As she discovers more about each one she is at first amused and then alarmed and finally horrified and saddened as she realises the true nature of her task. But when her own family are drawn into a scenario of crime and violence that she had never suspected existed on the streets of Birmingham and the quiet fields and farms of Warwickshire she must dredge up every ounce of courage and resourcefulness that she possesses to expose the horror of what she finds and save the people she loves. At the same time she is fighting a different battle, one which she cannot tell anyone about, one she can barely admit to herself. As her beloved husband Harry fades deeper into his illness she struggles to control her growing passion for Steve. He is always in her life as a neighbour and a colleague but they can never speak or touch as they long to do. Throughout it all her family, quirky, argumentative and demanding as they can be, also give her the strength and determination to fight for what she loves and believes in.

    (password required)

    The high spot of Teddy Folger's life was the day in 1954 that he got an autographed baseball card from Joe DiMaggio himself. It's been downhill ever since. Which is why he just unloaded his freeloading wife and torched his own comic-book store–in one of the stupidest insurance scams in history. Enter Conner Samson. The down-on-his-luck repo man has just been hired to repossess Teddy's boat. Little does he know there's a baseball card on board that some men are willing to kill for. Thus begins a rip-roaring cross-country odyssey–and with bodies piling up, the squeeze is on for the penultimate piece of Americana. And Conner will be lucky if he ends up back where he started: broke and (still) breathing.From the Hardcover edition.

    Released as one of a limited number of digital shorts released to celebrate the publication of Jeffrey Archer’s magnificent seventh short-story collection, Tell Tale.Taken from And Thereby Hangs A Tale, Jeffrey Archer’s sixth collection of short stories, High Heels is a fantastic short read featuring Archer’s trademark wit and deft plotting.Loss Adjuster Alan Penfold has a case he will never forget when a family owned shoe manufacturer burns to the ground. With no signs of arson it seems like an open-and-shut case. But Penfold becomes suspicious when the owner reacts calmly to the devastating loss of a business that has been in his family for generations. Penfold, with his wife’s help, vows to uncover the truth . . .

    A deft, masterful mix of both bizarro and horror."--Brian Keene, author of The Rising and Ghoul"Dark and grim and surreal." --Electric LiteratureMondays suck. You get mugged, your car won't start, you miss the bus, and your stylist burns a bald spot into your head. Suddenly you're single and unemployed, and the only friend you have left is a cat. By Tuesday, you've been murdered. But death isn't the end. You find yourself on an odyssey between weird worlds, reborn each time you die, stalked obsessively by the man who killed you.Even in death, you just can't seem to catch a break. Call it Mercury in retrograde, call it Murphy's law, call it . . .SHIT LUCK

    It begins with a beautiful woman dead, murdered—Vassilia Caroline Baird, known to all simply as V. That’s where this extraordinary novel begins. But the story it tells begins years earlier, on a struggling farm in the shadow of the Great Depression and among the brawling "cat skinners" of Southern California, driving graders and bulldozers to tame the American West. And the story that unfolds, in the masterful hands of acclaimed author Oakley Hall, is a lyrical outpouring of hunger and grief, of jealousy and corruption, of raw sexual yearning and the tragedy of the destroyed lives it leaves in its wake. Unpublished for more than half a century, SO MANY DOORS is Hall’s masterpiece, an excoriating vision of human nature at its most brutal, and one of the most powerful books you will ever read.

    scholar, practically living in her research lab, leading an uneventful life. Amudha’s life takes an adventurous turn, when she finds a puzzle in an old Mathematics book. Surprisingly, the puzzle has nothing to do with Mathematics. Amudha embarks on a journey to solve the enigma. Every twist and turn in her journey is filled with suspense and surprises. The journey challenges and threatens Amudha. Whenever Amudha solves a part of the puzzle, a new one presents itself. Will Amudha solve the puzzle? How far does the rabbit hole go? What awaits her at the end of it? Will Amudha be the same person if she comes out of it? Read on Magic Square for answers.

    The writer has a fertile imagination and an attractive narrative style.' '...one of the best reads I have had this year. Gripped by the grizzled Irish detective.....plenty of twists and turns Bravo!' '...I thoroughly enjoyed Black December - it's a very good "who done it" - and so often!' '...Top drawer crime fiction...' --Amazon  Scott Hunter is a CWA shortlisted author.

    But he couldn't hit a curveball, so he turned his attention to less legal pursuits. A tough guy who likes walking the razor's edge, he's just met his match -- and more -- in Nancy. She's a rich man's plaything, seriously into thrills and risk, and together she and Jack are pure heat ready to explode. But when simple housebreaking and burglary give way to the deadly pursuit of a really big score, the stakes suddenly skyrocket. Because violence and double-cross are the name of this game -- and it's going to take every ounce of cunning Jack and Nancy possess to survive . . . each other.

    His latest gig comes replete with an illegally squatting B-movie actress who rants about hit men who specialize in making deaths look like accidents. Unfortunately, it's the real deal. Hardie finds himself squared off against a small army of the most lethal men in the world: The Accident People.It's nothing personal-the girl just happens to be the next name on their list. For Hardie, though, it's intensely personal. He's not about to let more innocent people die. Not on his watch.

    When you hire someone to kill your wife, don’t hire a psychopath.2. Drano is not the best tool for getting rid of a dead body.3. Those locks on hotel room doors? Not very secure.4. A curly blond wig isn’t much of a disguise.5. Secrets can kill.

    Sicily, 1862. In the newly united Italy, Judge Surra arrives in Montelusa to take charge of the local court, in a town where conflict has been kind to a select few. At first, Surra is baffled by the quaint local customs: cryptic anonymous notes, mutterings in the street, tasty - if tasteless - gifts of disembodied animal heads. However, buoyed by his twin passions for justice and fine dining, Surra is determined to settle into island life, no matter who stands in his way. Distilling his customary humour and tension into this miniature masterpiece, Andrea Camilleri casts an ironic eye on the corruption and charm of a turbulent small town, testing his naïve but noble hero against the darkest arts of the Mafia.This story is available in print as a part of the collection Judges, published by MacLehose Press.

    It's okay. She's fine. She just wants to sign papers with dignity and end it all civilly.Dev is pissed. For five years, he worshiped the ground Jiya walked on. And what did he get for it? Loneliness and heartache. And while he wants to punch the wall, his beautiful wife is sitting demurely signing papers.Fate intervenes in the form of two best friends, by locking them in the very room in which they signed their divorce. What happens when two people who never stopped loving each other are forced to confront their mistakes?

    Set twelve years before Mary moves to Freeport, this novelette is the second in the "Tales" series and offers six unique ghost stories that will leave you checking over your shoulder just to make sure no one “uninvited” is in the room with you. Happy Halloween!

    The ineffectual hero spends his days drinking and observing people in the z�calo, and occasional nights involved in an ivory-smuggling operation threatened by impending government siege. Always persistent are memories of Marie and what was lost. In this sinuous narrative of dislocation and remorse, Barry Gifford details Franz's mundanity and the bizarre cast of characters swirling around him.