India 1819 Matthew Hervey is charged with raising a new troop, and organising transport for India - for he, his men and their horses are to set sail with immediate effect. What Hervey and his greenhorn soldiers cannot know is that in India they will face a trial for which they are ill prepared. A large number of Burmese war-boats are assembled near Chittagong, and the only way to thwart their advance involves a hazardous march through the jungle.Soon Hervey and his troop are in the midst of hot and bloody action once again... 'The book picks up a pace that mirrors a cavalry charge ...Hervey continues to grow in stature, while Mallinson himself continues to delight.' Observer

INQUISITION is the latest thrilling novel from Sunday Times bestselling author David Gibbins. Jack Howard will be tested to his limits on the trail of the fabled Holy Grail. '[The] Da Vinci Code of the deep sea' Daily Express 258 As the blood of martyred Christians runs through Rome's catacombs, Pope Sixtus entrusts their most sacred object to a devoted follower. Soon after, the Holy Grail disappears into the darkness of time. 1684 While overseeing the evacuation of the English colony of Tangier, Samuel Pepys attempts to retrieve a treasure which has resurfaced after more than a thousand years. Meanwhile, a Jewish merchant is tortured by the Altamanus, a secret group determined to locate the Grail. PRESENT DAY A wreck off the Cornish coast reveals clues to a mystery that marine archaeologist Jack Howard had thought beyond solving. He embarks on an epic quest that takes him to the sunken ruins of the pirate city of Port Royal in Jamaica. But the spectre of the deadly Inquisition dogs his every step, and Jack must face a descent into hell itself if he is to uncover the greatest reward in Christendom.

A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, The Pillars of the Earth is Ken Follett's classic historical masterpiece. A MASON WITH A DREAM 1135 and civil war, famine and religious strife abound. With his family on the verge of starvation, mason Tom Builder dreams of the day that he can use his talents to create and build a cathedral like no other. A MONK WITH A BURNING MISSION Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, is resourceful, but with money scarce he knows that for his town to survive it must find a way to thrive, and so he makes the decision to build within it the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known. A WORLD OF HIGH IDEALS AND SAVAGE CRUELTY As Tom and Philip meet so begins an epic tale of ambition, anarchy and absolute power. In a world beset by strife and enemies that would thwart their plans, they will stop at nothing to achieve their ambitions in a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state, and brother against brother . . . The Pillars of the Earth is the first in The Kingsbridge Novels series, followed by World Without End and A Column of Fire.

`Even though they're gone from the world, they're never gone from me.' The Doctor is many things - curious, funny, brave, protective of her friends...and a shameless namedropper. While she and her companions battled aliens and travelled across the universe, the Doctor hinted at a host of previous, untold adventures with the great and the good: we discovered she got her sunglasses from Pythagoras (or was it Audrey Hepburn?); lent a mobile phone to Elvis; had an encounter with Amelia Earhart where she discovered that a pencil-thick spider web can stop a plane; had a 'wet weekend' with Harry Houdini, learning how to escape from chains underwater; and more. In this collection of new stories, Star Tales takes you on a rip-roaring ride through history, from 500BC to the swinging 60s, going deeper into the Doctor's notorious name-dropping and revealing the truth behind these anecdotes.

Captain Sharpe has to protect a philandering diplomat and, deserted by his ally, faces the enemy. In the winter of 1811, the war seems lost. Spain has fallen to the French, except for Cadiz, now the Spanish capital and itself under siege. Inside the city walls an intricate diplomatic dance is taking place and Richard Sharpe faces more than one enemy. The small British force is trapped by a French army, and their only hope lies with the outnumbered redcoats outside refusing to admit defeat. There, in the sweltering horror of Barrosa, Sharpe will meet his old enemy Colonel Vandal once again. Soldier, hero, rogue - Sharpe is the man you always want on your side. Born in poverty, he joined the army to escape jail and climbed the ranks by sheer brutal courage. He knows no other family than the regiment of the 95th Rifles whose green jacket he proudly wears.

Summer 1944: Stranded behind enemy lines in France, eighteen-year-old Katrinka Badeau escapes German deserters with the help of Major Willoughby Nye. Once an employee on her father's merchant ship, Nye is now part of an undercover Jedburgh operation, working for the Allies. When he offers her a job on his team, she accepts. Her work throws her together with Sergeant Wolfe Farr, the team's tough-talking radio operator, and they embark on an intense love affair. But Katrinka is not prepared to accept Wolfe's plans for the future. And her love for Nye, which has evolved from an adolescent crush to that of a young woman, still endures. With the liberation of France, both men are sent to the Far East. Realising what she has lost, Katrinka joins a small entertainment troupe, and sets out on an arduous journey around the world to find Wolfe. But when the three are finally reunited, which love will withstand the test of time?

DARK TIDE RISING is the 24th compelling mystery in the William Monk series, from the master of Victorian crime, New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry. 'Anne Perry's Victorian mysteries are marvels of plot construction...truly remarkable' New York Times. When Kate Exeter is kidnapped on the shore of the Thames, Commander William Monk is enlisted by her desperate husband to save her. Kate's captors are demanding a ransom for her safe return and Monk and his most trusted men must arrange a secret handover in the dark slums of Jacob's Island. But on the night someone betrays them and a brutal skirmish breaks out, leaving death and destruction in its wake . . . Who is to blame for what went wrong? Monk senses tensions mount and no one knows who to trust. Then a whistle blower claims that the ransom money was embezzled funds that incriminate Kate's husband, and the case takes on a whole new meaning...

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, veterans of many battles, return in this novel to the seas where they first sailed as shipmates. But Jack is now a senior Captain commanding a line-of-battle ship sent out to reinforce the squadron blockading Toulon, and this is a longer, harder, colder war than the dashing frigate action of his early days.

A sudden turn of events takes him and Stephen off on a hazardous mission to the Greek islands. All his old skills of seamanship, and his proverbial luck when fighting against odds, come triumphantly into their own. The book ends with as fierce and thrilling an action as any in this magnificent series of novels.

Assassin's Creed: Black Flag is the sixth title in Oliver Bowden's phenomenally successful Assassin's Creed videogame tie-in series. It's the Golden Age of Piracy - a time when greed, ambition and corruption overcome all loyalties - and a brash young captain, Edward Kenway, is making his name known for being one of the greatest pirates of his day. In the brilliant new novel, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, discover the story of how Edward, a young privateer, became one of the world's most deadly pirates and was drawn into the centuries-old battle between the Templars and the Assassins. The immersive story of the Assassins is continued in Oliver Bowden's gripping sixth Assassin's Creed novel, following Renaissance, Brotherhood, The Secret Crusade, Revelations and Forsaken. Oliver Bowden is the pen-name of an acclaimed novelist.

WINNER OF 2016 COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Pitch-perfect, the outstanding novel of the year so far.' Robert McCrum, Observer 'More wrenching and beautiful than anything I've read in a long time.' Aravind Adiga, Guardian Books of the Year After signing up for the US army in the 1850s, barely seventeen, Thomas McNulty and his brother-in-arms, John Cole, fight in the Indian Wars and the Civil War. Having both fled terrible hardships, their days are now vivid and filled with wonder, despite the horrors they both see and are complicit in. But when a young Indian girl crosses their path, Thomas and John must decide on the best way of life for them all in the face of dangerous odds.

Matthew Hawkwood, ex-soldier turned Bow Street Runner, goes undercover to hunt down smugglers and traitors at the height of the Napoleonic Wars in this thrilling follow-up to Ratcatcher. For a French prisoner of war, there is only one fate worse than the gallows: the hulks. Former man-o'-wars, now converted to prison ships, their fearsome reputation guarantees a sentence served in the most dreadful conditions. Few survive. Escape, it's said, is impossible. Yet reports persist of a sinister smuggling operation within this brutal world - and the Royal Navy is worried enough to send two of its officers to investigate. But when they disappear without trace, the Navy turns in desperation to Bow Street for help. It's time to send in a man as dangerous as the prey. It's time to send in Hawkwood...

Paddington, London 1883 Samuel Weaver is a tabloid illustrator and reporter for The Illustrated Police News, whose sensationalist style makes him both popular with the public and hated by the authorities. Obsessed with an infamous murderer, Sibelius Darke, he will let nothing get in the way of finding the truth behind the stories. Meanwhile another set of ghastly murders has begun, linked to Darke's reign of terror six years earlier. Perhaps Darke was not the terrifying killer that he was made out to be? Perhaps the real murderers are still at large in London society? And perhaps, in order to prove this, Samuel Weaver will pay the ultimate price for his obsession.

The year is 1807, and Richard Sharpe is back in England, where his career seems to have come to a dead end, despite his heroics in Britain's recent victory at Trafalgar. Loveless, destitute, and relegated to the menial tasks of quartermaster, Sharpe roams the streets of London, pondering a bleak future away from the army.

Then, out of the blue, an old friend invites him to undertake a secret mission--the delivery of a bribe--to the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Denmark is officially neutral, but Napoleon is threatening an invasion in order to capture the powerful Danish fleet, which would replace the ships France lost in its disastrous defeat at Trafalgar. The British, fearing such enhancement of French power, threaten their own preemptive invasion, and Sharpe, whose errand seemed so simple, is trapped in a web of treachery that will end only when the city, which thought itself safe, is subjected to a brutal and merciless bombardment.

It is the summer of 1812 and Richard Sharpe, newly recovered from the wound he received in the fighting at Salamanca, is given an easy duty; to guard a Commissary Officer posted to an obscure Spanish fort where there are some captured French muskets to repair.

But unknown to the British, the French are planning a lightning raid across the River Tormes, and they reckon the obscure Spanish fort, which guards an ancient bridge across the river, will be lightly guarded.

Sharpe is in for a fight.

Let the battles begin... 'I foresee great struggles at my funeral games.' Babylon, 323 BC: Alexander the Great is dead, leaving behind him the largest, and most fearsome, empire the world has ever seen. As his final breaths fade in a room of seven bodyguards, Alexander refuses to name a successor. But without a natural heir, who will take the reins? As the news of the king's sudden and unexpected death ripples across the land, leaving all in disbelief, the ruthless battle for the throne begins. What follows is a devious, tangled web of scheming and plotting, with alliances quickly made and easily broken, each rival with their own agenda. But who will emerge victorious: the half-chosen; the one-eyed; the wildcat; the general; the bastard; the regent? In the end, only one man, or indeed woman, will be left standing...

The Sunday Times bestseller returns with a gripping new Ben Hope thriller. `If you like your conspiracies twisty, your action bone-jarring, and your heroes impossibly dashing, then look no farther,' MARK DAWSON, author of the John Milton series This time it's personal... People going missing in the remote wilds of India is not unusual. But when the son of a wealthy Delhi businessman is kidnapped just weeks after his brother fell victim to an alleged bandit attack in the mountains of Haryana, it raises eyebrows. With the local police doing close to nothing, there's only one man for the job: ex-SAS major Ben Hope. But for Ben, this is no ordinary rescue case. Because this plea for help is coming from a special person from his past, who now has nobody else to turn to. Ben's mission will take him into the heart of the arid Indian wilderness, pitting him against ruthless gangs and desperate men. But Ben is determined to save the day. Whatever it takes. The master bestseller returns, with the most hotly anticipated thriller of 2019. `If you've got a pulse, you'll love Scott Mariani; if you haven't, then maybe you crossed Ben Hope.' SIMON TOYNE

AN EMPIRE IN DECLINE. Centurion Aurelius Castus - once a soldier in the elite legions of the Danube - believes his glory days are over, as he finds himself in the cold, grey wastes of northern Britain, battling to protect an empire in decline. Here he must face the barbarians beyond Hadrian's Wall, in a mission riven with bloodshed and treachery. Can Castus keep his promise to a woman he has sworn to help? And is anything about this doomed enterprise what it seems? War at the Edge of the World is the epic first instalment in a sequence of novels set at the end of the Roman Empire, during the reign of the Emperor Constantine.

The newly promoted Captain Richard Sharpe clashes with an incompetent colonel, leads his men in the battle of Talavera and earns himself a dangerous enemy. As Sharpe leads his men in to battle, he knows he must fight for the honour of the regiment and his future career. Soldier, hero, rogue - Sharpe is the man you always want on your side. Born in poverty, he joined the army to escape jail and climbed the ranks by sheer brutal courage. He knows no other family than the regiment of the 95th Rifles whose green jacket he proudly wears.

Johnny Rossendale has spent the last four years on the seas, away from the titled family he despises. But now he must turn his sailing cutter, the Sunflower, around and sail to Devon, where his mother lies dying. When Johnny makes landfall, though, he finds that his return is eagerly anticipated by some very sinister foes. After an attempt on his life, he realises that someone thinks a missing painting that belongs to the family is in his hands - and, worse, they are prepared to go to any lengths to get hold of it. But as Earl of Stowey, Johnny has eight centuries of robber-baron blood pumping through his veins. He won't let the family fortune fall into the hands of others without a fight . . .

Jack Aubrey returns from his duties protecting whalers off the South American coast and is persuaded by a casual acquaintance to make investments in the City on the strength of supposedly certain information. From there he is led into the half-worlds of the London criminal underground and of government espionage – the province of his friend, Stephen Maturin.

Devoted readers of Patrick O'Brian will find here all the brilliance of characterisation and all the sparkle of dialogue they have come to expect from a novelist often described as 'Jane Austen 'sur mer''. For those who will read him for the first time there will be the pleasure of discovering a novelist of unique character.

"While his stories tell of men at war, he is a novelist of great gentleness of spirit. A pervasive serenity, a generosity towards human frailty, are among the qualities which have made his books irresistible. ..He is the most brilliant historical novelist of modern times."
MAX HASTINGS, 'Evening Standard'

"These novels are a brilliant achievement. They display staggering erudition on almost all aspects of eighteenth-century life."
'Times Literary Supplement'