she has left it too late to ask the crucial questions about scenes confusedly remembered from her childhood, and above all about the identity of her own father, 'lost in the war'. Out of the hundreds of paintings in her mother's studio, one, a portrait of a young man, is inscribed 'For Marion'. Is this her father? And who was he?Marion's search takes her to the Cornish town of St Ives. In the remote and closeknit town where communities of fisherfolk and artists have coexisted for many years, she learns of a tragedy which is intrinsically tied up with her father's life. Over fifty years before, the St Ives lifeboat went down with all hands bar one. Marion must delve deep into the past to discover the identity of a man she never knew,a nd in so doing confront the demons which have tortured her own adult life.The Serpentine Cave is an imagined story containing a true one - a powerful novel about memory and loss, birth and rebirth, and past regrets which still have the power to plague the present.

    An American idealist defects to North Korea in the 1970's only to discover the true horrors of this Stalinist state. What happens next would shock even those familiar with authoritarian regimes. The author, an American Foreign Service worker in china, meets a man by the name of "David". David entrusts the author with his diary and makes the author promise him that the diary will be shown to the world as "evidence of what North Korea is really like". Following this encounter, the author never sees David again.The author discovers that within the pages of this diary lies an incredible story of defection, survival, and an eventual escape by the man he knows only as "David". After staying up and reading the entire diary, the author is convinced that David's story must be told to the world.The diary details David's life from his fairly comfortable upbringings, through his rebellious youth, and into his extraordinary decision to defect to North Korea. At first, David enjoys an elevated status in North Korea as a "hero" and a "patriot" of the socialist cause.During two decades as an English professor at the most prestigious North Korean University, David experiences love, seduction, betrayal, and violence.

    The legacy Ann has inherited from her kindly employer has been a godsend, but just as the lives of Ann and Lily Neill and their father Johnny look set to improve, the threat of war with Germany looms and they seem headed for a dark horizon. Coping with the trials and tribulations of working-class life in their close-knit Dundee community, no one can escape the conflict or what fate has in store.

     Switch on those Christmas tree lights and settle down with a hot chocolate. It's time for another festive trip to beautiful Bramblewick. Christmas is approaching once again, but the residents of the little village on the North York Moors are almost too busy to notice. Receptionist Anna is on maternity leave, awaiting the arrival of her baby, while husband Connor and colleague Riley are busy interviewing candidates for the post of third GP at Bramblewick Surgery. Izzy, meanwhile, is recovering from a broken relationship by focusing her attention on the primary school Christmas play. But even with the help of fellow teacher, Ash Uttridge, she’s beginning to wonder if she’s taken on more than she can cope with. The weather's not the only thing getting chilly, either. Having confided in Anna the real reason for her break-up with her ex-boyfriend, Izzy is hurt when her best friend seems suddenly cold towards her. Has she made a mistake trusting Anna, after all? As Christmas draws nearer and the snow begins to fall, Izzy and Ash develop a warm and growing attraction. But Ash has real concerns about their relationship and, with Anna judging her so harshly, dare Izzy really tell Ash the truth about herself and risk everything they have built so far?

    Worse, Alex wasn’t an innocent bystander but part of the gang that raided the vault and left behind numerous bodies.Simmering with rage over his loss, Will tries to let the police handle the matter. But as Alex’s killers remain at large, Will decides that it’s up to him—and a few old friends—to enact revenge in a most brutal manner.Now he’s calling on dangerous connections that have been buried for years—and should’ve stayed that way. But Will vows to do whatever it takes to see Alex’s killers repay their sins in blood, even if it means his own damnation.

    Zesty Meyers is Boston s fastest bike messenger caffeine fueled, wise-cracking and reckless accustomed to hurtling through Boston s kamikaze streets at breakneck speed, always just a bumper or car door away from disaster.Will Meyers is Zesty s father, Beantown s former backroom poker king and political fixer, who is suffering from Alzheimer s and a growing dread that the Big Dig carving its way through some of Boston s toughest neighborhoods will expose the bodies and secrets he d assumed were buried forever.When the heist of an armored truck goes violently wrong, Zesty is forced to navigate Beantown s gritty underworld of gangsters and blood money, desperately trying to outrace his family s criminal past and stay alive in a changing city where death loiters on every corner and the odds of survival have narrowed to pulling a straight flush on the river."

    In one narrative, a man wakes up one morning to find the odor of dead fish won't go away, but no one else can smell it. In another, a couple's visit with friends to watch the Academy Awards has the protagonist envying his friends' lawn and lifestyle. In these and eleven other stories, Christopher Meeks balances tragedy and wit. As novelist David Scott Milton explains, "In this collection, Christopher Meeks examines the small heartbreaks of quiet despair that are so much a part of all our lives. He does it in language that is resonant, poetic, and precise.... If you like Raymond Carver, you'll love Meeks. He may be as good--or better."

    Remarkably, his driver left him off at his home an hour later where he consumed a scotch and several sandwiches. Something is obviously amiss. Add an allegedly forged will, the hint of an old family scandal, and a former secretary of the murdered man whose motives are none too clear, and the mystery only deepens. J. S. Fletcher has put together an intriguing puzzle with plenty of twists and turns in . . . The Herapath Property!

    Factories are closing, unemployment is high, the National Front are marching and the neglected inner cities are ablaze as riots breakout across Thatcher's fractured Britain. The Agarwals are facing their own nightmares but family, pop music, protest, unexpected friendships and a community that refuses to disappear all contribute to easing their personal pain, and that of Handsworth itself.THE HANDSWORTH TIMES is a story of loss and transition, and pulling together because ultimately, there is such a thing as society.

    He plays basketball at the Y and he’s just learning to talk to girls. But Griffin doesn’t feel normal. He’s been diagnosed with Depersonalization Disorder—he feels disconnected from his body, and at times, he doesn’t know if he’s dead or alive. And it seems to be getting worse.Following the brutal death of his abusive father, Griffin is haunted by a red-haired kid only he can see and who wants him to do things he doesn’t understand. Griffin's only sources of support are his grandfather, Soren - a regional author of Outer Banks ghost stories - and his same-aged cousin, Tanner, a boy coping with his own troubled life.When a rare blizzard strikes the Outer Banks, Griffin recognizes the red-haired boy as a vengeful specter from Soren's tales. To make matters worse, his well-meaning aunt has convinced his mother he’s under some sort of spiritual attack. Unsure if the mysterious boy is a symptom of his disorder or an entity with evil intent, Griffin finds himself in a struggle to save his life, his sanity and maybe his very soul.

    Years ago, at the age of fourteen, Jane Fielder visited England, the birth country of her parents, with her mother. A that time a strange event took place, and one that Jane never forgot. On a tour of a great estate with her mother, Jane became entranced by the portrait of a young man. She noticed that he had a pendant with the gold chain wrapped around his hand. Impulsively, Jane touched the young man's hand and it felt warm. Now, years later, and devastated by the death of her parents, Jane returns to England as a foreign correspondent. She hopes the change of scene will make the loss of her parents easier to bear, for her health has lately taken a hit. Jane is as anxious to start her new job as she is to see the portrait again, for she wants to find out if she just imagined that the young man's hand felt warm to her touch. Then when Jane touches the young man's hand on the portrait again, she is blasted back in time to 1803.

    A desolate maid. And one cold corpse. Richard Lynche, heir of an 18th century Tipperary estate, can find no peace. His bookish ways disgust his bullying letch of a father. His heartsick mother sinks ever-deeper into a drug-induced lethargy. The teen’s only solace are the loving arms of the homesick new maid, Eveleen. Meanwhile jealousy, lust, and oppression lead to gruesome visions, causing Richard to question his own sanity. Desperate to prevail over his demons, he determines there is only one way to stop the torture—a killing. Aroon is a cauldron of old-fashioned Irish stew. Spiced heavily with Downton Abbey, sprinkled with Shakespeare’s Hamlet and a dash of The Godfather’s Michael Corleone, it explores the underbelly of life during the Protestant Ascendancy.

    Land. Lawlessness. These ingredients do not portend a peaceful life in Nebraska’s Pine Ridge country for Dan McClure. Dan’s not afraid to fire a gun, but after a lifetime of fighting, he would rather wield a paintbrush. When he’s thrust into the middle of a range war, however, he has but two options . . . and Dan’s not one to run away from a fight. Set in 1880s Nebraska, Paint the Hills Red is a story of men—and women—who won’t back down . . . even when it looks as though they should.

    Young Lily Bright works long hours on a market stall, selling furniture and bric-a-brac in order to make ends meet. When a handsome stranger approaches in search of a bargain, It's love at first sight. Swept off her feet, Lily falls for the debonair Charles Grey - only to discover, too late, that he is not what he seems. Pregnant, Lily turns for comfort to her childhood friend Ben James, but as World War II looms, Lily must find the courage to seize control of her own destiny, confront her past mistakes and win true love...

    Holed up with her mum in a Newcastle suburb and living on a steady diet of Bailey’s and chips, Rowena fantasizes about her absent dad and plans her own funeral music. But when she embarks on an energetic campaign to eliminate her mother’s new boyfriend, Bernard “Filthy” Luker, Rowena starts to lose her slippery grip on reality and is packed off to a teenage therapy group. Meet the Madolescents.