Who really killed the princes in the tower? Was Richard III truly the ogre of legend and Shakespeare's play. - a wicked uncle who murdered his nephews to steal the crown of England? Inspector Alan Grant is not so sure. Laid up in hospital with a broken leg, he becomes obsessed with unravelling this most enduring of historical mysteries. As he investigates with the help of an enthusiastic young American scholar, he unearths long-buried intrigues and comes to a startling conclusion.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 'What a ride!' India Knight, Sunday Times Summer reads 'Thrilling... a sumptuous feast of plotting and intrigue' Mail on Sunday 'A complete joy' Bettany Hughes 'Gloriously immersive' Guardian ------------------------------------------------- Frances Howard has beauty and a powerful family - and is the most unhappy creature in the world. Anne Turner has wit and talent - but no stage on which to display them. Little stands between her and the abyss of destitution. When these two very different women meet in strange circumstances, a powerful friendship is sparked. Frankie sweeps Anne into a world of splendour that exceeds all she imagined: a Court whose foreign king is a stranger to his own subjects; where ancient families fight for power, and where the sovereign's favourite may rise and rise - so long as he remains in favour. Anne and Frankie dare to seek a little happiness for themselves in this extravagant, savage hunting ground. But as they gain notice, they also gain enemies; what began as a search for love and safety leads to desperate acts that could cost them everything. Based on the true scandal that rocked the court of James I, A Net for Small Fishes is the most gripping novel you'll read this year: an exhilarating dive into the pitch-dark waters of the Jacobean court.

"Your predecessor was sitting in that chair when he shot himself. You can still see the blood stains on the wall behind you." Central America, 1931. Hilary Manningham-Butler is settling into her new job as passport control officer at the British legation in Guatemala City. Her predecessor Giles Markham is dead, having embezzled a large sum of money from the office's visa receipts and then taken his own life. Freddie Reeves, a friend at the legation, believes there is more to his death than suicide. The weekend before he died, Markham spent some time at a remote coffee plantation in the north central highlands. Freddie knows the owner of the plantation and invites Hilary to accompany him there for the weekend, in the hope that she might be able to discover the truth. Hilary has no intention of getting involved, but when a house guest dies in suspicious circumstances it soon becomes clear that she will not be given the choice.

London, 1921. Prominent Cabinet minister Lord Amersham has been shot dead outside his Regents Park home, two bullets to the chest and one to the forehead. The killing bears the hallmarks of a professional hit. Tackling one of the most high-profile cases Scotland Yard has ever faced, DCI Paul Stark is under pressure to produce a quick result. Amersham's colleague, Secretary of State for the Colonies Winston Churchill, is convinced the Bolsheviks are responsible. Stark's colleagues at Special Branch believe there's a connection to the Government talks taking place over Irish Home Rule. Or could the motive be connected to Lord Amersham's scandalous private life? Then there is a second murder, once again committed by an expert marksman at close range - and the case takes a terrifying new twist . . .

"If there's ever been a more complex and compelling hero in crime fiction than Inspector Rutledge, I can't think of one."--Jeffery Deaver In one of his most puzzling cases, Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge must delve deep into a dead man's life and his past to find a killer determined to keep dark secrets buried. A peaceful Welsh village is thrown into turmoil when a terrified boy stumbles on a body in a nearby river. The man appears to have fallen from the canal aqueduct spanning the valley. But there is no identification on the body, he isn't a local, and no one will admit to having seen him before. With little to go on, the village police turn to Scotland Yard for help. When Inspector Ian Rutledge is sent from London to find answers, he is given few clues--a faded military tattoo on the victim's arm and an unusual label in the collar of his shirt. They eventually lead him to the victim's identity: Sam Milford. By all accounts, he was a good man and well-respected. Then, why is his death so mysterious? Looking for the truth, Rutledge uncovers a web of lies swirling around a suicidal woman, a child's tragic fate, another woman bent on protecting her past. But where among all the lies is the motive for murder? To track a killer, Rutledge must retrace Milford's last journey. Yet death seems to stalk his every move, and the truth seems to shift at every turn. Man or woman, this murderer stays in the shadows, and it will take desperate measures to lure him--or her--into the light.

Introducing 19th-century private investigators Matthew Grand and James Batchelor in the first of a brand-new historical mystery series. April, 1865. Having been an eye witness to the assassination of President Lincoln, Matthew Grand, a former captain of the 3rd Cavalry of the Potomac, has come to London on an undercover assignment to hunt down the last of the assassin's co-conspirators. Ambitious young journalist Jim Batchelor has been charged with writing a feature article on the visiting American, with the aim of getting the inside story on the assassination. Both men are distracted from their missions by the discovery of a body behind the Haymarket Theatre in London's Soho district. It's the latest in a series of grisly garrottings by a killer known as the Haymarket Strangler. As Grand and Batchelor team up to pursue their investigations through the dark underbelly of Victorian London, it becomes clear that there may be a disturbing connection between the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the Haymarket Strangler.

June, 1870. The world-famous author Charles Dickens has been found dead in his summerhouse where he had been hard at work on his final, unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Did he die of natural causes - or is there something more sinister behind his sudden demise? George Sala, Dickens' biographer, is convinced his friend was murdered - and he has hired Grand and Batchelor to prove it. Could Dickens' death have something to do with his unconventional private life? Who is the mysterious woman who appears at his funeral? If they are to uncover the truth, Grand and Batchelor must leave no stone unturned. But are they prepared for the shocking secrets some of those unturned stones will reveal . . .?