Hodder&Stoughton

'Although it's difficult to believe, the sixties are not fictional; they actually happened' (Author's Afterword) Stephen King, whose first novel, Carrie, was published in 1974, the year before the last US troops withdrew from Vietnam, is the first hugely popular writer of the TV generation. Images from that war — and the protests against it — had flooded America's living rooms for a decade.Hearts in Atlantis is composed offive linked stories set in the years from 1960 to 1999. Each story is deeply rooted in the sixties, and each is haunted by the Vietnam War.Full of danger, full of suspense, most of all full of heart, Hearts in Atlantis will take some readers to a place they have never been... and others to a place they have never been able to completely leave.

'The world has teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted. Trisha McFarland discovered this when she was nine years old. Lost in the woods.' Trisha has only veered a little way off the trail. But in her panic to get back to the path, Trisha takes a turning that leads into the tangled undergrowth. Deeper and deeper in the terrifying woods. At first it's just the bugs, midges and mosquitoes. Then comes the hunger. For comfort she tunes her Walkman into broadcasts of the Red Sox baseball games and the performances of her hero Tom Gordon. As darkness begins to fall, Trisha realises that she is not alone. There's something else in the woods — watching. Waiting...

A game. A husband and wife game. Gerald's Game. But this time Jesse didn't want to play. Lying there, spreadeagled and handcuffed to the bedstead while he'd loomed and drooled over her, she felt angry and humiliated. So she'd kicked out hard. Aimed to hit him where it hurt. He wasn't meant to die, leaving Jesse alone and helpless in a lakeside holiday cabin. Miles from anywhere. No-one to hear her screams. Alone. Except for the voices in her head that had begun to chatter and argue and sneer...

Come close, children, and see the living crocodile. A vintage '54 Buick Roadmaster. At least, that's what it looks like... There is a secret hidden in Shed B in the state police barracks in Statler, Pennsylvania. A secret that has drawn troopers for twenty years — terrified yet irresistibly tempted to look at its chrome fenders, silver grille and exotic exhaust system.Young Ned Wilcox has started coming by the barracks: mowing the lawn, washing the windows, shovelling snow; it's a boy's way of holding on to his father — recently killed in a strange road accident by another Buick.And one day Ned peers through the windows of Shed B and discovers the family secret. Like his father, Ned wants answers. He deserves answers. And the secret begins to stir...

'You're a firestarter honey... just one big zippo lighter'A year ago, he was an upstanding instructor of English at Harrison State College. Now Andy is on the run with his daughter. A pigtailed girl named Charlie. A girl with an unimaginably terrifying gift.A gift which could be useful to corrupt authorities. Soon Charlie will be caught up in the menace of a fateful drug experiment and a sinister government ploy... Let the reader beware: FIRESTARTER is Stephen King at his most mesmerising... and menacing.

When a Washington, D.C. police detective is targeted by Henry Loving, he and his family are immediately put under government protection. Loving is a ruthless 'lifter', hired to extract information from his victims, and he will use whatever means necessary including kidnapping, torturing or killing their family. Assigned to the Kesslers is protection officer Corte: uncompromising, relentlessly devoted to protecting those in his care and a brilliant game strategist. He also knows just how brutal the lifter can be — six years earlier, Loving killed someone close to him. The situation soon escalates into a deadly contest between protector and lifter as each tries to outwit the other...

1952. It is more than a decade since humiliation at Dunkirk brought an end to Britain's war and the beginning of an uneasy peace with Hitler. In Africa, the swastika flies from the Sahara to the Indian Ocean. Gleaming autobahns bisect the jungle, jet fighters patrol the skies. The brutal presence of the SS is visible everywhere. Now, however, the demonic plans of Walter Hochburg — architect of Nazi Africa — threaten Britain's ailing colonies. In England, ex-mercenary Burton Cole is offered one last contract. Burton jumps at the chance to settle an old score with Hochburg, despite the protests of the woman he loves. If Burton fails, unimaginable horrors will be unleashed in Africa. No one — black or white — will be spared. But when his mission turns to disaster, Burton is forced to flee for his life. His flight takes him from the unholy killing ground of Kongo to SS slave camps and on to war-torn Angola, finally reaching its thrilling climax in a conspiracy that leads to the dark heart of the Afrika Reich itself. Guy Saville combines meticulous research with edge-of-the seat suspense to produce a superb novel of alternate history.

Randall Haight has a secret: when he was a teenager, he and his friend killed a 14-year-old girl. Randall did his time and built a new life in the small Maine town of Pastor's Bay, but somebody has discovered the truth about Randall. He is being tormented by anonymous messages, haunting reminders of his past crime, and he wants private detective Charlie Parker to make it stop. But another 14-year-old girl has gone missing, this time from Pastor's Bay, and the missing girl's family has its own secrets to protect. Now Parker must unravel a web of deceit involving the police, the FBI, a doomed mobster named Tommy Morris, and Randall Haight himself. Because Randall Haight is telling lies...

From the author of the cult bestsellers THE BOOK OF BUNNY SUICIDES and RETURN OF THE BUNNY SUICIDES comes another unmissable collection of rabbit-related self destruction... The bunnies are back — and there's only one thing on their minds. In this new collection, follow the continuing adventures of the fluffy little rabbits who just don't want to live any more...

What if love were a disease? There was a time when love was the most important thing in the world. People would go to the end of the earth to find it. They would tell lies for it. Even kill for it. Then, at last, they found the cure. Now, everything is different. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Haloway has always looked forward to the day when she'll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy. But then, with only ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable.

Louis Greig, a war hero and rugby international, entered the privileged world of the British royal family as mentor, physician and friend to a young and hesitant Prince Albert. Greig's influence helped to guide the prince from a stammering, shy schoolboy to become one of the most respected constitutional monarchs, seeing the nation through the Second World War and bringing the monarchy closer to the people. King George's true character was portrayed so memorably in the Oscar winning film, The King's Speech. In an intimate and balanced portrayal of a friendship which lasted almost half a century, The King Maker is the compelling story of two lives inextricably linked, and how this helped to form the remarkable character of the King. Geordie Greig, grandson of Louis Greig, has drawn on private family papers and public archives to reveal this remarkable previously untold story.

The English language is a battlefield. Since the age of Shakespeare, arguments over correct usage have been acrimonious, and those involved have always really been contesting values — to do with morality, politics and class. THE LANGUAGE WARS examines the present state of the conflict, its history and its future. Above all, it uses the past as a way of illuminating the present. Moving chronologically, the book explores the most persistent issues to do with English and unpacks the history of 'proper' usage. Where did these ideas spring from? Which of today's bugbears and annoyances are actually venerable? Who has been on the front line in the language wars? THE LANGUAGE WARS examines grammar rules, regional accents, swearing, spelling, dictionaries, political correctness, and the role of electronic media in reshaping language. It also takes a look at such niggling concerns as the split infinitive, elocution and text messaging. Peopled with intriguing characters such as Jonathan Swift, H.W.Fowler and George Orwell as well as the more disparate figures of Lewis Carroll, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lenny Bruce, THE LANGUAGE WARS is an essential volume for anyone interested in the state of the English language today or intrigued about its future.

In the good old days, magic was powerful, unregulated by government, and even the largest spell could be woven without filling in magic release form B1-7g. Then the magic started fading away. Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for soothsayers and sorcerers. But work is drying up. Drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and even magic carpets are reduced to pizza delivery. So it's a surprise when the visions start. Not only do they predict the death of the Last Dragon at the hands of a dragonslayer, they also point to Jennifer, and say something is coming. Big Magic...

'I can imagine you at forty', she said, a hint of malice in her voice. 'I can picture it right now'. He smiled without opening his eyes. 'Go on then'. 15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows? Twenty years, two people, ONE DAY. From the author of the massive bestseller STARTER FOR TEN.

It is the sweltering summer of 1997, and Karen is a strait-laced, straight-A university student. When she meets the impossibly glamorous Biba, a bohemian orphan who lives in a crumbling old mansion in Highgate with her enigmatic brother Rex, she is soon drawn into their world — but something terrible is about to happen, and someone's going to end up dead. Already drawing comparisons to Barbara Vine, Tana French and Sophie Hannah, Erin Kelly is an extraordinarily talented new author.

Zoe Baxter has spent ten years trying to get pregnant, and just when she's about to get her heart's desire, tragedy destroys her world. In the aftermath of loss and divorce, she throws herself into her career as a music therapist. Working with Vanessa, she finds their relationship moving from business, to friendship, and then — to Zoe's surprise — blossoming into love. When Zoe allows herself to start thinking of children again, she remembers that there are still frozen embryos that she and her husband never used. But Max, having sought peace at the bottom of a bottle, has found redemption in an evangelical church, and Zoe needs his permission to take his unborn child... SING YOU HOME is accompanied by a soundtrack of original songs created for the novel by Jodi Picoult and Ellen Wilber.

Lorna Byrne sees and talks with angels every day of her life and has done since she was a baby. As a child Lorna was told by the angels that her job on this earth was to share the wisdom and knowledge that God and the angels were giving her. When Lorna's husband died, her world fell apart. In Stairways to Heaven she tells the story of how she pulled her life back together and how she, an uneducated mother of four, broke her silence and started to spread the angels' message to the world. Lorna tells us of the future that God envisages for us — and some possible other futures, depending on the decisions we make. 'Everyone must play their part', she says. She reveals some of the most extraordinarily detailed information about angels and the way they work in the world, that has ever been written down. She also introduces us to the Guardian Angel of the Earth and explains why it is so important that we listen to him. She tells the tragic love story of two spirits who she met first as a young child. These spirits stayed close to her for twenty years using Lorna's spiritual gifts to heal those who had done them wrong — and also to heal the descendants of those wrongdoers, whose lives were still being overshadowed. The overwhelming reaction of readers to Lorna's writing — regardless of religious belief — is that it gives them hope, helping them to realise that no matter how alone they might feel they have a guardian angel by their side.

It's December 1997, and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia's Far East. The tiger isn't just killing people, it's annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through the gruesome remains of the victims, they discover that these attacks aren't random: the tiger is apparently engaged in a vendetta. Injured, starving, and extremely dangerous, the tiger must be found before it strikes again. As he re-creates these extraordinary events, John Vaillant gives us an unforgettable portrait of this spectacularly beautiful and mysterious region. We meet the native tribes who for centuries have worshipped and lived alongside tigers, even sharing their kills with them. We witness the arrival of Russian settlers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, soldiers and hunters who greatly diminished the tiger populations. And we come to know their descendants, who, crushed by poverty, have turned to poaching and further upset the natural balance of the region. This ancient, tenuous relationship between man and predator is at the very heart of this remarkable book. Throughout we encounter surprising theories of how humans and tigers may have evolved to coexist, how we may have developed as scavengers rather than hunters, and how early Homo sapiens may have fit seamlessly into the tiger's ecosystem. Above all, we come to understand the endangered Siberian tiger, a highly intelligent super-predator that can grow to ten feet long, weigh more than six hundred pounds, and range daily over vast territories of forest and mountain. Beautifully written and deeply informative, The Tiger circles around three main characters: Vladimir Markov, a poacher killed by the tiger; Yuri Trush, the lead tracker; and the tiger himself. It is an absolutely gripping tale of man and nature that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the taiga.

It's the oldest question of all, George. Who can spy on the spies? The man he knew as Control is dead, and the young Turks who forced him out now run the Circus. But George Smiley isn't quite ready for retirement — especially when a pretty, would-be defector surfaces with a shocking accusation: a Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British Intelligence. Relying only on his wits and a small, loyal cadre, Smiley traces the breach back to Karla-his Moscow Centre nemesis-and sets a trap to catch the traitor. The first novel in John le Carry's celebrated Karla trilogy, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a heart-stopping tale of international intrigue. With an Introduction by the Author.

April 2nd 1879. St Petersburg. A shot rings out in Palace Square. The Tsar is unhurt, but badly shaken. Cossack guards tackle the would-be assassin to the ground. And in the melee no one notices a pretty dark haired young woman in a heavy coat walk purposefully away from the scene. Russia is alive with revolutionaries and this is just one of many assassination attempts on the unpopular Tsar Alexander II. For Dr Frederick Hadfield, part of the Anglo-Russian establishment with a medical practice dependent on the patronage of the nobility, politics is a distraction. But when he meets the passionate idealist Anna Petrovna, he finds himself drawn in to living a dangerous double life... Set in a world of stark contrasts, from glittering ballrooms to the cruel cells of the House of Preliminary Detention, from the grandeur of the British Embassy to the underground presses of the young revolutionaries, TO KILL A TSAR is both gripping thriller and passionate love story.

The two things that conjured up that horrible night, were his run of luck at the Wheel of Fortune, and the mask... Meet Johnny Smith. A young man whose streak of luck ends dramatically in a major car crash. Followed by blackness. A long, long time in cold limbo.When he wakes up life has been turned upside down. His fiancee has met someone else. And Johnny is cursed with the power to perceive evil in men's souls. He's had these hunches since he had an ice-skating accident as a child. Now he has an ability to see into the future. An ability which will bring him into a terrifying confrontation with a charismatic, power-hungry and dangerous man...

Creating George Stark was easy. Getting rid of him won't be... The sparrows are flying again. The idea — unbidden, inexplicable — haunts the edge of Thad Beaumont's mind.Thad should be happy. For years now it is his secret persona 'George Stark', author of super-violent pulp thrillers, who has paid the family bills. But now, Thad is writing seriously again under his own name, and his menacing pseudonym has been buried forever.And yet... the sparrows are flying again, and something is terribly wrong in Thad Beaumont's world.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, a monster came to the small town of Castle Rock, Maine... He was not a werewolf, vampire, ghoul, or unnameable creature from the enchanted forest or snow wastes; he was only a cop... Cujo is a huge Saint Bernard dog, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. Then one day Cujo chases a rabbit into a bolt-hole. Except it isn't a rabbit warren any more. It is a cave inhabited by rabid bats.And Cujo falls sick. Very sick. And the gentle giant who once protected the family becomes a vortex of horror inexorably drawing in all the people around him...

A supernatural tale about girlfriends, boyfriends and a car called Christine.Christine was eating into his mind, burrowing into his unconscious.Christine, blood-red, fat, and finned, was twenty. Her promise lay all in her past. Greedy and big, she was Arnie's obsession, a '58 Plymouth Fury. Broken down but not finished.There was still power in her — a frightening power that leaked like sump oil, staining and corrupting. A malign power that corroded the mind and turned ownership into Possession.