1976: friends Marcus & Ruth go missing in Afghanistan during an overland bus trip to Kathmandu. A generation later Ruths niece Amber haunted by the disintegration of her family determines to get at the truth of their disappearance. Was it murder as her father suspected or a suicide pact as the police believed? Tracking down the trips bus driver Cassidy Amber starts to piece together a lost world
- the mystical vibrant hippy trail to India
- & colourful characters like Juliet who imagined herself the reincarnation of an Edwardian traveller. As the mystery surrounding her aunt & the charismatic Marcus unfolds Amber begins a journey of discovery of her own that will lead her not only into the dark secrets of the past & lost love but face to face with a tragedy much closer to home. Bonus content: * Interview with the author about her own overland adventure as an 18 year old that inspired the story * Discussion notes for reading groups

...

Its every parents worst nightmare... Stephanie Harker is travelling through the security gates at OHare airport on her way to an idyllic holiday. Five-year-old Jimmy goes through the metal detector ahead of her. But then in panic & disbelief Stephanie watches as a uniformed agent leads her boy away
- & shes stuck the other side of Security hysterical with worry. The authorities unaware of Jimmys existence just see a woman behaving erratically; Stephanie is brutally wrestled to the ground & blasted with a taser gun to restrain her. & by the time she can tell them what has happened Jimmy is long gone. But as Stephanie tells her story to the FBI it becomes clear that everything is not as it seems with this seeminglynormal family. What is Jimmys background? Why would someone want to abduct him? & with time running out how can Stephanie get him back? A breathtakingly rich & gripping psychological thriller The Vanishing Point is Val Mc Dermids most accomplished standalone novel to date a work of haunting brilliance.
...

The stunning new novel from the rising star of the crime writing genre Vanishing Point sees DI Jack Brady investigating the ...

Stephanie Harker is travelling through security at O' Hare airport with five-year-old Jimmy. But in a moment everything changes. In disbelief Stephanie watches as a uniformed agent leads her boy away
- & she's stuck the other side of the gates hysterical with worry. The authorities unaware of Jimmy's existence just see a woman behaving erratically; Stephanie is wrestled to the ground & blasted with a taser gun. By the time she can tell them what has happened Jimmy is long gone. But as Stephanie tells her story to the FBI it becomes clear that everything is not as it seems. There are many potential suspects for this abduction. With time rapidly running out how can Stephanie get him back? A breathtakingly rich & gripping psychological thriller The Vanishing Point is Val Mc Dermid's most accomplished standalone novel to date a work of haunting brilliance.
...

Why is the Brazilian rainforest vanishing so fast? & why is it essential not only to the people & animals within it but to the whole world? This story seen through the eyes of a child called Remaema describes how the Yanomami tribe are battling against potential developers. Can a solution be found that will protect the forest & allow the tribe to continue living as they always have done while benefiting from limited development? Richard Platts dramatic approach & Rupert van Wyks masterly illustrations accompanied by an information spread offer an exciting perspective on a controversial & topical subject. ...

Thackeray's upper-class Regency world is a noisy & jostling commercial fairground predominantly driven by acquisitive greed & soulless materialism in which the narrator himself plays a brilliantly versatile role as a serio-comic observer. Although subtitled A Novel without a Hero Vanity Fair follows the fortunes of two contrasting but inter-linked lives: through the retiring Amelia Sedley & the brilliant Becky Sharp Thackeray examines the position of women in an intensely exploitative male world. ...

Becky Sharp is a poor orphan when she first makes friends with the lovely Amelia Sedley at Miss Pinkertons Academy for Young Ladies. She may not have the natural advantages of her companion but she more than makes up for it with her wit charm deviousness & determination to make a success of herself whatever the cost. Vanity Fair" is the story of Beckys spectacular rise & fall as she gambles manipulates & seduces her way through high society & the Napoleonic wars." ...

Standing at the crossroads of psychology & religion this catalyzing work applied the scientific method to a field abounding in abstract theory. William James believed that individual religious experiences rather than the precepts of organized religions were the backbone of the worlds religious life. His discussions of conversion repentance mysticism & saintliness & his observations on actual personal religious experiences
- all support this thesis. In his introduction Martin E. Marty discusses how James pluralistic view of religion led to his remarkable tolerance of extreme forms of religious behaviour his challenging highly original theories & his welcome lack of pretension in all of his observations on the individual & the divine.
...

A woman vanishes in the fog up on 'the Hill' an area in Lafferton known for its tranquillity & peace. The police are not alarmed; people usually disappear for their own reasons. But when a young girl an old man & even a dog disappear no one can deny that something untoward is happening in this quiet cathedral town. Young policewoman Freya Graffham is assigned to the case she's new to the job compassionate inquisitive dedicated & needs to know
- perhaps too much. She & the enigmatic detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler have the task of unravelling the mystery behind this gruesome sequence of events. From the passages revealing the killer's mind to the final heart-stopping twist The Various Haunts of Men is an astounding & masterly crime debut & is the first in a magnificent series featuring Simon Serrailler.
...

Marina Lewycka explores the clash of the generations in one extremely colourful family in her comic novel Various Pets Alive & Dead". For twenty years Doro & Marcus lived in a commune convinced lentils & free love would change the world. They didnt. What they did do was give their children a terror of radicalism dirt cooking rotas & poverty. Their daughter Clara wants nothing less conformist than her own clean bathroom. Their son Serge hides the awkward fact that hes a banker earning loadsamoney. So when Doro & Marcus spring a surprise on their kids
- just as the world is rocked in ways they always wished for
- the family is forced to confront some thorny truths about themselves..." Made me laugh at least once every chapter. Lewyckas fiction is unlike anything else around at present. The warmth of its zest its blend of quirky humane comedy & intellectual seriousness make this a novel to treasure". (" New Statesman"). " Wonderfully funny inventive & witty. Fizzes along from beginning to end". (" Daily Express"). " Hilarious. Lewyckas trademark humour is present in abundance.. .she is not only witty but astute. A charming beautifully observed novel". (" Independent on Sunday"). " Every bit as funny as "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian"". (" Good Housekeeping"). Bestselling author Marina Lewkyca has received great critical acclaim since the publication of her hilarious first novel "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" in 2005 which was the winner of the Bollinger Everyman Prize for Comic Fiction 2005 winner of the Saga Award for Wit 2005 shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2005 & longlisted for the Booker prize 2005. Her other humorous novels " Two Caravans" (published as " Strawberry Fields" in the USA & Canada) & " We Are All made from Glue" are also available from Penguin."

...