Little, Brown and Company

Sisters-in-law Kate, Helen and Miranda all have one thing in common? They're hiding something. It's not easy being part of the high-achieving Fox family: the expectations and demands of their husbands and children; the jealousies and rivalries; and the endless Sunday lunches where somehow everything feels like a competition. So when mysterious Sasha enters their lives, bloodied from the battlefield of a painful divorce, buried frustrations rush to the surface. Why is Kate's husband Jonny working so late at the office, and how will she cope at home alone? Can army-wife Helen trust Jago to come back to her next time, or is he drawn by temptations in a foreign field? And will Simon's explosive secret blow Miranda's marriage apart once and for all? Three sisters-in-law. One devastating divorcee. Whose husband is about to play with fire?

Nyree and Cia live on a remote farm in the east of what was Rhodesia in the late 1970s. Beneath the dripping vines of the Vumba rainforest, and under the tutelage of their heretical grandfather, theirs is a seductive childhood laced with African paganism, mangled Catholicism and the lore of the Brothers Grimm. Their world extends as far as the big fence, erected to keep out the 'Terrs' whom their father is off fighting. The two girls know little beyond that until the arrival from the outside world of 'the bastard', their orphaned cousin Ronin, who is to poison their idyll for ever.

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that takes over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed. Wanderer, the invading 'soul' who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves — Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.

Lola Dakota had to call in the police several times to restrain her abusive husband, but he always returned, so when they got wind of his plan to hire a hitman to kill her she agrees to play her part in the sting which would see both men arrested. It proves to be a great success, but several hours later and when her husband is under lock and key, Lola is truly dead and by someone's hand. The police team on the original sting are in disarray, so Alex Cooper and Mike Chapman are swiftly in place to take over. Looking beyond her husband into her professional life, they discover a university department riddled with jealousies, extra-marital affairs, swindled funds and the unexplained disappearance of a student known to be a drug user. The one thing which seems to link all the players with all the misdemeanours is the university's research site on an island off Manhattan where they were investigating the remains of the Victorian isolation hospitals and lunatic asylums and the morgue — the deadhouse. But why Lola's murder is connected to the place is not so easy to prove, nor the identity of her killer.

It's a case of espionage, skulduggery and much unpleasantness. And it's also Gerald's first official governmental assignment. Deep in training, he's totally unaware that Princess Melissande has opened her own witching locum agency a one-stop-shop where magical problems are solved, for a price. Then she's offered a job that puts her on a collision course with Gerald and the future looks disagreeable, to say the least. Witches Incorporated is to investigate staff pilfering in a prestigious magical Research and Development firm. One with ties to the government. Confusion arises when Melissande and Gerald discover that they are both working at the firm undercover, but with separate allegiances. Deciding to team up rather than work apart, Gerald and Melissande find that their number one suspect is Gerald's professional rival. To succeed, they'll have to overcome a fair bit of chaos and the ultimate threat of Gerald's untimely death.

There's a beautiful poor maiden, an irate, miserly father (in-law), two unlovely sisters (in-law), and a not-so-charming prince who makes our heroine a suggestion that's really not quite proper. In this charming, satirical Cinderella-story, first published in 1938, Gibbons uses all her characteristic wit to poke fun at society.

Jo and Gemma are friends who meet for coffee every Saturday to gossip and discuss the state of the world. At one such meeting, Gemma mentions killing her boss and Jo goes along with the joke. But Jo is not amused when she finds a real body on the beach at Selsey soon afterwards — an unidentified nearly-naked woman, who has been drowned. It take DCI Hen Mallin and her team some time to discover who the woman is, and as they are investigating, Jo and Gemma are getting into more trouble — they keep coming across dead bodies... Peter Lovesey's thirtieth novel explores one of his favourite themes — the innocent caught up in sinister events. His previous Hen Mallin book, The Circle, was described by Gerald Kaufman in The Scotsman as 'this gem of a book... the superb Peter Lovesey provides yet another novel of unalloyed delight'.

Baird College's Mendenhall echoes with the footsteps of students heading home for Thanksgiving break and Robin Stone, who won't be going home, swears she can feel the creepy, hundred-year-old residence hall breathe a sigh of relief for its long-awaited solitude. As a massive storm approaches, four other lonely students reveal themselves to Robin: Patrick, a handsome jock; Lisa, a manipulative tease; Cain, a brooding musician; and Martin, a scholarly eccentric. Each has forsaken a long weekend at home for their own secret reasons. The five unlikely companions establish a tentative rapport, but they soon become aware of another presence disturbing the building's ominous silence. Are they the victims of an elaborate prank, or is the energy evidence of something genuine — something intent on using them for its own terrifying ends?

When a woman is burned to death in Grandal Field in Devon, it seems like a case of mistaken identity. Until DI Wesley Peterson learns of a legend involving a French woman who burned to death there in the thirteenth century. And when he discovers that records of a previous excavation on the site have vanished, and that two archaeologists involved in that dig died in tragic circumstances, Wesley starts to investigate the possibility of a link between the legend and recent events. But edging closer to the truth brings unexpected danger to Wesley. For the truth echoes a story of twisted love and obsession from many centuries ago — a truth that almost costs Wesley his life...

The double christening of her sisters' two kids gets Holly Bennett thinking. She would seriously love to have a baby one day, but for the first time in ages being adopted has become a stumbling block for her. Does she want to start a family of her own when she doesn't even know who she really is or where she's come from? With an on-off boyfriend who she's swiftly falling out of lust with, Holly decides to move back to her home town to be near her adoptive family. Who knows, it may be the change she needs to get her life back on track — and the place to be if she wants to begin tracing her roots. But these roots prove trickier to trace than Holly has expected. That is, until she hires her own oh-so-sexy private investigator to take charge...

Alix, arrogant, middle-aged and angry comes home to the derelict port of Liverpool as her mother lies dying. Irritably resigned to living alone for the rest of her life she suddenly finds herself erotically attracted to a stranger. Joseph is an American architect who has come to the city to build a hotel. Refusing to accept that his wife has left him or the trauma of a war he once fought in, the question is whether these survivors of the battles of the Seventies are meant for each other or not. And what happened to a factory in Dresden which long ago made the perfect face cream... 'Perhaps her most accessible novel to date... Grant's prose is blunt, honest, yet often beautiful and bitingly funny. Equally comfortable discussing concepts of justice and grooming routinme, the voices Grant creates are striking and authentic. Her characters are irascible, witty, fierce, and full of the contradictions and blind spots that make them wholly human. This is a compelling and satisfying novel'. Rachel Seiffert, author of The Dark Room.

In the Ichidian Universe things were once greatly out of hand. No one was safe. No planet was left untouched by violence. People were dragged from their homes and killed in the streets, and a ruthless tyrant was bent on being the sole ruler. Those who opposed him formed an alliance and made a treaty to work together. They formed their own group called The League. An elite group of soldiers, the best from their worlds, they fell under the leadership of the Quorum. But over time The League evolved to be more than just policemen. The Quorum realised that sometimes the best way to keep trouble from starting was to cut it off at its knees. Assassination politics became the thing and so a separate group of soldiers was needed — The League Assassins. Highly trained and highly valued, they are the backbone of the government. However, corruption is a hard mistress to quell. Her evil touch is felt by everyone. Not even The League is immune to her and her guile...

'There never was a Churchill from John of Marlborough down who had either morals or principles', so said Gladstone. From the First Duke of Marlborough — soldier of genius, restless empire-builder and cuckolder of Charles II — onwards, the Churchills have been politicians, gamblers and profligates, heroes and womanisers. The Churchills is a richly layered portrait of an extraordinary set of men and women — grandly ambitious, regularly impecunious, impulsive, arrogant and brave. And towering above the Churchill clan is the figure of Winston — his failures and his triumphs shown in a new and revealing context — ultimately our 'greatest Briton'.

Worried about how you'll be able to afford all the things you love in the midst of the credit crisis? With almost twice as many people aged 18-24 as stressed by their financial situation as those aged over 55, and a third of 18-30 year olds cutting back on going out due to limited funds, THE LAZY GIRL'S GUIDE TO THE HIGH LIFE ON A BUDGET is an essential survival guide to living it up without losing the plot. It's about making sense of the credit crunch, dealing with your debts and learning to be thrifty, all so you can live your life as glamorously as you want. Full of tips on how to do everything from the frivolous shop smartly and be supermarket savvy to the serious downshift and bounce back from redundancy it's the most prudent buy of the season.

Tomb raider Simon Bonner wants out of the looting game... until a mysterious crystal lens lands on his doorstep. Legend has it that this lens holds the key to the archives of man — a Mexican tomb that explains the root of all knowledge. There's just one problem — he doesn't know how to use it. Museum curator Jillian Talbot's ability to see an object's history is her secret, so when Simon approaches her, she finds it hard to believe that she's the seer of legend — that only she can unlock the mystery behind the crystal lens. Journeying into the jungles of Mexico, with evil crooks hot on their tail and a growing passion between them, every move for Jillian and Simon becomes a terrifying dance with danger.

'I ought to tell you at the beginning that I am not quite normal having had a violent experience at the age of nine' Jessica Vye's 'violent experience' colours her schooldays and her reaction to the world around her a confining world of Order Marks, wartime restrictions, viyella dresses, nicely-restrained essays and dusty tea shops. For Jessica she has been told that she is 'beyond all possible doubt', a born writer. With her inability to conform, her absolute compulsion to tell the truth and her dedication to accurately noting her experiences, she knows this anyway. But what she doesn't know is that the experiences that sustain and enrich her burgeoning talent will one day lead to a new and entirely unexpected reality.

Inspector Singh is back, but this time on secondment to Bali. A bomb had been let off in the most touristy part of the island and Singh has been sent to help with security and anti-terrorist measures. But very soon the Bali police realise Singh has little to offer them in terms of experience in this field. He's much better suited to doing what he's good at — solving murder. Simple! So when a body is discovered in the wreckage, killed by a bullet before the bomb went off, Singh should be the one to find the answers. But simple murders are never as simple as they seem and this one has far-reaching political consequences...

The 'book of the dead' is the morgue log, the ledger in which all cases are entered by hand. For Kay Scarpetta, however, it is about to have a new meaning. Fresh from her bruising battle with a psychopath in Florida, Scarpetta decides it's time for a change of pace. Moving to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, she opens a unique private forensic pathology practice, one in which she and her colleagues offer expert crime scene investigation and autopsies to communities lacking local access to competent death investigation and modern technology. It seems like an ideal situation, until the murders and other violent deaths begin. A woman is ritualistically murdered in her multi-million-dollar beach home. The body of an abused young boy is found dumped in a desolate marsh. A sixteen-year-old tennis star is found nude and mutilated near Piazza Navona in Rome. Scarpetta has dealt with many brutal and unusual crimes before, but never a string of them as baffling, or as terrifying, as the ones before her now. Before she is through, that book of the dead will contain many names — and the pen may be poised to write her own.

Kay Scarpetta and her colleagues-Benton Wesley, Pete Marino, and her niece Lucy Farinelli-return to a series of forensic cases as haunting as any they have ever tackled. Working with the National Forensic Institute in Florida, Scarpetta and Marino examine the X-rays of a man who has died from a shotgun blast to the chest. But the pellets embedded show a strange 'pinball' pattern and the two can't help but wonder if this points to suicide-or to murder. In an abandoned house in the rural South, a woman is held against her will. Her captor is unknown to her-and indeed unseen-but even in the dark, she knows that he is near. And on Cape Cod, Lucy awakens to a gray winter morning and the sure feeling that she has made a dreadful mistake.

There's a very good reason to be afraid of the dark ...Alone on Dartmoor without a car, Erin O'Leary has gone to ground, hiding from Russian assassins. Her new neighbours are a disparate bunch: Gerald and Sylvia, whose social pretensions exceed their altered means; Ned and Lisa, newlyweds who only know each other from work and embittered Auriol, abandoned along with the dog. Crazy Betty, who lives in the woods, guards the land she considers her own. And a ghost is seen in the windswept churchyard tending her own grave. Winter approaches; the nights draw in. Each has a secret they want to hide. And when the killing starts, each has a motive.

When a family heirloom is stolen — a small silver statue belonging to the only survivor of the Lusitania — Malachi, Gideon and Rebecca Sullivan are determined to recover the treasure. Their quest takes them from their home in Ireland to Helsinki, Prague and New York.

To the doctors the woman in the ambulance was just another casualty, just more beautiful than most, more badly hurt. She was Daphne Fields, a famous author whose stories were drawn from her own struggle; to choose between the two men she loved.

Hollywood, 1945. Shipping heir Ward Thayer and screen star Faye Price are reunited after a chance meeting two years earlier. Unable to forget the connection they shared and helpless to resist it, romance quickly sparks. But for Faye, daring and passionate, the life she's heading for with Ward is a threat to her ambition. How can she decide between Hollywood and motherhood? Is it right to choose fame over family? Faye is on the brink of an impossible choice that will shape her life — and the lives of those she loves — in ways she could scarcely have imagined.

The Perfect Love... Jessica and Ian were a golden couple — young, glamourous, successful and deeply in love. Until one afternoon's casual faithlessness threatened their relationship, ended their days of happiness and nights of desire. Or so it seemed. But for Jessica and Ian, the lesson of love was only just beginning... A reprint of a novel which has been unavailable since 1987, about a young, glamorous, successful couple whose relationship is threatened by an afternoon's faithlessness.