A few too many drinks.A few harsh words said. No one was hurt.All easily forgotten.Both can healExcept he didn’t forget. Their threats. How they made him feel…They must pay - with their lives.But one will always leave a scar…A young woman goes missing. She’s done it before, but Detective Inspector April Decent senses this time it’s serious. Can she convince her colleagues she’s right before it’s too late?Decent and her DS Skeeter Warlock face their most deadly opponent yet in Syn, the second novel in Malcolm Hollingdrake’s superb Merseyside Crime Series.

    But he soon finds himself struggling to keep the peace between three feisty fellow judges who have very different views about how to do their job, and about how Charlie should do his.And as if that's not enough, there's the endless battle against the 'Grey Smoothies', the humourless grey-suited civil servants who seem determined to drown Charlie in paperwork and strip the court of its last vestiges of civilisation.No hope of a quiet life then for Charlie, and there are times when his real job - trying the challenging criminal cases that come before him - actually seems like light relief.'No one writes with more wit, warmth and insight about the law and its practitioners than Peter Murphy. He has no equal since the great John 'Rumpole' Mortimer' - David Ambrose'Though his exasperation is sometimes palpable, what triumphs over everything is his sense of humour. And it is the humour that makes Walden of Bermondsey such a delightful read. Think of him as what Rumpole would be like if he ever became a judge, and you get some idea of his self-deprecating wit and indomitable stoicism. Add a dash of Henry Cecil for his situation and AP Herbert for the fun he has with the law, and you get a sense of his literary precedents' - Paul Magrath

    It was an unlikely friendship. She is a middle class, middle-aged white woman who writes for the right-wing press and a right of centre think tank. Gangs like Tuggy Tug's are responsible for the majority of crime in our inner cities. During the riots of August 2011, they were the young men setting our streets ablaze.Over the next three years she got more and more involved with the boys. All the issues she had read about - single mothers, absent fathers, lack of education and social mobility, the criminal justice system - suddenly took on new meaning as she encountered not just Tuggy Tug and his gang but their relatives and friends. She enters their world and sees institutions through their eyes. It is a revelation.She describes a dramatic three years. By the end of the book Tuggy Tug was found guilty of committing over a hundred street robberies. He and two other gang members are in prison, one is in mental hospital and one appears to be a successful criminal. In a remarkable, often funny and moving book, Harriet Sergeant describes how the friendship changed her and investigates the forces that turn potentially decent young men into misfits and criminals. As Britain faces the first anniversary of the riots, this book should be required reading for us all.

    Someday he'll figure this out. Vignette #2 tells of a new friendship budding between Camille, who manages Sweet Beans and Elise Myers, who we originally met in Book 2 - A Big Life in a Small Town. Elise has returned to Bellingwood and is ready for new things. The third vignette is a fun little story about the pains of young love. Thank goodness, Rebecca has Kayla in her life to act as a balance when drama prevails. Vignette #4 is another look at Nate & Joss Mikkels and the struggles they face as they build their new home. We've all been there. They just let us peek in as they try to work this out.The Bellingwood books are written from Polly's perspective and every once in a while it's fun to look at what's happening behind the scenes from the viewpoint of other characters. These vignettes were originally published on the nammynools.com website and in the monthly email newsletter to Bellingwood readers.

    It took the police a decade to curtail the violence and bring down criminal kingpins Carl Williams, Tony Mokbel and their accomplices. When the police finally closed the case file, just how they really won the war, with the help of an unlikely police informer, would become a closely guarded secret and its exposure, the biggest legal scandal of our time.Lawyer X is the scandalous, true story of how a promising defence barrister from a privileged background broke all the rules - becoming both police informer and her client's lover - sharing their secrets and shaping the gangland war that led to sensational arrests and convictions. The story of how Nicola Gobbo became Lawyer X, and why, is a compelling study in desperation and determination.Lawyer X is the definitive story of Melbourne's gangland wars and its most glamorous and compelling central character, based on the ground-breaking work of investigative journalists Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon, who broke the story for the Herald Sun in 2014, and their five-year struggle to reveal the truth about the identity of Lawyer X.

    There’s Killer of the Cloth, The Baby in the Convent, Mosquito Point Road, Death of a First Baseman, The Blue Gardenia, and Pure/Evil. Three of the killers are female.

    

    The idea of a cave full of Normeend with their villainous ways being not far away hung like a dark shadow across the lake and heavily on Tom’s mind. He sent out teams to make traps, gather and store food and munitions ready for the day that Tom was sure would come when Sklar arrived and they would need to defend themselves. Would that be enough? He did not know, nor would he ever be sure until every vestige of that shadow, along with the fears the Normeend created, were eliminated from their world. In the process of creating their defences, more obstacles and threats came their way. Dangers to their Cave which challenged their ways and threatened their very existence came from more than one source and by both natural and human obstacles. The team, and especially Kroll, fought back. Then there were the Old Ones.

    Sequel to laugh-out-loud romantic comedy Blame it on the OnesieIt’s all change for Ella.•Nathan has declared his love: ‘It was only ever you I wanted, only ever you I loved.’•Sleaze weasel Hal is but a distant memory•Spring Cottage ‘rules’ are getting in the way•And Christmas seems a long way offPull on your onesie, light the fire, grab a hot chocolate and join Ella, Nathan, Sam, Charlie, Walt and the cavalry for another riotous read.

    Jim's only complaint is that Sally is too soft hearted for her own good, always at the beck and call of any neighbour, friend or even stranger. Sally, on the other hand, accuses Jim of being a soft touch for anyone after a drink or two at the Rising Sun. Both accept that neither will ever change and they love each other and their daughter Daisy deeply. Theirs is a close-knit family in a close-knit community where gossip - both good and bad - abounds and neighbour looks out for neighbour and friend for friend. And when Sally's generosity leads to an inheritance it should mean a change of life for the better, instead it brings danger and difficult choices for them all...

    Neither remembers how their feud started — yet every day, their war intensifies.Until one night. One unexpected kiss blurs the lines between love and hate, and their lives are forever changed.The stakes have never been higher. Carter is Emilia’s best friend’s brother, after all.Author's Note: The Stolen Moments Trilogy follows Emilia and Carter's epic love story through high school, college, and adulthood. This trilogy was previously named Mayhem, and the contents remain unchanged.

    By the end of the night, the parish priest, Father Leo Galvin, is dead.The lives of four teenagers - Tom, Conor, Tess and Nina - who had been drinking beer and smoking in a shed at the back of the house, will never be the same. But one of them carries a secret from that night that he has never shared. The friends go on to lead very different, separate lives - some quiet, others in the media spotlight - but the four remain connected by what happened during the time of the big snow.As the thirty-fifth anniversary of Father Galvin's murder approaches, Conor, now a senior police officer, becomes obsessed with the crime his father failed to solve. He believes that Tom can help identify Father Galvin's killer. But does Tom wish to break his silence? His dilemma draws the four friends back together, forcing them to question their lives and to confront their differences. But only Tom can decide whether Kilmitten's secret will finally be revealed.

    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.

    Decades prior, Papillon and Dreyfus contemplated the same thoughts of escape. Following a boyhood dream and quest for glory, de Bruyn joined the French Foreign Legion. To thwart desertion, he was shipped off to a backwater French colony in the Amazon, serving in the elite jungle unit, the 3e REI. Given a false identity, de Bruyn proved himself an extraordinary legionnaire. But well into his first contract, he became disenchanted by life in a rogue army where one was ordered to kill upon demand. Without a passport, de Bruyn decided to risk his life and escape modern-day Devil’s Island by sea. In the process, he dodged local gangs, drug kingpins, and was falsely imprisoned. Finally, in a rickety dinghy, during hurricane season, he commenced his suicidal attempt to cross the Atlantic. Half-drowned and dying of thirst, de Bruyn was prepared to lose his life, but in the divine process of surviving, he found it. This is his white-knuckle account of pain, glory, and redemption.