Fiction choice

Things can't get much worse for detective Jane Tennison. Unceremoniously kicked off the adrenaline-fuelled Flying Squad, she's been (read more)

Things can't get much worse for detective Jane Tennison. Unceremoniously kicked off the adrenaline-fuelled Flying Squad, she's been relegated to Gerald Road, a small and sleepy police station in the heart of London's affluent Knightsbridge.

With only petty crime to sink her teeth into, Tennison can feel her career slowly flatlining. That is until the discovery of the most brutal murder Jane has ever seen: Charlie Foxley has been found viciously beaten to death, his body dismembered and disembowelled. As a big-time showbiz agent, Foxley had a lot of powerful friends - but even more enemies. (hide)

The son of a wealthy plantation owner and a doting mother, Mungo St John is accustomed to the wealth and luxuries his privilege has (read more)

The son of a wealthy plantation owner and a doting mother, Mungo St John is accustomed to the wealth and luxuries his privilege has afforded him.

That is until he returns from university to discover his family ruined, his inheritance stolen and his childhood sweetheart, Camilla, taken by the conniving Chester Marion. Fuelled by anger, and love, Mungo swears vengeance and devotes his life to saving Camilla - and destroying Chester. Camilla, trapped in New Orleans, powerless to her position as a kept slave and suffering at the hands of Chester's brutish behaviour, must learn to do whatever it takes to survive.
(hide)

Driving home during a swirling blizzard, Vera Stanhope's only thought is to get there quickly. But the snow is so heavy, she becomes (read more)

Driving home during a swirling blizzard, Vera Stanhope's only thought is to get there quickly. But the snow is so heavy, she becomes disoriented and loses her way.

Ploughing on, she sees a car slewed off the road ahead of her. With the driver's door open, Vera assumes the driver has sought shelter but when she inspects the car she is shocked to find a young toddler strapped in the back seat. Afraid they will freeze, Vera takes the child and drives on, arriving at Brockburn, a run-down stately home she immediately recognizes as the house her father Hector grew up in. (hide)

It is 1997, and someone is slaughtering young black women in Burdon County, Arkansas. But no one wants to admit it, not in the Dirty (read more)

It is 1997, and someone is slaughtering young black women in Burdon County, Arkansas. But no one wants to admit it, not in the Dirty South. In an Arkansas jail cell sits a former NYPD detective, stricken by grief.

He is mourning the death of his wife and child, and searching in vain for their killer. He cares only for his own lost family. But that is about to change .

. . Witness the becoming of Charlie Parker. (hide)

It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages, and England faces attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Life is (read more)

It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages, and England faces attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Life is hard, and those with power wield it harshly, bending justice according to their will - often in conflict with the king.

With his grip on the country fragile and with no clear rule of law, chaos and bloodshed reign.

THREE LIVES INTERTWINED

Into this uncertain world three people come to the fore: a young boat builder, who dreams of a better future when a devastating Viking raid shatters the life that he and the woman he loves hoped for; a Norman noblewoman, who follows her beloved husband across the sea to a new land only to find her life there shockingly different; and a capable monk at Shiring Abbey, who dreams of transforming his humble abbey into a centre of learning admired throughout Europe. (hide)

On the plains of Marathon an army of slaves gathers . . . Under Darius the Great, King of Kings, the mighty Persian army - swollen (read more)

On the plains of Marathon an army of slaves gathers . . .

Under Darius the Great, King of Kings, the mighty Persian army - swollen by 10,000 Immortal warriors - have come to subjugate the Greeks. In their path, vastly outnumbered, stands an army of freeborn Athenians, and among them is clever, fearsome and cunning soldier-statesman, Xanthippus. Knowing defeat means slavery lends keenness to his already sharp blade .

. . Yet people soon forget that freedom is bought with blood. (hide)

MIDNIGHT: In an area of urban wasteland where cats hunt and foxes shriek, a girl is watching... When Saffyre Maddox was ten, something (read more)

MIDNIGHT: In an area of urban wasteland where cats hunt and foxes shriek, a girl is watching...

When Saffyre Maddox was ten, something terrible happened, and she's carried the pain of it ever since. The man who she thought was going to heal her didn't, and now she hides, learning his secrets, invisible in the shadows.

Owen Pick is invisible too. He's never had a girlfriend; he's never even had a friend. Nobody sees him. (hide)

When Addie La Rue makes a pact with the devil, she trades her soul for immortality. But there's always a price - the devil takes (read more)

When Addie La Rue makes a pact with the devil, she trades her soul for immortality.

But there's always a price - the devil takes away her place in the world, cursing her to be forgotten by everyone. Addie flees her tiny home town in 18th-Century France, beginning a journey that takes her across the world, learning to live a life where no one remembers her and everything she owns is lost and broken. Existing only as a muse for artists throughout history, she learns to fall in love anew every single day.
(hide)

In the cold reaches of space, are they sowing the seeds of battle?Alan Saul is now part human and part machine, and our solar system (read more)

In the cold reaches of space, are they sowing the seeds of battle?Alan Saul is now part human and part machine, and our solar system isn't big enough to hold him. He craves the stars, but can't leave yet. His sister Var is trapped on Mars, on the wrong side of a rebellion.

And Saul's human side won't let her die. He must leave Argus Station to stage a dangerous rescue - but mutiny is brewing on board. Serene Galahad is the earth's latest dictator, with its full powers at her disposal - and she'll do anything to prevent Saul from escaping her grasp.
(hide)

Bound together by blood ties, Martha, Jack and Shanco live on a farm in west Wales where their lives unfold in their eerie half-presence (read more)

Bound together by blood ties, Martha, Jack and Shanco live on a farm in west Wales where their lives unfold in their eerie half-presence of their dead parents. Glimmers of understanding punctuate their relationship with one another, but unspoken animosity seems to be the most potent ingredient. A lament for the prizes and the price of nurturing a landscape: an antidote for anyone impatient with those who choose to stay in one place. (hide)