The gripping new thriller from Graham Hurley, KYIV is set against the backdrop of Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's all-consuming invasion of the Soviet Union. 'Historical fiction of a high order' The Times 'Original and compelling... The fear enveloping Kyiv as the Soviets flee radiates from every page' Financial Times On Sunday 22nd June 1941 at 03.05, three-and-a-half million Axis troops burst into the Soviet Union along a 1,800-mile front to launch Operation Barbarossa. The southern thrust of the attack was aimed at the Caucasus and the oil fields beyond. Kyiv was the biggest city to stand in their way. Within six weeks, the city was under siege. Surrounded by Panzers, bombed and shelled day and night, Soviet Commissar Nikita Khrushchev was amongst the senior Soviet officials co-ordinating the defence. Amid his cadre of trusted personnel is British defector Bella Menzies, once with MI5, now with the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. With the fall of the city inevitable, the Soviets plan a bloody war of terror that will extort a higher toll on the city's inhabitants than the invaders. As the noose tightens, Bella finds herself trapped, hunted by both the Russians and the Germans. As the local saying has it: life is dangerous - no one survives it. Kyiv is part of the SPOILS OF WAR Collection, a thrilling, beguiling blend of fact and fiction born of some of the most tragic, suspenseful, and action-packed events of World War II. From the mind of highly acclaimed thriller author GRAHAM HURLEY, this blockbuster non-chronological collection allows the reader to explore Hurley's masterful storytelling in any order, with compelling recurring characters whose fragmented lives mirror the war that shattered the globe. 'You could read a lot of books before you found a tale better told' The Times 'This is a masterful novel: a war narrative, a spy thriller, and a historical fiction steeped in meticulously-researched factual detail' Dr Christine Berberich, University of Portsmouth

'A searing portrait of the Nazi elite as the war turns against them. Raw, shocking and meticulously researched' TIM SEBASTIANBerlin, 1942. For four years, the men in field grey have helped themselves to country after country across Western Europe. For Werner Nehmann, a journalist at the Promi - the Ministry of Propaganda - this dizzying series of victories has felt like a party without end. But now the Reich's attention has turned towards the East, and as winter sets in, the mood is turning. Werner's boss, Joseph Goebbels, can sense it. A small man with a powerful voice and coal-black eyes, Goebbels has a deep understanding the dark arts of manipulation. His words, his newsreels, have shaken Germany awake, propelling it towards its greater destiny and he won't let - he can't let - morale falter now. But the Minister of Propaganda is uneasy and in his discomfort has pulled Werner into his close confidence. And here, amid the power struggle between the Nazi Chieftains, Werner will make his mistake and begin his descent into the hell of Stalingrad...

'Liked this. Went someway to plugging the ginormous hole that Philip Kerr's sad passing has left in my life' DERMOT O'LEARY. Spring, 1941. The war in the West is as good as won. Nation after nation has fallen before the Reich's armies. Only Britain endures, her cities under nightly bombardment from the Luftwaffe. Berlin would happily call off the bombers in exchange for a peace treaty. Hitler would like to persuade Britain to turn her back on Europe, to attend to her precious Empire instead, to allow Germany a free hand to deal with the real enemy in the East. Peace, perhaps, but at what cost? For Churchill the price is too high; but for others within the British establishment, it is a price worth paying. On both sides of the channel, advocates of total war or peace-at-all-costs are at each others' throats - all unaware that Rudolf Hess, Hitler's quiet, contemplative deputy, has already taken radical steps to change the fortunes of the war...

Lights Burning Blue is a tender story of an unlikely friendship, and also a page-turning thriller set in the world of the theatre. Brooke McCarthy left drama school over a year ago. After many months of waiting for her big break, she gets a job with The Edwardian Palace Theatre Company on the south coast. Why did I feel slightly ashamed of the fact that my first real job since leaving college is stage-managing? It's an important job. Vital in fact, and it can be a very rewarding and challenging career. Except in my case I didn't really want to do it. It's not everything she hoped for; it's not a proper acting job and the play's director, the notorious Jimmy Knowles, is difficult to work for and a hard man to please. The play is not even rehearsing at the theatre itself, but in an out-of-the-way village hall near a woodland nature reserve miles from anywhere. But this is the theatrical profession. Jobs don't come along very easily, and Brooke is fed up with working as a temp in an office. On her first day, Brooke meets an endearing old man who lives in the cottage just across the path from the rehearsal hall. A man with an interesting past and an infectious love of the theatre.. Just the week before Brooke arrives at her new job, a young girl who looks somewhat like her has been found murdered in the woods... Lights Burning Blue is a page-turning thriller that will not only keep you guessing, but being written by an actor, will also give you an insider's view of what it is really like to work in the theatre.

'A searing portrait of the Nazi elite as the war turns against them. Raw, shocking and meticulously researched' TIM SEBASTIANBerlin, 1942. For four years, the men in field grey have helped themselves to country after country across Western Europe. For Werner Nehmann, a journalist at the Promi - the Ministry of Propaganda - this dizzying series of victories has felt like a party without end. But now the Reich's attention has turned towards the East, and as winter sets in, the mood is turning. Werner's boss, Joseph Goebbels, can sense it. A small man with a powerful voice and coal-black eyes, Goebbels has a deep understanding the dark arts of manipulation. His words, his newsreels, have shaken Germany awake, propelling it towards its greater destiny and he won't let - he can't let - morale falter now. But the Minister of Propaganda is uneasy and in his discomfort has pulled Werner into his close confidence. And here, amid the power struggle between the Nazi Chieftains, Werner will make his mistake and begin his descent into the hell of Stalingrad...