'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.

The Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller. Two women, centuries apart. Linked in a place haunted by its history . . . Separated by more than six hundred years of history, two women are drawn together by Sleeper's Castle, a house steeped in memory and magic. This is an epic tale of forbidden love, cruel revenge and a war that time can't forget. Grieving and lost, Miranda has moved to Hay to escape, and slowly she feels herself coming to life in the solitude of the mountains. But her vivid dreams at Sleeper's Castle introduce her to Catrin, a young women whose gift for foretelling the future embroiled her in a bloody revolt against English rule - many centuries ago. An unbreakable connection is forged across history. Catrin is reaching out . . . and only Miranda can help. But time is running out... Sunday Times bestselling author Barbara Erskine returns to Hay in the year that marks the 30th anniversary of her sensational debut bestseller, Lady of Hay.

Introducing Jonas Flynt. Gambler. Thief. Killer. Man of honour.'Fast, furious and with a glint of gallows humour, this is high-octane historical fiction' Daily Mail 'Swashbuckling action against a vivid historical backdrop. I loved this book' Ian Rankin 'High adventure meets espionage thriller as Jonas Flynt battles the tide of history and the deadly secrets of his own past...' D. V. Bishop, author of City of Vengeance 1715. Jonas Flynt, ex-soldier and reluctant member of the Company of Rogues, a shady intelligence group run by ruthless spymaster Nathaniel Charters, is ordered to recover a missing document. Its contents could prove devastating in the wrong hands. On her deathbed, the late Queen Anne may have promised the nation to her half-brother James, the Old Pretender, rather than the new king, George I. But the will has been lost. It may decide the fate of the nation. The crown must recover it at all costs. The trail takes Jonas from the dark and dangerous streets of London to an Edinburgh in chaos. He soon realises there are others on the hunt, and becomes embroiled in a long overdue family reunion, a jail break and a brutal street riot. When secrets finally come to light, about the crown and about his own past, Jonas will learn that some truths, once discovered, can never be untold... An atmospheric and utterly compelling blend of crime, history and thriller, to delight fans of S. J. Parris, Andrew Taylor and C. J. Sansom. Praise for An Honourable Thief 'Reads like a genuine eighteenth century spy novel. I see a long future for Jonas Flynt' Ambrose Parry, author of The Way of All Flesh 'Anyone who enjoys a good historical mystery and likes an edgy, charismatic protagonist is going to love the adventures of Douglas Skelton's new hero, Jonas Flynt' S.G. MacLean, author of The Seeker 'An absolute triumph ... Five stars from me, and I look forward to reading more of Jonas's adventures' James Oswald, Sunday Times bestselling author 'Historical crime fiction at its absolute best. I loved it!' Marion Todd, author of the Detective Clare Mackay series 'Pitch-perfect stuff. Like all great historical novels you'll feel you're there! This is a departure for Skelton, who seems born to write high-end historical fiction' Denzil Meyrick, author of the DCI Daley thrillers 'Uniquely combines a page-turning thriller with a perfectly evoked sense of time and place. Powerful stuff from a master of his craft' Craig Russell, author of Hyde 'Skelton's mastery of time and place inhabited with richly drawn characters is a delight. It held me to the last tantalising page' David Gilman, author of The Englishman 'Jonas Flynt is one of those characters you'll be rooting for from the very first chapter ... it looks like Skelton has found a new home writing first-class historical fiction' Alison Belsham, author of The Tattoo Thief 'This is a fascinating, totally engrossing historical novel. Flynt is a most attractive, three-dimensional character and the same is true of the world he moves through. A brilliant, most enjoyable read' Paul Doherty, author of The Nightingale Gallery 'A cracking historical drama with breathless pacing and knuckle-chewing tension, all shot through with Skelton's deft characterisation and flashes of pitch-black humour. The perfect read to lose yourself in' Neil Broadfoot, author of Falling Fast 'A compelling tale of justice and vengeance, of intrigue and plotting, all centred around a flawed 18th century Jack Reacher' Morgan Cry, author of Thirty-One Bones

A dead man at a crossroads. A secret message. A ring with a warning about death . . . Printer's apprentice Lucy Campion is caught up in a strange and puzzling murder case in this twisty historical mystery set in seventeenth-century London. London, 1667. On her way to a new market to peddle her True Accounts and Strange News, printer's apprentice Lucy Campion quickly regrets her decision to take the northwestern road. Dark and desolate, the path leads her to the crossroads - and to the old hanging tree. She doesn't believe in ghosts, but she's not sure ghosts don't believe in her. But before she even reaches the crossroads, she's knocked off her feet by two men in a hurry. What were they running from? To her dismay, she soon discovers for herself: there, dangling from the tree, is the body of a man. Did he commit self-murder, or is there something darker afoot? The more Lucy learns, the more determined she is to uncover the truth. But this time, even the help and protection of magistrate's son Adam, and steadfast Constable Duncan, may not be enough to keep her safe from harm . . .

A cold-blooded killer stalks a sleepy Suffolk town in this pitch-perfect WWII crime mystery. December 1939. Sackwater Police Station feels a million miles from the war effort. Elderly Mr Orchard keeps wandering off in his pyjamas, little Sylvia Satin is having a birthday party, and a bookmark has been reported stolen. Inspector Betty Church - one of the few female officers on the force - is longing for something to get her teeth into... When a bomb is dropped on Sackwater, it seems the war has finally reached them. But Betty can't stop Adolf, however hard she tries. So when a dead man is found on the beach, she concentrates on hunting an enemy much closer to home. 'Eccentric and entertaining with a nicely complex plot'Crime Review. 'A wonderfully gripping old-fashioned murder mystery' The Lady.

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD (Now a major Amazon Prime TV show) 'Dazzling' Guardian 'Gloriously entertaining' Evening Standard 'A rich, wild book' New York Times 'Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked...' To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably-priced furniture, making a life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his facade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger and bigger all the time. See, cash is tight, especially with all those instalment plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace at the furniture store, Ray doesn't see the need to ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweller downtown who also doesn't ask questions. Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa - the 'Waldorf of Harlem' - and volunteers Ray's services as the fence. The heist doesn't go as planned; they rarely do, after all. Now Ray has to cater to a new clientele, one made up of shady cops on the take, vicious minions of the local crime lord, and numerous other Harlem lowlifes. Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he starts to see the truth about who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs? Harlem Shuffle is driven by an ingeniously intricate plot that plays out in a beautifully recreated Harlem of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem.

"A brilliant and breathtaking debut that captivated readers and garnered critical acclaim in the United Kingdom, " The Tenderness of Wolves "was long-listed for the Orange Prize in fiction and won the Costa Award (formerly the Whitbread) Book of the Year."
The year is 1867. Winter has just tightened its grip on Dove River, a tiny isolated settlement in the Northern Territory, when a man is brutally murdered. Laurent Jammett had been a voyageur for the Hudson Bay Company before an accident lamed him four years earlier. The same accident afforded him the little parcel of land in Dove River, land that the locals called unlucky due to the untimely death of the previous owner.
A local woman, Mrs. Ross, stumbles upon the crime scene and sees the tracks leading from the dead man's cabin north toward the forest and the tundra beyond. It is Mrs. Ross's knock on the door of the largest house in Caulfield that launches the investigation. Within hours she will regret that knock with a mother's love -- for soon she makes another discovery: her seventeen-year-old son Francis has disappeared and is now considered a prime suspect.
In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the crime and to the township -- Andrew Knox, Dove River's elder statesman; Thomas Sturrock, a wily American itinerant trader; Donald Moody, the clumsy young Company representative; William Parker, a half-breed Native American and trapper who was briefly detained for Jammett's murder before becoming Mrs. Ross's guide. But the question remains: do these men want to solve the crime or exploit it?
One by one, the searchers set out from Dove River following the tracks across a desolate landscape -- home to only wild animals, madmen, and fugitives -- variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for seventeen years, and a forgotten Native American culture before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good.
In an astonishingly assured debut, Stef Penney deftly weaves adventure, suspense, revelation, and humor into an exhilarating thriller; a panoramic historical romance; a gripping murder mystery; and, ultimately, with the sheer scope and quality of her storytelling, an epic for the ages.

Jack Haldean's newly-wedded bliss is disrupted by a series of shocking revelations in this gripping historical mystery. When an old schoolfriend of Jack's wife Betty witnesses a disturbing vision in the garden of a smart suburban house, Jack is intrigued. Just what did Jenny Langton see beneath the cedar tree at Saunder's Green that frightened her so much she fainted on the spot? Jack's subsequent enquiries stir up a hornet's nest of repressed emotions and long-buried secrets. What exactly happened at Saunder's Green almost twenty years before - and why will no one talk about it? As he unearths evidence of a possible murder, how is even a seasoned investigator like Jack supposed to solve a crime that took place two decades before with no tangible clues, no reliable witnesses - and at least one person who is determined to stop him discovering the truth . whatever it takes.

Sherlock Holmes is the most famous of all fictional detectives but, across the Atlantic, he had plenty of rivals. Between 1890 and 1920, American writers created dozens and dozens of crime-solvers. In this thrilling, unusual anthology, editor Nick Rennison gathers together 15 often neglected tales to highlight American crime fiction's early years. The detectives that feature include Professor Augustus SFX Van Dusen, 'The Thinking Machine', even more cerebral than Holmes; Craig Kennedy, the so-called 'scientific detective'; Uncle Abner, a shrewd backwoodsman in pre-Civil War Virginia; Violet Strange, New York debutante turned criminologist; and Nick Carter, the original pulp private eye.

1944: Twenty years after WPC Lottie Armstrong was dismissed from the Leeds police force, she's back, now a member of the Women's Auxiliary Police Corps. Detective Chief Superintendent McMillan is now head of CID, trying to keep order with a depleted force as many of the male officers have enlisted. This hasn't stopped the criminals, however, and as the Second World War rages around them, can they stop a blackout killer with a taste for murder?