Summer, 1942. The Second World War rages on but Britain now faces the Nazi threat with America at its side. In a bombed-out London swarming with gangsters and spies, DCI Frank Merlin continues his battle against rampant wartime crime. A mangled body is found in the Thames just as some items of priceless art go mysteriously missing. What sinister connection links the two? Merlin and his team follow a twisting trail of secrets and lies as they investigate a baffling and deadly puzzle . 'This is to my shame the first Mark Ellis book I've read. If the others evoke a vanished London so impressively, are graced with such complex plots and deep characterisation, and, above all, are written so well I shall have to read them all.' THE TIMES - PICKS OF THE WEEK 'Extraordinarily atmospheric and compelling, DEAD IN THE WATER is a wonderfully intelligent and complex story' CHRIS LLOYD, HWA Gold Crown Award winner. 'A very satisfying puzzle, expertly crafted' HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY Praise for the DCI Frank Merlin series: 'Masterly . . . compelling . . . one of the most attractive characters to emerge in recent detective-thriller fiction' ANDREW ROBERTS, SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR 'Against the backdrop of Blitz-hit London, this stylish thriller sees Scotland Yard's Frank Merlin investigate a tangled conspiracy' SUNDAY MIRROR

For the twentieth anniversary of the start of the Matthew Bartholomew series, Sphere is delighted to reissue all of the medieval monk's cases with beautiful new series-style covers. ------------------------------------ The winter of 1353 has been appallingly wet, there is a fever outbreak amongst the poorer townspeople and the country is not yet fully recovered from the aftermath of the plague. The increasing reputation and wealth of the Cambridge colleges are causing dangerous tensions between the town, Church and University. Matthew Bartholomew is called to look into the deaths of three members of the University of who died from drinking poisoned wine, and soon he stumbles upon criminal activities that implicate his relatives, friends and colleagues - so he must solve the case before matters in the town get out of hand... In the year 1357, Cambridge University is in dire financial straits: the town's landlords are demanding an extortionate rent rise for the students' hostels and the plague years have left the colleges with scant resources. Tension between town and gown is at boiling point and soon explodes into violence and death. Into this maelstrom comes a charismatic physician whose healing methods owe more to magic than medicine - but his success threatens Matthew Bartholomew's professional reputation, and his life ...

TWENTY-ONE DAYS is the first in an exciting new generation of Pitt novels, featuring Daniel Pitt, by New York Times bestseller and queen of Victorian crime, Anne Perry. 1910. Sir Thomas Pitt's son, Daniel, is in the middle of his first case as a barrister when he is summoned to the Old Bailey for an important trial. Renowned biographer Russell Graves is charged with the brutal murder of his wife and Daniel must assist in his defence. When the jury finds the accused guilty, Graves insists he has been framed. He is writing a shocking expose of a powerful figure, revealing state secrets so damning that someone might well have wanted to silence him. With the reputations of those closest to him at stake, Daniel has twenty-one days to uncover the truth and ensure that an innocent man isn't sent to the gallows . . . 'Anne Perry's Victorian mysteries are marvels of plot construction' New York Times

Starring Thomas Treviot, each novel in this thrilling new series of historical mysteries is based on a real unsolved Tudor crime. 1536. In the corrupt heart of Tudor London a killer waits in the shadows... The Real Crime Before dawn on a misty November morning in 1536, prominent mercer Robert Packington was gunned down as he crossed Cheapside on his way to early morning mass. It was the first assassination by handgun in the history of the capital and subsequently shook the city to its core. The identity of his assassin has remained a mystery. Our Story Thomas Treviot is a young London goldsmith and a close family friend of Robert Packington. Through his own upstanding social connections - and some less upstanding acquaintances he has made along the way - Thomas launches a dramatic investigation into Packington's death. As Thomas searches for revenge, he must travel from the golden heart of merchant London, to the straw-covered backstreets of London's poorest districts before reaching the country's seat of power: the court of King Henry VIII. Before long he is drawn into a dark conspiracy beyond his wildest imaginings and claiming justice for his friend starts to look impossible. Especially when Thomas realises that Robert wasn't the man he thought he knew... In the first of a new series investigating real unsolved Tudor crimes, D.K. Wilson brings the streets of Tudor London to spectacular life as Thomas Treviot faces a fight to bring the truth to light in the corrupt world of Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII.

Cast a Cold Eye by Robbie Morrison is a dark historical crime novel and the sequel to Edge of the Grave which won the Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut award and was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger. Glasgow, 1933 Murder is nothing new in the Depression-era city, especially to war veterans Inspector Jimmy Dreghorn and his partner 'Bonnie' Archie McDaid. But the dead man found in a narrowboat on the Forth and Clyde Canal, executed with a single shot to the back of the head, is no ordinary killing. Violence usually erupts in the heat of the moment - the razor-gangs that stalk the streets settle scores with knives and fists. Firearms suggest something more sinister, especially when the killer strikes again. Meanwhile, other forces are stirring within the city. A suspected IRA cell is at large, embedded within the criminal gangs and attracting the ruthless attention of Special Branch agents from London. With political and sectarian tensions rising, and the body count mounting, Dreghorn and McDaid pursue an investigation into the dark heart of humanity - where one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist, and noble ideals are swept away by bloody vengeance.

When an exhibition featuring London's top engineers results in sudden, violent death, Victorian writer-sleuths Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens investigate. "Victorian whodunits don't get much better than this" - Publishers Weekly Starred Review March, 1859. After the 'Great Stink' of the previous summer when Parliament was overwhelmed by the stench of sewage from the River Thames, and with cholera running rife throughout the city, Charles Dickens has a new enthusiasm. Having formed a firm friendship with Joseph Bazalgette, he is assisting the ambitious young engineer in his efforts to find a solution to London's pollution problem. Dickens' friend and fellow writer Wilkie Collins meanwhile is distracted by thoughts of his pretty new housekeeper and her charming daughter. But what does he really know of his new employee's past - and just who - or what - is making her so frightened? During an exhibition to showcase London's top engineers' plans to solve the sewage issue, proceedings are disrupted by a high-pitched, agonised scream - and the discovery of a blood-soaked body; the result - it would appear - of a terrible accident. Dickens, however, is convinced of foul play, and once again he and Wilkie Collins set about uncovering the shocking truth.

"Irresistible... a Golden Age homage, an elegantly constructed mystery that on every page reinforces the message that everyone counts." -New York Times Book Review Recommended by New York Times Book Review * Wall Street Journal * Parade * Country Living * Chicago Tribune * South Florida Sun-Sentinel * The Free-Lance Star * St. Louis Post-Dispatch * CrimeReads * Nerd Daily * Red Carpet Crash * and many more! From the award-winning author of The Day I Died and The Lucky One, a captivating suspense novel about nurses during World War II who come to Agatha Christie's holiday estate to care for evacuated children, but when a body is discovered nearby, the idyllic setting becomes host to a deadly mystery. Bridey Kelly has come to Greenway House-the beloved holiday home of Agatha Christie-in disgrace. A terrible mistake at St. Prisca's Hospital in London has led to her dismissal as a nurse trainee, and her only chance for redemption is a position in the countryside caring for children evacuated to safety from the Blitz. Greenway is a beautiful home full of riddles: wondrous curios not to be touched, restrictions on rooms not to be entered, and a generous library, filled with books about murder. The biggest mystery might be the other nurse, Gigi, who is like no one Bridey has ever met. Chasing ten young children through the winding paths of the estate grounds might have soothed Bridey's anxieties and grief-if Greenway were not situated so near the English Channel and the rising aggressions of the war. When a body washes ashore near the estate, Bridey is horrified to realize this is not a victim of war, but of a brutal killing. As the local villagers look among themselves, Bridey and Gigi discover they each harbor dangerous secrets about what has led them to Greenway. With a mystery writer's home as their unsettling backdrop, the young women must unravel the truth before their safe haven becomes a place of death . . .

THE WORD-OF-MOUTH INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 'Born of No Woman proves that fiction can still amaze' Le Monde 'A vivid, mesmerizing tale' L'Express 'A choral novel radiating with black light' Elle Nineteenth-century rural France. Before he is called to bless the body of a woman at the nearby asylum, Father Gabriel receives a strange, troubling confession: hidden under the woman's dress he will find the notebooks in which she confided the abuses she suffered and the twisted motivations behind them. And so Rose's terrible story comes to light: sold as a teenage girl to a rich man, hidden away in a old manor house deep in the woods and caught in a perverse web, manipulated by those society considers her betters. A girl whose only escape is to capture her life - in all its devastation and hope - in the pages of her diary... Translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud THE HIT NOVEL RECOMMENDED BY FRENCH BOOKSELLERS: 'The most beautiful French novel of the year' 'Love at first sight for a book is rare. But this novel left me speechless' 'Dive in: you'll come out feeling utterly alive' 'One of the most beautiful books I've ever read' 'The best book I have read for a long time' 'This story has something powerful, animal, carnal and terrible too. A punch in the gut'

"[An] engrossing tale...imbued with the flavor of English medieval life, Robb's story melds true events with fiction to create a gripping historical mystery." --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Based on an enigmatic entry in the records of Clementhorpe Nunnery, this authentic, gripping mystery conjures a 14th century ripe with forbidden passions and political intrigue. When young nun Joanna Calverley dies of a fever in the town of Beverley in the summer of 1365, she is buried quickly for fear of the plague. But a year later, Archbishop Thoresby learns of a woman who has arrived in York claiming to be the resurrected nun, talking of relic-trading and miracles. And death seems to ride in her wake. The archbishop sends Owen Archer to retrace the woman's journey, an investigation that leads him across the north from Leeds to Beverley to Scarborough. Along the way he encounters Geoffrey Chaucer, a spy for the king of England, who believes there is a connection between the nun's troubles, renegade mercenaries, and the powerful Percy family. Back in York, however, Owen's wife Lucie, pregnant with their first child, has won the confidence of the mysterious nun and realizes that there are secrets hidden in the woman's seemingly mad ramblings...

**WINNER OF THE CWA ENDEAVOUR HISTORICAL DAGGER ** 'An exceptional historical crime novel' C.J. Sansom India, 1919. Desperate for a fresh start, Captain Sam Wyndham arrives to take up an important post in Calcutta's police force. He is soon called to the scene of a horrifying murder. The victim was a senior official, and a note left in his mouth warns the British to leave India - or else. With the stability of the Empire under threat, Wyndham and Sergeant 'Surrender-not' Banerjee must solve the case quickly. But there are some who will do anything to stop them... **A THE TIMES/SUNDAY TIMES CRIME CLUB TOP 40 BOOK OF LAST FIVE YEARS** Praise for the Wyndham and Banerjee series : 'A thought-provoking rollercoaster' Ian Rankin 'Does for the Raj what Philip Kerr did for the Reich' The Times/Sunday Times Crime Club 'Highly entertaining' Daily Telegraph If you enjoyed A Rising Man, further books in the Wyndham and Banerjee series are available now: A Necessary Evil Smoke and Ashes Death in the East The Shadows of Men

"One of the most exciting and dangerous of the adventures into which Phryne's fabulous and risky lifestyle have led her" -Kirkus Reviews It's Christmas, and Phryne has an invitation to the Last Best party of 1928, a four-day extravaganza being hosted at the Werribee Manor House by the Golden Twins, Isabella and Gerald Templar. Phryne is of two minds about going. But when threats begin arriving in the mail, she promptly decides to accept the invitation. No one tells Phryne Fisher what to do. At the Manor House, she is accommodated in the Iris room. At the party she dallies with two polo-playing women, a Goat lady (and goat), a large number of glamourous young men, and an extremely rude child called Tarquin. The acolytes of the golden twins are smoking hashish and dreaming. The jazz is hot and the drinks are cold. Heaven. Until three people are kidnapped, one of them the abominable child. Phryne must puzzle through the cryptic clues of the scavenger hunt to retrieve the hostages and save the party from further disaster. Kerry Greenwood was born in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. She has degrees in English and Law from Melbourne University and won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Crime Writers' Association of Australia in 2003. Kerry has written seventeen books in the Phryne Fisher series with no sign yet of Miss Fisher hanging up her pearl-handled pistol.

It is winter 1139 and the tranquil life in the monastery gardens in Shrewsbury is again interrupted by violence. Raging civil war has sent refugees fleeing north from Worcester. Among them are two orphans from a noble family, a boy of thirteen and an eighteen year old girl of great beauty, with their companion, a young Benedictine nun. But the trio have disappeared somewhere in the wild countryside. Cadfael fears for these three lost lambs, but his skills are needed to tend to a wounded monk, found naked and bleeding at the roadside. Why this holy man has been attacked and what his fevered ravings reveal soon give brother Cadfael a clue to the fate of the missing travellers and he sets out to find them. The search will lead him to discover a chilling and terrible murder, and a tale of passion gone astray.

'Davis's prose is a lively joy, and Flavia's Rome is sinister and gloriously real' The Times on Saturday Flavia Albia's day-old marriage is in trouble - her new husband may be permanently disabled and they have no funds. So when Palace officials ask her to expose a traitor in their midst she is ready for the task. Ever since the Emperor Nero committed suicide in AD 68, Rome has been haunted by reports that he is actually alive and ready to reclaim his throne. Two Nero pretenders have emerged from the East and met grisly fates. But now a new pretender has been smuggled into Rome by the traitor. Flavia must negotiate with spies, dodge assassins and reveal this third Nero before he can make his move. Will she act in time or will Rome once more be plunged into civil war?

The twelfth book in the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling series, perfect for fans of John le Carre and Robert Harris. 'One of the greatest anti-heroes ever written' Lee Child France, 1956. Bernie Gunther is on the run. If there's one thing he's learned, it's never to refuse a job from a high-ranking secret policeman. But this is exactly what he's just done. Now he's a marked man, with the East German Stasi on his tail. Fleeing across Europe, he remembers the last time he worked with his pursuer: in 1939, to solve a murder at the Berghof, Hitler's summer hideaway in the Bavarian Alps. Hitler is long dead, the Berghof now a ruined shell, and the bizarre time Bernie spent there should be no more than a distant memory. But as he pushes on to Berlin and safety, Bernie will find that no matter how far he thinks he has put Nazi Germany behind him, for him it will always be unfinished business. The Berghof is not done with Bernie yet.

It is New Year's Eve 1915 and the Hardcastle family are welcoming 1916 at their home in Kennington, London. But an hour into the New Year, Hardcastle is called to a murder in a jeweller's shop in Vauxhall. In a first for the A Division senior detective, the killers apparently made their escape in a motor car. As Hardcastle's enquiry progresses, what he believed to be a fairly straightforward investigation turns into one with ramifications extending from Chelsea via Sussex and Surrey to France, close to the fighting on the Western Front. And as is so often the case in wartime, the army becomes involved and so, to Hardcastle's dismay, does Scotland Yard's Special Branch . . .

'Brilliantly entertaining and original' C.L. Taylor 'A standout book' Rosie Walsh From the Sunday Times-bestselling author Rowan Coleman, comes a special new series featuring the Bronte sisters, written under the name Bella Ellis Yorkshire, 1845, and dark rumours are spreading across the moors. Everything indicates that Mrs Elizabeth Chester of Chester Grange has been brutally murdered in her home - but nobody can find her body. As the dark murmurs reach Emily, Anne and Charlotte Bronte, the sisters are horrified, yet intrigued. Before they know it, the siblings become embroiled in the quest to find the vanished bride, sparking their imaginations but placing their lives at great peril . . . Loved The Vanished Bride? Pre-order The Diabolical Bones, the next book in the Bronte Mysteries series now! Praise for The Vanished Bride: 'Evocative and utterly enchanting' Sarah Hilary 'A gripping, twisty mystery' Angela Clarke 'A splendid adventure' Guardian 'A treat from start to finish' Jane Casey 'Happily, more Bronte mysteries are to be expected' TLS

Longlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger 'An intelligent and intriguing crime novel set in the heart of Victorian London. Its atmospheric and twisting narrative had me hooked.' Sarah Ward London, 1863: prostitutes in the Waterloo area are turning up dead, their sexual organs mutilated and removed. When another girl goes missing, fears grow that the killer may have claimed their latest victim. The police are at a loss and so it falls to courtesan and professional detective, Heloise Chancey, to investigate. With the assistance of her trusty Chinese maid, Amah Li Leen, Heloise inches closer to the truth. But when Amah is implicated in the brutal plot, Heloise must reconsider who she can trust, before the killer strikes again. Tjia brings us a pacey and exciting murder mystery set in Victorian London. This historical crime thriller sees a young female detective work with the police to evade a violent killer. What Reviewers and Readers Say: `Tjia transports the reader to the mid nineteenth century so effectively through all the senses; sound, smell, touch, vision and feeling; contrasting the opulence of London's Mayfair with the squalor of Thames-side Waterloo ... The writing is accomplished and economic, taking the reader on various twists and turns on the journey ... We have discovered a new sleuth in Heloise Chancey.' David Evans, author of The Wakefield Series, shortlisted for CWA Debut Dagger in 2013 `Compulsive reading ... I was enthralled from the very first page. A beautifully written book with such authenticity, that each page whisked me back in time. The story galloped along as I followed the characters that were all too real. I could not put it down.' Caroline Mitchell, author of the DC Jennifer Knight series `A gripping and refreshingly different historical crime novel.' Angela Buckley, author of The Real Sherlock Holmes `Fun, thrilling and very well written - She Be Damned is a carefully crafted adventure that I hugely enjoyed, and I look forward to seeing what the delightful Mrs Chancey gets up to next.' Luke Marlowe, TheBookbag `If you like your heroines flamboyant, your servants mouthy, and your murders bloody, She Be Damned is the perfect book to get both your historical fiction fix and a head start on an excellent upcoming series.' The AU Review `an entertaining tale with entertaining characters and many plot twists.' Historical Novels Review

Seymour Brathwaite, a young physicist, was found standing over the body of a murdered man. Charcoal Joe, one of the deadliest men in America, wants Brathwaite cleared. Easy Rawlins, a renowned Los Angeles PI, cannot refuse Charcoal Joe. But what links the king of the LA underworld to Seymour Brathwaite? And can Easy find the evidence before he gets embroiled in something much, much worse?

Young widow Louise Pearlie seizes a chance to escape the typewriters and files of the Office of Strategic Services, the US s World War II spy agency, when she s asked to investigate a puzzling postcard referred to OSS by the US Censor. She and a colleague, Collins, head off to St. Leonard, Maryland, to talk to the postcard s recipient, one Leroy Martin. But what seemed like a straightforward mission to Louise soon becomes complicated.
Leroy and his wife, Anne, refuse to talk, but as Louise and Gray investigate, it soon becomes clear that Leroy is mixed up in something illegal. But what? Louise is determined to find out the truth, whatever the cost . . ."

An ancient and mysterious book leads Crispin Guest into a deadly maze in this latest medieval noir mystery. 1394, London. Crispin Guest, Tracker of London, is enjoying his ale in the Boar's Tusk tavern - until a stranger leaves a mysterious wrapped bundle on his table, telling him, "You'll know what to do." Inside is an ancient leather-bound book written in an unrecognizable language. Accompanied by his apprentice, Jack Tucker, Crispin takes the unknown codex to a hidden rabbi, where they make a shocking discovery: it is the Gospel of Judas from the Holy Land, and its contents challenge the very doctrine of Christianity itself. Crispin is soon drawn into a deadly maze involving murder, living saints, and lethal henchmen. Why was he given the blasphemous book, and what should he do with it? A series of horrific events confirm his fears that there are powerful men who want it - and who will stop at nothing to see it destroyed.