Bestselling author Isabel Allende's first adult novel since `Portrait in Sepia' - beautiful, disturbing and atmospheric. Beneath the mask, there is a man. And in his heart burns the fire of injustice ... Duels at dawn, fierce battles with pirates and impossible rescues - these are the deeds that forged the legend of Zorro. But where did the man begin? Southern California, late 18th century: Diego de la Vega is a child of two worlds, his father an aristocratic Spaniard, his mother a Shoshone warrior. Growing up he witnesses the brutual injustices dealt to Native Americans. Later, following the example of his fencing master, the young Diego joins a secret movement devoted to helping the powerless. His first steps on the road to heroism have been taken. But a great rival will emerge from the ranks of the cruel oppressors. How will Zorro defeat him? And will his childhood sweetheart Isabel claim the prize she so longs for - his true love?

At the turn of the twentieth century, as the oppression of Russia's imperial rule takes its toll on Finland, the three Koski siblings - Ilmari, Matti and the politicized young Aino - are forced to flee. They settle among a community of Finns in Deep River - a town on the western edges of the United States. The brothers face the excitement and danger of pioneering this frontier wilderness. But while they are climbing and felling trees one-hundred metres high, Aino is organizing the country's fledgling labour movements. As the Koskis strive to rebuild lives and families in an America in flux, they also try to hold fast to the traditions of a home they can never return to. And so the seasons change, the decades pass and the denizens of Deep River slip in and out of love; they become engineers and fishermen, midwives and widows, soldiers and fugitives. In this profoundly moving epic Karl Marlantes masterfully depicts the tyranny of nascent America, the limits of human survival and the enduring might of family love.

Carlisle, 1592.

Robert Carey abandoned the lace-collared finery of Queen Elizabeth I's court for the lawless badlands between the kingdoms of England and Scotland. He's found life among the border's cattle-rustlers, horse-thieves, arsonists, kidnappers and murderers curiously engaging. But now, alas, he's been summoned back to London. Before he can return to his new home in the North, Carey must find his missing brother, clear the family name, navigate a feud between playwrights, identify a badly decomposed body washed up on the Queen's privy steps, and investigate a murder some thirty years past...

Plunging readers straight into the racous world of late sixteenth-century border reivers and unfettered Elizabethan intrigue, Knives in the South is the second chronicle of Sir Robert Carey's adventures, collecting the novels A Plague of Angels, A Murder of Crows and An Air of Treason under one volume.

Bringing sixteenth-century Languedoc vividly to life, Kate Mosse's The Burning Chambers is a gripping story of love and betrayal, mysteries and secrets; of war and adventure, conspiracies and divided loyalties . . . Carcassonne 1562: Nineteen-year-old Minou Joubert receives an anonymous letter at her father's bookshop. Sealed with a distinctive family crest, it contains just five words: SHE KNOWS THAT YOU LIVE. But before Minou can decipher the mysterious message, a chance encounter with a young Huguenot convert, Piet Reydon, changes her destiny forever. For Piet has a dangerous mission of his own, and he will need Minou's help if he is to get out of La Cite alive. Toulouse: As the religious divide deepens in the Midi, and old friends become enemies, Minou and Piet both find themselves trapped in Toulouse, facing new dangers as sectarian tensions ignite across the city, the battle-lines are drawn in blood and the conspiracy darkens further. Meanwhile, as a long-hidden document threatens to resurface, the mistress of Puivert is obsessed with uncovering its secret and strengthening her power . . .

AD 642. Anglo-Saxon Britain. A gripping, action-packed historical thriller and the fifth instalment in the Bernicia Chronicles. Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell. Oswald has reigned over Northumbria for eight years and Beobrand has led the king to ever greater victories. Rewarded for his fealty and prowess in battle, Beobrand is now a wealthy warlord, with a sizable warband. Tales of Beobrand's fearsome black-shielded warriors and the great treasure he has amassed are told throughout the halls of the land. Many are the kings who bow to Oswald. And yet there are those who look upon his realm with a covetous eye. And there is one ruler who will never kneel before him. When Penda of Mercia, the great killer of kings, invades Northumbria, Beobrand is once more called upon to stand in an epic battle where the blood of many will be shed in defence of the kingdom. But in this climactic clash between the pagan Penda and the Christian Oswald there is much more at stake than sovereignty. This is a battle for the very souls of the people of Albion. What readers are saying about the series: 'Historical fiction doesn't get much better than this' ANGUS DONALD, author of The Outlaw Chronicles. 'Matthew Harffy's tale of England in the Dark Ages is nothing less than superb' HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY. 'Murder, betrayal and vengeance fuel tribal warfare and personal combat. Beobrand is the warrior to follow' DAVID GILMAN.

'The whole book is a delight... Perfect reading whilst sipping a g & t in a beautiful garden somewhere in the sun!' Rosanna Ley A buried secret... Present day: Anna is focused on growing her new gardening business and renovating her late grandmother's house. But when she discovers a box hidden in a wall cavity, containing water colours of exotic plants, an old diary and a handful of seeds, she finds herself thrust into a centuries-old mystery. One that will send her halfway across the world to Kew Gardens and then onto Cornwall in search of the truth. A lady adventurer... 1886: Elizabeth Trebithick is determined to fulfil her father's dying wish and continue his life's work as an adventurer and plant-hunter. So when she embarks on a perilous journey to discover a rare and miraculous flower, she will discover that the ultimate betrayal can be found even across the seas... Two women, separated by centuries. Can one mysterious flower bring them together? Readers and authors love The Botanist's Daughter: 'I loved this book and really look forward to reading the next book by Kayte Nunn; perfect for reading in the garden with a glass of something cold.' Bookliterat 'Fast-moving and full of surprises...while delivering a poignant and heart-warming story of romance and new beginnings ' Kate Forsyth 'The Botanist's Daughter is a quick paced but mysterious read, which transports you across time and place and is filled with an abundance of flowers.' Foreword Books 'A sweeping and exotic read. I was completely swept away. Perfect for readers of Kate Morton.' Lorna Cook 'The Botanist's Daughter is an intriguing story about the strength of women who, for their own reasons, are willing to travel halfway across the world and end up with the same goal. It's also a family mystery that slowly reveals its secrets, just like a blooming flower.' The Bookish Gurl 5/5 stars

AD 636. Anglo-Saxon Britain.

Beobrand has land, men and riches. He should be content. And yet he cannot find peace until his enemies are food for the ravens. But before Beobrand can embark on his bloodfeud, King Oswald orders him southward, to escort holy men bearing sacred relics.

When Penda of Mercia marches a warhost into the southern kingdoms, Beobrand and his men are thrown into the midst of the conflict. Beobrand soon finds himself fighting for his life and his honour.

In the chaos that grips the south, dark secrets are exposed, bringing into question much that Beobrand had believed true. Can he unearth the answers and exact the vengeance he craves? Or will the blood-price prove too high, even for a warrior of his battle-fame and skill?

Warrior of Rome: The Amber Road is the sixth book in Harry Sidebottom's Warrior of Rome series. AD 264 - The Roman Empire is torn in two. The western provinces - Gaul, Spain and Britain - have been seized by the pretender Postumus. To the east, on the plains of northern Italy, the armies of the emperor Gallienus muster. War is coming. Everyone must choose a side. On a mission shrouded in secrecy and suspicion, Ballista must journey The Amber Road to the far north to Hyperborea, back to his original home and the people of his birth. A fearsome, masked warlord attacks, bringing fire and sword against the Angles. Yet not all welcome Ballista`s return. Does treachery pose the greatest danger? Dr Harry Sidebottom is a leading authority on ancient warfare - he applies his knowledge with a spectacular flair for sheer explosive action and knuckle-whitening drama. Fans of Bernard Cornwell will love Sidebottom's recreation of the ancient world. Praise for Harry Sidebottom: 'Sidebottom's prose blazes with searing scholarship' The Times 'The best sort of red-blooded historical fiction' Andrew Taylor, author of The American Boy Dr. Harry Sidebottom is Fellow of St Benets Hall, and Lecturer at Lincoln College, Oxford - where he specializes in ancient warfare and classical art.

'A born storyteller' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH. Dreadfully injured in the Arnhem landings, paratrooper Theo Trickey was never expected to survive. Medical Officer Captain Daniel Garland pulled Trickey's comatose body from a pile of corpses, keeping him alive as they were shipped to a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany. As Garland discovers, Trickey has had a remarkable war. Boy soldier, commando, paratrooper, intelligence officer - fighting from northern France to the African desert. But that's not all. What was Trickey's connection with Germany's greatest general, the recently deceased Erwin Rommel? Why have the Desert Fox's loyalest officers tracked him down and just what is it that they want Garland to do? Freefall is the second part of Radcliffe's Airborne trilogy which tells the extraordinary story of a young soldier, a new regiment and how, together, they changed the course of a war. 'A must-read: deft, vivid, painfully well-observed' Graham Hurley, author of Finisterre.

The Roman Empire is on the brink of civil war... Only Maxentius, tyrant of Rome, stands between the emperor Constantine and supreme power in the west. Aurelius Castus is now a tribune in Constantine's army. But great honour brings new challenges: Castus is tormented by suspicions that his young wife has been unfaithful. And as Constantine becomes increasingly devoted to Christianity, he is forced to ask himself whether he is backing the wrong man. The coming war will decide the fate of empire. But Castus's own battle will carry him much further...

Rome is in peril... The old order is changing. Centurion Aurelius Castus has been summoned back from Britain to find himself caught up in a treasonous conspiracy threatening to bring down the Emperor Constantine. Rewarded for saving the emperor's life, Castus is promoted to the elite imperial bodyguard: the swords around the throne. But he soon discovers the court to be as dangerous as the battlefield. Behind the gilded facade of empire lurks a nest of traitors and one relentless enemy.

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.

Carlisle, 1592. Robert Carey abandoned the lace-collared finery of Queen Elizabeth I's court for the lawless badlands between the kingdoms of England and Scotland. He's found life among the border's cattle-rustlers, horse-thieves, arsonists, kidnappers and murderers curiously engaging. But now, alas, he's been summoned back to London. Before he can return to his new home in the North, Carey must find his missing brother, clear the family name, navigate a feud between playwrights, identify a badly decomposed body washed up on the Queen's privy steps, and investigate a murder some thirty years past... Plunging readers straight into the racous world of late sixteenth-century border reivers and unfettered Elizabethan intrigue, Knives in the South is the second chronicle of Sir Robert Carey's adventures, collecting the novels A Plague of Angels, A Murder of Crows and An Air of Treason under one volume. A Plague of Angels (c) 1998. A Murder of Crows (c) 2010. An Air of Treason (c) 2014.

1592. Robert Carey, eighth son of Lord Hunsdon, has - to his servants' dismay - abandoned Queen Elizabeth I's court and is heading north to take up the post of Deputy Warden of the English West March. The Border Marches are lawless badlands, peopled by cattle-rustlers, horse-thieves, arsonists, kidnappers and murderers. Spawned of centuries of Anglo-Scottish conflict, they are a festering sore that breeds treason and rebellion, threatening the fragile stability of Elizabeth I's realm. With just a handful of horsemen and a taciturn sergeant with a dark past, Carey, in his lace-collared, pearl-sashed courtly finery, will be expected to bring order to this bloody flux. Carey has his own reasons for taking the post (closer to his true love's arms, farther from his creditors' gimlet eyes), but the courtier may find, in this land of duplicity and blood-feud, that he's merely traded one set of troubles for another. Plunging readers straight into the raucous world of late-sixteenth century border reivers and unfettered Elizabethan intrigue, Guns in the North is a historical fiction high-water mark and the first chronicle of Sir Robert Carey's adventures, collecting the novels A Famine of Horses, A Season of Knives and A Surfeit of Guns under one volume.

Warrior of Rome II: King of Kings is the second in Harry Sidebottom's vivid five-part series. AD256 - the spectre of treachery hangs ominously over the Roman Empire. The sparks of Christian fervour have spread through the empire like wildfire, and the imperium is alive with the machinations of dangerous and powerful men. All the while, Sassanid forces press forward relentlessly along the eastern frontier. The battle-bloodied general Ballista returns to the imperial court from the fallen city of Arete - only to find that there are those who would rather see him dead than alive. Ballista is soon caught in a sinister web of intrigue and religious fanaticism . . . his courage and loyalty will be put to the ultimate test in the service of Rome and the Emperor. The Warrior of Rome is back . . . Dr Harry Sidebottom is a leading authority on ancient warfare - he applies his knowledge with a spectacular flair for sheer explosive action and knuckle-whitening drama. Fans of Bernard Cornwell will love Sidebottom's recreation of the ancient world. Praise for Harry Sidebottom: 'Sidebottom's prose blazes with searing scholarship' The Times 'The best sort of red-blooded historical fiction' Andrew Taylor, author of The American Boy Dr. Harry Sidebottom is Fellow of St Benets Hall, and Lecturer at Lincoln College, Oxford - where he specializes in ancient warfare and classical art.

Edward Brazier is enlisted by Prime Minister William Pitt to assist his investigation into smuggling activity in Deal. However, with his love Betsy now locked into a loveless marriage with Tom Spafford, a useless drunk, and living as a prisoner, Brazier is distracted from his mission. Having foiled Spafford's plan to steal Betsy away to her family-owned plantation in the West Indies, Brazier finds himself taken captive. Only his ingenuity will help engineer his escape and his cunning use of subterfuge will then allow him to infiltrate the smuggling gangs of Deal in a determined bid to unmask those in control. But with suspicion raised around him and his enemies banding together, can Brazier survive long enough to bring those responsible to justice?

The year is 1805, and the "Calliope," with Richard Sharpe aboard, is captured by a formidable French warship, the "Revenant," which has been terrorizing British nautical traffic in the Indian Ocean. The French warship races toward the safety of its own fleet, carrying a stolen treaty that could provoke India into a new war against the British -- and render for naught all that Sharpe has bravely fought for till now.

But help comes from an unexpected quarter. An old friend, a captain in the Royal Navy, is on the trail of the "Revenant," and Sharpe comes aboard a 74-gun man-of-war called "Pucelle" in hot pursuit. What results is a breathtaking retelling of one of the most ferocious and one-sided sea battles in European history, in which Nelson -- and Sharpe -- vanquish the combined naval might of France and Spain at Trafalgar.

They recognised in each other that same restlessness that was always driving them on to new adventure, never staying long enough in one place or at one job to grow roots, unfettered by offspring or possessions, by spouse or responsibilities, taking up each new adventure eagerly and discarding it again without qualms or regrets. Always moving onwards - never looking backwards. The wartime race to save a country . . . When Jake Barton, American engineer, teams up with English gentleman and hustler Gareth Swales to sell five battered old Bentleys in 1930s East Africa, neither of them could have imagined that they'd soon be attempting to smuggle the vehicles into Ethiopia to support the war effort, in return for a huge reward.But to do this, they'll have to manoeuvre past several extremely hostile European forces, as well as managing their feelings for Vicky Camberwell, the beautiful journalist who has been sent with them to report on the brutal violence of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. The three adventurers are about to discover that some battles are more than they can handle . . .

1592. Robert Carey, eighth son of Lord Hunsdon, has - to his servants' dismay - abandoned Queen Elizabeth I's court and is heading north to take up the post of Deputy Warden of the English West March, a lawless badlands, peopled by cattle-rustlers, horse-thieves, arsonists, kidnappers and murderers created by centuries of Anglo-Scottish conflict. Carey, in his lace-collared, pearl-sashed courtly finery, will be expected to bring order to this bloody flux. Plunging readers straight into the raucous world of late sixteenth-century border reivers and unfettered Elizabethan intrigue, Guns in the North, the first chronicle of Sir Robert Carey's adventures, collecting the novels A Famine of Horses, A Season of Knives and A Surfeit of Guns under one volume. A Famine of Horses (c) 1994. A Season of Knives (c) 1995. A Surfeit of Guns (c) 1996.

'Fascinating and convincing' THE TIMES. 17 September 1944: The Allies have launched the largest airborne offensive in history, delivering 36,000 troops by parachute and glider to the Dutch-German Border. In what will become known as the Battle of Arnhem, half of them will fall as casualties of war. Among their number is Theo Trickey, a young paratrooper so dreadfully injured he is not expected to survive. Under the care of Medical Officer Captain Daniel Garland, Trickey is shipped to Germany as a Prisoner of War. As Garland slowly nurses him back to health, he discovers that there's much that is unusual about Trickey, starting with a chance meeting he had with Erwin Rommel before the War... From the bestselling author of Under an English Heaven, Airborne is the first in an unforgettable trilogy that tells the story of a young soldier, of a new regiment and how, together, they altered the course of a war.

The Caspian Gates is the fourth in Harry Sidebottom's captivating Warrior of Rome Series. AD262 - the Imperium is in turmoil after the struggle for the throne. Furthermore, Ephesus, Asia's metropolis, lies in ruins, shattered by a mighty earthquake. Its citizens live in fear as the mob overwhelms the city, baying for blood to avenge the gods who have punished them. Yet an even greater threat to the Empire advances from the North. The barbaric Goth tribes sail towards Ephesus, determined to pillage the city. Only Ballista, Warrior of Rome, knows the ways of the barbarians, and only he can defeat them. The Goths' appetite for brutality and destruction is limitless and before long Ballista is locked into a deadly bloodfeud, with an enemy that has sworn to destroy him - and the Imperium - at all costs. Dr Harry Sidebottom is a leading authority on ancient warfare - he applies his knowledge with a spectacular flair for sheer explosive action and knuckle-whitening drama. Fans of Bernard Cornwell will love Sidebottom's recreation of the ancient world. Praise for Harry Sidebottom: 'Sidebottom's prose blazes with searing scholarship' The Times 'The best sort of red-blooded historical fiction' Andrew Taylor, author of The American Boy Dr. Harry Sidebottom is Fellow of St Benets Hall, and Lecturer at Lincoln College, Oxford - where he specializes in ancient warfare and classical art.