Follow Polly and Friday on another crazy adventure on the streets of Lamonic Bibber. And watch out for that dastardly villain, Mr Gum, not to mention his sidekick, Billy William. It's barking bonkers. There's forests, legendary beasts, caterpillars called Graham and a great big BEEFER of a cherry tree. But what dark secrets are hidden in that tree, where the leaves grow thick and green? Views: 19
SUMMARY:The thrilling tale of a secret European sect and the musical mastermind at its center, from a critically acclaimed novelist at the top of her form. The bodies are discovered on New Year’s Day, sixteen dead in the freshly fallen snow. The adults lie stiff in a semicircle; the children, in pajamas and overcoats, are curled at their feet. When he hears the news, Commissaire André Schweigen knows who to call: Dominique Carpentier, the Judge, also known as the “sect hunter.” Carpentier sweeps into the investigation in thick glasses and red gloves, and together the Commissaire and the Judge begin searching for clues in a nearby chalet. Among the decorations and unwrapped presents of a seemingly ordinary holiday, they find a leather-bound book, filled with mysterious code, containing maps of the stars. The book of the Faith leads them to the Composer, Friedrich Grosz, who is connected in some way to every one of the dead. Following his trail, Carpentier, Schweigen, and the Judge’s assistant, Gaëlle, are drawn into a world of complex family ties, seductive music, and ancient cosmic beliefs. Hurtling breathlessly through the vineyards of Southern France to the gabled houses of Lübeck, Germany, through cathedrals, opera houses, museums, and the cobbled streets of an Alpine village, this ferocious new novel is a metaphysical mystery of astonishing verve and power. Views: 19
In Virginia Hamilton's Edgar Award–winning novel, teenager Thomas Small and his family must uncover the haunting historical legacy of their Civil War–era house Shortly after moving into an old, spooky home, thirteen-year-old Thomas Small and his family start hearing strange noises. The house has a past, and when Thomas discovers a hidden passageway that may have been part of the Underground Railroad, the family realizes the house has a history as well. To find out all there is to know about the House of Dies Drear, Thomas must explore secret rooms—and the secrets of lives lived centuries before, lives that tell the story of America's troubled early years. Views: 19
Award-winning author Michael Malone's The Last Noel is a beautiful gift to American fiction. In a deeply touching tale, The Last Noel captures the exuberance and poignance of a lasting friendship between a man and a woman from very different backgrounds. Noni Tilden and Kaye King grow up and grow close as their lives come dramatically together through four decades of tumultuous change in a small southern town.The story begins in 1963 when Kaye first meets Noni on the eve of their seventh birthdays. On that Christmas Eve, Kaye climbs through her bedroom window to invite her to come sledding with him in a rare southern snowfall. Over the next thirty years on twelve days of Christmas, they meet to share the passion, the sacrifice and the romance of a lifetime. At once exquisitely written and tearfully joyful, The Last Noel is one of the great love stories of our time.A Book Sense 76 Top 10 Selection"Malone's latest novel reaffirms his brilliance in crafting carefully... Views: 19
One of the most acclaimed novels of recent times, The Underground Man is the fictionalised diary of a deeply eccentric English aristocrat. The duke has just completed a network of tunnels beneath his estate. His health is failing, but his imagination seems to know no bounds. And while he spends more time underground and retreats ever deeper into the darker corners of his house there are some ghosts that demand to be acknowledged and some memories which insist on making themselves known. Views: 19
A classic Rendellian loner, Mix Cellini is superstitious about the number 13. Living in a decaying house in Notting Hill, Mix is obsessed with 10 Rillington Place, where the notorious John Christie committed a series of foul murders. He is also infatuated with a beautiful model who lives nearby – a woman who would not look at him twice. Mix's landlady, Gwedolen Chawcer is equally reclusive – living her life through her library of books. Both landlady and lodger inhabit weird worlds of their own. But when reality intrudes into Mix's life, a long pent-up violence explodes. Views: 19
While the rest of Joseph Roth's oeuvre has been made available to the English-speaking world in recent years, this new translation by Richard Panchyk – a distant relative of Roth – will redress the historical absence of such a key, neglected work in the Roth canon. Roth penned and published The Antichrist during the first years of his exile from his homeland, and an English translation was published in London, in 1935 by William Heinemann. The Antichrist's singularity amongst Joseph Roth's work stems both from the urgency that courses through its prose and the book's hybrid form, which seems simultaneously to straddle the novel, journalism and memoir. Though Roth himself referred proudly to this book as a novel, it is not easy to classify. In fact, at first glance one may be inclined to call it a series of interconnected essays, but it becomes clear that Antichrist is certainly more novel than essay. The Antichrist has less to do with religion than with what Roth... Views: 19
The second novel in the compelling series about two of medieval history's most fascinating characters, Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.It is 1154, and Henry Plantagenet avenges his family honour by taking back the English throne from Stephen the Usurper. The kingdom he inherits is impoverished, lawless and broken by years of civil war. By his side is the beautiful, wealthy and indomitable Eleanor of Aquitaine. Combining forces, this golden couple use their charisma and shrewd diplomacy to crush rebellious barons and restore England's prestige and glory.However, an equally ambitious financial magician is needed to restore the royal treasury. Opportunistic Thomas Becket answers the call, using his appointment of Chancellor to fill not only the King's coffers but also his own. In a dance of ambition, vengeance and forbidden passions, Henry, his Queen and the Chancellor fight for political power and control against forces seen and imagined, each with their own agenda, each... Views: 19
A Lambert and Hook MysteryWhen Richard Cullis’s life is threatened if he doesn’t cease animal testing at the labs where he is the director of research and he then collapses during a company golf tournament, murder is suspected, but who administered the poison? There are plenty of suspects, and DS Hook is called in to sift the truth from the lies. Views: 19
A young girl, Andrea Jamieson, loses her father who is trying to rescue a neighbor during a hurricane. She grows up to become a hurricane “hunter” and through her own efforts and those of her husband and colleagues accidentally creates the largest hurricane in history. Then it disappears in the Devil’s Triangle. So does her husband, flying over the storm to drop Silver Iodide crystals into the eye. Then, 30 years later, the storm – and the plane, are back. Andrea has a new weapon, a series of pumps, that might stop or divert the storm, but there’s little time, and all she really wants to do is track that plane that’s been gone so long and reunite with her long-lost husband. Views: 19
From a bold new voice in British comic fiction, a hilarious story of a middle-aged man who drops everything to move to the wilds of Scotland—discovering both a strange breed of capitalism and the redemptive power of nature.Claypole is not “a large man.” He is a fat man. A fat man with thin limbs, like an egg with tentacles. And life is not going well. He’s alone, idle, and on the brink of a medical crisis when a childhood acquaintance makes him an offer he can’t understand, can’t talk about, but ultimately can’t refuse. A week later, he finds himself in rural Scotland, plunged into an eccentric community at war over a wind farm. Claypole is supposed to be a backer, but he has no idea what side he’s on, even though it may earn him a lot of money. All he wants is to look like a hero in front of the woman with the bright blue eyes who brought him here. To do so he must run the gauntlet of a family with many dark secrets,... Views: 19
