Book picks similar to
The Viaduct by Roy Brown
puffin-books
20th-century
assorted-children
british
The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris
Leon Garfield - 1978
The two decide to try out the custom, using Harris's infant sister, Adelaide. But fate intervenes.
Broken Voices
Andrew Taylor - 2012
Two lonely schoolboys at the end of childhood are forced into an unwanted companionship. One of them is terrified of what the future holds.Does music have its ghosts? Its victims? Something is stirring in the cathedral that both echoes an ancient tragedy and seems to offer a chance of future happiness. One thing is certain. Broken voices make false promises. And their lies may prove fatal.
The Billiard Room Mystery
Brian Flynn - 1927
First in the Anthony Bathurst series.
The Hill Station
J.G. Farrell - 1981
For Emily, romance is in the air. For the mysterious Mrs Forester, there is scandal brewing. And for the Bishop of Simla, rainclouds are not the only storms on the horizon...The Hill Station is the novel on which J.G. Farrell was working at the time of his tragically early accidental death. It demonstrates powerfully what a great loss to world literature this was.
Number Seventeen
Louis Tracy - 1915
You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
Titanic
Leo Marriott - 1997
Illustrated with fascinating photographs and drawings of the ship and its passengers, this engaging text tells the story of the supposedly unconquerable vessel that ultimately proved to be all too fallible. Readers interested in the history of sea travel or the human response to disaster will find this book to be an invaluable addition to their library.
For a Mother's Sins
Diane Allen - 2013
Among them are three very different women – tough widow Molly, honest and God-fearing Mary Pratt, and Helen Parker, downtrodden by her husband and seeking a better life. When tragedy strikes, the lives of the three women are bound together, and each is forced to confront the secrets and calamities that threaten to tear their families apart.
Twelve Days on the Somme: A Memoir of the Trenches, 1916
Sidney Rogerson - 1933
By the end of the action, very little ground had been won: the Allied Forces had made just 12 km. For this slight gain, more than a million lives were lost. There were more than 400,000 British, 200,000 French, and 500,000 German casualties during the fighting. Twelve Days on the Somme is a memoir of the last spell of front-line duty performed by the 2nd Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. Written by Sidney Rogerson, a young officer in B Company, it gives an extraordinarily frank and often moving account of what it was really like to fight through one of the most notorious battles of the First World War. Its special message, however, is that, contrary to received assumptions and the popular works of writers like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, men could face up to the terrible ordeal such a battle presented with resilience, good humour and without loss of morale. This is a classic work whose reprinting is long overdue.This edition includes a new Introduction by Malcolm Brown and a Foreword by Rogerson's son Commander Jeremy Rogerson.
Growing Rich
Fay Weldon - 1992
He has sold out to the devil, in all of its forms. In return, he is promised that all his wishes will be granted, all his desires fulfilled. One of them, young Carmen Wedmore, is proving to be quite a challenge.
The Hamish Macbeth Omnibus
M.C. Beaton - 2012
Contains:Death of a GossipDeath of a CadDeath of an OutsiderDeath of a Perfect WifeDeath of a gossip: When society widow and gossip columnist Lady Jane Winters joins the local fishing class she wastes no time in ruffling feathers - or should that be fins? - of those around her.Among the victims of her sharp tongue is Lochdubh constable Hamish Macbeth, yet not even Hamish thinks someone would seriously want to silence Lady Jane's shrill voice permanently - until her strangled body is fished out of the river.Now with the help of the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, Hamish must steer a course through the choppy waters of the tattler's life to find a murderer. But with a school of suspects who aren't willing to talk, and the dead woman telling no tales, Hamish may well be in over his head for he knows that secrets are dangerous, knowledge is power, and killers when cornered usually do strike again.Death of a cad: When Priscilla Halburton-Smythe brings her London playwright fiancé home to Lochdubh, everyone in town is delighted... except for love-smitten Hamish Macbeth. Yet the affairs of his heart will have to wait.Vile, boorish Captain Bartlett, one of the guests at Priscilla's engagement party, has just been found murdered - shot while on a grouse hunt. Now with so many titled party guests as prime suspects, each with their own reason for snuffing out the despicable captain, Hamish must smooth ruffled feathers as he investigates the case... and catch a killer, before they fly the coop!Death of an outsider: The most hated man in the most dour town in Scotland is sleeping with the fishes, or - more accurately - has been dumped into a tank filled with crustaceans. All that remains of the murdered victim are his bones. But once the lobsters have been shipped off to Britain's best restaurants, the whole affair quickly lands on the plate of Constable Hamish Macbeth.Exiled to the dreary outpost of Cnothan, Macbeth sorely misses his beloved Lochdubh, but before he can head back home he has to contend with a detective chief inspector who wants the murder hushed up, a dark-haired lassie who is out to seduce him, and a killer who has made mincemeat of his last victim, and will no doubt strike again...Death of a perfect wife: Hamish Macbeth is savouring the delights of a Highland summer, but as fast as the rain rolls in from the loch his happy life goes to hell in a handbasket.The trouble begins when his beloved Priscilla Halburton-Smythe returns to Lochdubh with a new fiancé on her arm. His miseries multiply when clouds of midges descend on the town. And then a paragon of housewife perfection named Trixie Thomas moves into Lochdubh with her cowed husband in tow.The newcomer quickly convinces the local ladies to embrace low-cholesterol meals, ban alcohol and begin bird-watching. Soon the town's menfolk are up in arms and Macbeth must solve Lochdubh's newest crime - the mysterious poisoning of the perfect wife.
Mr. Wakefield's Crusade
Bernice Rubens - 1985
Instinctively, Luke's hand snakes out and slips the corpse's unposted letter into his pocket. With this impulsive act, he begins a search for justice.
Faded Glory
David Essex - 2016
Albert Kemp is a lonely widower, whose only son was killed in the war. Now, in 1953, he is working in a pub by the railway arches. Downstairs is a traditional bar, upstairs is a famous boxing gym. It is here that Albert brings Danny, a fatherless boy who he rescues from gang life on the streets. But as Danny begins to grow into a champion, the predators start to circle, luring him with glittering promises back into a life of crime in the corrupt world of match fixing. Will Danny listen to his wise old mentor? Or will the prospect of fame and money be too tempting.
Preacher Boy
Gwyn G.B. - 2022
When a second boy is kidnapped, it becomes a race against time to save him. But he seems to have literally disappeared without trace. It’s down to Harrison to work out who could have taken him and where they’ve gone. The trouble is, the investigation reawakens the dark shadows in Harrison’s own past…Preacher Boy is the first in the Dr Harrison Lane mysteries, fast-paced crime suspense novels full of murder and intrigue, with a little romance and humour included. Harrison travels all over the British Isles: from the atmospheric Cambridgeshire Fens, north to Durham and to the centre of the City of London, as he solves the crimes hiding behind folklore, superstition, religion, and ritual.
The Krays
Philip Ridley - 1997
Ronnie and Reggie Kray are school ground bullies brought up by a domineering mother and two devoted aunts. National Service and spells in prison expose the brutality that helps establish the twin brothers as the kings of 1960s gangland London.Philip Ridley's original, uncut screenplay, almost as notorious as its subject matter is a stylised meditation on maternal love, childhood, violence and homoeroticism and takes its place as one of the masterpieces of contemporary cinema.