Watson are here adapted into graphic novel form
- a refreshing transformation
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