Christine de Pizan is in danger when she is sent to the Priory of Poissy to catch the killer of a young nun in this vividly imagined historical mystery set in fourteenth-century France. Paris, 1399. Scribe Christine de Pizan is sent to the Priory of Poissy by the palace to copy a manuscript for the prioress. But the prioress already has many copyists, and Christine senses that something is amiss. Her suspicions are confirmed when the prioress reveals that one of the sisters has been found murdered in the cloister. Fearing for the welfare of the king's young daughter who resides at the abbey, she is eager for Christine to find out who killed the young nun - and why. As Christine investigates, she uncovers dark mischief and closely guarded secrets, but can she unmask a killer?

Why did Wynn Staniland, a legend in the literary world, suddenly become a recluse in the 1980s? Most assumed he stopped writing because of his wife's bizarre suicide; a death that mirrored a murder case from the nineteenth century. And now a promising young author called Zac Wilkinson is working on Staniland's biography and hopes to reveal the true story to a waiting world - while at the same time keeping his own troubled past hidden from public view. When Wilkinson is found brutally murdered, DI Wesley Peterson finds links to the unexplained poisoning of a middle-aged couple at a local caravan park - and Wynn Staniland appears to be the connection. As Wesley delves further into the case he suspects a sinister puppet show might provide the solution: a grim re-enactment of the murder of Mary Field, a cause celebre from the reign of Queen Victoria that inspired Staniland's best-known novel. The case becomes personal for Wesley when he discovers his son is involved, and as he begins to unravel decades of secrets and deception, the shocking truth proves almost too much to bear . . .

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... The Cambridge college of Michaelhouse is in uproar in the November of 1353: Kenyngham the saintly but ageing Master has announced his retirement and with unseemly haste a Michaelhouse Fellow named Runham arranges his own 'election' as his successor. Within days he has dismissed several members of staff, including the redoubtable laundress Agatha, and is making life so unpleasant for the scholars that even Matthew Bartholomew believes his future as physician and teacher at the college is untenable. While Matthew is helping Brother Michael, Proctor of the fledgling university, investigate some suspicious deaths, Runham himself is murdered and, although mourned by none, Matthew and Michael know they have to solve the mystery before any more damage is done to their beloved Michaelhouse.

Matthew Bartholomew, doctor of medicine and fellow of Michaelhouse, Cambridge, is travelling with a party from the college to accept the gift of the living of a parish in Grundisburgh, Suffolk. One of his companions, Unwin, an unworldly scholar, is to be installed as priest. When they arrive, they are immediately thrust into the machinations of local boundary disputes between three landowners, but all such squabbles seem mere trivia when Unwin is murdered in the very church which was to have been his home. While trying to investigate a possible motive for his killing, Bartholomew discovers that this is not the first unnatural death in the village - deaths which everyone has put down to the curse of the plague-dead village. He is of too practical a mind to believe the superstitions, but is he wily enough to work out the real motive behind the murders and who will gain from them?

It's the year 1260 and the great cathedral - the most ambitious building in all of Christendom - is rising above the streets of Cologne. Far below its soaring spires and flying buttresses, an assassin of unnatural talent surveys his new hunting ground. More shadow than man, the assassin is quick to take his first life. But there is a witness to his crime: a flame-haired thief known as Jacob the Fox. Justly terrified by the black-clad spectre, Jacob runs for his life, convinced that he's pursued by the Angel of Death itself. For all his street-smart cunning, the wily Fox cannot shake off the assassin - a cruel, efficient murderer who favours a pistol-grip crossbow as his weapon of choice. Fate, injury and desperation lead Jacob to seek help from a beautiful clothes dyer, her drunken rascal of a father, and her learned uncle, a man of God who loves a battle of wits almost as much as he loves a bottle of wine. With the threat of an untimely death at the end of a crossbow bolt never far way, Jacob's unlikely cabal find themselves faced with a conspiracy born of an unquenchable thirst for revenge, a conspiracy that threatens to tear Cologne apart and stain the city with blood.

The queen of the Victorian mystery, New York Times bestseller Anne Perry returns with the 32nd novel in the Inspector Pitt series MURDER ON THE SERPENTINE. Pitt is on a secret mission for the Queen, maybe his last... London, 1899: Head of Special Branch Commander Thomas Pitt is summoned to Buckingham Palace. In the twilight of her years, Queen Victoria is all too aware that the Prince of Wales will soon inherit her empire and must be beyond reproach. She tells Pitt she tasked her close friend and confidante, John Halberd, with investigating the Prince's friends, specifically Alan Kendrick, a wealthy playboy and betting man, but before he could report back, Halberd was found dead in a rowing boat on the Serpentine. The death has been ruled an unfortunate accident and the investigation closed, but the Queen is not convinced that all is as it seems and tasks Pitt with finding the truth. Forced to act alone in this most sensitive of investigations, Pitt finds himself embroiled in a plot that threatens not only the reputations of men, but also the safety and reputation of the Empire. . .

An escaped assassin. A group of cannibals on the run. A threatening letter. Newspaper reporter Alec Lonsdale is on the case in this compelling Victorian mystery. "All Londoners will see what the Watchers are capable of on Christmas Eve ." December 1882. Attending the opening of the new Natural History Museum, Pall Mall Gazette reporter Alec Lonsdale and his colleague Hulda Friederichs are shocked to discover a body in the basement, hacked to death. Suspicion immediately falls on a trio of cannibals, brought over from the Congo as museum exhibits, who have disappeared without trace. Alec however has his doubts - especially when he discovers that three other influential London men have been similarly murdered. When he and Hulda discover a letter in the victim's home warning of a catastrophic event planned for Christmas Eve, the pair find themselves in a race against time to discover who exactly the Watchers are and what it is they want .

The electrifying new Cotton Malone thriller by international bestseller Steve Berry. People say the Cold War is coming back. For some, it never went away. Shot down over Siberia in what was to be a simple meet-and-greet mission, ex-Justice Department agent Cotton Malone is forced into a fight for survival against Aleksandr Zorin, whose loyalty to the former Soviet Union has festered for decades into an intense hatred of the United States. Before escaping, Malone learns that Zorin is headed for North America to join another long-term sleeper embedded in the West. Armed with a Soviet weapon long thought to be just a myth, Zorin is aided by a shocking secret hidden in the archives of America's oldest fraternal organization, the Society of Cincinnati. Past presidents used this group's military offensive - including advice on the invasion of what was to be America's 14th Colony - Canada. Inauguration Day for a new President of the U.S.A. is only hours away. Zorin's deadly plan is timed to bring about political chaos. In a race against the clock from Russia to the White House itself, Malone must not only battle Zorin, he must also confront his deepest fear, a crippling weakness that he's long denied but one that now jeopardizes everything. Steve Berry's trademark mix of fact, fiction, history and speculation is all here in this fast-paced and utterly compelling new thriller.

Limehouse, 1880: Dancing girls are going missing from 'Paradise' - the criminal manor with ruthless efficiency by the ferocious Lady Ginger. Seventeen-year-old music hall seamstress Kitty Peck finds herself reluctantly drawn into a web of blackmail, depravity and murder when The Lady devises a singular scheme to discover the truth. But as Kitty's scandalous and terrifying act becomes the talk of London, she finds herself facing someone even more deadly and horrifying than The Lady. Bold, impetuous and blessed with more brains than she cares to admit, it soon becomes apparent that it's up to the unlikely team of Kitty and her stagehand friend, Lucca, to unravel the truth and ensure that more girls do not meet with a similar fate. But are Kitty's courage and common sense and Lucca's book learning a match for the monster in the shadows? Their investigations take them from the gin-fuelled halls and doss houses of the East End to the champagne-fuelled galleries of the West End. Take nothing at face value: Kitty is about to step out on a path of discovery that changes everything . . .

A cosy Dandy Gilver mystery set in 1930s Scotland. For fans of PG Wodehouse, Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie. Glasgow,1932, is a city in the grip of dance-fever. Public ballrooms and backstreet dancehalls are thronged every night and competition for professional titles is fierce. Even after the sudden death of one of last year's hopefuls there are plenty willing to take his place, and few who stop to wonder why he died. In the melting pot of the Locarno Ballroom in Sauchiehall Street, a debutante rubs shoulders with denizens of Glasgow's meanest streets, her respectable fiance oblivious, her parents dismayed. When she starts receiving threats from a rival, they grow frantic enough to call on Dandy Gilver to save their precious daughter from harm. But as Dandy and her sidekick, Alec Osborne, begin to unravel the secrets of the dancehall, they soon discover that the rot goes much deeper than rivalry and there's more at stake than a silver cup. Despite the pretty frocks and dancing shoes, this apparently glittering world is a darker place than they've ever been before . . . Catriona McPherson's latest novel in the series, Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble is now available for pre-order.

The discovery of a body on a local allotment site re-opens an unresolved cold case for Monika Paniatowski and her team. He was going to have to terminate Monika, he decided. It was a pity, but there it was. The body has lain buried for years, and has no face and no fingertips. Monika Paniatowski's team have no real leads, but when they discuss the case at her hospital bedside - where she lies paralysed - Monika begins to see possible links with a case she closed four years earlier. Are the two cases connected? Did the first murder make the second almost inevitable? She doesn't know, but she does know that she is being watched by an old enemy who will kill her if he decides there is ever any chance of her sharing her thoughts and information with her team.

How do you solve a murder when you can't ask any questions? The gripping new thriller from the bestselling, award-winning author of Stasi Child. East Germany, 1975. Karin Muller, sidelined from the murder squad in Berlin, jumps at the chance to be sent south to Halle-Neustadt, where a pair of infant twins have gone missing. But Muller soon finds her problems have followed her. Halle-Neustadt is a new town - the pride of the communist state - and she and her team are forbidden by the Stasi from publicising the disappearances, lest they tarnish the town's flawless image. Meanwhile, in the eerily nameless streets and tower blocks, a child snatcher lurks, and the clock is ticking to rescue the twins alive . . . 'This fast-paced thriller hooks the readers from the start' The Sun 'A masterful evocation of the claustrophobic atmosphere of communist era East Germany . . . an intricate, absorbing page-turner' Daily Express 'The perfect blend of action, suspense and excitement. This is top notch crime! I will be shouting about this book to everyone, everywhere. Northern Crime 'One of the most fascinating and original detectives in contemporary crime fiction . . . a hugely accomplished novel' (For Winter Nights) 'For me David Young has cemented his place on the bookshelf alongside my Cold War thrillers by John le Carre and Len Deighton' The Quiet Knitter

1853. When the body of a prostitute is found in Hyde Park, veteran sleuth Charley Field is disinclined to believe the official verdict of suicide. Convinced the woman was murdered, he determines to track down the mysterious client who visited her the day she died. But there is more to this murder than even Charley could have imagined.

Hailed by critic Anthony Boucher as "one of the best detective stories of modern times," this classic tale by Grand Master Dorothy Salisbury Davis combines suspense and psychological insight as a priest and a police detective both race to find a self-confessed murderer before he is compelled to kill again. "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned ..." Father Duffy has heard many confessions through the years, but none quite so disturbing as the one he's heard tonight. A young man enters the confessional just as the priest is readying to leave for the evening; he's distraught that he has killed a woman in a paroxysm of uncontrollable rage-and he's still wielding the hammer he used to do the deed. Father Duffy tries to convince the young man to turn himself in to the police, but he flees just as suddenly as he had appeared. When the priest learns the next day that an escort was found bludgeoned to death on the East Side, he sets out to search for the troubled confessor. Meanwhile, Sergeant Ben Goldsmith of the NYPD is drawn deep into the official investigation. Neither is aware that the other is searching for the murderer, and both hope against hope that they're able to find the killer before he strikes again.

One night, in a corridor of the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich, nurse Hester Monk is approached by a terrified girl. She's from a hidden ward of children, all subject to frequent blood-letting, and her brother is dying. While William Monk's River Police fight to keep London safe from gun-runners, Hester takes on a new role at the hospital, helping to administer a secretive new treatment. But she slowly realises that this experimental cure is putting the lives of the children at risk. Attempting to protect the young victims, she comes under threat from one rich, powerful, and very ill man who is desperate to survive...

'Incredible... I was enraptured through every single part of it... Made me feel quite emotional... Fabulous read.' NetGalley reviewer, 5 stars London, 1910. Twenty-one-year-old Esther Watkins would do anything for the Suffragette cause. Imprisoned, force-fed and beaten, she is determined to fight for what she believes is right - no matter what it costs her. With new love Joseph by her side, will she get the better future she dreams of? Kent, 2019. With her marriage in tatters, school teacher Lizzie Armstrong moves to sleepy Elm Heath for a fresh start, and her pupils and the community soon steal her heart. So when the school is threatened with closure Lizzie knows she has to fight, and she looks to the school's founder for inspiration. What makes Esther, born and bred in London, a proud Suffragette, suddenly leave the city and escape to Elm Heath? And when Lizzie uncovers Esther's heartbreaking secret, could it give her the strength she needs to save not just the school, but her new beginning too? A heart-wrenching and uplifting novel for fans of Emily Gunnis, Kathleen McGurl and Kathryn Hughes. Readers LOVE The Secret Letter! 'Love love love this book!' Kathleen McGurl, USA Today bestselling author of The Forgotten Secret 'Pulls you in right away from the first few pages... Hard to put down... I really enjoyed this book.' NetGalley reviewer 'Beautiful and heart-wrenching and so impossible to put down!' NetGalley reviewer 'A great read!... Have tissues handy! I highly recommend!' NetGalley reviewer 'I absolutely adored this book.' NetGalley reviewer 'Amazing book!' NetGalley reviewer 'Perfectly paced and plotted... I soon found myself lost in the characters' world and reluctant to put the book down... Brilliant.' Over the Rainbow Book Blog 'Sucked me in... I had a hard time putting it down.' NetGalley reviewer 'This book honestly has it all... Shocking, heart-warming, funny and superbly researched.' Readers Enjoy Authors' Dreams

Four years after being exiled to Paris for disgracing the family name, Alabama debutante Zoe Barlow is still reeling from the horror of her ejection. Still, she's managed to create a new family among fellow expats and artists, including Hadley and Ernest Hemingway. When a valise containing all of Ernest's writings goes missing, Zoe volunteers to help Hadley track it down. Unfortunately, the valise leads to two murders-the train porter who stole the bag, and a young woman rumored to be Anastasia Romanov-shot to death on the edge of a small village. With much more at stake than the missing manuscripts, Zoe risks everything she holds dear to find out who among her adopted family is a murderer.

When Commander Thomas Pitt is ordered to protect a young woman visiting London from Spain, he cannot see why this is a job for Special Branch. When she disappears in the dead of night from Angel Court, however, he is faced with a dangerous mystery. Sofia preached new, and some say blasphemous, religious ideals, and her life had been threatened. But Pitt senses there is some deeper and more dangerous reason for her kidnap - if that is what it is. Three men are caught up in the hunt for Sofia - her cousin, a banker for the Church of England, a popular and charismatic politician, and a journalist who seems determined to goad Pitt to the truth. Each seems to be hiding something, and as the search for answers stretches from London to Spain, Pitt knows that time is running out, and the nation's security could be at stake... Angel Court is the thirtieth superb mystery featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt from the master of Victorian crime.

International bestseller Steve Berry returns with another brilliant Cotton Malone thriller involving a mystery about Abraham Lincoln and a political issue that's as explosive as it is timely - not only in Malone's world, but in ours. September 1861: All is not as it seems. With these cryptic words, a shocking secret passed down from president to president comes to rest in the hands of Abraham Lincoln. And as the first bloody clashes of the Civil War unfold, Lincoln alone must decide how best to use this volatile knowledge: save thousands of American lives, or keep the young nation from being torn apart forever? The present: In Utah, the fabled remains of Mormon pioneers whose nineteenth-century expedition across the desert met with a murderous end have been uncovered. In Washington, D.C., the official investigation of an international entrepreneur, an elder in the Mormon church, has sparked a political battle between the White House and a powerful United States senator. In Denmark, a Justice Department agent, missing in action, has fallen into the hands of a dangerous zealot - a man driven by divine visions to make a prophet's words reality. And in a matter of a few short hours, Cotton Malone has gone from quietly selling books at his shop in Denmark to dodging bullets in a high-speed boat chase. All it takes is a phone call from his former boss in Washington, and suddenly the ex-agent is racing to rescue an informant carrying critical intelligence. It's just the kind of perilous business that Malone has been trying to leave behind, ever since he retired from the Justice Department. But once he draws enemy blood, Malone is plunged into a deadly conflict - a constitutional war secretly set in motion more than two hundred years ago by America's Founding Fathers. From the streets of Copenhagen to the catacombs of Salzburg to the rugged mountains of Utah, the grim spectre of the Civil War looms as a dangerous conspiracy gathers power. Malone risks life, liberty, and his greatest love in a race for the truth about Abraham Lincoln - while the fate of the United States of America hangs in the balance.

From the bestselling author of BEHIND HER EYES. 'Few writers blend mystery and the supernatural as well as Sarah Pinborough, but there are none who do it better. Quite, quite brilliant' John Connolly Dr Thomas Bond is back, but this time the trial of murders leads straight to his front door. Dr Thomas Bond, Police Surgeon, is still recovering from the events of the previous year when Jack the Ripper haunted the streets of London - and a more malign enemy hid in his shadow. Bond and the others who worked on the gruesome case are still stalked by its legacies, both psychological and tangible. But now the bodies of children are being pulled from the Thames...and Bond is about to become inextricably linked with an uncanny, undying enemy.