Spider Shepherd's MI5 Controller, Charlie Button, has gone rogue, using government resources to get revenge on the men who killed her husband. Spider is told to betray her. Worse, he's asked to cooperate with his nemesis at MI6, Jeremy Willoughby Brown, in taking Charlie down. Meanwhile, Spider's 16 year-old-son is caught with drugs. But the drug police offer Spider a deal: go undercover, unmask a local dealer and his son will go free. Spider has no option but to cooperate. There's little time to debate because another high profile mission is about to engulf him. Along with everything else, it's down to Spider to stop the assassination of a head of state on British soil.
When offered the post once styled Church of England Deliverance Minister, the Reverend Merrily Watkins - parish priest and single parent - cannot easily refuse. But the retiring exorcist, strongly objecting to women priests, not only refuses to help Merrily but ensures that she's soon exposed to the job at its most terrifying. And things get no easier: as an early winter slices through the old city of Hereford, a body is found in the River Wye, an ancient church is desecrated and there are signs of dark ritual on a hill overlooking the city.
A long buried and shocking secret has been uncovered. In 1940, President Roosevelt and Canada's Mackenzie King secretly agreed to abandon the Allies and make peace with Hitler if the Nazis successfully invaded Britain. Decades later, Soviet agents are ready to use this information to shatter the NATO alliance and use the ensuing geopolitical chaos to strengthen their position in Europe. Only one man stands in their way. Tadeusz Anders - half Polish, half English and totally professional - plunges into a series of cruel and violent manoeuvers to combat the cold-blooded operatives of the KGB.
Glastonbury, legendary resting place of the Holy Grail, is a mysterious and haunting town. But when plump, dizzy Diane Ffitch returns home, it's with a sense of deep unease - and not only about her aristocratic family's reaction to her broken engagement and her New Age companions. Plans for a new motorway have intensified the old bitterness between the local people and the "pilgrims", so already the sacred air is soured. And, as the town becomes increasingly split by violence and death, Diane, local bookseller Juanita Carey and the writer Joe Powys must now face up to the worst of all possibilities: the existence of an anti-Grail - the dark chalice
Inspector Alvarez is rudely awakened from his afternoon siesta by a phone call reporting the death of one Senor Picare. On arrival at the Picare villa, he finds the grieving widow has retired to bed and the housekeeper, Rosalfa, is dealing with the police and comforting the young maid, Marta, who is devastated by the death of her employer. It soon becomes clear that Senor Picare may have promised Marta - and other young women - more than he should have done and there could be a fair number of disgruntled husbands or fathers around who had a reason to want him gone.
On Christmas Eve, heavy snowfall brings a train to a halt near the village of Hemmersby. Several passengers take shelter in a deserted country house, where the fire has been lit and the table laid for tea - but no one is at home. Trapped together for Christmas, the passengers are seeking to unravel the secrets of the empty house when a murderer strikes in their midst.
Jesse Wilder has witnessed more than his share of violence. Wounded in battle as a captain in the Army of Tennessee, he was taken prisoner and inducted into the Union Army to fight Indians. After the War Between the States, ostracized by his neighbours, he headed to Mexico to fight with other ex-confederates aiding the Juaristas against Emperor Maximilian. That cost him the life of his wife and unborn child. Now all he wants is peace.But he's offered a position as a scout on a highly secret mission into Mexico, where bandits are holding the Sonora governor's daughter for ransom. The rescue attempt is fraught with danger and Jesse has every reason to walk away from the offer... Except that one of his wife's murderers is now second in command to the Sonoran bandit chief.
When Millie Brady saves Orla Hart's life, she doesn't realise how drastically it will change her own - not least because the boyfriend who is popping the question at the time promptly storms off in a huff. Actually, Millie's relieved. She's happy to enjoy a man-free summer in Cornwall. But bestselling novelist Orla has other ideas... Dropped wallets, roller-skating gorillagrams, the world's most flirtatious boss, and a helicopter in the back garden all conspire to produce a summer neither Millie - or Orla - will ever forget.
Peter Messenger is out to avenge the death of man called Adams, challenging the killer, a Blackfoot chief, to an encounter which only one will survive.
An awkward misfit loathed by his autocratic grandmother, nine-year-old Fulke FitzWarin leaves his family to be fostered in the household of Jocelin de Dinan, lord of Ludlow. Fulke is to train in knightly arts but to succeed he must overcome the deep-seated doubts holding him back. Hawise, Jocelin's youngest daughter, befriends the young Fulke. As they grow up, an implacable enemy threatens Ludlow and as the pressure mounts, their friendship changes until one fateful day they find themselves staring at each other across a divide. As the menace to Ludlow intensifies, Fulke must confront the future head on.
Two brothers, John and William Rother, live together at Chalklands Farm in the beautiful Sussex Downs. Their peaceful rural life is shattered when John Rother disappears and his abandoned car is found. Has he been kidnapped? Or is his disappearance more sinister - connected, perhaps, to his growing rather too friendly with his brother's wife? Superintendent Meredith is called to investigate - and begins to suspect the worst when human bones are discovered on Chalklands farmland. His patient, careful detective method begins slowly to untangle the clues as suspicion shifts from one character to the next.
A woman swims in a remote, milky-blue lagoon. Steam rises from the water and as it clears, a body is revealed in the ghostly light. Miles away, a vast aircraft hangar rises behind the perimeter fence of the US military base. A sickening thud is heard as a man's body falls from a high platform. Many years before, a schoolgirl went missing. The world has forgotten her. But Erlendur has not. Erlendur Sveinsson is a newly promoted detective with a battered body, a rogue CIA operative and America's troublesome presence in Iceland to contend with. In his spare time he investigates a cold case. He is only starting out but he is already up to his neck.
In a flat in Reykjavik, a young man lies dead in a pool of blood although there are no signs of a break-in or any struggle. A purple shawl, found under the bed, gives off a strong and unusual aroma. A vial of narcotics found in the victim's pocket among other clues soon lead Erlendur's colleagues down a trail of hidden violence, psychological brutality and of wrongs that will never be fully righted.
A Slip of the Keyboard brings together for the first time the finest examples of Pratchett's non fiction writing, both serious and surreal: from musings on mushrooms to what it means to be a writer (and why banana daiquiris are so important); from memories of Granny Pratchett to speculation about Gandalf's love life, and passionate defences of the causes dear to him.
Young Imogen Burnhope and her maid board a non-stop train to Oxford but they never arrive. All the passengers alight but the two women seem to have vanished into thin air. Is it a simple case of a run away? Or is there a more sinister, larger conspiracy at work? The Railway Detective must unravel the mystifying web of their disappearance before they vanish into oblivion for good.
The girl emerged from the woods, barely alive. Days later, another desperate escapee is found - and a pattern is emerging. Pairs of victims are being abducted, imprisoned then faced with a terrible choice: kill or be killed.Would you rather lose your life or lose your mind? Detective Inspector Helen Grace leads the investigation to hunt down this unseen monster, she learns that it may be the survivors - living calling cards - who hold the key to the case.
With his boss recovering from a heart attack, Deputy Chief Constable Bob Skinner is filling his shoes - and that means more time behind a desk. But he's about to be provided with more drama than he could ever want. One of the world's most ruthless terrorists is on his way to Edinburgh - and he can only have one thing on his mind: the forthcoming conference of world Heads of Government. If Skinner doesn't pick up his trail fast, he could have a global disaster in his backyard.
Roberta likes to collect the letters and postcards she finds in the books that pass through her hands in the second-hand shop where she works. When her father gives her some of her grandmother's belongings, she finds a baffling letter from the grandfather she never knew - dated after he supposedly died in the war.
