In this book, we follow the adventures of two little boys in pre-war Germany, one a German and the other one a Jew. This story awakens the sleeping giant of friendship and confirms the power of hope. On one hand, this story is full of human tragedies and despair but on the other hand it is full of hope and faith in the human enduring spirit. This is a book with a gigantic message of hope and faith to all of those who bitterly despair. Through the colourful events in this book, the string of laughter and the string of tears are being pulled right through every page. Although all events are fiction, they certainly appear extremely believable and feel so real.

Murphy Shepherd is a man with many secrets. He lives alone on an island, tending the grounds of a church with no parishioners, and he’s dedicated his life to rescuing those in peril. But as he mourns the loss of his mentor and friend, Murph himself may be more lost than he realizes.

When he pulls a beautiful woman named Summer out of Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway, Murph’s mission to lay his mentor to rest at the end of the world takes a dangerous turn. Drawn to Summer, and desperate to find her missing daughter, Murph is pulled deeper and deeper into the dark and dangerous world of modern-day slavery.

With help from some unexpected new friends, including a faithful Labrador he plucks from the ocean and an ex-convict named Clay, Murph must race against the clock to locate the girl before he is consumed by the secrets of his past—and the ghosts who tried to bury them.

With Charles Martin’s trademark lyricism and poignant prose, The Water Keeper is at once a tender love story, a heartrending search for freedom, and a reminder that the needs of the one outweigh those of the ninety-nine.

In Finding Ashley, a deeply moving novel from the number one bestseller Danielle Steel, two estranged sisters get the chance to reconnect and right the wrongs of the past. Melissa Henderson leads a quiet life. Once a bestselling author, she now pours all her energy into renovating a Victorian house in the foothills of rural New England. Six years ago, her life was derailed by tragedy and she stopped writing. The house has given her new purpose. When her beloved home appears on the news, Melissa receives a call from her estranged sister, Hattie. They were close once, but that was before Melissa withdrew from the world. Now Hattie is determined to help Melissa turn a new page, even if it means reopening one of the most painful chapters of her life. All these years later, Hattie feels compelled to embark on a journey that will change both their lives forever, to find the child that Melissa was forced to give up when she was only a teenager in Ireland. Finding Ashley is a powerful love story of two strong, brave women turning loss into reconnection, and a family reunited.

When we came to America, we brought anger and socialism and hunger. We also brought our demons. "One of the most powerful voices in speculative fiction."--Catherynne M. Valente In Burning Girls and Other Stories, Veronica Schanoes crosses borders and genres with stories of fierce women at the margins of society burning their way toward the center. This debut collection introduces readers to a fantasist in the vein of Karen Russell and Kelly Link, with a voice all her own. Emma Goldman--yes, that Emma Goldman--takes tea with Baba Yaga and truths unfold inside of exquisitely crafted lies. In Among the Thorns, a young woman in seventeenth century Germany is intent on avenging the brutal murder of her peddler father, but discovers that vengeance may consume all that it touches. In the showstopping, awards-finalist title story, Burning Girls, Schanoes invests the immigrant narrative with a fearsome fairytale quality that tells a story about America that we may not want--but need--to hear. Dreamy, dangerous, and precise, with the weight of the very oldest tales we tell, Burning Girls and Other Stories introduces a writer pushing the boundaries of both fantasy and contemporary fiction. With a foreword by Jane Yolen

Having an idea is brilliant. Making the idea a reality is magical.

This is a tale of a 13-year old girl, Jadesola Balogun, who is torn between two worlds. Her parents hail from Nigeria but as she is London-born and bred, her London friends are the source of her western life style. Jadesola's paternal grandmother is staying with the family. Mrs Balogun Snr is stubbornly steeped in tradition. 'Jadesola will henceforth be brought up the African way,' she vows. The West and South Looking Child delivers powerful messages about racism, teen pregnancy and generational differences. Its stance is positive. It encourages open-mindedness. It is a must read for anyone interested in inter-cultural issues.

A gripping, elegant debut novel about a young Black man caught between worlds of race and class, glamour and tragedy, a friend’s mysterious death and his own arrest, from an electrifying new voice.

An arrest for cocaine possession on the last day of a sweltering New York summer leaves Smith, a queer Black Stanford graduate, in a state of turmoil. Pulled into the court system and mandated treatment, he finds himself in an absurd but dangerous situation: his class protects him, but his race does not.

It’s just weeks after the death of his beloved roommate Elle, the daughter of a famous soul singer, and he’s still reeling from the tabloid spectacle—as well as lingering questions around how well he really knew his closest friend. He flees to his hometown of Atlanta, only to buckle under the weight of expectations from his family of doctors and lawyers and their history in America. But when Smith returns to New York, it’s not long before he begins to lose himself to his old life—drawn back into the city’s underworld, where his search for answers may end up costing him his freedom and his future.

Smith goes on a dizzying journey through the nightlife circuit, anonymous recovery rooms, Atlanta’s Black society set, police investigations and courtroom dramas, and a circle of friends coming of age in a new era. Great Black Hope is a propulsive, glittering story about what it means to exist between worlds, to be upwardly mobile yet spiraling downward, and how to find a way back to hope.

"Exceedingly entertaining." -The New York Times "Umbrella Academy meets Tana French. Dark, claustrophobic, and beautifully written." -Andrea Bartz, author of We Were Never Here From the author of The Winter Sister and Behind the Red Door, a family obsessed with true crime gathers to bury their patriarch-only to find another body already in his grave. At twenty-six, Dahlia Lighthouse is haunted by her upbringing. Raised in a secluded island mansion deep in the woods and kept isolated by her true crime-obsessed parents, she is unable to move beyond the disappearance of her twin brother, Andy, when they were sixteen. After several years away and following her father's death, Dahlia returns to the house, where the family makes a gruesome discovery: buried in their father's plot is another body-Andy's, his skull split open with an ax. Dahlia is quick to blame Andy's murder on the serial killer who terrorized the island for decades, while the rest of her family reacts to the revelation in unsettling ways. Her brother, Charlie, pours his energy into creating a family memorial museum, highlighting their research into the lives of famous murder victims; her sister, Tate, forges ahead with her popular dioramas portraying crime scenes; and their mother affects a cheerfully domestic facade, becoming unrecognizable as the woman who performed murder reenactments for her children. As Dahlia grapples with her own grief and horror, she realizes that her eccentric family, and the mansion itself, may hold the answers to what happened to her twin.

Fires In the Dark reveals the highly secretive and misunderstood world of the coppersmith gypsies.

In 1927, when prosperity still reigns in Central Europe, Yenko is born to two Coppersmith Gypsies. His parents, Josef and Anna, are nomads who raise their son during the relative calm of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Soon, though, dangerous times threaten to unsettle their family, as their heritage makes them vulnerable targets for ethnic cleansing. As Germany invades Czechoslovakia and the conflicts of World War II begin to unfold, Yenko and his parents become fugitives, forced on a journey that promises only great uncertainty and offers survival as a remote possibility. In the course of their flight, the burden of an ancient tradition rests entirely on Yenko's shoulders.

In capturing the desperation and perseverance of one family during an extraordinary time in history, Louise Doughty pays powerful homage to an insular and little-known culture.

The de Lafitte Protocol is the enigmatic name given to a devilish plot, hatched by a cunning but dismissed ex-MI6 agent who secretively plots to assassinate all members of the wealthy de Lafitte family, thereby gaining control of their vast family foundation. The first book is a galvanizing mystery thriller, paradoxically opening among the languid preparations of the annual stag hunt at Chateau Lafitte outside Paris; the home of the Comte de Lafitte, which has held stag hunts there, on and off since 1778. The first book of this trilogy is unequivocal in revealing that it is dealing with an attempted assassination of the hero of the book, as he exits the Oxford Sheldonian having been awarded his doctoral thesis on Nuclear Physics. This one off failed attempt, deepens the mystery as Charles gains 10 years time to partially overcome his severe handicap, when all hostilities seemingly cease: only to be revived with the ensuing brutal assassination of The Master of the stag hounds, his uncle Jacques Le Comte de Lafitte. Several other members of this eponymous family, are also assassinated at Eton and Oxford, spanning three generations. The shroud of the mystery begins to unravel, when the young hero Dr. Charles Russell-Lafitte is appointed the new head of the family. He and his cousins intend to set up a sting operation, to flush out the unknown protagonists. Charles retains his great optimism and zest for life. The book unforgettably illuminates how his life, guided by his traditional Christian faith, remains open to all nuances of balanced thought. For the reader, it ends on a cliffhanger, as the family fly over for their famous fox hunt 'The Mississipi run', ignorant of the lethal booby-traps. This is also where this 2nd book of the trilogy commences, when the switched at birth twin of Charles, called Il Regazzo by the ex- Mafia, is seen setting up his deadly assassination weapon at the hunting fixture in Kentucky. At this juncture, the love plots in the book emerge, the love story of Charles with a distant cousin, and intriguingly Il Regazzo with another unknown cousin. This alarmingly intriguing read is greatly enhanced by the atmospheric detail, almost participative portrayal of international stag and fox hunting set in unique American countryside, amidst a flurry of bizarre individuals, among the busy lives of this intriguing family. If readers are thrilled by reading this first and second book of the trilogy, the final book fully resolves the mystery behind The de Lafitte protocol. They will then witness the on and off dramatic outcome of the love story of Charles and his twin and their distant cousins and wonder? How good lives can and do, in the end overcome the evil machinations of ungodly scenarios, guided by the 19th Century convert, John Henry Newman.

The Manor was built in the nineteeth century and set in beautiful countryside in the West Country. An ambitious lady called Claire Hammond purchases the property as an investment and refurbishes The Manor into a weekend retreat with a luxurious spa.Unbeknown to her, not only did she purchase the property and the acres of land, but it came with a host of unsolved mysteries. Can the happenings ever be logically explained? Or is someone out to sabotage Claire's business and good reputation?

10 years have passed by for the Armstrongs and the Braddocks. However time has not healed all wounds. All members are still haunted by their tragedies and the aftermath. Join both families as they try to come to terms with their present and deal with the buried secrets of the past. Theirs is a tale of misfortune, mystery, mayhem and even attempted murder.

Part of a motorcycle mounted special forces group, Tom Marshall roams his section of the deep, winter desert of Iraq alone, intercepting Islamic State patrols that occupy the region. Other riders are out there dead, alive and insane. When an early extraction date for the riders is given, Tom begins to withdraw, but into a world of brutal survival where suicide grows stronger with every step. His destiny will be shaped by the unforgiving winter conditions and the horror of religion at its most macabre. How far can too far go?

The year is 1971 and Great Yarmouth, along with all parts of the United Kingdom, must get to grips with decimal currency, widely known as "the new money". Some, more than others will find the transition difficult, but none more so that Maud's sister, Enid in her gift shop. Don Stevens and Rita Ricer pull together another line-up of variety artistes to headline The Golden Sands Theatre for a twice nightly summer season show but with the added pressure of a small theatre in crisis at the neighbouring Brokencliff-on-Sea, that it seems only Rita can help to save. * What secret is the new backstage manager hiding? * Find out if running a hotel is all it is cracked up to be * Who will be topping this year's bill at The Golden Sands? * Rock star Rick O'Shea sets a certain landlady's heart aflutter * Will Freda's new perfume cause a stink with the locals? * A new guest house launches, but with a difference * And the question on every landlady's lips: "Who will be head of GAGGA?" Back with his unique mix of Great Yarmouth locals, landladies and variety stars, Tony Gareth Smith revisits the seaside pleasures of yesteryear and reminds us when summer holidays were simpler and didn't involve the use of electronic mobile gadgets. So settle down with a quarter of your favourite sweets or a cup of tea and a cream horn and enjoy this year's most relaxing read.With the added bonus of a short story, Boarding Tonight preceding the main feature "Curtains", it is fun, fun, fun all the way...

It is 1939, the outbreak of World War Two, and ten year old Ryan Brannigan newly arrived from Ireland experiences the horrors and excitement of war. A rebellious lad in conflict with the parish priest, Father O'Donnell, his teachers, and his father, as well as the Church, he forms an uneasy relationship with Nadina Brown, a vulnerable, ultra-religious, highly sensitive, intelligent girl of the same age. Ryan's father, Fergus, an armchair warrior of the IRA due to a wound sustained in the Easter Rising of 1916, strongly suspects the priest of abusing the girl, though she strenuously denies it. Convinced that she is scared to tell the truth, he hurries round to the presbytery to find O'Donnell gone back to Ireland and a priest to replace him arriving the very next day. Angry and frustrated, Fergus rushes to the police station to demand action, but his complaints are contemptuously dismissed. Ryan, confused over the turn of events has taken a thorough dislike towards Nadina. But soon he will discover the truth and his compassion for her and desire for revenge will know no bounds.