Undead shopaholic Betsy Taylor has found that being vampire queen has more problems than perks. It may be easy to find blood in the dark of night but try finding a strawberry smoothie. & employees at her nightclub Scratch have been giving her nothing but grief since she killed their former boss. Some people... But Betsys life" takes an interesting turn at a baby shower for her wicked stepmother who lets it slip that Betsy has a long-lost half sister. Now twenty years old this girl just so happens to be the devils daughter & destined to rule the world." ...

And the first who shall noe the Queen as a husband noes his Wyfe shall be the Queens Consort & shall rule at her side for a thousand yeares. The Book of the Dead. If that rat bastard Sinclair thinks Im going to be his wife for a thousand years hes out of his f***** mind. From the private papers of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I Empress of the Undead Rightful Ruler of the Vampires Consort of Eric I Lawful King. Nothing can make Betsy Taylor give up her shoe fetish
- even dying & rising as the new Queen of the Vampires. Only being royally undead doesnt mean there arent still credit card bills to be paid. Things couldnt be better
- except for her new friends who keep pestering her while shes at work. As if she has time to socialise when there are deliciously sinful shoes to try on
- & buy at a discount. It seems theres been a string of vampire murders in town & theyre all clamouring for Betsy to do something about it. The worst part is shell have to enlist the help of the one vamp who makes her blood boil: the oh-so-sexy Eric Sinclair. Only the last time she ran into Sinclair she accidentally fulfilled an ancient prophesy
- & ended up married to him



...

Betsy Taylor Vampire Queen already has plenty on her plate. For one thing next week is her birthday-the big 3-1 in human years & one in undead years. (Yes she bit the dust on her birthday last year.) On top of that she still has wedding plans to finalize-and its not helping that the prospective groom is avoiding anything to do with it. & then theres her decision to stop drinking blood-something she has yet to share with Eric Sinclair her fianc-who also happens to be the vampire king... So the last thing she wants to deal with is uninvited guests even if they happen to be the powerful European vampires who have finally come to pay their respects the week before her birthday. Some of them dont want Betsy as their Queen & will do anything to get rid of her. As if turning thirty last year (not to mention dying) hadnt been traumatic enough. & trying to give up blood is making her really cranky... ...

Just when Betsy Taylor thinks she's adjusted to her after-life as a vampire queen fate intervenes. It's bad enough having to view your own gravestone but now Betsy's even started seeing dead people
- an assortment of demanding ghosts who are determined to make her do their bidding. Betsy also has some personal stuff to deal with
- not least of which is planning her Spring
- & Midnight
- wedding to Sinclair. Meanwhile her half-sister is starting to display signs of inheriting her real mother's temper. & when your mother's the devil that's cause for concern



...

Betsy Taylor has problems that only a vampire queen/suburban wife could possibly underst&...such as fifty thousand angry werewolves. Thats what Betsy is facing when she takes her werewolf friend Antonias body to Cape Cod where the Pack resides at Wyndham Mansion. Because Antonia died in her service Betsy is alive & well
- & wracked with guilt. She has no idea if the Wyndham werewolves will welcome her with fangs or friendship. While Betsy & her husband Sinclair try to make nice their legal ward Baby Jon is freaking out every werewolf he comes in contact with. Meanwhile Betsys posse back at the St Paul mansion are not happy. Increasingly frantic emails alert Betsy to her half-sisters increasingly erratic behavior. Looks like the devils daughter is coming into her own
- & raising hell. All in the name of making Betsys life easier of course.

...

Clare Peake daughter of the celebrated writer & artist Mervyn Peake tells the story of her parents romance & her own happy & bohemian childhood. Mervyn Peake was born in China the son of medical missionaries & the juxtaposition of his exotic surroundings & the very English manners at home had a lasting effect on him. Reading Treasure Island until he could recite it by heart & waiting for comics to arrive from England had him living a childhood bursting with imagery. He returned to England to study at the Royal Academy School & was then offered a teaching post at Westminster School of Art. There his charismatic & un-worldly presence made a huge impact: none more so than on Maeve Gilmore a seventeen-year-old sculpture student. The couple fell passionately in love but Maeves parents were determined their daughter would not marry a penniless artist & sent her away to forget him. She didnt & refusing to be parted ever again they married when Maeve was nineteen & Mervyn twenty-six. Mervyn Peake developed Parkinsons disease aged forty-five. His decline was rapid & he spent time in & out of mental hospitals until his death at fifty-seven the diagnosis never fully understood. Clare Peake writes movingly of the impact on the family & her mothers determination to continue giving her children the happiness she felt all children deserved. ...

What had until recently been a police sergeant is now lying at Ghotes feet bleeding its last. An accident it may have been but Ghote saw exactly what happened & its his duty to arrest the killer. Isnt it? Or can the inspector better serve his beloved police force by disposing of the body by concealing a crime? & if he does will he manage to keep his terrible secret? As an Inquiry begins beneath the first torrents of monsoon rain
- will he even want to?
...

Escaping a horrible marriage Carolyn Connor has no desire to think about men
- a vow she's determined to keep while on vacation
...

When veteran law-enforcement officer & lifelong motorcycle lover William Queen penetrated the San Fernando chapter of the notorious Mongols he was at the mercy of psychopaths who sought to have him prove his fealty by any means necessary from selling & doing drugs to arms trafficking driving getaway cars & in one shocking instance stitching up the face of a Mongol ol lady after a brutal beating at the hands of her boyfriend. Yet despite the constant criminality of the gang Queen came to see the genuine camaraderie they shared. When his lengthy undercover work totally isolated Queen from his relatives & friends the Mongols felt like the only family he had left. Under & Alone is a breathless adrenalin-charged read that puts you on the street with some of the most dangerous men in America. ...

It is 1793. The thunder of cannon fire echoes across the English Channel chilling the stoutest hearts.. . The opening skirmishes of the French Revolutionary War send ageing frigate HMS Themis into waters swarming with enemy ships of the line. Instructed to survey the French coastline she's soon in the thick of the action: cutlasses slash & bayonets skewer cannons splinter decks & sever limbs. Onto the smoky deck strides young Lieutenant Charles Hayden. With an English father & a French mother the Admiralty are reluctant to give Hayden his first comm&. Instead he is to act as a bulwark between the Themis' tyrannical Captain Hart & a mutinous crew. Steering a course between the cowardly captain & the treacherous crew English common sense & French pride Hayden must first master his wits before challenging the might of the French naval war machine. ...