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Quercus/MacLehose Press
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On an amateur dig in Israel, two students discover what appears to be the femur of a very large humanoid, and there's compelling evidence to suggest that it's the thigh bone of the Biblical giant, Goliath. Back in New York, they head into the subway carrying the carefully wrapped bone when a hitman attempts to kill them. Hammer comes to their rescue. It is only the beginning of their troubles. Some people will stop at nothing to get their hands on the precious item, each for their own nefarious reasons. Hammer and his loyal assistant Velda assure once again that the decent guys triumph in this cracking new thriller from an acknowledged master of the genre. |
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When thirteen-year-old Johnny's talking computer Kovac detects an extraterrestrial signal, his life is set to change for ever. Until then, stuck in his children's home in Castle Dudbury New Town, with the nasty cook Mr Wilkins watching his every move, football had been his only escape. But soon things start happening around him that Johnny doesn't understand: why is his mother, who is on life support in a hospital for the criminally insane, being guarded by sinister looking men? And why was a journalist murdered shortly after Johnny talked to him? When Johnny finds out he has a sister, he decides to run away to find her. His search for answers takes him farther from home than he could ever have imagined, on a spectacular journey through time and space. Along the way he visits new worlds, prehistoric Earth and the lost city of Atlantis before finally discovering the truth about his parents and who he really is. |
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Invaders have exploded the sun's nearest star. Will the death of Earth's sun be next? While trying to keep up with his school studies and ensuring his football team stays top of the league, it's Johnny's job to safeguard planet Earth. When invaders turn a nearby star into a supernova, Johnny must act to protect the sun. Johnny and his sister Clara prepare to travel in their space ship to the galactic capital for help, but their mission is stalled when Johnny discovers that his mysterious elder brother Nicky is on the side of the invaders... So begins an epic adventure across space involving killer clones, a spy trial and devious alien twins. Will Johnny save his brother, and planet Earth, in time? Keith Mansfield's vivid space adventure will wow fans of action stories and science fiction. |
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Oskar and Eli. In very different ways, they were both victims. Which is why, against the odds, they became friends. And how they came to depend on one another, for life itself. Oskar is a 12 year old boy living with his mother on a dreary housing estate at the city's edge. He dreams about his absentee father, gets bullied at school, and wets himself when he's frightened. Eli is the young girl who moves in next door. She doesn't go to school and never leaves the flat by day. She is a 200 year old vampire, forever frozen in childhood, and condemned to live on a diet of fresh blood. John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel is a unique and brilliant fusion of social novel and vampire legend, a deeply moving fable about rejection, friendship and loyalty. |
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Conn's quest to save his city's magic has become urgent: his power stone is lost and Shadowmen, ruthless assassins, are stalking the city's people. But when Conn blows up Wizard Nevery's beloved home, he is banished by his own master. Determined to return and save Wellmet, he travels to Desh, a glittering city in the desert, home to the Shadowmen and run by a mysterious Sorcerer-King... Sarah Prineas has created a terrific adventure that crosses new magical lands. Conn meets new friends and enemies and his quest to discover the truth about magic takes on exciting twists. The second Magic Thief novel is as un-put-downable as the first. |
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Sherlock Holmes' nemesis lives again. It's the turn of the century and Moriarty has been away from London for several years, setting up crime syndicates in the US. But he's suddenly called back to London to deal with the European upstart criminals who have attempted to oust him. |
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Bernie Gunther is the ideal narrator for Philip Kerr' bleak tale of the dirty deals made by victors and vanquished alike in post-war Germany. Having learned that there's no way to distinguish 'the one from the other', the cynical P.I. has the moral clarity to see through the deceit and hypocrisy of both friend and foe.It is Munich, in the year 1949. Amid the chaos of defeat, it's home to all the backstabbing intrigue that prospers in the aftermath of war. A place where a private eye can find a lot of not-quite-reputable work: cleaning up the Nazi past of well-to-do locals, abetting fugitives in the flight abroad, and sorting out rival claims to stolen goods. It's work that fills Bernie with disgust — but it also fills his sorely depleted wallet. Then a woman seeks him out. Her husband has disappeared. She's not looking to get him back — he's a wanted man who ran one of the most vicious concentration camps in Poland. She just wants confirmation that he's dead. It's a simple enough job. But in post-war Germany, nothing is simple... |
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Posing as an escaping Nazi war-criminal Bernie Gunther arrives in Buenos Aires and, having revealed his real identity to the local chief of police, discovers that his reputation as a detective goes before him. A young girl has been murdered in peculiarly gruesome circumstances that strongly resemble Bernie's final case as a homicide detective with the Berlin police. A case he had failed to solve. Circumstances lead the chief of police in Buenos Aires to suppose that the murderer may be one of several thousand ex Nazis who have fetched up in Argentina since 1945. And, therefore, who better than Bernie Gunther to help him track that murderer down? Redolent with atmosphere, this novel ends up asking some highly provocative questions about the true extent of Argentina's Nazi collaboration and anti-semitism under the Perons. |
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The trouble with being a vampire is... You can't get a decent haircut. You live on guinea-pig blood. And even worse, most of the world's population wants to kill you. For no good reason. Nina Harrison became a vampire in 1973, when she was fifteen. Since then, life's been one big drag — mostly because she spends all her time with a bunch of vampires, in a vampire therapy group. Then one of them gets staked by an anonymous vampire slayer, and things become even worse: while tracking down the culprit, Nina and her fellow vampires end up in the middle of an illegal werewolf-fighting racket, and find themselves the target of some genuine villains who'll stop at nothing to get their werewolf back. |
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Augustus Cain is a man with his back against the wall. A war-scarred wanderer, he faces a past he wants to forget, a present without prospect or fortune, and an uncertain future marred by the loss of his most prized possession — his horse — which he has carelessly gambled away. But he is not without skill — he has an uncanny, if unwelcome, ability to track the most elusive runaway slaves. And to repay a debt and keep his horse, he must head north from Virginia and retrieve a runaway named Rosetta. When he eventually runs Rosetta to ground in Boston, Cain discovers she carries a secret — and the size of the bounty on her head begins to make more sense. Fleeing the northern states pursued by a posse of Unionists, Cain finds himself increasingly drawn to Rosetta and starts to wonder if his five hundred dollar fee — if any fee — could ever be enough to return her to her master... |
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Ten high achieving ladies are gathered together in the week between Christmas and the New Year, at the expensive Castle Spa, seeking, through Botox, aromatherapy and general all round pampering, a new beginning to their lives. The Ladies lounge around in the Jacuzzi, drinking champagne and eating chocolate telling each other the stories of their lives. Starting with the Trophy wife's tale: her spell in a Greek prison has left her in serious need of a makeover; the Brain Surgeon's tale: of twins and mistaken identity; the Judge's tale: of the sex change which allowed him to judge the pleasures of the bedchamber from both male and female perspectives. The manicurist, the public speaker, the journalist, the company director, the ex vicar's wife, the screenwriter, all share their stories, ending with the stepmother's tale, a reversal of Cinderella's fate, with the stepmother as victim... Sparkling, witty, always compassionate and occasionally libidinous, Fay Weldon's new novel recalls Boccaccio's late medieval masterwork, The Decameron. Boccaccio dedicated his book to the ladies of his time, who were forced to hide their amorous passions under a veil of discretion, while men were free to indulge theirs. |
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Since the beginning of time, great leaders have used their power of oratory to win and inspire followers. This book contains over 50 momentous and thought-provoking speeches from a wide range of historical eras and nations and will both inspire readers and give them a greater understanding of the events of the time. Each speech is accompanied by a comprehensive introduction that explains its historical background, why it was significant and what happened as a result. A biography of each speechmaker explains how they came to be standing at the crossroads of history. |
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Dru Anderson: Night Hunter. Knife Wielder. Heart Breaker. Dru can sense evil, which helps when she and her Dad are tracking down ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and the occasional reanimated corpse. It's a dangerous life, but it's the only one she knows. Then Dru's dad turns up dead and she suddenly finds herself in the middle of a deadly game where every move she makes could be her last. Dru is more special than she realizes — and whatever killed her dad could be coming for her next. Can Dru stay alive long enough to fall for one — or both — of the guys hungry for her affections? Find out in the heart-stopping first book in a thrilling series. |
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Dru has made it to Schola, the leading school where the vampire-fighting Order is based. There she is up against the capricious Anna, the only other female who shares her powers. Dru must unlock the mystery of who betrayed her mother, battle her intensifying feelings for both Graves and Christophe, and try to stay hidden from Sergej's deadly nosferat — bloodthirsty hunters who'll stop at nothing to destroy her. |
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It is 1867, Canada: as winter tightens its grip on the isolated settlement of Dove River, a man is brutally murdered and a 17-year old boy disappears. Tracks leaving the dead man's cabin head north towards the forest and the tundra beyond. In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the township — journalists, Hudson's Bay Company men, trappers, traders — but do they want to solve the crime or exploit it? One-by-one the assembled searchers set out from Dove River, pursuing the tracks across a desolate landscape home only to wild animals, madmen and fugitives, variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for 17 years, a Native American culture, and a fortune in stolen furs before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good. In an astonishingly assured debut, Stef Penney deftly weaves adventure, suspense, revelation and humour into a panoramic historical romance, an exhilarating thriller, a keen murder mystery and ultimately, with the sheer scope and quality of her storytelling, one of the books of the year. |
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December, and the river is rising. The village of Ledwardine has never been flooded in living memory. Within days it will be an island. There's no electricity. The church is serving as a temporary mortuary for two people who drowned. Only one man feels safer. An aggressively-atheist author has been moved, for his own safety, Rushdie-style, into a secluded house just outside the village. Fundamentalist Christians have hated him for years. Now he's offended the Muslims. Bad move.Meanwhile, archaeologists, assisted by Merrily's teenage daughter, Jane, are at work in Coleman's Meadow, unearthing an ancient row of standing stones which some people would rather stay buried. The atheist's temporary home is close to the site. And his young wife is becoming conspicuously agitated. Is it the fear of discovery — or the kind of fear that she, of all people, could never disclose? One thing is clear: the last person who's going to be welcome in that house is an exorcist. With the flood water washing up Church Lane towards the vicarage and the shop running out of cigarettes it looks like a cold and complex Christmas for Merrily Watkins in an ancient community forced to untangle its own history against the swirling uncertainty of the future. |
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A diverting and witty crime novel by the renowned author of A YEAR IN PROVENCE. |
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Salander is plotting her revenge — against the man who tried to kill her, and against the government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life. But it is not going to be a straightforward campaign. After taking a bullet to the head, Salander is under close supervision in Intensive Care, and is set to face trial for three murders and one attempted murder on her eventual release. With the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his researchers at Millennium magazine, Salander must not only prove her innocence, but identify and denounce the corrupt politicians that have allowed the vulnerable to become victims of abuse and violence. Once a victim herself, Salander is now ready to fight back. |
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The second installment in the Millennium Trilogy sees Lisbeth Salander wanted for murder while Blomkvist tries desperately to clear her name. Lisbeth Salander is a wanted woman. Two Millennium journalists about to expose the truth about sex trafficking in Sweden are murdered, and Salander's prints are on the weapon. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behaviour makes her an official danger to society — but no-one can find her. Mikael Blomkvist, editor-in-chief of Millennium, does not believe the police. Using all his magazine staff and resources to prove Salander's innocence, Blomkvist also uncovers her terrible past, spent in criminally corrupt institutions. |
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Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared off the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family. There was no corpse, no witnesses, no evidence. But her uncle, Henrik, is convinced that she was murdered by someone in her own family — the deeply dysfunctional Vanger clan. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist is hired to investigate, but when he links Harriet's disappearance to a string of gruesome murders from forty years ago, he needs a competent assistant — and he gets one: computer hacker Lisbeth Salander — a tattoed, truculent, angry girl who rides a motorbike like a Hell's Angel and handles makeshift weapons with the skill born of remorseless rage. This unlikely pair form a fragile bond as they delve into the sinister past of this island-bound, tightly-knit family. But the Vangers are a secretive lot, and Mikael and Lisbeth are about to find out just how far they're prepared to go to protect themselves — and each other. |
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