16 Fiction


Nikolides. But just as the cracks in Emily’s family home are papered over, so the Pools strive to maintain an outward impression of respectability, and it is through the Nikolides that Emily is exposed to a world of adult deceit and attrition. Then, when her beloved dog dies, the event forces a confrontation and nothing in the town is quite as it seems. 220pp in paperback. £9.99 NOW £4


73153 UNUSUAL USES FOR OLIVE OIL


by Alexander McCall Smith The fourth book in the Professor Dr von Igelfeld series, here we find the celebrated author of Portuguese Irregular Verbs and pillar of the Regensberg Institute of Romance Philology thoroughly vexed by the undeserved rise of a rival, the self- styled “Professor” Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer, owner of a one- legged, three-wheeled dachshund


called Walter. Not only that, but his colleagues have been making waspish remarks behind his back concerning his unmarried state, so when a matchmaking friend tells him about a keen heiress it appears that he will finally be getting what he thinks he deserves. AMS brings this delightful Teutonic snob to irresistible, hilarious life with customary aplomb. 203pp, paperback. £7.99 NOW £3.50


73128 DEVIL’S CHARGE by Michael Arnold The second in the series, first published in 2011 the follow-up to the immensely popular 2010 Traitor’s Blood, but it reads perfectly well as a stand-alone. It is 1643: England stands divided, King against Parliament, town against country, brother against brother. Captain Stryker, scarred hero of a dozen battles, is long past caring about the rights and wrongs of both causes. From the storming of Cirencester via the siege of Lichfield to the blood-soaked fields of Hopton Heath, Arnold brings to life the drama and passion of the Civil War and the doomed glamour of the Royalist cause, each page reeking of gunpowder and resounding with cannon fire as the resolute Stryker doggedly sticks to his task. 467pp paperback. £13.99 NOW £3.75


73139 PARK LANE by Frances Osborne It is 1914 in London. Threats of war loom large, but Lady Masters, head of a dying industrial dynasty, is still insisting that life is about service and duty. Little does she know that her youngest daughter, Beatrice, fatigued by the boredom of the social season, and enjoying a silent rebellion against convention, is drawn to Mrs Pankhurst’s underground world of militant suffragettes. Below stairs, neither Grace’s parents nor her adored brother know that her strong northern accent has prevented her from obtaining a post as a secretary and reduced her to serving as third housemaid in the Masters family. The secrets of Bea and Grace are on a collision course. 336pp. £14.99 NOW £3


73140 RAVENSCLIFFE by Jane Sanderson Yorkshire, 1904, on Netherwood Common, Russian émigré Anna Rabinovich shows her dear friend Eve Williams a house - a Victorian villa, solidly built from local stone. This is Ravenscliffe, and it is the house Anna wants them to live in. As Anna transforms Ravenscliffe, an attraction grows between her and union man Amos, but when Eve’s long-lost brother Silas turns up in the closely-knit mining community, cracks appear even in the strongest friendships. Meanwhile at Netherwood Hall, cherished traditions are being undermined by the whims of the feckless heir to the title, Tobias Hoyland and his American bride Thea. 534pp, paperback. £6.99 NOW £2.25


73141 ROSWELL CONSPIRACY by Boyd Morrison 1947. 10 year old Fay Allen of Roswell New Mexico, witnesses the fiery crash of an extraordinary craft. More than 60 years later, army engineer Tyler Locke rescues Fay from a pair of assassins. She says they were after a piece of wreckage she had obtained from the Roswell crash, and she claims to know secrets about the incident that have never previously been revealed. Tyler is initially sceptical, but after he is kidnapped by a mysterious band of mercenaries, he comes to believe that Roswell holds the key to his and his countrymen’s survival. 496pp, paperback. £6.99 NOW £3.50


73143 SALEM WITCH SOCIETY by K. N. Shields


For readers who love dark fairy tales, here is a twisting, terrifying thriller that is rich in history, mystery and witchcraft. It is Salem, New England, many dark nights ago. The most infamous witch hunt in history is about to begin. Hysteria will be rife. People will imagine themselves to be possessed by Satan. In uncontrollable fear and hatred, neighbour will betray neighbour. The innocent will be imprisoned and, eventually, hanged. Years later, a young woman is found savagely murdered, her body arranged in the death pose of a witch. Someone, or something, is reviving the terror of the notorious Salem witch hunts. Only one man, a brilliant, eccentric loner with a dazzling mind and a fascination for the mysteries of witchcraft, can keep the evils of the past at bay. But has he got the strength to do it? Do not read this on your own. 486 petrifying paperback pages. £7.99 NOW £3.50


73202 ISLAND OF WINGS by Karen Altenberg The year is 1830 and the pregnant Elizabeth MacKenzie is embarking on a sea voyage with her husband Neil, a handsome Church of Scotland minister who feels he is called to be a pastor to the islanders of St. Kilda. Lizzie struggles to achieve the warmth in their marriage that she longs for, and when a strange foreigner is discovered half-starved, hiding on the island, she nurses him back to health and finds herself attracted to him. Neil exacts a devastating price and it increasingly seems as if her husband has little respect for human life and dignity. Meanwhile Lizzie discovers that her friend Betty has an agonising secret. 312pp. £20 NOW £7


73307 IMPRIMATUR


by Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti 11th September 1683, and Rome is a city on a knife- edge. Its citizens await news of the Battle of Vienna, the forces of the Islamic Ottoman Empire laying siege to the defenders of Catholic Europe, and there is the spectre of plague in the city, with a famous tavern, the Locanda del Donzello all’Orso, under quarantine. One of those detained, Atto Melani, is a spy in the service of the Sun King, Louis XIV. He enlists the help of a fellow detainee, a young serving boy, and together they discover a network of tunnels beneath the city. Their nocturnal journeys in the Roman underworld lead them to some startling discoveries, including a deadly enmity between Louis XIV and Pope Innocent XI, and a plot to unleash a weapon of mass destruction in the battle between Islam and the West. The authors’ extensive research exposed much that embarrassed the Catholic Church, not least that Pope Innocent XI lent money to William of Orange. 568pp. £16.99 NOW £6


73318 SECRETUM


by Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti The sequel to Imprimatur, Secretum was published in Italy in 2004, and we have the monumental 733 page English translation of 2009. Once again we are in Rome, this time in July 1700, as pilgrims from all over the Catholic world stream into the city for the Holy Year festivities. Atto Melani - who, you will recall, was a real person - a spy in the service of Louis XIV, is mingling with high-ranking guests at the wedding of a cardinal’s nephew. The hot topic of conversation is the imminent death of Charles II of Spain and the grave illness of Pope Innocent XII. Charles II has no heir and Louis XIV and Kaiser Leopold of Austria both claim his throne, with the Vatican and its ailing pontiff caught in the middle. Ever with an eye to promoting his master, Melani spots an opportunity but is soon out of his depth in a bizarre world of secret languages, religious sects and apparitions and is a powerless bystander, witness to a chain of events that will plunge Europe into war and ultimately lead to the end of the French monarchy in the Revolution. One of the central assertions of Secretum is that if Louis XIV had been allowed to marry his first love, the Italian Maria Mancini, he would have been a more restrained, happy man, who would not have followed such an aggressive foreign policy, the cost of which would eventually lead to Revolution. £16.99 NOW £6


74115 IMPRIMATUR AND SECRETUM: Set of


Two by Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti Buy both handsome hardbacks and save more. £33.98 NOW £10


73367 MISTRESS OF NOTHING by Kate Pullinger


This astounding novel begins in 1862. Lady Duff Gordon is holding a dinner party for the cream of London society when her maid Sally realises all is not well. She excuses her Lady from the table and leads her to the kitchen, where she immediately coughs up a terrifying quantity of blood. In those pre-antibiotic days the only hope of recovery from tuberculosis was a change of climate, so the Lady and her maid depart for the hot, dry climes of Egypt. As Sally gets geographically further away from her life at home, so too does she culturally, losing the corsets, wearing native dress, learning Arabic and having her first taste of romance. Lady Duff Gordon was a very generous and reasonable employer, but with Sally marrying and bearing the child of Omar, her Egyptian servant, she was left with little choice. Thus Sally must choose between staying with her Lady and returning to England leaving her son and husband behind, or staying in Egypt to face an unknown future. A lush, erotic and evocative story of the power of race, class and, ultimately, love. 250pp. ONLY £5


73481 TROUBLE IN THE VILLAGE by Rebecca Shaw


There is trouble in Turnham Malpas. Caroline is deeply worried about her husband Peter’s disappearance. Mr Fitch at the Big House plans to destroy an ancient hedgerow and timid Lady Muriel Templeton leads a protest to stop him, although she is fearful she will have to carry out her threat to lie down in front of the diggers. A new verger has arrived and events from his past return to haunt him, bringing violence and danger to the peace of the village. When Peter returns, his calm and sensible approach to problems brings solutions. 296pp in paperback. £6.99 NOW £2.50


73430 COUNTRY LOVERS by Rebecca Shaw For Kate, life in Barleybridge is as busy as ever. She loves her job at the veterinary hospital and is desperate to fulfil her ambition to start training as a vet. Dan and his wife are due to have a baby at any moment, and Letty is worried that she might be seriously ill. But it is matters of the heart that really take their toll in Barleybridge - Rhodri is deeply in love with a farmer’s daughter, but doesn’t know how to cope with her invalid father, and the Practice Manager is married but struggling with her feelings for another man. 280pp, paperback. £6.99 NOW £2.75


74142 THE QUARRY by Iain Banks 18 year old Kit is weird - big, strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from ‘highly gifted’ at one end to ‘nutter’ at the other. At least he knows who his father is - he and Guy live together in a decaying country house on the unstable brink of a vast quarry in the Pennines. Now his mother’s identity is another matter. His father is dying and old friends are gathering for one last time. ‘Uncle’ Paul’s a media lawyer; Rob and Ali are upwardly mobile corporate bunnies; pretty, hopeful Pris is a single mother; Haze is still living up to his drug-inspired name 20 years on, and fierce protective Hol is a gifted if acerbic critic. As young film students they lived with Guy and now they have all come back together because they want something and Kit too has ulterior motives. Before his father dies he wants to know who his mother is and what is on the mysterious tape they are all looking for. But most of all he wants to stop time and keep his father alive. Gripping and savagely funny this new 2013 edition of this last novel will stand among Banks’s greatest work. 326pp. £18.99 NOW £5


73443 KILLIGREW AND THE GOLDEN


DRAGON by Jonathan Lunn A rollicking tale set in 1849. Reckless, some would say foolhardy, acts of bravery are not uncharacteristic of HMS Tisiphone’s second lieutenant Kit Killigrew. So when he is instrumental in capturing the infamous Chinese pirate Zhai jing-mu and releasing his beautiful his hostage Peri Dadabhoy en route to Hong Kong, no one is truly surprised. There, Killigrew is free to enjoy its many pleasures, not least of which is Peri. But then the prisoner escapes and Killigrew becomes embroiled in a dangerous race to stop the pirate exacting his revenge on those responsible for his arrest. He comes into contact with Triads and opium smugglers. 469pp, paperback. £6.99 NOW £2.50


73474 THE GILDED CAGE by Josephine Cox Powerful, hard-hearted Leonard Mears ruthlessly presides over his wife and children, exiling them from the outside world and punishing any disobedience. But he is also a man with a dark secret - an illegitimate daughter whom he forced his sister to bring up. Now a young woman, the girl unbeknown to him is determined to find the father who abandoned her. James Peterson, a gifted young man, runs Mears’ factory with more success than Leonard’s own sons. Only then will he be able to declare his love for the beautiful Isabel Mears who he means to release from the gilded cage her father has created. But then the lonely, lovely Sally comes in to his life. 437pp, paperback. £8.99 NOW £3.25


73445 LET IT SHINE by Josephine Cox Ada Williams was once an ambitious woman who believed money and power would bring her happiness but now she is all alone in the world except for her greedy bitter son Peter who despises her and waits only for the day he will inherit her fortune. Ada however, has a different plan. Just a few miles away in Blackburn, the Bolton family may be poor, but the love they share and the friendship of their neighbours mean they can overcome almost any adversity. But no one could foresee the shocking events of Christmas night 1932, which split the family asunder, leaving young Larry crippled and the twins in foster home. 436pp in paperback.


£7.99 NOW £3


73446 LITTLE VILLAGE SCHOOL by Gervase Phinn A Barton-in-the-Dale novel. Elisabeth Devine causes quite a stir on her arrival in the village. No one can understand why the head of a big inner city school would want to come to sleepy little Barton-in-the-Dale, to a primary with more problems than school dinners. And that is not even counting the challenges the mysterious Elisabeth will herself face - a bitter former head teacher, a grumpy caretaker and a duplicitous Chair of governors, and then there is the gossip… after all, a woman who would wear red shoes with silver heels to an interview is obviously capable of anything! 392pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £4


73464 ROME: The Coming of the King by M. C. Scott


Sebastos Pantera, known to his many enemies as The Leopard, is the spy the Emperor Nero uses only for the most challenging and important of missions. Hunting alone, trusting no one, he must find the most dangerous man in Rome’s empire and bring him to bloody justice. But his prey is cunning and ruthless. Saulos has pledged to bring about the destruction of Rome and her provinces and now fate, good luck and planning have given him the means to do so Pantera has a new ally, a king in the making who could change the future of his people and a man he can finally trust. First they must attempt the impossible, an assault on an invulnerable fortress, where failure means death for both of them. 492pp in paperback.


£7.99 NOW £2.50


73466 SING AS WE GO by Margaret Dickinson Kathy Burton longs to escape the drudgery of her life as an unpaid labourer on her father’s farm. With only the local church choir and the occasional dance at the village hall for amusement, she yearns for the bright lights. Spurning one proposal of marriage, Kathy goes to live in the city where she finds employment in a department store and is captivated by the sophisticated and handsome floor manager. Kathy plans her wedding but the day is ruined when Tony is called up to fight before another date can be arranged. Kathy finds solace in a concert party entertaining service men and woman and war workers, but behind the songs and smiles, her heart is breaking. 454pp in paperback. £6.99 NOW £2.50


73472 SUFFRAGETTE GIRL by Margaret Dickinson


When Florrie Maltby defies her father by refusing to marry Gervase Richards, she sets off a chain of events that will alter her life. Instead, she goes to London and becomes involved with the suffragette movement. Imprisoned for her militant actions, she goes on hunger strike and with her health deteriorating, there is one person who can save her -Gervase. After a brief stay in the countryside to recuperate, Florrie returns to London to continue her fight for women’s rights. Only the outbreak of the Great War puts a halt to her activities. Amidst the trenches, she finds love. 488pp, paperback. £6.99 NOW £2.75


74122 CORNER THAT HELD THEM by Sylvia Townsend Warner Small wonder then that the inhabitants of the Benedictine convent of Oby are prey to worldly ambitions, frustrations, pleasures and jealousy. An outbreak of the Black Death, the collapse of the convent spire, and a disappearance are the dramas that strike this cloistered community. The author lived a more or less openly lesbian life with her partner in rural Dorset during the war and this, her masterpiece novel. The characteristics of Dame Blanch, Dame Lovisa and Dame Lilias are only gradually revealed through their individual stories about theft and blazing spiritual frustration. There are characters like Sir Ralph and Bishop Walter who stand out by force of contrast to the body of nuns. 400 page paperback. £8.99 NOW £4.50


73326 SKY’S DARK


LABYRINTH: A Novel by Stuart Clarke


Journalist, author and broadcaster Stuart Clarke has devoted his career to presenting the thrilling science of astronomy to the general public. At the dawn of the 17th century the Sun and the rest of the heavens revolved around the Earth, as created by God and documented in His word, the Bible.


The Sky’s Dark Labyrinth dramatises the stories of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), a German Lutheran who was the first to distil the movements of the stars and planets into mathematical laws and whose mother was accused but acquitted of witchcraft, and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). As a Catholic, Galileo tried to claim Kepler’s work for his own Church, but soon found himself tangled in a web of intrigue that originated from the Vatican itself. Both men are trapped by human ignorance and irrational terror and the vested interests of Church and State to the peril of their lives in one of the most fascinating periods of European history, the earliest stirrings of the Age of Enlightenment. 284pp. £12.99 NOW £4


73473 THE FAVOURED CHILD by Philippa Gregory


The Wideacre estate in the 1790s is bankrupt and the villagers are living in poverty while Wideacre Hall is a smoke-blackened ruin. But in the Dower House two children are being raised in protected innocence. Equal claimants to the inheritance of Wideacre, rivals for the love of the village, they are tied by a secret childhood betrothal, but forbidden to marry. Only one can be the favoured child and only one can inherit the magical understanding between the land and the Lacey family that can make the Sussex village grow green again. Only one can be Beatrice Lacey’s true heir. Sensual, gripping and sometimes mystical. 630pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3.50


73486 WIDEACRE by Philippa Gregory Wideacre Hall, set in the heart of the English countryside, is the ancestral home that Beatrice Lacey loves, but as a woman of the 18th century, she has no right of inheritance. Corrupted by a world that mistreats women, she sets out to corrupt others. Sexual and wilful, she believes that the only way to achieve control over Wideacre is through a series of horrible crimes, and no-one escapes the consequences of her need to possess the land. With a single-minded, tempestuous, amoral and sensual heroine. 622pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3.50


73717 THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE by Monique Roffey


An extraordinarily vivid evocation of Trinidad, this novel was an Orange Prize finalist. Newlyweds George and Sabine Harwood arrive in post-independence Trinidad from England in 1956. Struggling with loneliness, exhaustion and the challenges of racial segregation at the dawn of a new political era, Sabine finds some comfort in


expressing her hopes and dreams in letters to Eric Williams, Trinidad’s charismatic new leader. The letters are never sent, but when George finds them many years later the discovery sets off a devastating series of consequences as other secrets from their marriage emerge. 439pp, paperback. $16 NOW £3.50


73721 THE YOUNG WAN by Brendan O’Carroll The novel unveils the hilarious and visceral backstreet beginnings of this unforgettable Dublin heroine. Before she was the mammy, before she had Chisellers, and before they made her a granny, Agnes Browne was Agnes Reddin, a young girl or young wan, growing up in the Jarrow in Dublin. Together with her soon-to-be lifelong best friend Marion Delany, young Agnes manages to survive the indignities and demands of Catholic school, the unwanted birth of siblings, days spent in the factories and markets and nights in the dance halls as rock ‘n’ roll invades 1940s Dublin. But on the eve of her wedding night, the Jarrow is alive with gossip. Will Agnes be turned away at the altar? For the whole parish knows Agnes’s not-so-well-kept secret. 208pp, paperback. Remainder mark. $14 NOW £6


72273 THE BRAVE by Nicholas Evans 1959. There is little love in eight year old Tom Bedford’s life, and even less when he is sent away to a brutal boarding school. The only comfort he gets is from his fantasy world of Cowboys and Indians. But when his sister Diane falls in love with one of his idols, Tom’s life is transformed. They move to Hollywood and all his dreams seem to have come true, but soon the sinister side of Tinseltown will cast its shadow. 2007 - what happened all those years ago remains a secret that corrodes Tom’s life and wrecks his marriage. Only when his estranged son is charged with murder do the events resurface as he struggles to save his son’s life. 487pp. £7.99 NOW £2


72794 WHISPERS OF NEMESIS by Anne Zouroudi


The inimitable Greek detective, Hermes Diaktoros, returns in a tale of hubris and Homer, dark coffee and even darker secrets. It is winter in the mountains of northern Greece and, as the snow falls in the tiny village of Vrisi, a coffin is unearthed and broken open. But, to the astonishment of the mourners at the graveside, the remains have been transformed. There is talk of witchcraft and the devil’s work, but it seems that the truth behind both the body and the coffin may be far stranger than the villagers’ wildest imaginings. Hermes, drawn to the mountains by a wish to see an old and dear friend, finds himself embroiled in the mysteries of Vrisi, as well as the enigmatic last will and testament of Greece’s most admired modern poet. 288 paperback pages. Map.


£11.99 NOW £2.50


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