'A monumental achievement . . . I loved it' Maggie O'Farrell A SINGLE HOUSE DEEP IN THE WOODS OF NEW ENGLAND. OVER 400 YEARS, IT WILL BE HOME TO a young Puritan couple on the run, an English soldier with a dream, inseparable twin sisters, a lovelorn painter, a lusty beetle, a desperate mother, a haunted son, a ruthless conman, and a stalking panther. Buried secrets and inevitable fates. Madness, dreams and hope. Everything, and everyone, are intricately connected. The dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive. Exhilarating, daring and playful, North Woods will change the way you see the world. 'Ambitious, alive, and lush with generosity . . . an immersive sprint through time' Tess Gunty

Not everyone needs a license to fight for justice! In a superpowered society, there is nothing ordinary about evil anymore. Heroes, trained and licensed to protect and defend the public against supervillains, stand above all the rest. Not everyone can be a hero, however, and there are those who would use their powers to serve the people without legal sanction. But do they fight for justice in the shadows, or for reasons known only to themselves? Whatever they fight for, they are called...vigilantes. The nightmare in Naruhata continues as Koichi goes toe-to-toe with Number 6, who has transformed into a horrific predator bent on ending the Crawler’s life! When the situation gets a little too hot to handle, Koichi realizes this may be a job for real heroes. Until they arrive, though, the battle is up to him—with an assist from Knuckleduster! But the evil looming behind Number 6 is still spurring on the vengeful villain, who has yet to unleash his final form…

American Disaster Movies of the 1970s is the first scholarly book dedicated to the disaster cycle that dominated American cinema and television in the 1970s. Through examining films such as Airport (1970), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Two-Minute Warning (1976) and The Swarm (1978), alongside their historical contexts and American contemporaneous trends, the disaster cycle is treated as a time-bound phenomenon. This book further contextualises the cycle by drawing on the longer cultural history of modernist reactions to modern anxieties, including the widespread dependence on technology and corporate power. Each chapter considers cinematic precursors, such as the ‘ark movie’, and contemporaneous trends, such as New Hollywood, vigilante and blaxploitation films, as well as the immediate American context: the end of the civil rights and countercultural era, the Watergate crisis, and the defeat in Vietnam.As Scott Freer argues, the disaster movie is a modern, demotic form of tragedy that satisfies a taste for the macabre. It is also an aesthetic means for processing painful truths, and many of the dramatized themes anticipate present-day monstrosities of modernity.

1992. Two strangers bring a hospital patient a list of names. They ask him for one more, but it's a question the patient can't answer. Minutes later he is dispatched through the 12th floor window. His death generates some unexpected attention. That attention comes from the Secretary of Defence, who brings in an inter-agency task force to investigate. Jack Reacher, recently demoted from Major to Captain, is assigned as the Army's representative. Reacher may be an exceptional soldier, but sweeping other people's secrets under the carpet isn't part of his skill set. As he races to find the killer, he must navigate around the ulterior motives of his new 'partners'. And all while moving into the sight line of some of the most dangerous people he has ever encountered. His mission is to uncover the truth. Fast. The question is: will Reacher bring the bad guys to justice the official way . . . or his way? PRAISE FOR THE JACK REACHER SERIES 'There's only one Jack Reacher. Accept no substitutes.' MICK HERRON 'Jack Reacher is today's James Bond, a thriller hero we can't get enough of.' KEN FOLLETT 'Everyone needs to kick some butt sometimes, even if it's just imaginary.' JOJO MOYES Although the Jack Reacher novels can be read in any order, The Secret is the 28th book in the internationally bestselling series. PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY NOW And be sure not to miss Reacher's newest adventure, no.27, No Plan B! ***OUT NOW***

It’s in the early years of the new South Africa and, despite its geographical remoteness, nestling in the foothills of the Drakensberg, one farm’s community finds it is not immune to the legacies of the past and a society grappling with the trauma and consequences of apartheid. Dirk and his twin sisters, Pat and Lerryn, have joined their high-flyer father, Tom, after his ‘retirement’ move to the small conservative town of Fynberg with his young, new wife. His purchase of the town’s only restaurant and investment in a nearby farm, Caracal Ridge, sets in motion a chain of events that will influence their lives and the lives of some of those around them forever. As the family negotiates the twists and turns of their changing country and the challenges of reinventing the farm, and themselves, they find they have to deal with unexpected situations. Some terrifying, some enlightening, they allow those in Caracal Ridge’s community the opportunity to fully appreciate each other.

Three-time Eisner Award winner Junji Ito invites you to the horrific Tomb Town and beyond. Three-time Eisner Award winner Junji Ito invites you to the horrific Tomb Town and beyond. Countless tombstones stand in rows throughout a small community, forming a bizarre tableau. What fate awaits a brother and sister after a traffic accident in this town of the dead? In another tale, a girl falls silent, her tongue transformed into a slug. Can a friend save her? Then, when a young man moves to a new town, he finds the house next door has only a single window. What does his grotesque neighbor want, calling out to him every evening from that lone window? Fresh nightmares brought to you by horror master Junji Ito.

  How can you love when your heart is haunted? As the son of an ousted dictator, Oliver Obscura is a figure of mixed revulsion and pity in the city of Providence. Now that his father is imprisoned, and his systems of tyranny dismantled, a new era is ruled over by a New Order. Oliver forms part of the new democratic council along with his love, Ruby. But when a new threat risks Ruby's life, Oliver becomes consumed with saving her. Ruby Renato is watching her one true love descend into darkness. The more he practises murkier strands of shadow magic, the further he sacrifices his soul to gain power. As the city brinks on revolution, and the divide between the lovers grows bigger, Ruby must hunt for a newly discovered sixth element of the soul if she is to hold on to what she loves. The perfect sequel to the captivating romantasy The Girl With No Soul. The Boy With The Haunted Heart combines a fabulous concept, a swooning love story, and intoxicating world building in one glorious package. Perfect for fans of Alice Broadway and Leigh Bardugo and BookTok. Morgan Owen is a bright new talent in the YA world.  

From TikTok sensation Sierra Simone comes the first in the Lyonesse series, a spin-off of her bestselling New Camelot books. Tristan Thomas is lost. After leaving the army, the young former soldier is in limbo. Until, that is, he's hired by Mark Trevena, the owner of Lyonesse-DC's ultra-secret club-to be Mark's new bodyguard. He's drawn into Mark's dark, seductive world of power and desire, and slowly drawn to Mark himself, even though Mark is everything Tristan knows he shouldn't want: cruel and wicked and shamelessly amoral. But protecting Mark isn't Tristan's only duty: soon, Mark asks him to guard his soon-to-be bride as she travels home from Ireland on Mark's yacht. Tristan is jealous-and hurt to learn that the object of his obsession is engaged-but the former soldier in him is made to obey orders, and he goes to fetch Mark's bride for him. Isolde Laurence is nothing like Tristan expected, however. Young, quiet, and sharp, she's being pushed into this marriage by her family, and as the two travel back to America, Tristan finds himself fascinated with Isolde and the glimpses he gets of the lonely but determined woman behind her reserve. And the fascination is mutual: one night, while sailing under the cold stars, they share a searing kiss. From there, it's a fast fall into the forbidden for all three of them.

If you knew how dark tomorrow would be, what would you do with today? The First Bright Thing by J. R. Dawson is a spellbinding debut for fans of The Night Circus and The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue. Welcome to the Circus of the Fantasticals. Ringmaster – Rin, to those who know her best – can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. With the scars of World War I feeling more distant as the years pass, Rin is focusing on the brighter things in life. Like the circus she’s built and the magical misfits and outcasts – known as Sparks – who’ve made it their home. Every night, Rin and the Fantasticals enchant a Big Top packed full with audiences who need to see the impossible. But while the present is bright, threats come at Rin from the past and the future. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their Big Top and everyone in it. And Rin's past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow Rin can’t fully escape. It takes the form of another Spark circus, with tents as black as midnight and a ringmaster who rules over his troupe with a dangerous power. Rin’s circus has something he wants, and he won't stop until it’s his.

Six friends. One college reunion. One unsolved murder.

Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has planned her triumphant return to her southern, elite Duquette University, down to the envious whispers that are sure to follow in her wake. Everyone is going to see the girl she wants them to see—confident, beautiful, indifferent. Not the girl she was when she left campus, back when Heather Shelby's murder fractured everything, including the tight bond linking the six friends she'd been closest to since freshman year.

But not everyone is ready to move on. Not everyone left Duquette ten years ago, and not everyone can let Heather's murder go unsolved. Someone is determined to trap the real killer, to make the guilty pay. When the six friends are reunited, they will be forced to confront what happened that night—and the years' worth of secrets each of them would do anything to keep hidden.

Told in racing dual timelines, with a dark campus setting and a darker look at friendship, love, obsession, and ambition, In My Dreams I Hold A Knife is an addictive, propulsive read you won't be able to put down.

The first comprehensive study of the works of William Hope Hodgson, one of the true innovators of Weird fiction, this book examines the Weird novels and stories upon which his posthumous reputation rests, his non-fantastic writing, identifiable literary influences, and the historical contexts in which he wrote. Focusing extensively upon major works such as The House on the Borderland (1908) and The Night Land (1912), Timothy S. Murphy surveys topics including Hodgson’s experiments with code switching and linguistic experimentation; his depictions of racial and ethnic differences and gender and sexuality; the function of space and place in his writing; the adaptation of his shipboard experiences; and his use of abyssal time. With special attention paid to his paradoxical nihilist humanism, this book explores what made Hodgson a respected precursor to later innovators such as H. P. Lovecraft and C.L. Moore, and what makes him an important ancestor to 21st-century writers such as China Miéville, Greg Bear, and Charlie Jane Anders. Demonstrating how his work is both of his time and ‘untimely’, Murphy recovers Hodgson as the most significant figure to precede the fantastically popular but deeply controversial Lovecraft, as well as a figure whose work challenges what has thus far been accepted about the genre and the interpretive perspectives from which we view it.

Losing the love of your life once is tragic. TWICE looks like carelessness . . .

Rachel Walsh is a survivor: she survived rehab and the loss of her greatest love.

These days everything in her life is good - good job, good dog, very good boyfriend. Then Luke - her ex of six years - shows up.

Suddenly she's fragile and falling.

They ended badly and neither can speak of the secret hurt which drove them apart.

But is it fear of what happened? Or what might happen next?

They came to earth-Pestilence, War, Famine, Death-four horsemen riding their screaming steeds, racing to the corners of the world. Four horsemen with the power to destroy all of humanity. They came to earth, and they came to end us all. When Pestilence, the first of the horsemen, comes for Sara Burn's town, one thing is certain: everyone she knows and loves is marked for death. Unless, of course, the angelic-looking horseman is stopped, which is exactly what Sara has in mind when she shoots the unholy beast off his steed. Too bad no one told her Pestilence can't be killed. Alive and furious, the horseman takes Sara prisoner, determined to make her suffer for impeding his mission. Despite her pleas, nothing and no one gets in the way of his orders to destroy humankind. Only, the longer Pestilence spends beside Sara's bravery and compassion, the more he seems to understand her, and understand humanity. And the longer Sara travels with Pestilence and his plague, the more uncertain she grows about his true feelings toward her...and hers toward him. Sara might still be able to save the world, but she'll have to sacrifice her heart in the process.

Geralt of Rivia is on a mission to save his ward, Ciri, and with her the world, in this third novel in the bestselling Witcher series that inspired the Netflix show and video games. The Wizards Guild has been shattered by a coup and, in the uproar, Geralt was seriously injured. The Witcher is supposed to be a guardian of the innocent, a protector of those in need, a defender against powerful and dangerous monsters that prey on men in dark times. But now that dark times have fallen upon the world, Geralt is helpless until he has recovered from his injuries. While war rages across all of the lands, the future of magic is under threat and those sorcerers who survive are determined to protect it. It's an impossible situation in which to find one girl - Ciri, the heiress to the throne of Cintra, has vanished - until a rumour places her in the Niflgaard court, preparing to marry the Emperor. Injured or not, Geralt has a rescue mission on his hands. Translated by David French.

University of Pittsburgh law student, Maggie Hovis, battles an enemy she cannot escape-her own brain. Her family calls her a drama queen. Her fiance, Sam, moves out after she throws a shoe at his head. Maggie knows there is only one way to get him back-control her moods. So she takes the step most of her family is against: therapy. After a diagnosis of Bipolar II Disorder, Maggie begins to investigate her family tree-which is plagued by mental illness and hidden relatives-and develops empathy for her deceased Great Aunt Ella, who lived her life in a mental institution. But Maggie's journey leads her into fear and insecurity, afraid she'll end up like Ella and never get Sam back. But what about Nick, her super-sexy old flame, who wants to reignite their passion? And does it even matter, anyway? Won't mental illness stop any man from loving her?"

'Spiky, clever, funny' – Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters 'Brilliant, propulsive . . . A riot'– Maddie Mortimer, author of Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies 'A delicious gallop through 90s tabloid London' – Sam McAlister, author of Scoops It’s peak 90s London. Shoulder pads are out, crimped hair is in, supermodels are known by their first names, and Becky Sharp will do anything to escape her past. From mingling with tabloid millionaires to trading favours and fortunes with royalty, she will stop at nothing to reach the top of the career ladder at the Mercury newspaper. Landing scoop after scoop, Becky ruthlessly carves a place for herself in a society determined to ignore her. These are the biggest stories and scandals of the decade, and she has something to do with every one of them. But Becky may have more in common with the people she writes about than she thinks – what takes a lifetime to build takes only a moment to destroy . . .

Wang Wei has always chosen his words carefully. His unobtrusive presence has seen him through the reign of five emperors, but now, as his own time is running out, he immerses himself in an unbridled account of a life confined at court. From the early separation from his parents, sisters, and brother - who did not survive the operation into a eunuch - to the power struggles he has witnessed and endured, Wang Wei examines human relationships with precision and a catching sense of wonder. While rumours are weapons, it is love and its various forms of expression that most fascinate Wang Wei. Reaching into a secret and secluded world, Carlson's vivid prose is as delicate as it is enigmatic. A meditation on power and exclusion, love and loneliness, gender and identity, ageing and transformation, Eunuch is a compact masterpiece.