The year is 1869. A brutal triple murder in a remote community in the Scottish Highlands leads to the arrest of a young man by the name of Roderick Macrae. A memoir written by the accused makes it clear that he is guilty, but it falls to the country's finest legal and psychiatric minds to uncover what drove him to commit such merciless acts of violence. Was he mad? Only the persuasive powers of his advocate stand between Macrae and the gallows. Graeme Macrae Burnet tells an irresistible and original story about the provisional nature of truth, even when the facts seem clear. His Bloody Project is a mesmerising literary thriller set in an unforgiving landscape where the exercise of power is arbitrary.

'An immersive and entertaining read' - Alistair Mabbot, The Herald The year is 1317, and young squire Benedict Russell has joined the English-held garrison of Berwick-upon-Tweed after the spectacular Scottish victory at Bannockburn three years earlier. Serious and self-doubting, he can't wait for his time there to come to an end. Living on the disputed territory between Scotland and England is a precarious existence, and as the Scots draw ever closer and the English king does nothing to stop them, Benedict finds himself in a race against time to solve the brutal murder of a young girl and find the traitor who lurks within Berwick's walls.

'A dark gothic delight' JANICE HALLETT, author of THE TWYFORD CODE 'Inventive, lavish, twisty... will keep you guessing until the very end' ALISON LITTLEWOOD, author of MISTLETOE Winter 1954, and in a dilapidated apartment in Brooklyn, Sam Cooper realises that she has nothing left. Her mother is dead, she has no prospects, and she cannot afford the rent. But as she goes through her mother's things, Sam finds a stack of hidden letters that reveal a family and an inheritance that she never knew she had, three thousand miles away in Yorkshire. Begars Abbey is a crumbling pile, inhabited only by Lady Cooper, Sam's ailing grandmother, and a handful of servants. Sam cannot understand why her mother kept its very existence a secret, but her newly discovered diaries offer a glimpse of a young girl growing increasingly terrified. As is Sam herself. Built on the foundations of an old convent, Begars moves and sings with the biting wind. Her grandmother cannot speak, and a shadowy woman moves along the corridors at night. There are dark places in the hidden tunnels beneath Begars. And they will not give up their secrets easily... A chilling read that will keep you turning the pages late into the night, Begars Abbey is a must-read for fans of Laura Purcell, C.J. Tudor and W.C. Ryan.

'My father had spelt it out to me. Choice was a luxury I couldn't afford. This is your story, Red. You must tell it well . . .' A young girl known as Red, the daughter of a Cornish fortune-teller, travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient method: the Square of Sevens. When her father suddenly dies, Red becomes the ward of a gentleman scholar. Now raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendour of Bath, her fortune-telling is a delight to high society, but she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him? The pursuit of these mysteries takes her from Cornwall and Bath to London and Devon, from the rough ribaldry of the Bartholemew Fair to the grand houses of two of the most powerful families in England. And while Red's quest brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads into her grave danger . . . Laura Shepherd-Robinson's The Square of Sevens is an epic and sweeping novel set in Georgian high society, a dazzling story offering up mystery, intrigue, heartbreak, and audacious twists.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE 2014 EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL WINNER OF THE 2014 DILYS AWARD A SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF 2013 From New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger, a brilliant new novel about a young man, a small town, and murder in the summer of 1961. "That was it. That was all of it. A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it. Yet I have never across the forty years since it was spoken forgotten a single word." New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson's Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder. Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family-which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother-he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years. Told from Frank's perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.

From the author of the international bestsellers The Light Over London and The Whispers of War comes "a compelling read, filled with lovable characters and an alluring twist of fates" (Ellen Keith, author of The Dutch Wife) about five women living across three different times whose lives are all connected by one very special garden. Present day: Emma Lovett, who has dedicated her career to breathing new life into long-neglected gardens, has just been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to restore the gardens of the famed Highbury House estate, designed in 1907 by her hero Venetia Smith. But as Emma dives deeper into the gardens' past, she begins to uncover secrets that have long lain hidden. 1907: A talented artist with a growing reputation for her work, Venetia Smith has carved out a niche for herself as a garden designer to industrialists, solicitors, and bankers looking to show off their wealth with sumptuous country houses. When she is hired to design the gardens of Highbury House, she is determined to make them a triumph, but the gardens--and the people she meets--promise to change her life forever. 1944: When land girl Beth Pedley arrives at a farm on the outskirts of the village of Highbury, all she wants is to find a place she can call home. Cook Stella Adderton, on the other hand, is desperate to leave Highbury House to pursue her own dreams. And widow Diana Symonds, the mistress of the grand house, is anxiously trying to cling to her pre-war life now that her home has been requisitioned and transformed into a convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers. But when war threatens Highbury House's treasured gardens, these three very different women are drawn together by a secret that will last for decades. "Gorgeously written and rooted in meticulous period detail, this novel is vibrant as it is stirring. Fans of historical fiction will fall in love with The Last Garden in England" (Roxanne Veletzos, author of The Girl They Left Behind).

The No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling series The fifth book in S. J. Parris's bestselling, critically acclaimed series following Giordano Bruno, set at the time of Queen Elizabeth I Perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom and Hilary Mantel PARIS, 1585 A KING WITHOUT AN HEIR Heretic-turned-spy Giordano Bruno arrives in Paris to find a city on the edge of catastrophe. King Henri III lives in fear of a coup by the Duke of Guise and his fanatical Catholic League, and another massacre on the streets. A COURT AT WAR WITH GOD When Bruno's old rival, Father Paul Lefevre is found murdered, Bruno is drawn into a dangerous web of religious politics and court intrigue. And watching over his shoulder is the King's mother, Catherine de Medici, with her harem of beautiful spies. A DEADLY CONSPIRACY IN PLAY When murder strikes at the heart of the Palace, Bruno finds himself on the trail of a killer who is protecting a terrible secret. With the royal houses of France and England under threat, Bruno must expose the truth - or be silenced for good... Praise for S. J. Parris 'A delicious blend of history and thriller' The Times 'An omnipresent sense of danger' Daily Mail 'Colourful characters, fast-moving plots and a world where one false step in religion or politics can mean a grisly death' Sunday Times 'Pacy, intricate, and thrilling' Observer 'Vivid, sprawling ... Well-crafted, exuberant' Financial Times 'Impossible to resist' Daily Telegraph 'Twists and turns like a corkscrew of venomous snakes' Stuart MacBride 'It has everything - intrigue, mystery and excellent history' Kate Mosse 'The period is incredibly vivid and the story utterly gripping' Conn Iggulden 'A brilliantly unusual glimpse at the intrigues surrounding Queen Elizabeth I' Andrew Taylor

The Sunday Times Bestseller - As read on BBC Radio 4

A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Choice 2019

'A sharp, scary, gorgeously evocative tale of love, art and obsession' - Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal is the intoxicating story of a young woman who aspires to be an artist, and the man whose obsession may destroy her world for ever.

London. 1850. The greatest spectacle the city has ever seen is being built in Hyde Park, and among the crowd watching two people meet. For Iris, an aspiring artist, it is the encounter of a moment – forgotten seconds later, but for Silas, a collector entranced by the strange and beautiful, that meeting marks a new beginning.

When Iris is asked to model for pre-Raphaelite artist Louis Frost, she agrees on the condition that he will also teach her to paint. Suddenly her world begins to expand, to become a place of art and love.

But Silas has only thought of one thing since their meeting, and his obsession is darkening . . .

A superb Golden Age mystery packed with twists, from the winner of the Diamond Dagger 2020.

LONDON, 1930.

Sooty, sulphurous, and malign: this is a night where no woman should be walking the streets. But Rachel Savernake is not an ordinary woman. To Scotland Yard's embarrassment, she solved the Chorus Girl Murder, and now she's on the trail of another killer: a man responsible for a spate of deaths so violent that even newspapermen consider the details too foul to print.

But Jacob Flint, the naive young journalist manning The Clarion's crime desk, is looking for the scoop that will make his name. He's certain there is more to the Miss Savernake's amateur sleuthing than meets the eye.

Flint's pursuit of his story will lead him deep into a labyrinth of deception and corruption. And then, murder by murder, he will be swept inexorably to that ancient place of execution, where everything began and where everything will end: Gallows Court.

Introducing turn-of-the-century archaeologist-sleuth Margaret Murray in the first of a brilliant new historical mystery series. October, 1900. University College, London. When the spreadeagled body of one of her students is discovered in her rented room shortly after attending one of her lectures, Dr Margaret Murray is disinclined to accept the official verdict of suicide and determines to find out how and why the girl really died. As an archaeologist, Dr Murray is used to examining ancient remains, but she's never before had to investigate the circumstances surrounding a newly-dead corpse. However, of one thing Margaret is certain: if you want to know how and why a person died, you need to understand how they lived. And it soon becomes clear that the dead girl had been keeping a number of secrets. As Margaret uncovers evidence that Helen Richardson had knowledge of a truly extraordinary archaeological find, the body of a second young woman is discovered on a windswept Kent beach - and the case takes a disturbing new twist .

The only way to win this murderer's deadly game... is to play along.Summer, 1380. Brutal and sudden death is not uncommon in the foul alleys and streets of London. The corpse of a clerk has been pulled from the Thames. They drowned, but not before receiving a vicious blow to the back of the head. Then Bartholomew Drayton, a usurer and money-lender, is found dead in his strongroom, a crossbow bolt firmly embedded in his chest: a real mystery because the windowless strongroom was locked and barred from the inside. So who killed him? And how? And are the deaths connected? Sir John Cranston comes to survey the scene. When other clerks are murdered, each with a riddle pinned to his corpse, Cranston enlists the help of Brother Athelstan - and together they must pit their wits against a deadly adversary bent on murder and mayhem. Another thrilling historical mystery from a true master of the genre, perfect for fans of S. G. MacLean, S. J. Parris and C. J. Sansom.

'A masterful storyteller with an intricate knowledge of his subject.' The Daily Telegraph 'Alan Judd knows more about the secret world than any other writer living. To have him turn his expert eye on the world of Christopher Marlowe - and on Francis Walsingham, the Elizabethan George Smiley - is a special kind of literary treat.' Mick Herron 'Absolutely spellbinding. I gobbled it up in two days and could not stop' Miranda Seymour Danger and dissent stalk the streets and taverns of Elizabethan England. The Queen's chief spymaster, Francis Walsingham, and his team of agents must maintain the highest levels of vigilance to ward off Catholic plots and the ever-present threat of invasion. One operative in particular - a young Cambridge undergraduate of humble origins, controversial beliefs and literary genius who goes by the name of Kit Marlowe - is relentless in his pursuit of intelligence for the Crown. When he is killed outside an inn in Deptford, his mysterious death becomes the subject of rumours and suspicion that are never satisfactorily resolved. Years later, Thomas Phelippes, a former colleague of Marlowe's and a man once much valued by Walsingham, finds himself imprisoned in the Tower. When he is visited by an emissary of the new king, however, it becomes clear that his long fall from favour may be reversed if he will furnish his monarch with every detail he is able to recall about his murdered friend's life and death. But just what is it that so fascinates King James about the famously mercurial playwright-spy, and does Phelippes know enough to secure his own redemption? Virtuosic, gripping and meticulously researched, award-winning writer Alan Judd turns is at the peak of his powers in this remarkable novel about a literary genius whose short-life and violent death composed one of the most fascinating unresolved mysteries of all time.

Who saw him die? I, said the fly, with my little eye. I saw him die. An astonishingly beautiful setting on the island of Skye. A gathering of fascinating guests at a hunting lodge set to enjoy abundant hospitality. And a double murder. A household in chaos . . . No one is allowed to leave. A tantalising new case for Agatha Christie to solve. Praise for Andrew Wilson and his detective series featuring Agatha Christie: 'I loved it. I loved the setting and the plot was SO clever. I stopped trying to outguess Andrew Wilson and just enjoyed the ride.' - ELLY GRIFFITHS 'Fiendishly well-plotted, hugely entertaining - one feels Agatha Christie would have been delighted' - LUCY FOLEY, bestselling author of The Hunting Party 'A heart of darkness beats within this sparkling series. Fizzy with charm yet edge with menace, Andrew Wilson's Christie novels do Dame Agatha proud' A. J. FINN, bestselling author of The Woman in the Window 'Beautifully written. Both lyrical and compelling. I felt as though I was walking by Agatha Christie's side' JANE CORRY 'An affectionate homage to Agatha Christie's desert dramas with a cheeky nod to Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky. A superior blend of fact and fiction . . . A must for connoisseurs of Golden Age crime fiction' SEAN O'CONNOR 'There is no reason why this excellent series shouldn't run till the sun don't shine' EVENING STANDARD 'While Wilson tempts providence by inviting comparison with the real Agatha Christie, on the evidence of this book he succeeds admirably' DAILY MAIL 'He shares with the great Dame the gift of sheer readability' S MAGAZINE 'Five stars . . . Brilliantly plotted, stylishly written. A treat!' AMANDA CRAIG

BERLIN. JANUARY 1941. Evil cannot bring about good . . . After Germany's invasion of Poland, the world is holding its breath and hoping for peace. At home, the Nazi Party's hold on power is absolute. One freezing night, an SS doctor and his wife return from an evening mingling with their fellow Nazis at the concert hall. By the time the sun rises, the doctor will be lying lifeless in a pool of blood. Was it murder or suicide? Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is told that under no circumstances should he investigate. The doctor's widow, however, is convinced her husband was the target of a hit. But why would anyone murder an apparently obscure doctor? Compelled to dig deeper, Schenke learns of the mysterious death of a child. The cases seem unconnected, but soon chilling links begin to emerge that point to a terrifying secret. Even in times of war, under a ruthless regime, there are places in hell no man should ever enter. And Schenke fears he may not return alive . . . Readers raved about BLACKOUT - Simon Scarrow's first Berlin Wartime Thriller 'Taut and chilling - I was completely gripped' Anthony Horowitz 'A terrific depiction of the human world within the chilling world of the Third Reich' Peter James 'Mesmerising. Nail-biting. Unputdownable' Damien Lewis

Witty and irreverent, this is the first in an irresistible crime series set in Tsarist Russia in the 1890s from the award-winning Michael Pearce. Tsarist Russia in the 1890s. Dmitri Kameron, a young lawyer, must deal with the disappearance of a well-connected young woman. She has been shipped off to Siberia, in one of the prison wagons outside the Court House. But is this a bureaucratic bungle or something more calculated? On a journey to the furthest outposts of Russia, Dimitri's search becomes horribly complicated. To unearth the truth in a treacherous world of Russian officialdom he is forced to make some strange allies, not least among them the redoubtable Milk-Drinkers...

After the mysterious death of one Vatican priest and the disappearance of another, Father Ian Pearse, an American working on early Christian texts in the Vatican, comes into possession of a mysterious scroll. He discovers ingeniously coded letters and the text of an ancient prayer never before found in written form. These reveal a conspiracy, by a sect long-thought dead, reaching deep into the present Vatican hierarchy. It becomes a race against a ruthless unknown opponent, which takes Father Pearse from the Vatican, via an ancient Greek monastery, to war- torn Bosnia.

November 1911. Lady Emily Hardcastle is celebrating her birthday by seeing a play at the Duke's Theatre in Bristol with her maid and confidante, the inimitable Flo. Act One is a triumph. Then Act Two opens with a body on stage-a real one. One of the cast has been brutally murdered during the interval. When other matters get in the way of Inspector Sunderland overseeing the case himself, he asks the ever-resourceful Lady H to keep a watchful eye on the suspects-and his police colleagues. Rustling up some cunning disguises of their own, she and Flo are soon in deep cover among the cast and crew, pulling back the curtain on some shocking secrets and rivalries... The problem is, everyone seems to have a motive, and everyone seems to have an alibi...In this locked-room mystery in which nothing is as it seems, the amateur sleuths need to put on the performances of their lives if they're to stand a chance of shining a spotlight on the truth...

**THE THRILLING SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** 'If only all history mysteries could be as good as The Midnight Hour' The Times An old man lies dead and it looks like poison, but his wife isn't the only one who had reason to kill him. Brighton, 1965 When theatrical impresario Bert Billington is found dead in his retirement home, no one suspects foul play. But when the postmortem reveals that he was poisoned, suspicion falls on his wife, eccentric ex-Music Hall star Verity Malone. Frustrated by the police response to Bert's death and determined to prove her innocence, Verity calls in private detective duo Emma Holmes and Sam Collins. This is their first real case, but as luck would have it they have a friend on the inside: Max Mephisto is filming a remake of Dracula, starring Seth Billington, Bert's son. But when they question Max, they feel he isn't telling them the whole story. Emma and Sam must vie with the police to untangle the case and bring the killer to justice. They're sure the answers must lie in Bert's dark past and in the glamorous, occasionally deadly, days of Music Hall. But the closer they get to the truth, the more danger they find themselves in... *********** PRAISE FOR THE MIDNIGHT HOUR 'An intricately plotted whodunnit' Daily Mail 'Griffiths writes with verve and wit' Irish Times 'An entertaining period murder mystery' Irish Independent 'Layered with a gripping plot' Belfast Telegraph A Sunday Times bestseller w/c 24/04/2022

Summer 1911. A scorching heatwave engulfs the quiet town of Littleton Cotterell and brings about an unusually early harvest. The villagers are thrilled, but events quickly turn sour when one of them turns up dead in an apple orchard, stabbed through the heart. Amateur sleuth Lady Hardcastle and her trusty lady's maid, Flo, suddenly have a juicy case on their hands. Might the mysterious stranger they recently met in the village be to blame? When a second cider-related murder takes place, it quickly becomes clear that there's more to these mysterious deaths than meets the eye. The daring duo uncover whispers of an ancient order and moonlit rituals. And evidence points to a macabre secret in the village stretching back years. A secret someone will do anything-anything at all-to keep hidden. Something is rotten, that's for sure. With the local constabulary baffled, Lady Hardcastle and Flo must use all their powers of wit and whimsy to get to the bottom of the dastardly deed. But can they catch the killer before any more people drop dead?

"It boiled down to a white cop and black me, and he had the 'difference' in his hand." Toussaint Moore is a college-educated, decorated war veteran. Because he's also a Black man, his employment options are limited, so he ekes out a living as a private eye serving Black clients in and around Harlem where he lives. When he's hired by producers of a television reality show called "You--Detective!" to keep tabs on the whereabouts of an accused child molester until the episode airs, the gig goes quickly south; Touie finds the man murdered, and himself framed for the deed. Needing to flee, he goes to the small Ohio town where the deceased was wanted for his crime, thinking the key to the murder may lie there. As Virgil Tibbs would experience years later in John Ball's IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, Touie encounters a whole new level of resistance and racism as a Black man asking questions in a small-minded, predominantly white town. As Scott Adlerberg states in his Feb. 2019 article for Criminal Element): "What Lacy does in Room to Swing is consider a question Walter Mosely would more fully explore years later in his Easy Rawlins books. Lacy asks whether a black man (in the late fifties) can go everywhere he needs to, with the freedom his job requires, in order to conduct the investigation necessary to crack a case."

'A brilliant, original read' - Daily Mail 'Totally absorbing, this is a story that will keep you gripped' - Janice Hadlow, author of The Other Bennet Sister The case is unexceptional, that is what I know. A house full of stuff left behind by a dead woman, abandoned at the last . . . When trauma cleaner Essie Pound makes a gruesome discovery in the derelict Edinburgh boarding house she is sent to clean, it brings her into contact with a young policewoman, Emily Noble, who has her own reasons to solve the case. As the two women embark on a journey into the heart of a forgotten family, the investigation prompts fragmented memories of their own traumatic histories - something Emily has spent a lifetime attempting to bury, and Essie a lifetime trying to lay bare. Emily Noble's Disgrace is the third novel from Mary Paulson-Ellis, the bestselling author of The Other Mrs Walker, a Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year.

Turn a Blind Eye is the third instalment in the gripping story of Detective Inspector William Warwick, by the master storyteller and Sunday Times number one bestselling author of the Clifton Chronicles. William Warwick, now a Detective Inspector, is tasked with a dangerous new line of work, to go undercover and expose crime of another kind: corruption at the heart of the Metropolitan Police Force. His team is focused on following Detective Jerry Summers, a young officer whose lifestyle appears to exceed his income. But as a personal relationship develops with a member of William's team, it threatens to compromise the whole investigation. Meanwhile, a notorious drug baron goes on trial, with the prosecution case led by William's father and sister. And William's wife Beth, now a mother to twins, renews an old acquaintance who appears to have turned over a new leaf, or has she? As the undercover officers start to draw the threads together, William realizes that the corruption may go deeper still, and more of his colleagues than he first thought might be willing to turn a blind eye. 'Peerless master of the page-turner' - Daily Mail