Orion Books

Greece 1936. A young British diplomat and his wife have been posted to Athens. Hugh loves the life there but his spirited and unconventional wife, Evadne, finds it hard to fit into the whirl of endless parties and socialising. When Hugh is sent to Crete to sort out a problem, they stay in a rundown house owned by his family. His wife falls in love with the place and the people, and stays on when Hugh returns to his duties. As she tries to rebuild the ramshackle home, Evadne — known as Heavenly by the locals — makes firm friends with Anthi, a young woman from the village and Christo, the handsome and charismatic young builder. But the dark clouds of war are gathering and the island will become a crucible of violence and bloodshed in the days to come. For Heavenly, her friends and family, it will be the greatest test they have ever known.

Prizewinning writer and critic`s dazzling biography of the Eternal City. Robert Hughes traces the Eternal Citys history from Romulus and Remus, through the intrigues of the Empire and the Renaissance to the present day. A personal account of his relationship with the city, the book also considers Romes place in global culture and its influence (spiritual and profane) on people around the world.

Frank Meyer had got out of ' the life' safely. He had put an end to his mercenary days, turned over a new leaf and settled down with his wife and children. It had been a hard decision but, encouraged by his boss and friend Joe Pike, he had walked away. Ten years later, a group of armed men break into his Los Angeles home and brutally gun down him and his family. It's a vicious, cold and professional job. The crew leave no trace behind except the bodies. But they have made one catastrophic, and almost certainly terminal, mistake — Joe Pike. Because Pike is now determined to hunt down and eliminate everyone involved in the attack, one by one. And it doesn't matter that, as he starts to investigate, he discovers that these criminals are bigger and better organised than he ever could have imagined, because they are about to learn the first rule...Don't make Joe Pike mad...

After sixteen months of travelling round the Mediterranean in search of the ancient secrets of the olive tree, Carol returns to her beloved olive farm in the south of France, to her husband Michel and his burgeoning family. However, the homecoming celebrations are overshadowed by disturbing discoveries. The plight of the honey bee has become an international crisis and Carol is faced with unsettling news about the hives on her own olive farm. The bee colony that has regularly wintered at Carol's farm has been decimated while she was away, poisoned by insecticides. While the multinational companies are pushing for 'bigger, better, bumper' crops, a small band of farmers and ecologists are calling for a halt to many of the modern farming malpractices that are endangering the planet. Carol is amongst them. But it puts her own farm, her idyll, under threat. At what point do you turn your back on all that you believe in and all that you have been fighting for? This is the story of how Carol and Michel struggle with some difficult choices, and how they decide to deal with the unavoidable disappointments and inevitable responsibilities that come with running an organic farm. Return to the Olive Farm is a song of the earth. With its lyricism, humanity and humour, Return to the Olive farm is a beautifully written book that passionately confronts the issues of today; issues that impact upon each and everyone of us.

There is only one person who can tell Stieg Larsson's story other than himself — his lifelong companion and muse, Eva Gabrielsson. Here she tells the story of their 30-year romance, of Stieg's upbringing and early years, and how this shaped his morals and personality. She talks of his life-long struggle to expose Sweden's Neo-Nazis, of his struggle to keep the magazine he founded, EXPO, alive, his difficult relationships with his immediate family, and the joy and relief he discovered writing the Millennium trilogy. Above all, this is a love story, and shows that if there was another secret besides Larsson's own imagination and convictions, it was his absolute love for his companion and her nurturing of their privacy and shared passions. Their story is told as a series of short vignettes, and Eva Gabrielsson speaks with rare candour and dignity, inspired only by the truth as she knows it. This book is poignant in its account of two soulmates and the life they shared, and most importantly is deeply insightful into the man everyone wants to know better, and about whom so little is known. I would have preferred to have never written this book. It speaks of Stieg, of our life together, and of my life after his death, writes Gabrielsson early in her book. It was written because she alone can tell this story.

Young lawyer Georg Polger gives up a comfortable existence in Germany to work as a freelance translator in the South of France. But business in the picturesque village is far from booming, and Georg struggles to make ends meet. One day he is approached by a certain Mr Bulnakoff, who wants Georg to take over a local translation agency. The previous owner has just died in mysterious circumstances. Everything seems to be going perfectly: Georg falls in love with Bulnakoff's attractive secretary, Francoise, and takes on a lucrative project left unfinished by his predecessor, translating plans for military helicopters. But everything changes when Georg notices Francoise copying his plans. She tells Georg that Bulnakoff has threatened to harm her brother, who lives in Poland, if she refuses to do his bidding. When Georg confronts Bulnakoff Francoise disappears, and mysterious elements within the village try to hound him out. All he has left of Francoise is a picture she gave him of a church, which she told him was in Warsaw. But when a friend tells him the church is actually in New York, Georg flies to America in a desperate bid to track down Francoise, and unravel the web of deceit. Tailed from his arrival, Georg quickly realises that he is stuck between the CIA and the KGB, and further out of his depth than he can begin to comprehend. But which side was he working for? Who is the mysterious Mr Bulkanoff? And did he ever know the real Francoise?

Joe Abercrombie is the most successful fantasy novelist of his generation, with a remarkable, cynical and powerful voice cutting through the cliches of the fantasy genre to create something compelling and exceptionally commercial. With a strong core readership already behind him, each new novel breaks new ground — the epic fantasy quest in The First Law Trilogy, revenge fantasy with the hit BEST SERVED COLD, and now, with THE HEROES, venturing into the dangerous and topical territory of war. Set over three days, in the same world as BEST SERVED COLD, the action is compelling and fast, the battlefield is muddy, bloody and horrible and Joe Abercrombie uses his fantasy setting to explore violence and ambition, strategy and the truism that no plan survives contact with enemy. The characters are the stars, as ever, and the message is dark: when it comes to war, there are no heroes ...

When Elizabeth Stuart starts looking for a new home for herself and her son, somewhere she can recover from a particularly bruising divorce, Still Creek seems the answer to her dreams. Hidden in the lush Amish farmlands of Minnesota, Still Creek offers a sanctuary to the splintered family who look forward to settling down there. But on their arrival the locals are distinctly cool to the newcomers. And when Elizabeth becomes involved in a murder case, she realises that there is a lot more to life in Still Creek than meets the eye.

Serenade is the story of the eternal triangle — with a difference. John Howard Sharp is an American opera singer down on his luck, having just bombed in Rigoletto in Mexico City when he first encounters the beautiful Mexican-Indian prostitute called Juana. Miraculously, she offers him the chance to rebuild his career in Hollywood and New York but then Winston Hawes, the young, rich and well-connected conductor who had first launched Sharp, comes back into his life with terrible consequences.

When Alice Forster receives an email from her dead sister she assumes it must be a sick practical joke. Then an invitation arrives to the virtual world of Soul Beach, an idyllic online paradise of sun, sea and sand where Alice can finally talk to her sister again — and discover a new world of friendships, secrets and maybe even love... But why is Soul Beach only inhabited by the young, the beautiful and the dead? Who really murdered Megan Forster? And could Alice be next? The first book in an intriguing and compelling trilogy centred around the mystery of Megan Forster's death.

Deep beneath the floorboards lives the tiny Borrower family — Pod, Homily and Arrietty Clock. Everything they have is borrowed from the humans above them, even their names are not quite their own. There is just one rule: they must never be seen. Then one day Arrietty meets the boy, and the family's incredible adventure begins. A great value hardback edition of the first two classic BORRWERS books to tie in with this year's BBC 90-minute family Christmas special.

When a physicist is murdered in LA it seems the killer has no fear of publicity, leaving the body on The Mulholland overlook, a site with a stunning view over the city. And when it's discovered that the victim turned over a quantity of a lethal chemical to his killer before he died, Harry knows he has more than just a single death to worry about. Alongside the forces of Homeland Security, Harry realises he must solve the murder or face unimaginable consequences.

Jason Bourne takes a mission to rescue his only friend in the CIA, Martin Lindros, who disappeared in Africa while tracking nuclear material. Bourne agrees to help track the money trail of the terrorists, but soon suffers from confusing flashbacks of unfamiliar places and events. Is someone brainwashing him in order to throw him off the trail? Worse still, is the man he saved really Martin Lindros? Now Bourne is on his own — gathering evidence, while trying to stay one step ahead of the terrorists who are determined to destroy the USA...

Horrid Henry hates writing thank you letters. Why should he waste his precious time thanking people for terrible presents? In fact, why should anyone? Then he has a wonderful, spectacular idea... one that's guaranteed to make him rich, rich rich!

Readers were first introduced to Jason Bourne's nemesis Leonid Arkadin, a brilliant Russian assassin and fearless international mercenary, in THE BOURNE SANCTION. His girlfriend was killed during a fight for which an enraged Arkadin blames Bourne. In The BOURNE DECEPTION, Arkadin hunted Bourne to take revenge and kill him. Bourne, in a fight for his life, learned that Arkadin's skills mirror Jason's because he received the same original CIA Treadstone training. Now, in THE BOURNE OBJECTIVE, Jason will turn the tables and target Arkadin. Hunter will become hunted. But revenge can cause great psychological devastation. Has this become too personal for Bourne? Will this hunt be Bourne's downfall?

David Spaulding is the most feared and efficient Allied agent in wartime Europe. Expert, deadly and professional, he is also high on the Gestapo's 'most wanted' list. Now Spaulding has been selected by the Allied Command to transact an undercover deal in Argentina involving top secret Nazi scientific plans. The dealer is Erich Rhinemann, an exiled German Jew who is awaiting the end of the war with his millions in an impenetrable retreat near Buenos Aires. But there's something Spaulding doesn't know. The other side of the deal. And it involves the most bizarre, horrific intrigue of the Second World War...

Jason Bourne has gradually come to realise who and what he really is — a strange amalgam of a man named David Webb, and a deadly killer. Now David Webb is living a peaceful life as a university professor in the backwoods of America with his wife and children. But someone is reaching out to take him out of the game forever. A deadly assassin is on his trail and his former handler has been brutally murdered already. It seems that David Webb must once again turn to Bourne to save his life and family.

Bestselling novelist and Holmes expert Anthony Horowitz will bring the great man to life again for a new generation of readers. As the creator of Foyle, recently voted the nation's favourite TV detective at the ITV Crime Thriller Awards 2010, Anthony has already displayed his talent for plotting and characterisation. Having been a lifelong fan of Conan Doyle's novels, he was the perfect choice to return to the original stories and create a new mystery for Holmes and Watson. Interest in Holmes has never been higher than right now. A blockbusting movie adaptation has coincided with the BBC's intriguing modern update and both successes are to be repeated this autumn. Horowitz says: I fell in love with the Sherlock Holmes stories when I was 16 and I've read them many times since. My aim is to produce a first-rate mystery for a modern audience while remaining absolutely true to the spirit of the original.

FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast is visiting the old family home in Louisiana. Surrounded by ghosts of the past, he can't help but think of Helen — his wife who tragically died twelve years ago. But whilst examining her possessions, he makes a startling discovery — one that leads him to believe Helen's death was not accidental... With the help of his trusted friend Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta, Pendergast embarks on a quest to uncover the mystery of his wife's final days. It's a journey that takes him deep into the dark heart of her past, to a hidden obsession and secrets that some people would do anything to protect. But as the hunt for Helen's murderer ventures into the Bayou, Pendergast find himself faced with a killer question: just who was the woman he married?

1943. As war sweeps across Europe, Max Carver's father moves his family away from the city, to an old wooden house on the coast. But as soon as they arrive, strange things begin to happen: Max discovers a garden filled with eerie statues; his sisters are plagued by unsettling dreams and voices; a box of old films opens a window to the past. Most unsettling of all are rumours about the previous owners and the mysterious disappearance of their son. As Max delves into the past, he encounters the terrifying story of the Prince of Mist, a sinister shadow who emerges from the night to settle old scores, then disappears with the first mists of dawn... Originally published in Spain as a young adult novel, THE PRINCE OF MIST is a mesmerising tale of mystery, romance and adventure.

University professor David Webb — forever caught between two identities — is still haunted by the splintered nightmares his former life — as Jason Bourne. Soon he finds himself embroiled in a CIA operation to hunt down a terrorist organisation, and is plunged into the deadliest and most tangled assignment of his double life. With his own side trying to take him down, all the while an assassin as brilliant and damaged as himself is getting closer by the minute...

Gerhard Self, the Sweet-Afton smoking, sambuca-swilling, most unlikely of PIs is back in a new tale of deception and intrigue, set against the backdrop of post-reunification Germany. After a chance encounter with the owner of a prestigious private bank, the now septuagenarian detective is enlisted to delve into the institution's history, apparently in the name of a book to commemorate the bank's foundation. But his seemingly anodyne brief — to discover the identity of a sleeping partner from several decades before — throws up far more questions than answers. As it becomes clear that the sleeping partner is in no way the most mysterious aspect of the bank's history, Self begins to suspect his mission may have been but a ruse to lure him into the shady world of the bank's enigmatic masters — a certain Herr Welker and his steely Russian foster brother Samarin. Trying in vain to extricate himself and his increasingly shaky heart from the web of deceit — and to work out who really is the baddie of the piece — Self is thrown headlong into a tale of money-laundering, murder and mafiosi. But who is blackmailing whom? Did Welker's wife really die in a tragic accident? And why is a washed-up old Stasi man pretending to be Self's long-lost son? Join Gerhard, the irascible armchair philosopher, on his most danegrous and far-reaching mission to date.

In this exciting new novel from international bestseller Coben, his fans will learn more about Myron Bolitar than they ever have before as Myron's mysterious, estranged younger brother Brad disappears, only to leave Myron with his son — a teenage boy that Myron didn't even know existed...

Billy the kid has so much to do before Gabby Goose's birthday party, there's no way he's ready for his afternoon nap. It's up to the rest of the animals in Potter's Barn to tire him out and ensure Gabby's party goes off with a bang!