Frankenstein is the classic gothic horror novel which has thrilled and engrossed readers for two centuries. Written by Mary Shelley, it is a story which she intended would 'curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the heart.' The tale is a superb blend of science fiction, mystery and thriller. Victor Frankenstein driven by the mad dream of creating his own creature, experiments with alchemy and science to build a monster stitched together from dead remains. Once the creature becomes a living breathing articulate entity, it turns on its maker and the novel darkens into tragedy. The reader is very quickly swept along by the force of the elegant prose, the grotesque, surreal imagery, and the multi-layered themes in the novel. Although first published in 1818, Shelley's masterpiece still maintains a strong grip on the imagination and has been the inspiration for numerous horror movies, television and stage adaptations.

Can you solve the mystery of the tattoo murder? Tokyo, 1947. At the first post-war meeting of the Edo Tattoo Society, Kinue Nomura reveals her full-body snake tattoo to rapturous applause. Days later she is gone. A dismembered corpse is discovered in the locked bathroom of her home, but her much-coveted body art is nowhere to be found. Kinue's horrified lover joins forces with the boy detective Kyosuke Kamizu to try to get to the bottom of the macabre crime, but similar deaths soon follow. Is someone being driven to murder by their lust for tattooed skin, and can they be stopped? Set in a seedy Tokyo of bomb sites, dive bars and Yakuza gangs, The Tattoo Murder is one of Japan's most ingenious and legendary whodunits.

The Brand NEW instalment in the bestselling Exham-on-Sea series. An unsolved murder echoes down the corridors of Cleeve Abbey for years.The Exham-on-Sea's History Society's annual summer picnic comes to an abrupt end when human bones are discovered in Washford River, beside historic Cleeve Abbey. Thrilled to find evidence of a possible centuries-old murder mystery, the members of the society organise a ghost-hunting night in the ruins of Cleeve Abbey, despite amateur sleuth Libby Forest's reservations. Libby is a woman of many talents, a baker, chocolatier, even a reluctant sleuth, but she's no fan of the supernatural.and her doubts are justified when a friend is attacked under cover of darkness at the ghost-hunt. Distressed and angry, Libby sets out with her new husband Max and their two dogs Bear and Shipley to uncover the connection between the murder of a sixteenth century monk and a present-day attack in picturesque Somerset. With friends and neighbours as suspects, Libby and Max close in on the culprit only to find that others are still in danger. There's no time to lose as the sins of the past threaten lives in the community. Murder at the Abbey is the eighth in a series of Exham-on-Sea Murder Mysteries from the small English seaside town full of quirky characters, sea air, and gossip. If you love Agatha Christie-style mysteries, cosy crime, clever dogs and cake, then you'll love these intriguing whodunnits.THE EXHAM-ON-SEA MURDER MYSTERIES: 1. Murder at the Lighthouse 2. Murder on the Levels: 3. Murder on the Tor: 4. Murder at the Cathedral 5. Murder at the Bridge 6. Murder at the Castle 7. Murder at the Gorge 8. Murder at the Abbey Books in the Ham Hill Murder Mystery series by Frances Evesham A Village Murder A Racing Murder A Harvest Murder

Agatha Christie's seasonal Poirot and Marple short story collection in a new hardback special edition. First came a sinister warning to Poirot not to eat any plum pudding... then the discovery of a corpse in a chest... next, an overheard quarrel that led to murder... the strange case of the dead man who altered his eating habits... and the puzzle of the victim who dreamt his own suicide. What links these five baffling cases? The little grey cells of Monsieur Hercule Poirot! Contains the stories: * The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding * The Mystery of the Spanish Chest * Four-And-Twenty Blackbirds * The Under Dog * The Dream

The Second World War is drawing to a close. Nicholas Vaughan, released from the army after an accident, takes refuge in Devon - renting a thatched cottage in the beautiful countryside at Mallory Fitzjohn. Vaughan sets to work farming the land, rearing geese and renovating the cottage. Hard work and rural peace seem to make this a happy bachelor life. On a nearby farm lives the bored, flirtatious June St Cyres, an exile from London while her husband is a Japanese POW. June's presence attracts fashionable visitors of dubious character, and threatens to spoil Vaughan's Prized seclusion. When Little Thatch is destroyed in a blaze, all Vaughan's work goes up in smoke - and Inspector Macdonald is drafted in to uncover a motive for murder.

Also published as The Beautiful Widow, Mary Shelley's penultimate novel explores the web of relationships between three women, bound together by the exacting Lord Lodore: his estranged wife Cornelia, a woman ruled by her mother and the norms of aristocratic society; his daughter Ethel, raised in the wilderness of Illinois and utterly dependent on her father; and finally, the independent and highly educated Fanny Derham, the daughter of Lodore's childhood friend. At first glance, Lodore appears to be a "silver fork" novel--a popular romance genre from the Regency era about life in fashionable society--yet Shelley's take imbues the story with subversive critiques of domesticity and masculinity. Long considered the most Jane Austen-like of Mary Shelley's novels, Lodore is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand this brilliant feminist writer.