Recreation

New Titles Fiction January 2019 (arrived in December 2018)

ADVENTURE

Tom Clancy's Oath of office, Marc Cameron.
On a crowded tourist beach in Portugal, US operatives use a high-tech drone to watch a French arms dealer flirt with a beautiful woman. It's only when she leaves that they realise she has shot him dead. In Iran, protests are growing against the oppressive regime, whipped up by a charismatic student. Most external observers are excited, but on the ground a spy of questionable loyalty senses something is badly amiss.
The enemy of my enemy: a clandestine operations novel, W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV.
Special agent James Cronley Jr. finds that fighting both ex-Nazis and the Soviet NKGB can lead to strange bedfellows, in the dramatic new Clandestine Operations novel about the birth of the CIA and the Cold War. A month ago, Cronley managed to capture two notorious Nazi war criminals, but not without leaving some dead bodies and outraged Austrian police in his wake.
Killer of kings, Matthew Harffy.
Beobrand has land, men and riches. He should be content. And yet he cannot find peace until his enemies are food for the ravens. But before Beobrand can embark on his bloodfeud, King Oswald orders him southward, to escort holy men bearing sacred relics. When Penda of Mercia marches a warhost into the southern kingdoms, Beobrand and his men are thrown into the midst of the conflict.
Siege, Geraint Jones.
The Roman Empire is built on the efficient brutality of its soldiers, all ready to fight and die for it. Most of them live together as brothers, but a German force is slowly working it's way through their ranks. After losing most of his comrades-in-arms to a devastating onslaught, Legionary Felix and the other unlucky survivors are taken as slaves.
Shipwreck Island, James B. McPike.
In the year 1866 a ship named the General Grant lost course on its epic voyage to London and crashed upon a subantarctic island off the coast of New Zealand. Legend has it that its cargo contained one of the richest in history–gold all mined from the Victorian goldfields in Australia.
Scent of fear, Tony Park.
Afghanistan veteran Sean Bourke's world explodes when an IED detonates in South Africa's Sabi Sand Game Reserve. On a routine anti-poaching patrol, Sean and his tracker dog Benny watch in horror as over-eager rookie Tumi Mabasa is almost killed, and her dog gravely injured, in the explosion.
Deep war: the war with China, the nuclear precipice, David Poyer.
The United States has suffered a devastating nuclear attack, and faces food shortages, power outages, cyber and AI assaults, and a wrecked economy. Admiral Dan Lenson leads an allied force assigned to turn the tide of war in the Pacific, using precisely targeted missiles and high-tech weapons systems.
The truth itself, James Rayburn.
A school shooting in snowbound Vermont; an American journalist beheaded in war-torn Syria; a passenger jet exploding in the Thai jungle; everything connects to Kate Swift, CIA assassin turned whistleblower, on the run from a sinister intelligence unit. With her six-year-old daughter, Suzie, she flees across the Canadian border to begin a perilous journey to Berlin and then Thailand in search of the only man who can keep them alive.
A sea of gold, Julian Stockwin.
1809. After his heroic actions during the retreat to Corunna, Captain Sir Thomas Kydd is the toast of London society. Here he falls in with the legendary frigate captain, Lord Thomas Cochrane. So begins a relationship, professional and personal, that will be unlike any that Kydd has known: a relationship that will lead him, almost simultaneously, to first glory, then ruin.
Sweden, Matthew Turner.
It's 1968. As war rages in Vietnam, a group of American deserters holed up in Japan plot their escape with help from local peace activists. Theri destination: Sweden. Based on true events, 'Sweden' takes readers on an exhilarating journey from the killing fields of Vietnam to a fogbound fishing port on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, with stops along the way.
The first trumpet, Brian Wilson.
Following the earlier novel Operation Iran, Adam Brown - now a CIA boss, teams up with Debbie from the FBI on a mission where he will face his worst nightmare. This gripping end time spy thriller, wrapped in conspiracy theories will leave the reader with more questions than answers.

FANTASY

Lies sleeping, Ben Aaronovitch.
Martin Chorley, aka the Faceless Man, wanted for multiple counts of murder, fraud and crimes against humanity, has been unmasked and is on the run. Peter Grant, Detective Constable and apprentice wizard, now plays a key role in an unprecedented joint operation to bring Chorley to justice.
Barren, Peter V. Brett.
Each night, the world is overrun by bloodthirsty demons. For centuries, humanity survived only by hiding behind defensive wards, magical symbols with the power to repel the demons. Now, the rediscovery of long forgotten combat wards has given them the magic they need to fight back.
The mortal word, Genevieve Cogman.
When a dragon is murdered at a peace conference, time-travelling Librarian spy Irene must solve the case to keep the balance between order, chaos and the Library. When Irene returns to London after a relatively straightforward book theft in Germany, Bradamant informs her that there is a top secret dragon-Fae peace conference in progress that the Library is mediating.
The Librarians and the pot of gold, Greg Cox.
For millennia, the Librarians have secretly protected the world by keeping watch over dangerous magical relics. Cataloging and safeguarding everything from Excalibur to Pandora's Box, they stand between humanity and those who would use the relics for evil. There is truth to every story. Hundreds of years ago, the fate of the world rested upon the shoulders of a clever priest and a cleverer librarian.
The devourers, Indra Das.
On a cool evening in Kolkata, India, beneath a full moon, as the whirling rhythms of travelling musicians fill the night, college professor Alok encounters a mysterious stranger with a bizarre confession and an extraordinary story. Tantalized by the man's unfinished tale, Alok will do anything to hear its completion.
Vita nostra, Marina & Sergey Dyachenko.
While vacationing at the beach with her mother, Sasha Samokhina meets the mysterious Farit Kozhennikov under the most peculiar circumstances. The teenage girl is powerless to refuse when this strange and unusual man with an air of the sinister directs her to perform a task with potentially scandalous consequences. He rewards her effort with a strange golden coin.
The colour of vengeance, Rob J Hayes.
Beaten, battered, and damned near broken with a bounty on his head so large he's tempted to turn himself in, the Black Thorn finds himself on trial for the crime of being him. Despite the impending probability of death he has but one thought on his mind; taking revenge against the Arbiter who took his eye.
How long 'til black future month?, N. K. Jemisin.
N. K. Jemisin is one of the most powerful and acclaimed speculative fiction authors of our time. In the first collection of her evocative short fiction, Jemisin equally challenges and delights readers with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption.
The Black Khan, Ausma Zehanat Khan.
To battle the cruel and controlling patriarchal force named the Talisman, members of a resistance group, the Companions of Hira, risked their lives to procure the Bloodprint; a sacred text that holds the power to overthrow this terrifying regime.
The Lord of Stariel, A.J. Lancaster.
The Lord of Stariel is dead. Long live the Lord of Stariel. Whoever that is. Everyone knows who the magical estate will choose for its next ruler. Or do they? Will it be the lord's eldest son, who he despised? His favourite nephew, with the strongest magical land-sense? His scandalous daughter, who ran away from home years ago to study illusion?
Fire & blood, George R. R. Martin.
300 years before the events of A Song of Ice and Fire, long before the schism that set the houses of Westeros at each other's throats, one house ruled supreme and indomitable. House Targaryen, the house of the last remaining dragonlords. After surviving the Doom of Valyria the Targaryen's established themselves on Dragonstone.
Of blood and bone, Nora Roberts.
They look like an everyday family living an ordinary life. But beyond the edges of this peaceful farm, unimaginable forces of light and dark have been unleashed. Fallon Swift, approaching her thirteenth birthday, barely knows the world that existed before; the city where her parents lived, now in ruins and reclaimed by nature since the Doom sickened and killed billions.
Arcanum unbounded: the Cosmere collection, Brandon Sanderson.
This first short story collection by Brandon Sanderson will include nine works in all. These wonderful works, originally published on Tor.com and elsewhere individually, convey the expanse of the Cosmere and tell exciting tales of adventure Sanderson fans have come to expect, including the Hugo Award-winning novella, "The Emperor's Soul" and an excerpt from the graphic novel "White Sand."
The tower of living and dying, Anna Smith Spark.
Marith Altrersyr; father-killer, dragonlord, leader of the blood-soaked Amrath Army, is keeping his promises. He is determined to become King of all Irlast and take back the seat of his ancestors. Only Thalia, once high priestess of the Lord of Living and Dying, the holiest woman in the Empire, might stop Marith and his army's deadly march.
Viscera, Gabriel Squailia.
The Endless War is so ancient a conflict that most of those fighting in it cannot point to its origins. The war has devastated the lands surrounding the city of Eth, turning both the city and its surroundings, including those who inhabit it, into one boiling cauldron of violence. In catacombs underneath the city, the calcified organs of long-dead gods radiate eldritch power, and the land is ruled by and fought over by those looking to hardness the complexities of dark magick.
The disappearance of Winter's daughter, Michael J. Sullivan.
When Gabriel Winter's daughter mysteriously disappears and is presumed dead, the wealthy whiskey baron seeks revenge. Having lived in Colnora during the infamous Year of Fear, he hires the one man he knows can deliver a bloody retribution; the notorious Duster. Riyria's job appears easy: discover what happened to the missing duchess and, if she lives, bring her home; if not, punish those responsible.
Empire of sand: the books of Ambha, Tasha Suri.
The Amrithi are outcasts; nomads descended of desert spirits, they are coveted and persecuted throughout the Empire for the power in their blood. Mehr is the illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor and an exiled Amrithi mother she can barely remember, but whose face and magic she has inherited.
Pride and perpetration, Wayne Tyson.
Doing for Jane Austen what Malaria did for travel in Asia, Pride and Perpetration is a story that includes improbable adventures, a very odd druid, and a dinosaur called Fluff. In the year 2047, the world is laid waste. It is a frightening, post-apocalyptic land where existence is divided into a series of kingdoms ruled by dark magic. London is mostly in ruins, with a few ragged inhabitants, but no other city survives in this broken landscape.
Fury, Rachel Vincent.
After a nationwide slaughter of cryptids in the past, Delilah and her brother escape from their captivity, but Delilah, who is now pregnant and on the run, is trying to protect her baby as she still tries to help other cryptids survive and reunite.

FICTION

Diary of an oxygen thief, Anonymous.
Hurt people hurt people. Say there was a novel in which Holden Caulfield was an alcoholic and Lolita was a photographer's assistant and, somehow, they met in Bright Lights, Big City. He's blinded by love. She by ambition. Diary of an Oxygen Thief is an honest, hilarious, and heartrending novel, but above all, a very realistic account of what we do to each other and what we allow to have done to us.
Frieda: a novel of the real Lady Chatterley, Annabel Abbs.
Germany, 1907. Aristocrat Frieda von Richthofen has rashly married English professor Ernest Weekley. Visiting her sisters in Munich, she is captivated by a city alive with ideas of revolution and free love, and, goaded by sibling rivalry with her sisters and the need to be more than mother and wife, Frieda embarks on a passionate affair that is her sensual and intellectual awakening.
Roar, Cecelia Ahern.
Cecelia Ahern gives us thirty stories, all titled 'The Woman Who…', that capture the different facets of women's lives. Humorous, moving and poignant, the stories capture the moments the characters are overwhelmed by guilt, confusion, frustration, intimidation, exhaustion the private moments when they feel the need to roar.
A golden age, Tahmima Anam.
Spring, 1971, East Pakistan. Rehana Haque is throwing a party for her beloved children, Sohail and Maya. Her young family is growing up fast, and Rehana wants to remember this day forever. But out on the hot city streets, something violent is brewing. As the civil war develops, a war which will eventually see the birth of Bangladesh, Rehana struggles to keep her children safe and finds herself facing a heartbreaking dilemma.
Amber Road, Boyd Anderson.
It's 1941 and seventeen-year-old Victoria Khoo lives in luxury in colonial Singapore. Her carefree days are spent fantasising about marrying Sebastian Boustead, scion of a great British merchant family, and becoming mistress of his imposing mansion on Amber Road. Not even Sebastian's arrival from London with his new fiance, Elizabeth Nightingale, can dampen her dreams.
Ocean of milk, Belinda Aycrigg.
Waking up in hospital, all memory erased like a computer restored to factory settings, Amalia enters a bizarre world where nothing is normal, everything is experienced as if for the first time. Her perplexed husband, staunch father, and mother who wants nothing more than a bit of peace to write her book - all find their lives thrown into chaos.
Night of miracles: a novel, Elizabeth Berg.
Lucille Howard is getting on in years, but she stays busy. Thanks to the inspiration of her dearly departed friend Arthur Truluv, she has begun to teach baking classes, sharing the secrets to her delicious classic Southern yellow cake, the perfect pinwheel cookies, and other sweet essentials. Her classes have become so popular that she's hired Iris, a new resident of Mason, Missouri, as an assistant.
Evening in paradise: more stories, Lucia Berlin.
In this collection of short stories, Berlin showcased the gritty glamour that made readers fall in love with her. She finds beauty in the darkest places and darkness in the seemingly pristine.
White dancing elephants: stories, Chaya Bhuvaneswar.
A woman grieves a miscarriage, haunted by the Buddha's birth. An artist with schizophrenia tries to survive hatred and indifference in small-town India by turning to the beauty of sculpture and dance. Orphans in India get pulled into a strange "rescue" mission aimed at stripping their mysterious powers. A brief but intense affair between two women culminates in regret and betrayal.
An extra mile: a story of embracing God's call, Sharon Garlough Brown.
Mara is faced with the turmoil of divorce and chaos at home, while listening for a call to serve others. Hannah grieves the twin losses of her dear friend and her Chicago ministry position, while embracing the joys and challenges of a new marriage. Charissa is overwhelmed by her pregnancy and the demands of her teaching schedule.
The Tartar Steppe, Dino Buzzati.
Idealistic young officer Giovanni Drogo is full of determination to serve his country well. But when he arrives at a bleak border station in the Tartar desert, where he is to take a short assignment at Fort Bastiani, he finds the castle manned by veteran soldiers who have grown old without seeing a trace of the enemy.
Edinburgh, Alexander Chee.
Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean American boy and a newly named section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys ' choir. At their summer camp, situated in an idyllic and secluded lakeside retreat, Fee grapples with his complicated feelings towards his best friend, Peter.
Nothing but dust, Sandrine Collette.
By the time Rafael is born, the family farm has already gone to hell. Rafael's father has abandoned them. His older brothers, the twins Mauro and Joaquin, blame Rafael for their father's departure and exact revenge on their baby brother. Steban, his other sibling, is a simpleton whose affections and allegiances change with the shifting winds. Ruling over this dysfunctional roost is a tyrannical and avaricious mother.
A life for a life, Dinah Maria Craik.
I am not, the least in the world! which I would fain have explained, only mere friends can never understand the ins and outs of a family. If I offered to assist her in the house, how Penelope would stare! Or even in her schools and parish; but that I cannot do. Teaching is to me perfectly intolerable.
E E.G., Daša Drndić.
Andreas Ban failed in his suicide attempt. Even as his body falters and his lungs constrict, he taps on the glass of history; an impenetrable case filled with silent figures, and tries to summon those imprisoned within. Mercilessly, fearlessly, he continues to dissect society and his environment, shunning all favours as he goes after the evils and hidden secrets of others.
The Noel stranger: from the Noel collection, Richard Paul Evans.
Maggie Walther feels like her world is imploding. Publicly humiliated after her husband, a local councilman, is arrested for bigamy and her subsequent divorce, she has isolated herself from the world. When her only friend insists that Maggie climb out of her hole and embrace the season to get her out of her funk, Maggie decides to put up a Christmas tree and heads off to buy one, albeit reluctantly.
The silent wife, Kerry Fisher.
Lara's life looks perfect on the surface. Gorgeous doting husband Massimo, sweet little son Sandro and the perfect home. Lara knows something about Massimo. Something she can't tell anyone else or everything he has worked so hard for will be destroyed: his job, their reputation, their son. This secret is keeping Lara a prisoner in her marriage.
Ben Joseph, Matt Foot.
Ben Joseph, Who is he? Well, yesterday he was no one that anyone knew really. Right now, this minute, today, he is scaring the living daylights out of me and everyone I know around me. How far does this go and how is he doing what he is doing? I want some answers pronto and nobody, and I mean nobody, has a clue as to the who, what, when, where and the how.
Five days of fog, Anna Freeman.
As the Great Smog falls over London in 1952, Florrie Palmer has a choice to make. Will she stay with the Cutters, a gang of female criminals who have terrorized London for years and are led by her own mother? Or leave it all behind to make a safer, duller life with the man she loves? And what will she do if she's too crooked to go straight, and too good to go bad?
The home for unwanted girls: a novel, Joanna Goodman.
In 1950s Quebec, French and English tolerate each other with precarious civility; much like Maggie Hughes' parents. Maggie's English-speaking father has ambitions for his daughter that don't include marriage to the poor French boy the next farm over. But Maggie's heart is captured by Gabriel Phénix.
Guernsey boy at war: a true story of a 6 year old evacuee's courage, Maureen E. Green.
Based on a true story of one family – and one 6-year-old boy in particular – caught up in the displacement of children as World War II hit the UK. 1.5 million children, pregnant women and other vulnerable people such as the disabled, were evacuated to safer countryside locations in just two days.
We love you, Charlie Freeman: a novel, Kaitlyn Greenidge.
The Freeman family; Charles, Laurel, and their daughters, teenage Charlotte and nine-year-old Callie, have been invited to the Toneybee Institute in rural Massachusetts to participate in a research experiment. They will live in an apartment on campus with Charlie, a young chimp abandoned by his mother.
Desirable body, Hubert Haddad.
A contemporary Frankenstein that defies expectations, this is a thrilling novel, couched in luminous, captivitating prose, about a journalist, Cédric Allyn-Weberson, who suffers a horrific accident, paralyzing him from the neck down. An ideal candidate for a body transplant.
Trinity: a novel, Louisa Hall.
A fascinating, complex, and multi-faceted man, Oppenheimer was a devotee of liberal causes, as well as the father of the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.The novel explores the overlap between science and literature, the connections between fiction and biography, and the different ways in which we know other people.
Land of the living, Georgina Harding.
Charlie's experiences at the Battle of Kohima and the months he spent lost in the remote jungles of Assam during the Second World War are now history. Home and settled on a farm in Norfolk and newly married to Claire, he is one of the lucky survivors. Starting a family and working the land seem the best things a man can be doing.
Jude the obscure, Thomas Hardy.
Jude the Obscure tells the story of a stonemason, tricked into a loveless marriage, who craves a formal education and a finer existence. Separated from his wife, Jude begins a new life with his cousin, and the couple defies social convention at every turn.
Once a midwife: a Hope River novel, Patricia Harman
Though the Great Depression is behind the them, troubles are not, for Europe is at war. It is only be a matter of time before the U.S. enters the fray. In the town of Hope River, midwife Patience Hester's husband, Daniel has vowed never to take up arms again; he saw too much bloodshed during the First World War. When he is imprisoned for his beliefs, Patience and their four children are left vulnerable, while she tries to keep her practice running during this tumultuous time.
Goodbye, Paris: a novel, Anstey Harris.
Grace once had the beginnings of a promising musical career, but she hasn't been able to play her cello publicly since a traumatic event at music college years ago. Since then, she's built a quiet life for herself in her small English village, repairing instruments and nurturing her long-distance affair with David, the man who has helped her rebuild her life even as she puts her dreams of a family on hold until his children are old enough for him to leave his loveless marriage.
Summer cannibals, Melanie Hobson.
Summoned to their magnificent family home on the shores of Lake Ontario–a paradisiacal mansion perched on an escarpment above the city–three adult sisters Georgina, Jax, and Pippa, come together in what seems like an act of family solidarity.
How are you going to save yourself, JM Holmes.
Bound together by shared experience but pulled apart by their changing fortunes, four young friends coming of age in the postindustrial enclave of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, struggle to liberate themselves from the legacies left to them as black men in America.
Paradise rot: a novella, Jenny Hval.
Jo is in a strange new country for university, and having a more peculiar time than most. A house with no walls, a roommate with no boundaries, and a home that seems ever more alive. Jo's sensitivity, and all her senses, become increasingly heightened and fraught, as the lines between bodies and plants, and dreaming and wakefulness, blur and mesh.
Mogens and other stories, Jens Peter Jacobsen.
Jens Peter Jacobsen (1847-1885) described himself as a literary artist eager to bring into literature "the eternal laws of nature, its glories, its riddles, its miracles," A realist writer, significanty ahead of his time, Jacobsen dealt candidly with life as it is lived, with genuine human emotion as it is experienced, and often explored the darker aspects of existence which the more "polite" writers of his time avoided.
Homeland, Walter Kempowski.
It is 1988, the year before the Berlin Wall came down. Jonathan Fabrizius, a journalist living in West Germany, is asked to travel to the contested lands of former East Prussia; where the Nazi legacy lives on in buildings and fortifications, to write about the route for a car rally. It's a plum job, but his interest is piqued by a personal connection.
The little snake, A.L. Kennedy.
This is the story of Mary, a young girl born in a beautiful city full of rose gardens and fluttering kites. When she is still very small, Mary meets Lanmo, a shining golden snake, who becomes her very best friend. The snake visits Mary many times, he sees her city change, become sadder as bombs drop and war creeps in.
The kinship of secrets: a novel, Eugenia Kim.
In 1948 Najin and Calvin Cho, with their young daughter Miran, travel from South Korea to the United States in search of new opportunities. Wary of the challenges they know will face them, Najin and Calvin make the difficult decision to leave their other daughter, Inja, behind with their extended family; soon, they hope, they will return to her.
Crimson, Niviaq Korneliussen.
This is the story of a group of friends, on the cusp of adulthood, exploring life, seeking authenticity and establishing their own queer identities. It's a beautiful novella, intriguing not only because of its unique setting in Nuusuaq, Greenland, but also in its story of growing up and growing into yourself.
Madame Victoria: variations, Catherine Leroux.
In 2001, a woman's skeleton was found in the woods overlooking Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital. Despite an audit of the hospital's patient records, a forensic reconstruction of the woman's face, missing-person appeals, and DNA tests that revealed not only where she had lived, but how she ate, the woman was never identified.
The first love, Beverly Lewis.
It's the summer of 1951, and Maggie Esh is in need of some hope. Sweet-spirited and uncommonly pretty despite struggling with chronic illness, she is used to being treated kindly by the young men of her Old Order Amish church district. Yet Maggie wishes she were more like other courting-age girls so she could live a normal, healthy life.
Sweet fruit, sour land, Rebecca Ley.
When a wealthy client visits Mathilde's dressmaking shop, she finds herself drawn into the only surviving circle of luxury left in a barren London. Attending parties offers a welcome escape from life governed by ration cards and a strictly enforced child policy. Here she meets enigmatic government minister, George, and piano-playing Jaminder, with whom an intense friendship blossoms.
Summers with Juliette, Emily Madden.
No matter where, no matter when, no matter what. Almost twenty years ago, on a beautiful coastal cliff, Juliette Cole, Anna Kendall and Sera Di Maggio linked pinkies and made a vow to be there for each other no matter what might happen in their lives. Now Juliette is calling in the promise; terminally ill, she wants her two friends to come back to Ellesmere to help her through her last summer.
The Kennedy debutante, Kerri Maher.
A riveting novel following the exploits of Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, the little known and rebellious daughter of America's royal family. London, 1938. Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy has already taken England by storm, when she is presented to the king and queen. The effervescent It Girl of London society since her father was named the ambassador, Kick moves in rarified circles.
End of day: short stories, Philip Marshall.
End of Day is a collection of twenty-one short stories about strange, frightening and comical events that befall everyday people in an often dystopian modern world.
We can save us all: a novel, Adam Nemett.
Welcome to The Egg, an off-campus geodesic dome where David Fuffman and his crew of alienated Princeton students train for what might be the end of days: America is in a perpetual state of war, climate disasters create a global state of emergency, and scientists believe time itself may be collapsing.
A keeper, Graham Norton.
The mystery of Elizabeth Keane's father is one that has never been solved by the people of Buncarragh; not for lack of speculation. Her mother Patricia had been assumed a spinster, until she began dating a mysterious man from out of town, and within months had left Buncarragh and had married. Less than two years later, Patricia was back, with a new baby in her arms, but no new husband by her side and unbendingly silent about her recent past. A secret she would take with her to her grave.
Those who knew, Idra Novey.
On an unnamed island country ten years after the collapse of a U.S.-supported regime, Lena suspects the powerful senator she was involved with back in her student activist days is taking advantage of a young woman who's been introducing him at rallies. When the young woman ends up dead, Lena revisits her own fraught history with the senator and the violent incident that ended their relationship.
Magdalena Mountain: a novel, Robert Michael Pyle.
At the center of this story of majesty and high mountain magic are three Magdalenas; Mary, a woman whose uncertain journey opens the book; Magdalena Mountain, shrouded in mystery and menace; and the all-black Magdalena alpine butterfly, the most elusive of several rare and beautiful species found on the mountain.
The Italian, Ann Radcliffe.
First published in 1797, The Italian, with its archetypal villain Schedoni, its intense romance and its sublime depiction of landscape, is the masterpiece of Gothic fiction. Enlisted by the Marchesa di Vivaldi, the perfidious monk Schedoni casts a malevolent presence throughout the book as he tries to thwart the passion of the two young lovers Vincenzo di Vivaldi and Elena di Rosalba.
The lovers, Catherine Rey.
The Lovers is an arresting tale, a mystery with a low burn tension, which revolves around the disappearance of Lucie Bruyere. The novel unveils the truth about her charismatic yet subtly controlling partner, the world-famous artist Ernest Renfield. The suspenseful story, both police investigation and multi-voiced Rashomon, ends in a dramatic and powerful illumination.
Camellia Street, Merce Rodoreda.
Camellia Street is set in war-torn Barcelona of the 1940s and 50s and tells the story of Cecilia, who, abandoned as an infant, ends up fleeing her adoptive family in favour of a more unsettled life of fire-setting, poverty, one abusive man after another, prostitution, and, eventually, a tenuous note of rebirth.
The rain watcher, Tatiana de Rosnay.
The Rain Watcher is a powerful family drama set in Paris as the Malegarde family gathers to celebrate the father's 70th birthday. Their hidden fears and secrets are slowly unraveled as the City of Light undergoes a stunning natural disaster. Seen through the eyes of charismatic photographer Linden Malegarde, the youngest son, all members of the family will have to fight to keep their unity against tragic circumstances.
How it ends, Saskia Sarginson.
1957: Within a year of arriving at an American airbase in Suffolk, the loving, law-abiding Delaney family is destroyed. Did they know something they weren't allowed to know? Did they find something they weren't supposed to find? Hedy is the only one left standing, a rebellious girl cast adrift in a world of post-war anxiety; a girl who has the courage to question what really went on behind military closed doors.
Fox 8, George Saunders.
Fox 8 has always been curious, and a bit of a daydreamer. And, by hiding outside houses at dusk and listening to children's bedtime stories, he has learned to speak `Yuman'. The power of words and the stories built from them is intoxicating for a fox with a poetic soul, but there is `danjur' on the horizon: a new shopping mall is being built, cutting off his pack's food supply.
Jeeves and the king of clubs: a novel in homage to P.G. Wodehouse, Ben Schott.
The misadventures of P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster and his incomparable valet, Jeeves, have delighted audiences for nearly a century. Now, bestselling author Ben Schott brings this odd couple back to life in a madcap new adventure that is full of the hijinks, entanglements, imbroglios, and Wodehousian wordplay that readers love.
Come with me: a novel, Helen Schulman.
Amy Reed works part-time as a PR person for a tech start-up, run by her college roommate's nineteen-year-old son, in Palo Alto, California. Donny is a baby genius, a junior at Stanford in his spare time. His play for fortune is an algorithm that may allow people access to their "multiverses"; all the planes on which their alternative life choices can be played out simultaneously, to see how the decisions they've made have shaped their lives.
Radiant shimmering light, Sarah Selecky.
A nuanced satire; both hilarious and disconcerting, that probes the blurred lines between empowerment, spirituality, and consumerism in our online lives. Lilian Quick is 40, single, and childless, working as a pet portrait artist. She paints the coloured light only she can see, but animal aura portraits are a niche market at best.
The governesses, Anne Serre.
In a large country house shut off from the world by a gated garden, three young governesses responsible for the education of a group of little boys are preparing a party. The governesses, however, seem to spend more time running around in a state of frenzied desire than attending to the children's education.
Before she sleeps: a novel, Bina Shah.
In modern, beautiful Green City, the capital of South West Asia, gender selection, war and disease have brought the ratio of men to women to alarmingly low levels. The government uses terror and technology to control its people, and women must take multiple husbands to have children as quickly as possible.
Broken verses, Kamila Shamsie.
Fourteen years ago Aasmaani's mother Samina, a blazing beauty and fearless activist, walked out of her house and was never seen again. Aasmaani refuses to believe she is dead and still dreams of her glorious return. Now grown up and living in Karachi, Aasmaani receives what could be the longed-for proof that her mother is still alive.
Crocodile, Daniel Shand.
She's remembering curtains closed against whatever might harm them and all the knick- knacks: the porcelain fairy, the chain of rubber dolphins, CDs piled a metre high. This was what home meant. It's the summer before high school and Chloe is being sent away. Her mother can't cope and needs something that her daughter cannot provide.
Ways to hide in winter: a novel, Sarah St.Vincent.
After surviving a life-altering accident at twenty-two, Kathleen recuperates by retreating to a remote campground lodge in a state park, where she works flipping burgers for deer hunters and hikers; happy, she insists, to be left alone. But when a hesitant, heavily accented stranger appears in the dead of winter; seemingly out of nowhere, kicking snow from his flimsy dress shoes, the wary Kathleen is intrigued, despite herself.
The emissary, Yoko Tawada.
Japan, after suffering from a massive irreparable disaster, cuts itself off from the world. Children are so weak they can barely stand or walk: the only people with any get-go are the elderly. Mumei lives with his grandfather Yoshiro, who worries about him constantly.
Blueberry, Glenna Thomson.
Greer O'Reilly needs to start over. Her professional success belies private sadness and domestic overload. She's torn between her career and motherhood. Her partner of twelve years has left her. And up ahead is her new home; a beautiful though neglected blueberry orchard in the hills of north-east Victoria.
Kismet: a novel, Luke Tredget.
Our protagonist, Anna, is about to turn 30 and grappling with the central question of her life: is it time to settle for a secure and predictable existence, or should she risk everything for a life of passion and adventure? Her attempt to answer this centers on Kismet, which works by compiling your online behavior and showing your compatibility with passers-by as a percentage score.
Trespass, Rose Tremain.
In a silent valley stands an isolated stone farmhouse, the Mas Lunel. Its owner is Aramon Lunel, an alcoholic so haunted by his violent past that he's become incapable of all meaningful action, letting his hunting dogs starve and his land go to ruin.
Tony's wife: a novel, Adriana Trigiani.
Chi Chi Donatelli and Saverio Armandonada meet one summer on the Jersey shore before World War II. Chi Chi is a talented and ambitious singer-songwriter working in a local blouse factory looking for her big break, while Saverio, a singer already on the rise, is fronting a touring band and has the good looks and smooth vocals that make success seem assured.
Still life with monkey, Katharine Weber.
Duncan Wheeler is a successful architect who savours the quotidian pleasures in life until a car accident leaves him severely paralyzed and haunted by the death of his young assistant. Now, Duncan isn't sure what there is left to live for, when every day has become a broken series of unsuccessful gestures. Duncan and his wife, Laura, find themselves in conflict as Duncan's will to live falters.
The glass ocean: a novel, Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White.
May 2013. Her finances are in dire straits and bestselling author Sarah Blake is struggling to find a big idea for her next book. Desperate, she breaks the one promise she made to her Alzheimer's-stricken mother and opens an old chest that belonged to her great-grandfather, who died when the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-Boat in 1915.
Grandzilla: a novel, Lisa Williams.
Tillie and Tessa: the real estate mogul and the burgeoning activist; the embittered widow and the girl grieving her grandpa; one apparently friendless, the other falling in love. The one thing they do agree on? They really, really don't like each other. But little does Tessa know that her capitalist monster grandmother has a radical past - and it's literally about to show up on her doorstep.
Achilles' fiancee: a novel, Alki Zei.
Set in Paris sometime after the 1967 military coup in Greece. Eleni, together with a group of friends and fellow political exiles, finds herself working as an extra in a French film: "The Horror Train". It is not the first time she has been caught up in a deadly drama, nor is it her first ride on a horror train.
The right thing to do at the time, Dov Zeller.
Ari Wexler, a trans guy in his late twenties, is barely scraping by. His family life is a mess, he feels like a failure when it comes to love, and his job at a college music library is on the rocks. His relationship with Itche Mattes, his doting best friend, helps him get through the days. Then a famous actress comes to town and sweeps Itche off his feet, leaving her dreadful sidekick to step on Ari's toes.
Bridge of Clay, Markus Zusak.
Five Dunbar brothers are living; fighting, loving, grieving, in the perfect chaos of a house without grown-ups. Today, the father who left them has just walked right back in. He has a surprising request: Who will build a bridge with him? It is Clay, a boy tormented by a long-buried secret, who accepts.

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Platinum end. 7, Story, Tsugumi Ohba.
After stopping the killer virus, Mirai goes on the offensive. But can he actually kill another human being, even one who threatens to kill millions? And can he and his team outwit the merciless Metropoliman?
JoJo's bizarre adventure. Part 3, Stardust crusaders. 08, Hirohiko Araki.
JoJo and friends continue to close in on their nemesis, Dio! Their travels take them across the Middle East, where they face new and more powerful enemies; a mysterious woman with magnetic powers, a strange man with the ability to control time and a smooth gambler who deals in souls. Will they die before they even get to Dio?!
George R.R. Martin's The hedge knight: the graphic novel, Written by George R.R. Martin.
Set one hundred years before the events in George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Hedge Knight graphic novel chronicles a young squire as he travels the cruel and complex path to knighthood in the Seven Kingdoms.
Moonshine. Vol. 2, Misery train, Brian Azzarello, writer.
'Torpedo' Lou Pirlo thought his troubles might be over when he and his new girl, Delia, hopped a boxcar headed south; as far and as fast as they could get away from the hillbillies in Appalachia and the mafia killers in New York City.
The lost fleet. Corsair, Writer, Jack Campbell.
Set after the end of a century-old war between two space empires, the Alliance and the Syndics, Corsair centers on the story of Captain Michael Geary, missing in action after the Syndic ambush that almost destroyed the spacefleet John "Black Jack" Geary had to get home, against all odds!
To build a fire, Chabouté.
Miles across the sunless Yukon toward the Klondike to search for gold, a man and a dog trek through the Great White North, struggling to survive nature's frigid indifference. The year 1896 is bleak for many as severe economic depression creeps throughout the united States.
Bad girls, Alex de Campi.
In this heart-pounding, starkly coloured, and visually stunning graphic novel, three women have twelve hours to get out of Cuba with six-million dollars on the night of New Year's Eve 1958. Gangster's moll Carole, jazz singer Taffy, and mambo queen Ana all have their reasons for needing to escape the El Eden Casino in Havana.
Girl genius. [12], Agatha Heterodyne & the siege of Mechanicsburg: a gaslamp fantasy with adventure, romance & mad science, Story by Kaja & Phil Foglio.
Adventure, romance, mad science! Agatha and her friends try to save her town from the vast armies of the Wulfenbach Empire in the latest volume of the series.
To kill a mockingbird: a graphic novel, Harper Lee.
A haunting portrait of race and class, innocence and injustice, hypocrisy and heroism, tradition and transformation in the Deep South of the 1930s.
I am not okay with this, Charles Forsman.
Fifteen-year-old Syd feels totally out of place. She's skinny but not 'hot-skinny', she's dealing with the death of her father in silence, and her best friend (who Syd is really in love with) is dating a homophobic bully. Syd's guidance counselor gives her a diary in which to vent her frustration, but Syd has another outlet for her anger, one which threatens to overwhelm her entirely.
Likely stories, Neil Gaiman, story and words.
These dark and imaginative tales feature an odd and subtly linked world of bizarre venereal diseases, a creepy old woman who feasts on raw meat, a man obsessed with a skin model from a magazine, and a story within a story about ghosts.
Dan Dare: complete collection. The Venus campaign, Frank Hampson.
Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future was first published in classic British comic The Eagle in 1950. These are the original adventures of one of the best known and loved of British comic characters, presented in a new series of gorgeous library editions from Titan Comics.
I am a hero. Omnibus 8, Art and story, Kengo Hanazawa.
As the ZQN virus continues to mutate and alter those living and dead, Hiromi and Yabu attempt to get free from a zombie swarm and find help for Hideo. Across Japan, those who are fully ZQN begin to band together in surprising ways.
The ogre gods. [Book one], Petit, Written by Hubert.
Petit is the son of the Ogre King, and the littlest giant in the royal clan. Scarcely larger than a mere human, he is the latest sign of the family's rapid degeneration, which makes each generation smaller than the one before. His father wants him killed as an embarrassment, but his mother sees in him the possible regeneration of the family lineage.
Tokyo ghoul: re. 6, Sui Ishida.
The CCG never though that taking down the Rosewald family would be easy, and as expected, the caualties are piling up. Numbered among the wounded is Haise Sasaki, whose critical injuries leave him vulnerable when his suppressed past threatens to overwhelm him!
Tokyo ghoul: re. 7, Sui Ishida.
Sen Takatsuki's newest novel has hit the stands and a video of her admitting to being a Ghoul has gone viral! And if that news hasn't done enough to shake things up, the contents of her book are sowing civilian distrust of the CCG. How can investigators effectively take on the Ghoul threat if the public has lost faith in them?
Frankenstein: Junji Ito story collection, Story & art by Junji Ito.
Junji Ito meets Mary Shelley! The master of horror manga bends all his skill into bringing the anguished and solitary monster, and the fouler beast who created him, to life with the brilliantly detailed chiaroscuro he is known for. Also included are six tales of Oshikiri; a high school student who lives in a decaying mansion connected to a haunted parallel world.
Square eyes, Witten by Luke Jones, Anna Mill.
Fin has been un-networked. She used to be a brilliant code writer, a technical genius who created 'Corvis', a programme so powerful, so unusual that she was untouchable. Until she wasn't. Now she is locked out of the virtual reality systems that control society. Another woman is living in her apartment, living her life.
Requiem of the rose king. 9, Aya Kanno.
England's new king gives himself over to debauchery, while Richard, unable to overlook George's constant errors, schemes to arrest his brother. Meanwhile, Richard's mysterious body becomes an object of interest.
Kakegurui. 7, Story, Homura Kawamoto.
Kirari has declared an open election for student council president, but more than just the school is on the line! The entire Momobami clan has sent envoys to Hyakkaou Private Academy in the hopes of winning not only the election, but also leadership over the family. The gambling gets right underway when the young Erimi Mushibami challenges Yumeko to a game of Finger-Cutting Guillotine!
Chew: the omnivore edition. Vol. I, Written & lettered by John Layman.
Tony Chu, a detective who gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats, is recruited by the Special Crimes Division of the powerful FDA law enforcement agency, where he uses his unusual skill to solve their strangest cases.
Chew: the omnivore edition. Vol. II, Written & lettered by John Layman.
Tony Chu is a detective with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is cibopathic, which means he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. It also means he's a hell of a detective; as long as he doesn't mind nibbling on the corpse of a murder victim to figure out whodunit and why.
Chew: the omnivore edition. Vol. III, Written & lettered by John Layman.
Tony Chu is a detective with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is cibopathic, which means he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. It also means he's a hell of a detective; as long as he doesn't mind nibbling on the corpse of a murder victim to figure out whodunit and why.
Chew: the omnivore edition. Vol. IV, Wtten & lettered by John Layman.
Anthony and Antonelle Chu are fraternal twins. Tony and Toni. Each with an extraordinary, albeit diametrically opposed, ability. Tony is Cibopathic, able to get psychic sensations of the past of anything he bites or ingests. Toni is Cibovoyant, able to flash onto a vision of the future of any living thing she bites into or ingested.
Chew: the omnivore edition. Vol. V, Written & lettered by John Layman.
Tony Chu, the cibopathic federal agent with the ability to get psychic impressions from what he eats, faces his greatest challenge, and his greatest enemy. But stopping the psychopathic monster who killed Tony's sister will come at a price. A terrible, terrible price.
Chew: the omnivore edition. Vol. VI, Witten & lettered by John Layman.
This is the end for Tony Chu, the cibopathic federal agent with the ability to get psychic impressions from what he eats. Mysteries are solved, secrets are resolved and lives are lost. Many, many lives.
Black Hammer: library edition. Volume 1, Secret origins & The event, Written by Jeff Lemire.
Mysteriously banished from existence by a multiversal event, the old superheroes of Spiral City now lead simple lives on a bizarre farm from which there is no escape! But as they employ all of their super abilities to free themselves from this strange purgatory, a mysterious stranger works to bring them back into action for one last adventure!
Overlord. 8, Original story, Jugane Maruyama.
The lizardman conflict comes to a decisive and bloody end as Ainz turns his attention north towards the humans once more. The Re-Estize Kingdom's princess has beauty, intelligence, and kindness in spades. She's guarded by a fiercely loyal young man who also carries a secret torch for her.
Hook Jaw: classic collection, Created by Pat Mills; scripts, Ken Armstrong.
Pat Mills and Ramon Sola's classic 70s 'sharksploitation' strip is collected in one volume by Titan Comics, featuring the great white shark that targets the corrupt and greedy!
A bride's story. 10, Kaoru Mori.
Karluk has left home to become a man! For four months, he's off to learn falconry from Amir's brothers, living with them at their winter camp. As his training commences, what will Karluk learn about himself, and Amir, in the process?
Hercules. Wrath of the heavens, Writer, JD Morvan.
As war rages across the galactic frontier, one half-human, half-god super-soldier faces his greatest enemy; his own demons, in a bid for truth, redemption and revenge.
Modesty Blaise. Live bait: also featuring Samantha and the cherub and Milord, Peter O'Donnell; Enric Badia Romero.
This title features classic stories by popular British crime writer Peter O'Donnell. The tag- team of Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin battle with the darkest elements of the underworld once again, beautifully illustrated by Enric Badia Romero!
German calendar: no December, Sylvia Ofili.
Olivia Evezi's childhood is a happy one; her days spent listening to highlife records with her father and poring over the colourful postcards her mother receives from Germany. But Olivia is a dreamer and longs for more, leaving her hometown of Warri behind to live out her Enid Blyton fantasies in boarding school in Lagos.
Black Science. Volume 8, Later than you think, Rick Remender, writer.
The Anarchist League of Scientists are scattered to the cosmic winds. Abuse of the Pillar's power has gnawed at the very foundation of reality, as all that ever is, was, and will be is falling in on itself. Beaten and dismayed, it falls to Grant McKay and what allies he has left to start a hail-Mary mission to the center of the Onion, and the chance of salvation that rests there.
Twists of fate, Paco Roca.
Miguel Ruiz is a Spanish veteran exiled in France who was a member of "La Nueve" ("The Nine"), a company of men that went straight from fighting for their homeland in the Spanish Civil War to battles spanning the globe in WWII. Their years-long trek across Europe and Africa was spurred on by their love for their country and their hatred for brutal dictatorships.
Cassandra Darke, Posy Simmonds.
Cassandra Darke is an art dealer, mean, selfish, solitary by nature, living in Chelsea in a house worth £7 million. She has become a social pariah, but doesn't much care. Between one Christmas and the next, she has sullied the reputation of a West End gallery and has acquired a conviction for fraud, a suspended sentence and a bank balance drained by lawsuits.
Hook Jaw, Writer, Si Spurrier.
Hook Jaw; the nigh-on legendary great white shark that has haunted oceans and nightmares alike for decades. As the crew of the scientific vessel the Sola enter Somalian waters to study the group of great white sharks known as the 'Virgin Brides,' they soon fall foul of Somalian pirates, the US military and the infamous Hook Jaw! But who is the real hero of the story?
Nekogahara: stray cat samurai. 5, Hiroyuki Takei.
It's time for a showdown as Norachiyo and his band of motley cats cross the sea in their quest to stop Abyhei. But without his sword, there's not much Norachiyo can do. Can he get a new weapon before Abyhei's plan goes into effect and his takeover of Japan is assured? Find out in the final volume of Nekogahara!
Food wars! Shokugeki no soma. 26, Second bout, Story by Yuto Tsukuda.
Soma and the resistance have swept the first bout of the team shokugeki! But they can't rest on their laurels, as the second bout is soon to begin. With the Council of Ten's pride on the line, who will Central send out to protect it? And will Kuga's desire for a rematch with Tsukasa affect the lineup?
Rat Queens. Volume five, The colossal magic nothing, Kurtis J. Wiebe, story.
Having escaped the nefarious clutches of the insidious trickster Castiwyr, the Rat Queens return to Palisade with piles of gold and they are in the mood to party. But Palisade has a new resident: a strange wizard that wishes to end the suffering of others. Forever.
Rat Queens. Volume four, High fantasies, [Kurtis J. Wiebe, story.
Palisade is still a rat infested hell hole and the only hope of saving it are Violet, Hannah, Dee, Betty and the brand new Queen, Braga!
Rat Queens. Volume one, Sass and sorcery, Kurtis J. Wiebe, story.
Who are the Rat Queens? A pack of booze-guzzling, death-dealing battle maidens-for-hire, and they're in the business of killing all god's creatures for profit. It's also a darkly comedic sass-and-sorcery series starring Hannah the Rockabilly Elven Mage, Violet the Hipster Dwarven Fighter, Dee the Atheist Human Cleric and Betty the Hippy Smidgen Thief.
Rat Queens. Volume three, Demons, [Kurtis J. Wiebe, story.
Having survived the end of the world, the Queens follow Hannah back to where it all began: Mage University. A long perilous journey awaits the Rat Queens as they attempt to find out what happened to Hannah's father while battling their own demons.
Rat queens. Volume two, The far reaching tentacles of N'rygoth, Kurtis J. Wiebe, story.
This booze-soaked second volume of Rat Queens reveals a growing menace within the very walls of Palisade. And while Dee may have run from her past, the bloated, blood-feasting sky god N'rygoth never really lets his children stray too far.
Suicide Squad. Vol. 7. Drain the swamp, Rob Williams, Si Spurrier, writers.
When an apocalyptic new threat threatens the safety of Earth, the Suicide Squad is called into action; and they bring in a new member! But who is the mysterious Juan? And what are his powers? Is there more to him than meets the eye? But that's not the only threat the Squad will have to overcome.
Coyote. 1, Story and art by Ranmura Zariya.
In order to conceal that he's a werewolf, Coyote avoids getting too involved with humans. But Marleen, a pianist at a bar he frequents, is interested in him and just won't take no for an answer. When Coyote unexpectedly goes into heat for the first time, Marleen catches him while he's unable to maintain his human form and offers up a tempting invitation.
The saga of Tanya the Evil. 04, Original story, Carlo Zen.
Having no candidates was Tanya's ultimate scheme to forestall a new project that would send her to the front lines. But her plan backfires after waves of applications from promising young soldiers flood the office. Just when she thinks things couldn't get any worse, the Elinium Type 95's mind contamination begins to take effect on the fledgling captain who; before she realizes it, is now the official leader of a battalion?!
 
 

HISTORICAL

Tell them of battles, kings & elephants, Mathias Enard.
In 1506, Michelangelo, a young but already renowned sculptor, is invited by the Sultan of Constantinople to design a bridge over the Golden Horn. The sultan has offered, alongside an enormous payment, the promise of immortality, since Leonardo da Vinci's design had been rejected.
To wager her heart: a Belle Meade Plantation novel, Tamera Alexander.
Sylas Rutledge, the new owner of the Northeast Line Railroad, invests everything he has into this venture, partly for the sake of the challenge. But mostly to clear his father's name. One man holds the key to Sy's success; General William Giles Harding of Nashville's Belle Meade Plantation. But Harding is champagne and thoroughbreds, and Sy Rutledge is beer and bullocks.
Legacy of mercy, Lynn Austin.
Having returned to Chicago, young socialite Anna Nicholson can't seem to focus on her upcoming marriage. The new information she's learned about her birth mother continues to pull at her, and she hires Pinkerton detectives to help her find the truth. But as she meets people who once knew her mother and hears stories about the past, Anna soon discovers that some secrets are better left hidden.
Little, Edward Carey.
The wry, macabre, unforgettable tale of an ambitious orphan in Revolutionary Paris, befriended by royalty and radicals, who transforms herself into the legendary Madame Tussaud. In 1761, a tiny, odd-looking girl named Marie is born in a village in Switzerland. After the death of her parents, she is apprenticed to an eccentric wax sculptor and whisked off to the seamy streets of Paris, where they meet a domineering widow and her quiet, pale son.
Hard times: for these times, Charles Dickens.
Coketown is dominated by the figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, school headmaster and model of Utilitarian success. Feeding both his pupils and family with facts, he bans fancy and wonder from any young minds. As a consequence his obedient daughter Louisa marries the loveless businessman and 'bully of humanity' Mr Bounderby, and his son Tom rebels to become embroiled in gambling and robbery.
House of glass, Susan Fletcher.
June 1914 and a young woman; Clara Waterfield, is summoned to a large stone house in Gloucestershire. Her task: to fill a greenhouse with exotic plants from Kew Gardens, to create a private paradise for the owner of Shadowbrook. Yet, on arrival, Clara hears rumours: something is wrong with this quiet, wisteria-covered house.
The animal gazer, Edgardo Franzosini.
A hypnotic novel inspired by the strange and fascinating life of sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti, brother of the fabled automaker. With World War I closing in and the Belle +poque teetering to a close, Bugatti leaves his native Milan for Paris, where he encounters Rodin and casts his bronzes at the same foundry used by the French master.
The splendor before the dark: a novel of the Emperor Nero, Margaret George.
With the beautiful and cunning Poppaea at his side, Nero Augustus commands the Roman empire, ushering in an unprecedented era of artistic and cultural splendor. Although he has yet to produce an heir, his power is unquestioned.
The maid of Fairbourne Hall, Julie Klassen.
Pampered Margaret Macy flees London in disguise to escape pressure to marry a dishonorable man. With no money and nowhere else to go, she takes a position as a housemaid in the home of Nathaniel Upchurch, a suitor she once rejected in hopes of winning his dashing brother.
Marilla of Green Gables: a novel, Sarah McCoy.
A bold, heartfelt tale of life at Green Gables before Anne, set in rural Prince Edward Island in the nineteenth century, that imagines the young life of spinster Marilla Cuthbert, and the choices that will open her life to the possibility of heartbreak, and unimaginable greatness. Plucky and ambitious, Marilla Cuthbert is thirteen years old when her world is turned upside down.
The blood of Rome, Simon Scarrow.
AD 55. As trouble brews on the eastern fringes of the Roman Empire, Prefect Cato and Centurion Macro must prepare for war. The wily Parthian Empire has invaded Roman-ruled Armenia, ousting King Rhadamistus. The King is ambitious and ruthless, but he is loyal to Rome. General Corbulo must restore him to power, while also readying the troops for war with Parthia.
The spirit photographer: a novel, Jon Michael Varese.
Boston, 1870. Photographer Edward Moody runs a booming business capturing the images of the spirits of the departed in his portraits. He lures grieving widows and mourning mothers into his studio with promises of catching the ghosts of their deceased loved ones with his camera.

HORROR

Aickman's heirs, Simon Strantzas.
This anthology of strange, weird tales by modern visionaries of weird fiction, in the milieu of Robert Aickman, the master of strange and ambiguous stories.
The mansion: a novel, Ezekiel Boone.
After two years of living on cheap beer and little else in a bitterly cold tiny cabin outside an abandoned, crumbling mansion, young programmers Shawn Eagle and Billy Stafford have created something that could make them rich: a revolutionary computer they name Eagle Logic.
Someone like me, M. R. Carey.
She looks like me. She sounds like me. Now she's trying to take my place. Liz Kendall wouldn't hurt a fly. She's a gentle woman devoted to bringing up her kids in the right way, no matter how hard times get. But there's another side to Liz; one which is dark and malicious. A version of her who will do anything to get her way, no matter how extreme or violent.
Alice isn't dead: a novel, Joseph Fink.
Keisha Taylor lived a quiet life with her wife, Alice, until the day that Alice disappeared. After months of searching, presuming she was dead, Keisha held a funeral, mourned, and gradually tried to get on with her life. But that was before Keisha started to see her wife, again and again, in the background of news reports from all over America.
The dinosaur tourist, Caitlín R. Kiernan.
Almost nothing is only what it seems to be at first glance. Appearances can be deceiving and first impressions often lead us disastrously astray. If we're not careful, assumption and expectation can betray us all the way to madness and death and damnation.
The red tree, Caitlin R. Kiernan.
Sarah Crowe left Atlanta to live alone in an old house in rural Rhode Island. Within its walls she discovers an unfinished manuscript written by the house's former tenant, a parapsychologist obsessed with the ancient oak growing on the property.
The wide, carnivorous sky and other monstrous geographies, John Langan.
John Langan has, in the last few years, established himself as one of the leading voices in contemporary horror literature. Gifted with a supple and mellifluous prose style, an imagination that can conjure up clutching terrors with seeming effortlessness, and a thorough knowledge of the rich heritage of weird fiction, Langan has already garnered his share of accolades.
A house of ghosts, W.C. Ryan.
Winter 1917. As the First World War enters its most brutal phase, back home in England, everyone is seeking answers to the darkness that has seeped into their lives. At Blackwater Abbey, on an island off the Devon coast, Lord Highmount has arranged a spiritualist gathering to contact his two sons who were lost in the conflict.
Greener pastures, Michael Wehunt.
In his striking debut collection, Greener Pastures, Michael Wehunt shows why he is a powerful new voice in horror and weird fiction. These beautifully crafted, emotionally resonant stories speak of the unknown encroaching upon the familiar, the inscrutable power of grief and desire, and the thinness between all our layers.
Valley of Terror, Zhou Haohui.
A mysterious 'fear disease' is scaring to death the citizens of Longzhou, China. Literally. Victims go insane or die frozen in terror, while survivors rant maniacally about demons infiltrating the city. But what's really behind the sudden epidemic? To find the answer, Chief Inspector Luo Fei teams up with a controversial historian and a brilliant psychologist to track down the true source of the illness.

MYSTERY

Black city: the further adventures of Erast Fandorin, Boris Akunin
Crimea, 1914. When the Tzar's head of security is assassinated, Fandorin is called to investigate: the killer has been overheard mentioning a 'black city' so Fandorin and his trusty companion, Masa, head to Baku, the burgeoning capital of oil. But as soon as they arrive, they are attacked and Fandorin almost drowns in an oil well.
The second rider, Alex Beer.
For three months, Inspector August Emmerich has been on the trail of Veit Kolja, the head of a large-scale black market smuggling operation that supplies people with basic needs that remain scarce in a city still devastated by World War I. Emmerich dreams of a reassignment to the elite division that handles homicides and hopes to showcase his deductive skills after his inexperienced new assistant stumbles across a corpse in the woods.
Death in Paris, Emilia Bernhard.
The only thing chillier than a Parisian winter is cold-blooded murder. When French financier Edgar Bowen drowns in a bowl of soup, his former girlfriend, American Rachel Levis, is alarmed by the unnatural death. Who dies eating a nice vichyssoise? But when she overhears a mourner at his funeral describing the circumstances of his death, something sounds even stranger.
Bang to rights, Helen Black.
One year on from being reunited with the family she abandoned, successful lawyer Liberty Chapman is still in Leeds, although she has stayed well away from the Greenwood's business activities. Their criminal life style may not sit right with Liberty, but blood is thicker than water and surely what they do is their business not hers?
The night she died, Jenny Blackhurst.
On her own wedding night, beautiful and complicated Evie White leaps off a cliff to her death. What drove her to commit this terrible act? It's left to her best friend and her husband to unravel the sinister mystery. Following a twisted trail of clues leading to Evie's darkest secrets, they begin to realize they never knew the real Evie at all.
The waiting room: a novel, Emily Bleeker.
Ever since her husband's death collided with the birth of her daughter, postpartum depression has taken hold of Veronica Shelton. she can't sleep, can't work, and can't bear to touch her beautiful baby girl. Her emotional state is whispering lies in Veronica's ear. But not everything can be reasoned away by Veronica's despair.
Liv, Mikaela Bley.
Crime reporter Ellen Tamm hasn't been the same since the Lycke case a few months ago. It is now August, and all summer she has been on sick leave, shut in her apartment and spinning out of control. Under pressure, and threats, from her parents and her employer, TV4, she agrees to head home to her family farm, relo, to try to get some help and get a handle on her mental health.
My sister, the serial killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite.
"Femi makes three you know. Three and they label you a serial killer." When Korede's dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what's expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach.
Homeward hound: a novel, Rita Mae Brown.
Amidst the revelry of the Christmas Hunt, mystery and intrigue abound! When the fanfare is interrupted by the discovery of a body, "Sister" Jane Arnold and her company of loyal hounds find themselves faced with a pressing task; to uncover who has killed a beloved club faithful.
Dark water: a Detective Erika Foster novel, Robert Bryndza.
Beneath the water the body sank rapidly. Above her on dry land, the nightmare was just beginning. When Detective Erika Foster receives a tip-off that key evidence for a major narcotics case was stashed in a disused quarry on the outskirts of London, she orders for it to be searched.
The best bad things, Katrina Carrasco.
It is 1887, and Alma Rosales is on the hunt for stolen opium. Trained in espionage by the Pinkerton Detective Agency but dismissed for bad behaviour and a penchant for going undercover as a man, Alma now works for Delphine Beaumond, the seductive mastermind of a West Coast smuggling ring. When product goes missing at their Washington Territory outpost, Alma is tasked with tracking the thief and recovering the drugs.
Pandemic, Robin Cook.
When an unidentified, seemingly healthy young woman collapses suddenly on the New York City subway and dies upon reaching the hospital, her case is an eerie reminder for veteran medical examiner Jack Stapleton of the 1918 flu pandemic. Fearful of a repeat on the one hundredth anniversary of the nightmarish contagion, Jack autopsies the woman within hours of her demise and discovers some striking anomalies.
Absinthe: a thriller, Guido Eekhaut.
Walter Eekhaut, a veteran of the Belgian police force who has a problem with authority, has been dispatched to Amsterdam to aid in investigating the activities of a well- connected Russian oligarch, with ties to Putin. Some of the Russian's business is legitimate, but some may well not be.
The shadows we hide, Allen Eskens.
Joe Talbert, Jr. has never once met his namesake. Now out of college, a cub reporter for the Associated Press in Minneapolis, he stumbles across a story describing the murder of a man named Joseph Talbert in a small town in southern Minnesota. Full of curiosity about whether this man might be his father, Joe is shocked to find that none of the town's residents have much to say about the dead man.
The whisperer, Karin Fossum.
Ragna Riegel works in a supermarket and still lives in her childhood home. She's alone in the world since her only son moved to Berlin. She longs for a Christmas or birthday card from him. Ragna lives her life within strict self-imposed limits; she sits in the same seat on the bus every day, on her way to her predictable job.
The dissent of Annie Lang, Ros Franey.
Growing up in a strict religious family between the wars, Annie Lang wasn't convinced that Jesus was such a great friend to little children. Or why would he have snatched away her lovely mother when she was only six? Witness to disturbing events that no one can explain, Annie is confused and sister Bea can't help.
Under the night, Alan Glynn.
In 1950s Manhattan, the CIA carry out a covert study of psychoactive drugs. When they dose ad man Ned Sweeney with MDT-48, he finds his horizons dramatically expand as he is hurtled through the corridors of the rich and powerful, all the way to the government's nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll. But what of Ned's colleague who was also dosed that night.
Consequences, Maureen Green.
How could Chas Winter, as a brash lad of seventeen, have foreseen that the brutal bullying of Donald Bracken would alter the course of both their lives? Incensed by the unwarranted beating, Donald vowed to make the bullies pay. Tormented by his peers, his hatred spreads like insidious cancer invading his thoughts night and day.
Playing with fire, Patricia Hall.
The death of a young girl leads Detective Sergeant Harry Barnard and Kate O'Donnell into a hotbed of simmering tensions, violence and threats in sixties' Soho. London, 1964. At three a.m. on a chilly autumn morning, Detective Sergeant Harry Barnard is called to a club in Greek Street where a young girl has fallen to her death from a top-floor window.
The insider, Mari Hannah.
After their success in their last investigation, DCI David Stone has been promoted and moved to the Murder Investigation Team, taking DS Frankie Oliver with him. But there's a catch: the case they are given is the latest in a series of undetected murders. It's a baptism of fire for MIT's newest recruits.
The ash doll, James Hazel.
Prolific lawyer Charlie Priest has bet his career on one case, but when his star witness turns up brutally murdered on the first morning of the trial, things start to fall apart. Priest knows there's a vicious killer out there, but as the bodies begin to pile up, he soon realises that he's caught in a web of corruption that protects a deadly secret: one that threatens to tear him and those he cares about apart.
Newcomer, Keigo Higashino.
Detective Kyochiro Kaga of the Tokyo Police Department has just been transferred to a new precinct in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. Newly arrived, but with a great deal of experience, Kaga is promptly assigned to the team investigating the murder of a woman. But the more he investigates, the greater number of potential suspects emerges.
Her sister's lie, Debbie Howells.
Remember the script. Sisters look out for each other. It's been ten years since Hannah Roscoe saw her older sister, but that distance fades to nothing when she receives a call from the police saying Nina is dead. As a teenager, desperate to leave home and make her career in music, Hannah moved into Nina's cottage in the English countryside.
IQ, Joe Ide.
East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the neighbourhood's high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, lost children unrecovered. But someone from the neighbourhood has taken it upon himself to help solve the cases the police can't or won't touch. They call him IQ. He's a loner and a high school dropout, his unassuming nature disguising a relentless determination and a fierce intelligence.
A death in Rembrandt Square, Anja de Jager.
It's hard for anyone to have their work scrutinised in public. For Amsterdam-based detective Lotte Meerman, listening to the Right to Justice podcast as they dissect one of her old cases is made even more harrowing as every episode makes fresh accusations of a bungled operation.
Fault lines, Doug Johnstone.
In a reimagined contemporary Edinburgh, in which a tectonic fault has opened up to produce a new volcano in the Firth of Forth, and where tremors are an everyday occurrence, volcanologist Surtsey makes a shocking discovery. On a clandestine trip to The Inch; the new volcanic island, to meet Tom, her lover and her boss, she finds his lifeless body, and makes the fatal decision to keep their affair, and her discovery of his corpse secret.
Tonight I said goodbye, Michael Koryta.
Investigator and former Marine Wayne Weston is found at home, killed by a single gunshot wound to the head, the gun still lying in his right hand. There is no sign of his wife and six-year-old daughter. The police believe Wayne Weston killed his family before turning the gun on himself. Weston's father is convinced his son was murdered. He turns to Lincoln Perry, former cop, now private investigator, for help.
Deceived, Roberta Kray.
Judith Jonson has been a widow for five years. At first she hoped Dan would return, but her dream turned to a nightmare as as the war ended, and she had to accept her beloved husband was never coming home. Then one day she sees a picture in paper; the aftermath of a dramatic robbery in London's West End, and Judith can't believe her eyes. It's Dan, she'd stake her life on it, or rather his life the goodfornothing deserter.
Top dog, Jens Lapidus.
Emelie is a young lawyer who's just started her own firm. Teddy is a reformed criminal looking for a fresh start. The first time they teamed up, in Stockholm, they uncovered the secrets of a Swedish sex ring. Though their partnership proved rewarding; both professionally and personally, they haven't seen each other since.
Murder by matchlight, E.C.R. Lorac.
London. 1945. The capital is shrouded in the darkness of the blackout, and mystery abounds in the parks after dusk. During a stroll through Regent's Park, Bruce Mallaig witnesses two men acting suspiciously around a footbridge. In a matter of moments, one of them has been murdered; Mallaig's view of the assailant but a brief glimpse of a ghastly face in the glow of a struck match.
The widows of Malabar Hill, Sujata Massey.
Introducing an extraordinary female lawyer-sleuth in a new historical series set in 1920s Bombay. Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father's law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India.
The snow girls, Chris Mooney.
It's been eleven years since Claire Flynn disappeared; abducted without trace from a snowy hillside, leaving her parents heartbroken. Investigator Darby McCormick remembers the case. She knows there's only ever been one suspect, Father Richard Byrne, linked inconclusively to two similar disappearances. Finally, terminally ill, Byrne is willing to talk.
The root of evil, Håkan Nesser.
July 2007. A letter arrives on Inspector Barbarotti's doorstep detailing a murder that is about to take place in his own quiet Swedish town. By the time the police track down the subject of the letter, he is already dead. So when a second letter arrives, then a third, and a fourth, it's a game of cat and mouse to stop the killer before he can make good on all of his promises.
The last night out, Catherine O'Connell.
After drinking too much at her bachelorette party, Maggie Trueheart wakes to find a stranger in her bed. To make matters worse, a phone call brings the devastating news that her friend Angie was murdered some time after they parted ways the night before. Kelly Delaney, who left the party early, is the first of Maggie's friends to face questions from Chicago homicide detective Ron O'Reilly.
The break, Ronnie O'Sullivan.
It's 1997 and Cool Britannia's in full swing. Oasis and Blur are top of the pops and it feels like the whole country's sorted out for E's and wizz. Althought it's not just UK plc that's on a high. Life's looking up for Frankie James too. He's paid off his debts to London fiercest ganglord, Tommy Riley.
Shell game, Sara Paretsky.
Legendary sleuth V.I. Warshawski returns to the Windy City to save an old friend's nephew from a murder arrest. The case involves a stolen artifact that could implicate a shadowy network of international criminals. As V.I. investigates, the detective soon finds herself tangling with the Russian mob, ISIS backers, and a shady network of stock scams and stolen art that stretches from Chicago to the East Indies and the Middle East.
The First Lady, James Patterson & Brendan DuBois.
As he steps out of his hotel in Atlanta with the love of his life by his side, the last thing President Tucker expects is to be greeted by the flashing cameras of the media. Or for his affair to be revealed to the world, just two weeks before the public was expected to vote him in for a second term as leader of the Free World.
Kingdom of the blind, Louise Penny.
When a peculiar letter arrives inviting Armand Gamache to an abandoned farmhouse, the former head of the Sûreté du Québec discovers that a complete stranger has named him one of the executors of her will. Still on suspension, and frankly curious, Gamache accepts and soon learns that the other two executors are Myrna Landers, the bookseller from Three Pines, and a young builder.
Dark tide rising: a William Monk novel, Anne Perry.
When a ransom exchange turns violent, Commander William Monk faces an unthinkable possibility: betrayal by his own men. Local businessman Harry Exeter doesn't want the aid of the Thames River Police in tracking down the men who kidnapped his wife, Kate.
The Chinese orange mystery, Ellery Queen.
The offices of foreign literature publisher and renowned stamp collector Donald Kirk are often host to strange activities, but the most recent occurrence the murder of an unknown caller, found dead in an empty waiting room is unlike any that has come before.
The listeners, Anthony J. Quinn.
Detective Carla Herron is leading the investigation into the savage murder of a respected psychotherapist whose decapitated head has been found in a forest clearing. The crime scene is devoid of any leads but a patient at the nearby Deepwell psychiatric hospital has declared responsibility for the deed in an vividly detailed confession; even though his claim is demonstrably impossible.
The au pair, Emma Rous.
Seraphine Mayes and her twin brother Danny were born in the middle of summer at their family's estate on the Norfolk coast. Within hours of their birth, their mother threw herself from the cliffs, the au pair fled, and the village thrilled with whispers of dark cloaks, changelings, and the aloof couple who drew a young nanny into their inner circle.
Amelia: the Sly and Hokey detective series, Anna Ryan.
At 3pm Amelia Myer got home. At 3:05pm Amelia Myer had something to eat. At 3:30pm Amelia Myer used the WC and grabbed her phone and a bottle of water. At 4:15pm Amelia Myer was reported missing. The people surrounding Amelia are not at all what they seem.
The piranhas, Roberto Saviano.
Nicolas Fiorillo is a brilliant and ambitious fifteen-year-old from the slums of Naples, eager to make his mark and to acquire power and the money that comes with it. With nine friends, he sets out to create a new paranza, or gang. Together they roam the streets on their motorscooters, learning how to break into the network of small-time hoodlums that controls drug-dealing and petty crime in the city.
Maigret gets angry, Georges Simenon.
Peacefully tending his garden in the countryside, Maigret is cajoled out of retirement by a case involving an old classmate and a rich family with skeletons in their cupboard; and finds himself confronted by lies, snobbery and malice.
Maigret's anger, Georges Simenon.
During a quiet spell in June, Maigret is called to investigate the disappearance of a reputable businessman, a nightclub owner with properties in Montmarte and on the Champs-Élysées. Things take a dark turn when the man's body is discovered near the famous Père Lachaise cemetery.
The spite game, Anna Snoekstra.
Mercilessly bullied in high school, Ava can't move on until she's exacted, precise, catastrophic revenge on the people who hurt her the most. First she watches Saanvi, who has it all together at a top architectural firm, which Ava will destroy the way her own life was destroyed.
The first prehistoric serial killer and other stories, Teresa Solana.
An impressive and very funny collection of stories by Teresa Solana but the fun is very dark indeed. The oddest things happen. Statues decompose and stink out galleries, two old grandmothers are vengeful killers, a prehistoric detective on the verge of becoming the first religious charlatan trails a triple murder.
Murder in mud, Rodney Strong.
Life is about to get muddy. Oliver Atkinson thought his first ghostly hitchhiker was also his last. Until Angus McMurry arrives. The grumpy old spirit isn't leaving until Oliver proves Angus's great, great grandson innocent of murdering his girlfriend. Once more Oliver must navigate an unfamiliar world, this time consisting of university students, addicts, and a murderer.
Blood is blood, Will Thomas.
In 19th century London, Cyrus Barker and his associate Thomas Llewelyn are renowned private enquiry agents, successfully employed by the highest levels of Her Majesty's government as well as private citizens. Their success, however, has led to their acquiring a powerful group of enemies, many of whom are determined to have their revenge.
Perfect ten, Jacqueline Ward.
Caroline Atkinson is powerless and angry. She has lost more than most; her marriage, her reputation, even her children. Then one day, she receives an unusual delivery: lost luggage belonging to the very man who is responsible, her estranged husband Jack. In a leather holdall, Caroline unearths a dark secret, one that finally confirms her worst suspicions.
The gifts of Poseidon, Zouroudi Anne.
The body discovered in a remote cove on the Greek island of Liteos turns out to be an entrepreneur who was planning a new future for the island's fishermen. But though the fabulous golden-scaled fish Liteos was famed for have long since vanished, not everyone welcomed the dead man's vision.

New Zealand Fiction

Gwenna: the Welsh confectioner: inspired by a true story, Vicky Adin.
Amid the bustling vibrancy of Auckland's Karangahape Road Gwenna Price is troubled. For all her youth, she has become the master confectioner in the family business since her father died. She promised to fulfil her Pa's dreams and open a shop, but with her domineering and incompetent stepbrother Elias in charge, the operation is on the brink of collapse.
The art of secrets, Vicky Adin.
Reclusive best-selling author, Charlotte Day, no longer has the passion to write. Wanting to boost her profile, her manager sends Emma Wade, a young freelance journalist, to write a series of publicity articles. Suspicious of their motives and with much to hide, Charlotte makes things difficult for the girl as Emma forces her to remember her past.
Shadows of the mind, Owen Clough.
Samuel McInnes aka Mack, severely wounded in the attack on Auckland in 1863, recovered consciousness on HMS Esk heading to Scotland via Sydney, Australia. Sam is mistakenly repatriated to Scotland as the army believe this is where he is from. With the loss of memory, his life becomes complicated, as he falls for a young nurse on the voyage who has a secret that she will not reveal to him until he is fully recovered.
Tangled web, Maureen Green.
Renee, glamorous inventor of an important revolutionary microchip meets Liam, an assassin sent by an international underworld cartel to secure the chip then kill her. Instead, he falls in love and marries her. The cartel, hot in pursuit, a spate of murders ensues. As the body count rises Detective Hailstrand discovers the cartel has infiltrated the ranks in the NZ Police.
The Māori conflict, Seán Hampsey.
In the early 1800s a French veteran of Napoleon Bonaparté's wars escapes to New Zealand from the penal settlement of New South Wales. After being captured, he chances his way into the inner-sanctum of a powerful Māori tribe. Soon he is within a hairs-breadth of becoming heir to the throne. He is caught-up in a terrifying inter-tribal war, and even as a seasoned campaigner, he is over-awed by the brutality and bravery of it all.
Winged helmet, white horse, Karyn Hay.
Set in contemporary London. A darkly comic psychological drama. Tim has mastered the art of subordination; to his job, his wife, and even his daughter. Having written one critically acclaimed book of poetry he is struggling to write a second. As Tim stumbles through the social landscape of suburban London, trying to give up alcohol and gain some control over his life, he makes several disturbing discoveries.
The Julian calendar, William Henry.
Daniel Jamieson is a bright young Kiwi photojournalist desperate to release himself from a profound love affair that has stalled without explanation. He has returned to London for its diversions, but instead stirs memories of the secretive nurse who left him heartbroken.
Blacks sands & toitoi, Peter Pedrotti.
Set at Auckland's West Coast beaches, the story tells about love of the land and people, but also the scourge of gangs and methamphetamine and China's spreading influence in the South Pacific. One of the main players is a Border Collie named 'Lady'.
Photos of you, Tammy Robinson.
When Ava Green turns twenty-eight, she is told it will be her last birthday. The cancer she fought three years ago is back, and this time it's going to beat her. But Ava is not going to let cancer define her last, precious months- she wants the wedding of her dreams. She doesn't have a groom, she doesn't have much money, and she definitely doesn't have much time…
Double jeopardy, Jenny Wheeler.
California, 1868. Isabella Wilmington's dream of taking centre stage feels empty without her long-lost twin brother cheering her on. When a bullet cuts through the crowd, she's convinced the murderous act is a warning shot against her search for her missing sibling. Determined to crack the case, she tags along with a rugged ex-soldier who'd rather keep her out of harm's way than put her on the frontlines of a dangerous investigation.
Poisoned legacy, Jenny Wheeler.
Unsolved deaths. Untold treasure. Can she uncover the secret of her inheritance before dark forces claim another victim? Graysie Castellanos is ready to take her final bow. When the travelling singer inherits a rundown mine, she thinks it's her golden opportunity to provide her adopted daughter with a happy childhood and a prosperous future.
Tangled destiny: a Christmas novella, Jenny Wheeler.
New York, 1847. Elanora dreams of marrying her childhood sweetheart Eustace. The proposal on her 21st birthday is everything she hoped for, until her fiancé's father dispatches him to the West Indies. After the promise of a white Christmas with the man she loves evaporates, she stumbles upon a secret that could tear Eustace's family apart.

ROMANCE

One night, one unexpected miracle, Caroline Anderson.
Senior paediatric surgeon Alice Baxter believes she'll never conceive. So she's stunned to find she's pregnant after one spontaneous night with colleague Marco Ricci! She might be his buttoned-up boss but their chemistry is off the charts.
Midwife under the mistletoe, Karin Baine.
GP Fraser McColl longs to be part of a loving family, but past experience has taught him he's better off alone. Only when he's thrown together with gorgeous yet guarded midwife Iona Munro, to care for two children at Christmas, he's tempted to believe in miracles?
Someone to trust, Mary Balogh.
During a rare white Christmas at Brambledean Court, the widow Elizabeth, Lady Overfield, defies convention by falling in love with a younger man in the latest novel in the Westcott series. After her husband's passing, Elizabeth Overfield decides that she must enter into another suitable marriage.
Her festive flirtation, Therese Beharrie.
A year after being jilted, Ava Keller finds herself forced back up the aisle; as bridesmaid at a beautiful Cape Town wedding. Best man Noah Giles, Ava's first crush, is the perfect distraction from her painful memories.
A daddy sent by Santa, Susan Carlisle.
Nurse Lauren Wilson is used to doctors coming and going in her Oklahoma town and she doesn't expect prestigious Boston doc Paxton Samuels to be any different.
Firefighter's Christmas baby, Annie Claydon.
Firefighter Ben Matthews is committed to his job above all else after his last relationship ended badly. Until he meets alluring and fiercely independent paramedic Callie Walsh! Their fiery exchanges over the project she's working on at his fire station leave Ben unable to deny their chemistry.
Sheikh's secret love-child, Caitlin Crews.
Playboy Sheikh Malak assumes he'll never inherit the throne, but when his brother unexpectedly abdicates he finds himself King! Now past indiscretions must be put aside; until he uncovers the hidden consequence of one delicious seduction of an innocent waitress.
Heiress's royal baby bombshell, Jennifer Faye.
In this The Cattaneos' Christmas Miracles story, rebel royal Max believes his infertility has cost him the throne; until heiress Noemi reveals she's carrying his baby! With his country's future at stake, Max must claim his heir!
Revenge at the altar, Louise Fuller.
Nothing gives Max Montigny more satisfaction than hearing heiress Margot Duvernay say 'I do'. Rejected by her family once before, this time Max holds all the cards; to protect their champagne business Margot must agree to be his bride!
On the same page, Penelope Janu.
By day Miles Franklin, named after the famous author, is a successful lawyer. But by night she writes historical romance novels under the pen name Emma Browning. When Miles's assistant covertly enters her novel in one of Australia's biggest literary awards; and it wins, Miles's perfectly ordered world is ripped to pieces.
The Italian's Christmas housekeeper, Sharon Kendrick.
Shy housekeeper Molly Miller always tries her best. She's anxious to impress outrageously wealthy house guest Salvio De Gennaro, but instead is unfairly criticised by her employer! Found sobbing by Salvio, she's comforted; with the most amazing experience of her life.
The wrong Callahan, Karly Lane.
It had been two long years since Lincoln Callahan had stood in front of the gates to Stringybark Creek. He was in the army then; a lifetime ago. Linc had always been the unsettled Callahan, looking for danger, the one who couldn't wait to leave the family farm. Linc's little brother, Griffin, was the dependable son, the one who stayed at home, the one who did the right things.
The baby the billionaire demands, Jennie Lucas.
Lola Price didnt dare tell Rodrigo Cabrera she was pregnant after he spurned her. But now he's discovered her secret he's determined his child will take his name! Whilst their mutual desire in the marriage bed is undeniable, Rodrigo keeps himself at a distance.
The innocent's shock pregnancy, Carol Marinelli.
Wherever ruthless billionaire Ethan Devereux goes, the press follow. So when he discovers the astonishing night he shared with talented actress Merida has ended in pregnancy, he moves fast to contain the scandal! Suddenly Merida lands the biggest role of her career; playing the part of the loving Mrs Devereux.
Million dollar baby, Janice Maynard.
Going home with a stranger isn't sheltered heiress Brooke Goodman's MO. Neither is falling back into bed with the same sinfully sexy man, or asking him to marry her so she can inherit millions. But now she's pregnant, and Austin wants to wed for real! Should she trust a man who can promise her his name but not forever?
Sicilian's bride for a price, Tara Pammi.
Billionaire Dante Vittori has spent years building his impeccable reputation; no easy feat following his father's incarceration. Now, to counter a business threat, ruthless Dante must do the unthinkable; get married! Free-spirited heiress Alisha will do anything to save her mother's charity, even marry the man she hates.
Their newborn baby gift, Alison Roberts.
In this Hope Children's Hospital story, paediatric heart surgeon Ryan Walker knows that shy receptionist and neonatal 'baby cuddler' Evie Cooper is off-limits for a jaded playboy like him! But when they discover an abandoned newborn they must work together to care for her.
Life on the leash, Victoria Schade.
Cora Bellamy is a woman who thrives on organization. She's successfully run her own dog training business for years, perfectly content with her beloved rescue pitbull as the main man in her life. She's given everything to her business, and her lack of social life (or slobber-free clothes) has been completely worth it.
Christmas with her secret prince, Nina Singh.
Waitress Melinda Osmon is dreading attending her work Christmas ball alone for the first time since her ex took everything from her. But a little Christmas magic brings her a saviour in the form of mysterious, gorgeous Ray. And yet the happy ending of Mel's festive fairytale is uncertain. 'Ray' is Crown Prince Rayhan al Saibbi, and soon he must choose; Mel, or duty to his kingdom.
A ring to claim his legacy, Rachael Thomas.
Tycoon Marco Silviano can't forget the mysterious woman he spent an incredible week with on a luxurious island. Coming face to face with Imogen in England is shocking; especially when he learns she's expecting his baby! Convinced their child will secure his family's dynasty, Marco is intent on persuading Imogen to wear his ring.
Snow falling, Jane Gloriana Villanueva.
In 1902 Miami, Josephine Galena Valencia has big dreams. Engaged to Pinkerton Detective Martin Cadden and working at the lavish Regal Sol, her life changes forever one champagne-fueled night with dashing hotelier Rake Solvino. Josephine must decide where her heart lies, even as a dangerous crime lord threatens all she holds dear.
Their Christmas miracle, Barbara Wallace.
Finding the wife he'd believed lost to him for ever in a remote Scottish village seems like a miracle to wealthy CEO Thomas Collier. But Rosalind is suffering from amnesia; she can't remember anything from before her accident, including her husband and their daughter!
New Year wedding for the crown prince, Meredith Webber.
When Crown Prince Charles of Livaroche turns up on Dr Jo Wainright's Australian doorstep, their two worlds collide. Only while Charles is seeking clues to his past, Jo is determined to forget the heartbreak of hers. Stranded together this Christmas, they find their magical connection hard to ignore.
Her forgotten lover's heir, Annie West.
Brooding Pietro Agosti was stunned when his sizzling fling with vibrant teacher Molly Armstrong resulted in her pregnancy; finally this merciless Italian would be able to continue his legacy. But then an accident left Molly with no memory of him! Now Pietro must help Molly remember the fierce attraction that drove them together; and the fact that the baby she's carrying is the Agosti heir.
Want me, cowboy, Maisey Yates.
Poppy Sinclair kept her feelings for Isaiah Grayson secret for a decade. When her infuriatingly gorgeous Stetson-wearing boss enlists her help in finding him a convenient wife, she threatens to quit. Until Isaiah counters with an interesting proposal: Why doesn't she marry him?

SAGA

Master of his fate, Barbara Taylor Bradford.
Alexis Malvern is an only child, raised by her father, Henry, who has built a real estate empire in London. Trained by her father and heir to his businesses, Alexis has no interest in marrying. But when James Falconer approaches her father for a job, she finally meets a man with an ambition and vision that matches hers.
Workhouse nightingale, Holly Green.
After her mother's death, Dora is sent to live with her father and his other family. But Dora is mixed race and illegitimate, two facts that see her treated as little more than a servant by her step-mother and half siblings. This doesn't stop the son of the house abusing his position and Dora finds herself on the streets and pregnant.
For the love of Liverpool, Ruth Hamilton.
Kate Owen is a woman fleeing from the past. Leaving a rewarding job in London, she's uprooted her life and given away her daughter to keep them both safe. Damaged from a traumatic event that broke her family apart, she attempts to find peace in the city she now calls home: Liverpool.
White Gum Creek, Nicole Hurley-Moore.
Nick Langtree has lived reclusively on his farm, Winters Hill, ever since the tragic death of his wife. On the occasional trip into nearby White Gum Creek he keeps to himself and that's the way he likes it. And though over the last six years the townsfolk have tried to reach out to Nick, he's pushed them all away.
A Liverpool secret, Geraldine O'Neill.
Liverpool, 1925: Can a chance meeting lead to a fresh start? Lillian Taylor dreams of a world beyond the locked gates of the convent orphanage. For ten years she has survived the hard faith of the Mother Superior, but the arrival of a glamorous visitor changes everything.
Beauchamp Hall: a novel, Danielle Steel.
Winona Farmington once dreamed of graduating from college, moving to New York City, and pursuing a career in publishing. Then real life got in the way when she left college and returned to her small Michigan hometown to care for her sick mother.
A cloud in the shape of a girl: a novel, Jean Thompson.
A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl is a poignant novel about three generations of the Wise family; Evelyn, Laura, and Grace, as they hunt for contentment amid chaos of their own making. Evelyn set aside her career to marry, late, and motherhood never became her.

SCIENCE FICTION

The final frontier: stories of exploring space, colonizing the universe, and first contact, Neil Clarke.
The urge to explore and discover is a natural and universal one, and the edge of the unknown is expanded with each passing year as scientific advancements inch us closer and closer to the outer reaches of our solar system and the galaxies beyond them.
The future is female!: 25 classic science fiction stories by women, from pulp pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin, Lisa Yaszek, editor.
Bending and stretching its conventions to imagine new, more feminist futures and new ways of experiencing gender, visionary women writers have been from the beginning an essential if often overlooked force in American science fiction.
Wastelands: stories of the apocalypse, John Joseph Adams.
Presents a collection of short stories from such authors as Stephen King, Orson Scott Card, John Langan, and Octavia E. Butler that focus on the end of the world.
Devil's wake: a novel, Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due.
The eeriness of Devil's Wake begins a week after tomorrow. An unprecedented infection has swept across the world, bringing an epidemic of mindless biting attacks from the infected that leave their victims "changed." Society has broken down. The victims are more than mindless zombies.
The game of luck, Catherine Cerveny.
The perfect society One Gov engineered from Earth's ashes is beginning to crumble. As social unrest and dissatisfaction spread throughout the tri-system, One Gov struggles to maintain order, and a single misstep could see civilization spiraling into chaos.
Rejoice: a knife to the heart, Steven Erikson.
An alien AI has been sent to the solar system as representative of three advanced species. Its mission is to save the Earth's ecosystem - and the biggest threat to that is humanity. But we are also part of the system, so the AI must make a choice. Should it save mankind or wipe it out? Are we worth it?
The quantum magician, Derek Künsken.
Belisarius is a Homo quantus, engineered with impossible insight. But his gift is also a curse; an uncontrollable, even suicidal drive to know, to understand. Genetically flawed, he leaves his people to find a different life, and ends up becoming the galaxy's greatest con man and thief.
Hazards of time travel, Joyce Carol Oates.
"Time travel", and its hazards, are made literal in this astonishing new novel in which a recklessly idealistic girl dares to test the perimeters of her tightly controlled (future) world and is punished by being sent back in time to a region of North America; "Wainscotia, Wisconsin", that existed eighty years before.
The valley of shadows, John Ringo & Mike Massa.
From his corner office on the 44th floor of the Bank of America Tower, Tom Smith, global managing director for security, could see the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park, and a ravening zombie horde. Officially, Smith was paid to preserve the lives and fortunes of employees, billionaires and other clients.
Skyward, Brandon Sanderson.
Spensa's world has been under attack for hundreds of years. An alien race called the Krell leads onslaught after onslaught from the sky in a never-ending campaign to destroy humankind. Humanity's only defense is to take to their ships and fight the enemy in the skies. Pilots have become the heroes of what's left of the human race.
Exodus, Jamie Sawyer.
Lieutenant Keira Jenkins and her Jackals may have survived confrontations with the Black Spiral terrorist network and a betrayal by one of their own. Yet their troubles are only just beginning. With their starship badly damaged, they find themselves adrift in hostile territory.
Time and time again: sixteen trips in time, Robert Silverberg.
A collection of 16 time-travel stories by the science fiction master originally published 1956-2007, with a 2018 introduction by the author.
The snail on the slope, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
The Snail on the Slope takes place in two worlds. One is the Administration, an institution run by a surreal, Kafkaesque bureaucracy whose aim is to govern the forest below. The other is the Forest, a place of fear, weird creatures, primitive people and violence. Peretz, who works at the Administration, wants to visit the Forest.
Uncompromising Honor, David Weber.
The Solarian League's navy counts its superdreadnoughts by the thousands. Not even they know how large their economy is. And for hundreds of years they have borne the banner of human civilization. But the 'Mandarins' who rule today's league are corrupt, venal, accountable to no one, and have decided that the Star Kingdom of Manticore must be destroyed.
Valence, Jennifer Foehner Wells.
Earth's days are numbered. Two very different women race to prepare for the battle to come. The future of Earth is in their hands. One struggles to resurrect her ruined ship so she can navigate the politics at the galactic core in a desperate bid to recruit allies. The other strives to master alien technology to supply the forces of Earth with the tools needed to defend themselves against the ravenous Swarm.
A big ship at the edge of the universe, Alex White.
A washed-up treasure hunter, a hotshot racer, and a deadly secret society. They're all on a race against time to hunt down the greatest warship ever built. Some think the ship is lost forever, some think it's been destroyed, and some think it's only a legend, but one thing's for certain: whoever finds it will hold the fate of the universe in their hands.

WESTERN

Remarque's law, Will DuRey.
Ben Joyner has no argument with the people who built their homes on the grassland near Pecos, but the cattlemen have long considered the range their own domain and now trouble is brewing. Rancher Gus Remarque is Ben's boss and believes that the dollar a day he pays buys not only a man's labour but his loyalty, too.
A gift from Crick, John McNally.
Sailors Diggings an isolated mining settlement is left reeling when outlaws slaughter seventeen of the stunned population and clean out the assay office stealing 5,000 worth of freshly mined gold. A group of vigilantes led by Don Plunkett give chase determined to dispense some Old West justice.
The line rider, K.S. Stanley.
With his job as a line rider under threat, Mack Cambray hopes to settle down with his bride as a homesteader. However, in trying to solve the mystery of his wife's untimely death, Mack ends up in the middle of a violent range war.