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Orion Books
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Dan and Sally Oliver and their friend Chloe Hennessey are lucky to be alive. Three years on, after surviving one of the world's biggest natural disasters — the Boxing Day tsunami — their lives have changed dramatically. Dan and Sally are now parents. Dan is enjoying being a stay-at-home father taking care of their young son, and Sally is the bread winner and loves her job as a partner in a Manchester law firm. The arrangement has so far worked well, but when Dan starts to question whether Sally has got her priorities right, the cracks in their marriage begin to appear. Dan and Sally have everything Chloe wishes for in life — a happy marriage and a beautiful child. Dumped by her long term boyfriend just weeks after the tsunami, she's been on a mission ever since to find the perfect father for the child she craves. When she meets Seth Hawthorne, she thinks she may have hit the jackpot. But is Seth the man she thinks he is? |
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Returning from the Synod in St Petersburg — and an official rebuke of her crime-fighting ways — Sister Pelagia finds herself aboard a steamer dodging pickpockets, zealots and a sinister man with a detachable eye. But a brutal murder in the next cabin spells the end of her sleuthing retirement, and the start of an investigation that will take her to the Holy Land and far beyond. Pelagia's journey is peppered with tales of miracles and roosters, and caves that act as portals to other worlds. But an assassin is closing in, pursuing the sister to the land of the Gospels where her criminal enquiry becomes a spiritual enquiry as she sets down her knitting needles to question the very foundations of her faith... |
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With the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the riffs, the lyrics and the songs that roused the world, and over four decades he lived the original rock and roll life: taking the chances he wanted, speaking his mind, and making it all work in a way that no one before him had ever done. Now, at last, the man himself tells us the story of life in the crossfire hurricane. And what a life. Listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records as a child in post-war Kent. Learning guitar and forming a band with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones. The Rolling Stones' first fame and success as a bad-boy band. The notorious Redlands drug bust and subsequent series of confrontations with a nervous establishment that led to his enduring image as outlaw and folk hero. Creating immortal riffs such as the ones in 'Jumping Jack Flash' and 'Street Fighting Man' and 'Honky Tonk Women'. Falling in love with Anita Pallenberg and the death of Brian Jones. Tax exile in France, wildfire tours of the US, 'Exile on Main Street' and 'Some Girls'. Ever increasing fame, isolation and addiction. Falling in love with Patti Hansen. Estrangement from Mick Jagger and subsequent reconciliation. Solo albums and performances with his band the Xpensive Winos. Marriage, family and the road that goes on for ever. In a voice that is uniquely and intimately his own, with the disarming honesty that has always been his trademark, Keith Richards brings us the essential life story of our times. |
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Change is in the air in a shabby apartment in the 19th arrondissment in Paris. One unremarkable day Madame Lefevre invites Feliks to call her Sandrine. As his indomitable landlady's manners have been as unvarying as her dresses for the last 36 years, this feels significant to Feliks. And it is. As the face of Europe transforms beyond recognition Feliks's own life teeters on the edge of change. All it takes is one uncharacteristic decision and suddenly an unstoppable chain of life-changing events is set in motion. Feliks does not embrace change — in fact, it makes him most uncomfortable. But as he's reunited with a brother that he hasn't seen since his childhood and comes face-to-face with the love he let slip through his fingers, Feliks has to face up to the possibility that the convictions he has based his life upon were nothing but smoke and mirrors. Soon his carefully constructed world is tumbling round his ears and Feliks wonders: is there such a thing as a second chance for someone like him? |
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'Having sifted through everything I have heard about the tiger and his wife, I can tell you that this much is fact: in April of 1941, without declaration or warning, the German bombs started falling over the city and did not stop for three days. The tiger did not know that they were bombs...' A tiger escapes from the local zoo, padding through the ruined streets and onwards, to a ridge above the Balkan village of Galina. His nocturnal visits hold the villagers in a terrified thrall. But for one boy, the tiger is a thing of magic — Shere Khan awoken from the pages of The Jungle Book. Natalia is the granddaughter of that boy. Now a doctor, she is visiting orphanages after another war has devastated the Balkans. On this journey, she receives word of her beloved grandfather's death, far from their home, in circumstances shrouded in mystery. From fragments of stories her grandfather told her as a child, Natalia realises he may have died searching for 'the deathless man', a vagabond who was said to be immortal. Struggling to understand why a man of science would undertake such a quest, she stumbles upon a clue that will lead her to a tattered copy of The Jungle Book, and then to the extraordinary story of the tiger's wife. |
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These are the stories our ancestors told to explain how the world began; or they are the legends of half-remembered heroes and people whose lives were changed by magic. Brilliantly retold in the sparkling and inspirational words of the multiple award-winning and much-loved children's author, Geraldine McCaughrean, the tales will delight and entertain readers of all ages. Together, ROBIN HOOD AND THE GOLDEN ARROW AND A WORLD OF OTHER STORIES with its two companion volumes, KING ARTHUR AND A WORLD OF OTHER STORIES and GEORGE AND THE DRAGON AND A WORLD OF OTHER STORIES, make a wonderful gift collection of classic tales from around the world — many of them unavailable anywhere else. |
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The Granville Midsummer Ball is always an affair to remember. The who's who of Irish society gather at Carrickcross House — the rural family estate — for a night of revelry. But this year's soiree is extra-special: matriarch Honoria is announcing her grandson Rossa's engagement to Ashling Morrison. Ashling has been swept off her feet. Tall, dark and handsome, Rossa's the perfect catch, but is he too good to be true? Why is Honoria so keen to make Ashling — stepdaughter of her life-long enemy Coppelia — part of the Granville clan? Can Rossa's brother Carrick hold on to his position as rightful heir? And will ruthless Coppelia have her way? With the promise of distinguished company, drinking, dancing and murder... who could possibly refuse this invitation? Repondez s'il vous plait. |
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September and already she has performance anxiety. Not surprising when she has agreed to lay on the annual Christmas Eve village bash — the piece de resistance of her husband's former wife — not to mention having to host Christmas for his difficult offspring. New to this frenzied build-up to the festivities, Beth begins to lose sight of what it all means. To her the Christmas lights are looking more like the headlamps of an oncoming train. Carol: glamorous magazine editor, who put her aspirational Christmas issue to bed sometime in July and is so involved in finding a scoop to save her ailing magazine that she fails to notice the impending festive rush. Panicked and wracked with guilt, she is determined to make it a picture perfect time for her little boy and, opting for convenience, books a lovely-sounding cottage in a quaint village. Even the best laid plans have a habit of unravelling — and no plan at all is a recipe for disaster. So when these two Christmases collide, it looks like it's going to be anything but goodwill towards men... |
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General Khrapov, newly appointed Governor-General of Siberia and soon-to-be Minister of the Interior, is murdered in his official saloon carriage on his way from St Petersburg to Moscow. The killer, disguised as Fandorin, leaves a knife thrust up to the hilt in his victim's chest and escapes through the window of the carriage. Can Fandorin escape suspicion? A battle of wills and ideals, revolutionaries and traditionalists and good versus evil. |
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THE SOOKIE STACKHOUSE COMPANION is a unique guide to Sookie Stackhouse and her dark fantasy southern-Gothic world, as well as an in-depth look at the award-winning HBO series TRUE BLOOD. The book will feature a brand-new Sookie story and Charlaine's own map of Bon Temps, never before published, with every place of interest in the town, including Merlotte's bar and Sookie's home. Other treats include: * An introduction by Charlaine about the impact Sookie Stackhouse has had on her writing career, and the influence on the genre at large * A large section on the award-winning HBO series TRUE BLOOD * Detailed summaries of each novel and entries on every important character, event and setting in the series, in Sookie's voice. * An overview of Sookie's world, including information on the vampires, shapeshifter wereanimal, and fairie factions * Interviews with Charlaine Harris and Alan Ball * A selection of favourite Bon Temps recipes. |
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SNOBS Edith Lavery, the attractive only child of a middle-class accountant, leaves behind her dull job when she manages to bag one of the most eligible bachelors in town. But is life amongst the aristocracy really all that it seems...? PAST IMPERFECT Damian Baxter is very, very rich. But he has one concern: who should inherit his fortune. A letter from an ex-girlfriend suggests Damian may have fathered a child, but the letter is anonymous. Finding the truth will not be easy — and the only man who can help is Damian's sworn enemy... |
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Best mates Sandie, Emily and Grazia thought they'd be friends forever, but they reckoned without the dividing effects of men and money... Shopping guru Sandie is on a roll, with a baby on the way and Toby, her posh totty partner, proposing every five minutes. But when she realises the legendary Garnett's Department Store is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, she knows she's the only one to save it, even though Toby's mother seems determined to scupper the rescue bid. For Emily, Sandie's apparently perfect life is a bitter pill to swallow, especially as Emily's been banned from having a second child by her boyfriend, Will, who is more interested in saving the planet than her. As the rifts grow, will she learn to stand on her own two feet, or give in to a new temptation? Glamorous Grazia tries to play peace-maker but she's facing her own big decision: whether to develop her new career as an erotic embroidery artist... or give up on her talent for the sake of her new, needy lover? Can the magic of retail bring the secret shoppers back together, or is it time to shut up shop for good? |
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My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (and as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit — we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to — and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England. Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden... and there's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair. The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos — or die trying. |
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Life is looking up for Saffy. She has a great job, a gorgeous flat in the most desirable part of Dublin and — after six years — it looks like her boyfriend, Greg, is going to propose. Greg (just voted the 9th most eligible man in Ireland) is on a high, too — he's about to swap his part as a heart-throb in an Irish soap for a break in Hollywood. His best mate Conor wakes up every morning with Jess, the most beautiful woman on the planet but, even after seven years and two kids, she won't marry him. He spends his days teaching teenagers and his nights writing the book he hopes will change everything, including Jess's mind. But their happy endings are playing hard to get. It seems everyone's keeping secrets — one night stands, heartbreak, grief and loss are all in the mix. It's going to take some tough questions and even tougher answers before anyone's being honest — even with themselves. |
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Angel Sands is a traditional seaside resort of bed and breakfasts, cottages to let and teashops. And with the best views of the tiny beach and surrounding coastline is Paradise House, home to the Baxter girls — or the Sisters of Whimsy as they're known locally. With their mother taking time out to find herself, it's down to Genevieve to maintain the smooth running of the family-owned B&B. Not an easy task given that their father — now that his wife isn't around — has suddenly become a magnet for the opposite sex. And there's little help from her sisters: Nattie is too busy offending her long time admirer, and Polly spends most of her days with her head in the clouds or in a book. But when news spreads in the tightly knit community that a nearby dilapidated barn has been sold, Genevieve finds that a bittersweet trip down memory lane is unavoidable... |
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Gaul was divided into three parts. No, four parts — for one small village of indomitable Gauls still held out against the Roman invaders. BOOK 23 Julius Caesar has devised his most cunning attack yet on the indomitable Gauls — he sends Caius Preposterus, a bright young graduate of the Latin School of Economics, to corrupt them by introducing them to big business. But do wealth and success bring happiness? |
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I was my dad's vinyl-wallah: I changed his records while he lounged around drinking tea, and that's how I know my Argo from my Tempo. And it's why, when Dr Walid called me to the morgue to listen to a corpse, I recognised the tune it was playing. Something violently supernatural had happened to the victim, strong enough to leave its imprint like a wax cylinder recording. Cyrus Wilkinson, part-time jazz saxophonist and full-time accountant, had apparently dropped dead of a heart attack just after finishing a gig in a Soho jazz club. He wasn't the first. No one was going to let me exhume corpses to see if they were playing my tune, so it was back to old-fashioned legwork, starting in Soho, the heart of the scene. I didn't trust the lovely Simone, Cyrus' ex-lover, professional jazz kitten and as inviting as a Rubens' portrait, but I needed her help: there were monsters stalking Soho, creatures feeding off that special gift that separates the great musician from someone who can raise a decent tune. What they take is beauty. What they leave behind is sickness, failure and broken lives. And as I hunted them, my investigation got tangled up in another story: a brilliant trumpet player, Richard 'Lord' Grant — my father — who managed to destroy his own career, twice. That's the thing about policing: most of the time you're doing it to maintain public order. Occasionally you're doing it for justice. And maybe once in a career, you're doing it for revenge. |
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They were looking for a miracle cure... Sara Lowell and Michael Silverman. The ideal celebrity couple, darlings of the media. She's TV's most popular journalist. He's New York's hottest basketball star. Their lives would soon be shattered by the most deadly illness of modern times. Dr. Harvey Riker. His clinic has found the miracle cure that millions seek. One-by-one his patients are getting well. One-by-one they are targeted by a serial killer more fatal than their disease. Rev. Earnest Sanders. His ultra-conservative Holy Crusade Church saw the disease as God's vengeance on a lustful, sin-ridden generation of the damned. And God's will could not be denied. Lieutenant Bernstein. His true desires make him a perfect choice to track the killer — or a perfect victim. |
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Senka Skorikov, orphan and urchin, has been abandoned to the murky world of Moscow's gangster district. While picking a pocket or two, he glimpses the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, and joins the gang of her overlord lover, The Prince, so desperate he is to meet her. Senka climbs the criminal ranks, uncovering a stash of precious metal, and gradually capturing the heart of his beloved Death — so named for the life expectancy of her lovers. But as the bandit community balks at his success on both fronts, threats on his life begin to pour in. A dandy and his 'Chinese' sidekick seem to be taking an inordinate interest in Senka's welfare, and it becomes clear that those threatening Senka are linked to a spate of murders, grizzly even by underworld standards. Fandorin must unweave a tangled web of narcotics, false identities and organised crime — but can he survive an encounter with the ever-alluring Death unscathed? Find out in the darkest Fandorin to date! |
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These are the stories our ancestors told to explain how the world began; or they are the legends of half-remembered heroes and people whose lives were changed by magic. Brilliantly retold in the sparkling and inspirational words of the multiple award-winning and much-loved children's author, Geraldine McCaughrean, the tales will delight and entertain readers of all ages. Together, GEORGE AND THE DRAGON AND A WORLD OF OTHER STORIES with its two companion volumes, ROBIN HOOD AND A WORLD OF OTHER STORIES and KING ARTHUR AND A WORLD OF OTHER STORIES, make a wonderful gift collection of classic tales from around the world — many of them unavailable anywhere else. |
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