Edgar Kellogg has always yearned to be popular. When he leaves his lucrative law career for a foreign correspondent post in a Portuguese backwater with a homegrown terrorist movement, Edgar recognizes Barrington Saddler, the disappeared reporter he's replacing, as the larger-than-life character he longs to emulate. Yet all is not as it appears. Os Soldados Ousados de Barba--"The Daring Soldiers of Barba" --have been blowing up the rest of the world for years in order to win independence for a province so dismal and backward that you couldn't give the rathole away. So why, with Barrington vanished, do incidents claimed by the "SOB" suddenly dry up? A droll, playful novel, The New Republic addresses terrorism with a deft, tongue-in- cheek touch while also pressing a more intimate question: What makes particular people so magnetic, while the rest of us inspire a shrug?

The girl known as Picture Maker because of her great ability at drawing and prophecy, is the daughter of one of the warriors and the granddaughter of the clan leader. She is captured by one of her family's enemies and because she was regarded as a trophy is kept alive and enslaved. When she discovers she is pregnant by one of her captors, she manages to escape, and, inspired by the destiny she had depicted, begins the long, mysterious journey which ends in the furthermost parts of the Western Hemisphere.

There, still an outsider but revered and protected, she lives for a time in peace with an Inuit tribe until she meets and falls in love with Halvard, a Norse hunter, who seems to hold the key to the riddle of her birth. Together they travel on to Greenland but Picture Maker's special gifts make her regarded with suspicion, Halvard is attacked and her daughter will be taken from her, in what seems a terrible repetition of what happened to her so long ago.

Picture Maker is a powerful story, with a large cast of vivid characters, in a fascinating setting which will appeal to readers of Jean Auel and Jane Smiley. Penina Spinka, an award-winner for her children's books, has created a rich picture of the period and the people, of the ways of the societies and religions, and above all of Picture Maker herself, as she grows beyond her once narrow, ordered confines: an amazing and very human survivor.

At its heart, Picture Maker is a novel of high adventure, of love and loss, and survival under the harshest circumstances.

The next thrilling adventure, all NEW from MJ Porter Icel is a lone wolf no more... Oath sworn to Wiglaf, King of Mercia and acknowledged as a member of Ealdorman AElfstan's warrior band, Icel continues to forge his own destiny on the path to becoming the Warrior of Mercia. With King Ecgberht of Wessex defeated and Londonium back under Mercian control, the Wessex invasion of Mercia is over. But the Wessex king was never Mercia's only enemy. An unknown danger lurks in the form of merciless Viking raiders, who set their sights on infiltrating the waterways of the traitorous breakaway kingdom of the East Angles, within touching distance of Mercia's eastern borders. Icel must journey to the kingdom of the East Angles and unite against a common enemy to ensure Mercia's hard-won freedom prevails. Praise for MJ Porter 'Immediate and personal' Bestselling author Matthew Harffy 'No lover of Dark Age warfare is going to be disappointed. Personal, real, fascinating and satisfying.' S.J.A. Turney 'If you love history, fiction, adventure and great stories - You won't regret it!" Eric Schumacher 'MJ Porter recounts a sensitive, reluctant hero's coming-of-age within a Dark Age realm riven by chaos and conflict' Bestselling author Matthew Harffy 'Refreshing... I was reluctant to put the book down' Historical Novel Society Readers are spell-bound 'So real I felt I was there!... A page-turner' Reader review 'Wonderful to read and hard to put down' Reader review 'I found the pages flying by... A great book' Reader review

Brand new in Sheila Riley's brilliant, gritty Reckoner's Row series Liverpool 1953 January sees the dawn of the Queen Elizabeth's Coronation year as the mothers of Reckoners Row unite in preparation for the celebration of the new Queen. Meanwhile Evie Kilgaren is dreaming of her summer wedding to Danny Harris, but trouble looms for Skinner & Sons with a new rival trying to put them out of business, but no-one knows why.... Ada Harris is summoned to the bedside of her estranged husband, who, in his dying moment confesses to a deadly secret - he knows who really murdered Evie's mam Rene all those years ago and the consequences are far reaching. Has an innocent man been jailed and is there still a murderer walking carefree? Will Evie get the happy-ever-after she so longs for with Danny? And will The Mersey Mothers unite and still be friends? Praise for Sheila Riley: 'A powerful and totally absorbing family saga that is not to be missed. I turned the pages almost faster than I could read.' Carol Rivers 'A fabulous story of twists and turns - a totally unputdownable, page turner that had me cheering on the characters. I loved it!' Rosie Hendry 'A thoroughly enjoyable, powerful novel' Lyn Andrews 'An enchanting, warm and deeply touching story' Cathy Sharp 'Vivid, compelling and full of heart. Sheila is a natural-born storyteller.' Kate Thompson 'This author knows the Liverpool she writes about; masterly storytelling from a true Mersey Mistress.' Lizzie Lane

Stockholm, 1791. Emil Larsson is a self-satisfied bureaucrat in the Office of Customs and Excise. He is a true man of the Town-a drinker, card player, and contented bachelor. That is until Mrs. Sofia Sparrow, fortune-teller and proprietor of an exclusive gaming parlor, shares with him a vision she has had of a golden path that will lead Emil to love and connection. She lays an Octavo for him, a spread of eight cards that augur the eight individuals who can help him realize this vision-if he can find them.

But as Emil eagerly searches for his eight, he comes to the startling realization that finding them is no longer just a game of the heart, but crucial to pulling his country back from the crumbling precipice of rebellion and chaos.