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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Crime & mystery > Historical mysteries
It's tough to be a preacher's kid, and for Leo Stanhope it may be
harder than for most. He was born Charlotte, and in the Reverend
Pritchard's home-as in all of Victoria's England-there is little
room for persons unwilling to know their place and stick to it. And
things are about to get harder: There's a gentleman who knows the
secret that could get Leo locked up for life, and this so-called
gentleman is not above a spot of blackmail. There is a bright spot,
though, in the form of two little kids who are teaching Leo's heart
to open again, after a wretched year. In warming to them, he
realizes how much more he has to learn. Leo knows how to be a man.
Now he must learn to be a father.
A 1920s Murder Mystery in the depths of rural Yorkshire A scoundrel
lies dying, he makes his confession; his sins were despicable and
he wants to atone for his wasted life. He bequeaths an invaluable
gift to Monks Hood Abbey, an ancient monastery set in a lonely
corner of the Yorkshire moors. But sin throws a long shadow and
corruption crawls in its shade. Strangers come forward and lay
claim to the monks' inheritance. The Abbot calls on Major
Heathcliff Lennox and ex-Chief Inspector Swift to ask for their
help. They must go to Yorkshire to unravel the mayhem - but then
there's mystery, and murder, and another adventure begins. Major
Heathcliff Lennox, ex-WW1 war pilot, six feet 3 inches, unruly dark
blond hair, age around 30 - named after the hero of Wuthering
Heights by his romantically minded mother - much to his great
annoyance. The Monks Hood Murders is the fifth book in the Lennox
series.
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Back Bay
(Paperback)
William Martin
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R509
R431
Discovery Miles 4 310
Save R78 (15%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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"...Part Shirley Jackson's stories of inner demons, part Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland... part Astrid Lindgren's faith in children's
resilience and part ghost story."
"Enter a mysterious world in the hands of capable women. Getting drawn
into this story is easy; getting out again is trickier." -BookPage
1901. After the death of Queen Victoria, England heaves with the
uncanny. Séances are held and the dead are called upon from darker
realms.
Helena Walton-Cisneros, known for her ability to find the lost and the
displaced, is hired by the elusive Lady Matthews to solve a
twenty-year-old mystery: the disappearance of her three stepdaughters
who vanished without a trace on the Norfolk Fens.
But the Fens are an age-old land, where folk tales and dark magic still
linger. The locals speak of devilmen and catatonic children are found
on the Broads. Here, Helena finds what she was sent for, as the Fenland
always gives up its secrets, in the end...
Baghdad, the capital of the world, is a city crowded with stories,
and founded on secrets. But some secrets, and some stories, can be
deadly...Ismail al-Rawiya is a thief who dreams of being a poet. He
is drawn to Baghdad, and to the court of the Khalifah Harun
al-Rashid, where fabulous wealth can be attained by those who
survive the rivalries, the politics and the whims of the capricious
monarch. In the turbulent city, Ismail falls into the company of
the poet Abu Nuwas, known as the Father of Locks. Abu Nuwas is a
brilliant artist, but also a decadent drunkard with a taste for
trouble. The Father of Locks has his own secret: he is an irregular
and reluctant agent of the scheming Wazir, Ja'far al-Barmaki, who
now assigns him to investigate reports that the Devil is stalking
the streets of Baghdad. Together the poet and the thief uncover a
hidden world, of forbidden cults, foreign spies, and a mysterious
Brass Bottle. When children start to disappear, it seems that there
must be substance to the dark rumours of evil spirits and human
sacrifice that haunt the city. But the truth that Ismail and the
Father of Locks uncover is more shocking still.
A 'Canterbury Tales' medieval mystery As Chaucer's pilgrims shelter
for the night in a well-stocked tavern, it's the physician's turn
to enthral his fellow travellers with a terrifying tale of mystery
and intrigue. When Brother Anselm and his novice Stephen are
summoned to the Church of St Michael's, Candlewick, to perform an
exorcism, little are they prepared for the horror that awaits. The
demons and apparitions that plague the church would appear to have
been summoned by an infamous sorcerer known as the Midnight Man.
But what has he unwittingly unleashed - and why? Is someone using
the haunting as the perfect cover for their murderous intent? And
is there any link with the sudden disappearances of a number of
young women in the area? The answers lie in the past and an
unresolved wickedness from many decades before. But before Anselm
can get to the truth, he must uncover the identity of the
mysterious Midnight Man.
A circus arrives in Durham in the 1790s and the whole town is
excited. until the body of a Shaker girl is found beaten. 1790s.
The circus has arrived in Durham, Maine. Before weaver Will Rees is
able to take in its spectacle, he spots Magistrate Hanson - the man
he blames for his family's having to flee Dugard two years earlier.
On his journey home he encounters Shaker brothers searching for a
girl from their Zion community. Despite women not being allowed
inside the circus, Leah had snuck out to visit it. They quickly
come across her lifeless body beaten and thrown into a farmer's
field on the road leading to the circus. Bored of his household
chores, Rees begins investigating at the expense of his home life.
He becomes entranced by the lives of the circus performers,
including the charismatic horse rider and tightrope walker. Is his
longing for his old journeyman's life causing him to take his eye
off the case, and can he stay out of Hanson's way and keep his
family safe?
Hamish DeLuca and Regina “Reggie” Van Buren have a new case—and this one could demand a price they’re not willing to pay.
Determined to make a life for herself, Reggie Van Buren bid goodbye to fine china and the man her parents expected her to marry and escaped to Boston. What she never expected to discover was that an unknown talent for sleuthing would develop into a business partnership with the handsome, yet shy, Hamish DeLuca.
Their latest case arrives when Errol Parker, the leading base stealer in the Boston farm leagues, hires Hamish and Reggie to investigate what the Boston police shove off as a series of harmless pranks. Errol believes these are hate crimes linked to the outbreak of war in Europe, and he’s afraid for his life. Hamish and Reggie quickly find themselves in the midst of an escalating series of crimes.
When Hamish has his carefully constructed life disrupted by a figure from his past, he is driven to a decision that may sever him from Reggie forever . . . even more than her engagement to wealthy architect Vaughan Vanderlaan.
Londoner Jack Blackjack finds himself a stranger in a strange land
when he's accused of murder in rural Devon in this eventful Tudor
mystery. July, 1556. En route to France and escape from Queen
Mary's men, Jack Blackjack decides to spend the night at a Devon
tavern, agrees to a game of dice - and ends up accused of murder.
To make matters worse, the dead man turns out to have been the
leader of the all-powerful miners who rule the surrounding moors -
and they have no intention of waiting for the official court
verdict to determine Jack's guilt. But who would frame Jack for
murder . . . and why? Alone and friendless in a lawless land of
cut-throats, outlaws and thieves, Jack realizes that the only way
to clear his name - and save his skin - is to unmask the real
killer. But knowing nothing of the local ways and customs, how is
he to even begin? As Jack's attempts to find answers stirs up a
hornet's nest of warring factions within the town, events soon
start to spiral out of control . . .
Sister Fidelma returns in the thirty-first Celtic mystery by Peter
Tremayne. Ireland. AD 672. The body of a dead man has been found on
a lonely mountain road and taken to the isolated abbey of Gleann Da
Loch for a proper burial. The abbot quickly identifies him as
Brehon Brocc, who had been travelling to the abbey on a secret
mission with Princess Gelgeis and her steward. When news reaches
Colgu, King of Muman, that his betrothed, Princess Gelgeis, has
disappeared, Fidelma with her trusted companions, Eadulf and Enda,
enter the hostile Kingdom of Laigin in search of the truth. But one
death is quickly followed by another and warnings of demonic
shapeshifters and evil lurking in the mountains must be taken
seriously. Are there really brigands stealing gold and silver from
the ancient mines? And are rumours of a war between the Kingdoms of
Laigin and Muman to be believed? As Fidelma searches for answers,
she must do everything in her power to avoid danger and death in a
land where no one is to be trusted . . .
The Murder of Willie Lincoln is an exciting historical fiction
debut by award-winning political journalist Burt Solomon.
Washington City, 1862: The United States lies in tatters, and there
seems no end to the war. Abraham Lincoln, the legitimate President
of the United States, is using all his will to keep his beloved
land together. But Lincoln's will and soul are tested when tragedy
strikes the White House as Willie Lincoln, the love and shining
light in the president's heart, is taken by typhoid fever. But was
this really the cause of his death? A message arrives, suggesting
otherwise. Lincoln asks John Hay, his trusted aide--and almost a
son--to investigate Willie's death. Some see Hay as a
gadfly--adventurous, incisive, lusty, reflective, skeptical, even
cynical--but he loves the president and so seeks the truth behind
the boy's death. And so, as we follow Hay in his investigation, we
are shown the loftiest and lowest corners of Washington City, from
the president's office and the gentleman's dining room at Willard's
Hotel to the alley hovels, wartime hospitals, and the dome-less
Capitol's vermin-infested subbasement. We see the unfamiliar sides
of a grief-stricken president, his hellcat of a wife, and their two
surviving and suffering sons, and Hay matches wits with such
luminaries as General McClellan, William Seward, and the
indomitable detective Allan Pinkerton. What Hay discovers has the
potential of not only destroying Lincoln, but a nation.
An unwelcome proposal of marriage has far-reaching repercussions in
this skilfully plotted historical mystery. April, CE 194. The
tensions in the civil-war-torn Empire have come to Glevum now.
Libertus's patron, Marcus Septimus, has received a letter from
Druscilla Livia, a widowed cousin of his wife, seeking his
protection. She has received an offer of marriage from a powerful
Roman Senator, Hortius Valens, a man of cruel and unusual tastes,
and she is in no position to refuse. She has run away . . . with
Hortius in hot pursuit. This puts Marcus in a dangerous dilemma. If
he accepts Druscilla as his ward and prevents the wedding, he
offends not only her prospective groom, but also the Provincial
Governor to whom Hortius is related. But if he returns Druscilla to
the Senator, he offends another of her kinswomen - the Empress
herself. Once again, Marcus turns to Libertus for help. But
Libertus has worries of his own. His wife Gwellia has an injured
foot, which is now infected and could cost her life. But when one
of his own slaves is brutally killed he realizes how perilous the
situation has become. Resolving to help Druscilla, he concocts an
ingenious plan. But in defying the Senator, Libertus is making a
powerful enemy. And even the best-laid plans can go disastrously
awry . . .
A maritime mystery from Edward Marston, author of the bestselling
Railway Detective series. September 1907. George Dillman sets sail
from Liverpool to New York on the Lusitania's maiden voyage. Posing
as a passenger, Dillman is in fact an undercover detective hired by
the Cunard Line to keep an eye out for petty crimes. But after some
uneventful days aboard, the ship's blueprints are stolen and then a
body is found. As Dillman works to get to the bottom of the crimes,
he makes an unusual friend, first-class passenger Genevieve
Masefield, and the two uncover secrets aboard the ship that prove
explosive. The Lusitania was a British ocean liner that was sunk in
1915 by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland, killing 1,198
passengers and crew. Lusitania held the Blue Riband prize for the
fastest Atlantic crossing and was briefly the world's largest
passenger ship until the completion of the Mauretania. Previously
published under the name Conrad Allen, the Ocean Liner series is
relaunched for a new generation of readers.
An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion-his sense of smell-leads to murder.
In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift-an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and frest-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"-the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.
Translated by John E. Woods
"A fable of crimial genius.... Remarkable." --The New York Times
"Superb storytelling all the way...the climax is a savage shocker." --The Plain Dealer
"An astonishing performance, a masterwork of artistic conception and execution. A totally gripping page-turner." --The San Francisco Chronicle
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
An earlier, shorter version of The Quest was published in paperback
in 1975. In 2013, I rewrote The Quest and doubled its length,
making it, I hope, a far better story than the original, without
deviating from the elements that made the story so powerful and
compelling when I first wrote it. In other words, what made The
Quest worth rewriting remains, and whatever is changed is for the
better.
I was happy and excited to have this opportunity to rewrite and
republish what I consider my first "big" novel, and I hope you
enjoy it as much as I did when I first wrote it.
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
A sweeping adventure that's equal parts thriller and love story,
Nelson DeMille's newest novel takes the reader from the war torn
jungles of Ethiopia to the magical city of Rome.
While the Ethiopian Civil War rages, a Catholic priest languishes
in prison. Forty years have passed since he last saw daylight. His
crime? Claiming to know the true location of Christ's cup from the
Last Supper. Then the miraculous happens - a mortar strikes the
prison and he is free
Old, frail, and injured, he escapes to the jungle, where he
encounters two Western journalists and a beautiful freelance
photographer taking refuge from the carnage. As they tend to his
wounds, he relates his incredible story.
Motivated by the sensational tale and their desire to find the
location of the holiest of relics, the trio agrees to search for
the Grail.
Thus begins an impossible quest that will pit them against
murderous tribes, deadly assassins, fanatical monks, and the
passions of their own hearts.
THE QUEST is suspenseful, romantic, and filled with heart-pounding
action. Nelson DeMille is at the top of his game as he masterfully
interprets one of history's greatest mysteries.
Charlie Marder is an unlikely Congressman. Thrust into office by
his family ties after his predecessor died mysteriously, Charlie is
struggling to navigate the dangerous waters of 1950s Washington,
DC, alongside his young wife Margaret, a zoologist with ambitions
of her own. Amid the swirl of glamorous and powerful political
leaders and deal makers, a mysterious fatal car accident thrusts
Charlie and Margaret into an underworld of backroom deals, secret
societies, and a plot that could change the course of history. When
Charlie discovers a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of
governance, he has to fight not only for his principles and his
newfound political career...but for his life.
August 1940. On the streets of London, locals watch with growing
concern as German fighter planes plague the city's skyline. But
inside the famous Ritz Hotel, the cream of society continues to
enjoy all the glamour and comfort that money can buy during wartime
- until an anonymous man is discovered with his throat slashed
open. Detective Chief Inspector Coburg is called in to investigate,
no stranger himself to the haunts of the upper echelons of society,
ably assisted by his trusty colleague, Sergeant Lampson. Yet they
soon face a number of obstacles. With the crime committed in rooms
in use by an exiled king and his retinue, there are those who fear
diplomatic repercussions and would rather the case be forgotten.
With mounting pressure from various Intelligence agencies, rival
political factions and gang warfare brewing either side of the
Thames, Coburg and Lampson must untangle a web of deception if they
are to solve the case - and survive.
London, May, 1911. The new king, George V, is preparing for his
coronation. The suffragettes are campaigning for women to get the
vote. The East End seethes with unrest. And 18-year-old Kitty
Challoner is looking forward to 'coming out' in London society. But
Kitty's secure, sheltered world is about to be torn apart. Lydia
Challoner is shot dead while out riding in Hyde Park, and during
the ensuing murder investigation Kitty discovers that there was so
much she didn't know about her mother. Was Lydia really the
killer's intended target? Is there a link to her Russian heritage?
Why had she been behaving so strangely in recent weeks? Was she
having an affair? As Kitty determines to uncover the truth and
wonders exactly whom she can trust, she learns that the household
in which she lives harbours a number of dangerous secrets.
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