Orion Books

The worst day of Tim Blake's life started out with him making breakfast for his seventeen-year-old daughter Sydney. Syd was staying with him while she worked a summer job — even if he wasn't entirely sure what her job at the Just Inn Time motel actually was — and Tim hoped this quality father-daughter time would somehow help her deal with his divorce. When she didn't arrive home at her usual time, he thought she'd probably gone to the mall to hang with her friends. When she didn't answer her phone he began to worry. When she didn't come home at all, he began to panic. And when the people at the Just Inn Time said they had no Sydney Blake working at the motel and never had, he began to see his life going into freefall. If she hadn't been working at the Just Inn Time every day, what had she been doing? Something she couldn't — or wouldn't — tell her own father about? To find his daughter Tim doesn't need to simply track her down — he needs to know who she really was, and what could have made her step out of her own life without leaving a trace. Only one thing has him convinced the worst hasn't already happened: the fact that some very scary people seem just as eager as he is to find her. The question is: who's going to find her first?

Paris, 1815. Napoleon has just surrendered at Waterloo and is due to begin his exile. Meanwhile, Daniel Connor, a young medical student from Edinburgh, has just arrived in Paris to study anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes — only to realise that his letters of introduction and a gift of precious coral specimens, on which his tenure depends, have been stolen by the beautiful woman with whom he shared a stagecoach. In the fervour and tumult of post revolutionary Paris, nothing is quite as it seems. In trying to recover his lost valuables, Daniel discovers that his beautiful adversary is in fact a philosopher-thief who lives in a shadowy world of outlaws and emigres. As Daniel embark on a passionate love affair with the Coral Thief, he is drawn to join her salon of thieves to execute one last breathtakingly bold robbery...

Mike Mackenzie is a self-made man with too much time on his hands and a bit of the devil in his soul. He is looking for something to liven up the days and settles on a plot to rip-off one of the most high-profile targets in the capital — the National Gallery of Scotland. So, together with two close friends from the art world, he devises a plan to a lift some of the most valuable artwork around. But of course, the real trick is to rob the place for all its worth whilst persuading the world that no crime was ever committed...

From the team that brought you the bestselling SECRETS OF THE CODE and SECRETS OF ANGELS AND DEMONS comes the first literary companion to Dan Brown's latest blockbuster. SECRETS OF THE LOST SYMBOL builds upon the expertise and wisdom of Nobel prize-winning scientists, historians, technologists and conspiracy theorists to help readers fully understand the mysteries behind THE LOST SYMBOL. Featuring extracts, interviews and specially commissioned commentary by world-renowned scholars, SECRETS OF THE LOST SYMBOL presents a wealth of information on the vast range of subjects covered in the novel. Using the same comprehensive, detailed approach as Burstein's previous books, SECRETS OF THE SYMBOL will deconstruct and delve into the provocative issues raised by Brown's novel — including the history of Freemasonry. This book is for everyone who finished THE LOST SYMBOL thinking, 'I need to know more about this book.'

Myron is summoned to Paris at the behest of an old lover, Terese. She is in unspecified trouble and needs his help. When he gets there, he discovers that her husband has been murdered and she is the main suspect. The interesting thing is that more than one blood-type has been discovered at the scene — and the other blood can only be attributed to her daughter. But she died 10 years before. As Myron and Terese try to find out exactly what's going on, they uncover more and more questions. Did the daughter really die? Did Terese's husband have a further child with someone else? But the truth is something no one expected...

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux knows she's the best — but she doesn't know if she's good enough for this job. Hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael, a being so lethal that no mortal wants his attention, only one thing is clear — failure is not an option ...even if the task she's been set is impossible. Because this time, it's not a wayward vamp she has to track. It's an archangel gone bad. The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other ...and pull her to the razor's edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn't destroy her, succumbing to Raphael's seductive touch just may. Because when archangels play, mortals break...

The year is 1777. The place, North Carolina. And as the American rebellion grows in intensity, Highlander Jamie Fraser and his wife Claire need to decide which side their family is going to be on. The choice should be an easy one, given that Claire was born in the twentieth century and has already seen the future — in history books. But things are never simple where the Frasers are concerned, as father and son unwittingly come face to face on the battlefield, and an old adversary reaches forward in time to threaten the next generation. Up to now, Claire and Jamie's love has survived every danger history has put in their path, but in the chaos of war, with families bitterly divided against each other, is the future finally going to catch up with them?

A history of the Second World War that covers all the war fronts, the fighting on land, at sea and in the air, the activities of resistance and partisan groups, espionage, secret intelligence, strategy and tactics, war leaders, generals, admirals and air marshals, individual acts of heroism on all the war fronts and behind the lines, the fate of prisoners of war, the bombing of cities, the submarine war, and the aftermath of the war.

From New York Times bestseller Lisa Gardner, author of Alone and The Killing Hour, comes a thriller that goes from heartbreaking to heartstopping in the blink of an eye.… When someone you love vanishes without a trace, how far would you go to get them back? For ex-FBI profiler Pierce Quincy, it’s the beginning of his worst nightmare: a car abandoned on a desolate stretch of Oregon highway, engine running, purse on the driver’s seat. And his estranged wife, Rainie Conner, gone, leaving no clue to her fate. Did one of the ghosts from Rainie’s troubled past finally catch up with her? Or could her disappearance be the result of one of the cases they’d been working–a particularly vicious double homicide or the possible abuse of a deeply disturbed child Rainie took too close to heart? Together with his daughter, FBI agent Kimberly Quincy, Pierce is battling the local authorities, racing against time, and frantically searching for answers to all the questions he’s been afraid to ask. One man knows what happened that night. Adopting the alias of a killer caught eighty years before, he has already contacted the press. His terms are clear: he wants money, he wants power, he wants celebrity. And if he doesn’t get what he wants, Rainie will be gone for good. Sometimes, no matter how much you love someone, it’s still not enough. As the clock winds down on a terrifying deadline, Pierce plunges headlong into the most desperate hunt of his life, into the shattering search for a killer, a lethal truth, and for the love of his life, who may forever be…gone.

Heartbreak, danger, passion and glamour: all in a day's work... The LaFata family have it all — obscene wealth, talent, good fortune and beautiful genes. Or at least they used to...until the head of the family, Giancarlo 'Fatty' La Fata, vanishes over the side of his yacht one dark night in Monaco. His widow (and fourth wife) Jade, his son, Carlo Jr, and daughters, Francesca and Angelica, are left awash in a sea of heartbreak and confusion. Did Fatty fall, or was he pushed? But this question only leads to more — for around a strong man, are even stronger women. Mothers, daughters, lovers, wives and sisters — Fatty has left a web of women who all have their own secrets. When one of these women steps forward to clean up the mess Fatty left behind she will meet the shady figures that lurk behind the glamour of the French Riviera and risk her heart as well as her life. Can she save the La Fata family from destruction? Or is it already too late?

For more than 40 years after the Second World War the Iron Curtain divided Europe physically, with 300 km of walls and barbed wire fences; ideologically, between communism and capitalism; psychologically, between people imprisoned under totalitarian dictatorships and their neighbours enjoying democratic freedoms; and militarily, by two mighty, distrustful power blocs, still fighting the cold war. At the start of 1989, ten European nations were still Soviet vassal states. By the end of the year, one after another, they had thrown off communism, declared national independence, and embarked on the road to democracy. One of history's most brutal empires was on its knees. Poets who had been languishing in jails became vice presidents. When the Berlin Wall fell on a chilly November night it seemed as though the open wounds of the cruel twentieth century would at last begin to heal. The Year of Revolutions appeared as a beacon of hope for oppressed people elsewhere who dared to dream that they too could free themselves. In a dizzying few months of almost entirely peaceful revolutions the people's will triumphed over tyranny. An entire way of life was swept away. Now, twenty years on, Victor Sebestyen reassesses this decisive moment in modern history.

FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast — recently returned to New York — and Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta find themselves investigating the murder of a friend when reporter William Smithback and his wife Nora are brutally attacked in their apartment. The assailant is identified by eyewitnesses as their strange, sinister neighbour — a man who, by all accounts, died ten days earlier. Shunning the official inquiry, Pendergast and D'Agosta undertake their own private — and unorthodox — quest for the truth. Their journey takes them deep into the dark and mysterious underbelly of Manhattan, to a secretive, reclusive cult of Obeah and voodoo which no outsiders have ever survived...

Horrid Henry and Moody Margaret cook up trouble making Glop!

Horrid Henry is determined to win the class football match and defeat Moody Margaret, by whatever means necessary...

Horrid Henry needs money — and fast! But just how is he going to do it? CD includes a dramatised version and read along version.

Horrid Henry has got nits — again! But as an impending visit from Nitty Nora the Nit Nurse looms, Henry's determined he won't be the only one...

Bitter and merciless war is coming to the frozen north. It's bloody and dangerous and the Union army, split by politics and hamstrung by incompetence, is utterly unprepared for the slaughter that's coming. Lacking experience, training, and in some cases even weapons the army is scarcely equipped to repel Bethod's scouts, let alone the cream of his forces. In the heat-ravaged south the Gurkish are massing to assault the city of Dagoska, defended by Inquisitor Glokta. The city is braced for the inevitable defeat and massacre to come, preparations are made to make the Gurkish pay for every inch of land... but a plot is festering to hand the city to its beseigers without a fight, and the previous Inquisitor of Dagoska vanished without trace. Threatened from within and without the city, Glokta needs answers, and he needs them soon. And to the east a small band of malefactors travel to the edge of the world to reclaim a device from history — a Seed, hidden for generations — with tremendous destructive potential. A device which could put a end to war, to the army of Eaters in the South, to the invasion of Shanka from the North — but only if it can be found, and only if its power can be controlled...

In the Sultanate of Oman over two hundred hostages are being held at gunpoint. And the world watches helplessly as the madness begins. The spirit of the Mahdi is abroad, intent on complete financial and political domination. Evan Kendrick, a quiet Congressman, is an unlikely hero. But in his past is a violence that he cannot forget. On the other side of the world, five very eccentric, very rich people are meeting. They are the Inheritors of Inver Brass. Their aim — to utterly transform the world. They seek a new saviour, an innocent messiah. Evan Kendrick is to be their unwilling victim...

This summer, 2010, Veronica Henry will bring us THE BEACH HUT. A wonderful novel of linked short stories, each focussing on a gaily painted row of beach huts on the picturesque Woolacoombe beach in Devon. Just as each beach hut has a girl's name painted above the door, each has its own individual story. Ronnie has spent many summers eavesdropping on what goes on in them. Various comings and goings, the people who hire them, the people who own them, and what goes on in the huts on this beautiful beach over a long, hot, lazy summer...

Experiment Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it, Solution Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding fathers of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy to the world. For he is the inventor of ice-nine, a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet. The search for its whereabouts leads to Hoenikker's three eccentric children, to a crazed dictator in the Caribbean, to madness. Felix Hoenikker's death-wish comes true when his last, fatal, gift to mankind brings about an end that, for all of us, is nigh.

The end is coming. Logen Ninefingers might only have one more fight in him but its going to be a big one. Battle rages across the North, the King of the Northmen still stands firm, and theres only one man who can stop him. His oldest friend, and his oldest enemy. Its past time for the Bloody-Nine to come home. With too many masters and too little time, Superior Glokta is fighting a different kind of war. A secret struggle in which no-one is safe, and no-one can be trusted. His days with a sword are far behind him. Its a good thing blackmail, threats and torture still work well enough. Jezal dan Luthar has decided that winning glory is far too painful, and turned his back on soldiering for a simple life with the woman he loves. But love can be painful too, and glory has a nasty habit of creeping up on a man when he least expects it. While the King of the Union lies on his deathbead, the peasants revolt and the nobles scramble to steal his crown. No-one believes that the shadow of war is falling across the very heart of the Union. The First of the Magi has a plan to save the world, as he always does. But there are risks. There is no risk more terrible, after all, than to break the First Law...

Four new stories: Horrid Henry's Invasion — Horrid Henry and Perfect Peter keep invading each other's rooms. Moody Margaret's Sleepover — Moody Margaret invites all the members of the Secret Club for a sleepover, with catastrophic results. Horrid Henry's Autobiography — Miss Battle-Axe's class all have to write their autobiographies, the best to be published in the local paper. Horrid Henry Rocks — Horrid Henry wants to go to the Killerboy Rats concert while his family want to go to the Daffy and her Dancing Daisies concert.

Mercenaries are a wonderful thing: they fight as you tell them, whom you tell them, and when you tell them, for nothing more precious or complicated than money. And Monzcarro Mercatto, and her brother (and lover) Benna Mercatto, are the two most successful, most popular, and most wealthy mercenaries in Styria... but wealthy, popular mercenaries are not such a good thing. In fact they're a downright dangerous thing. Which is why Grand Duke Orso of Styria arranges to have them dealt with. Permanently. With hindsight, he may come to consider this a tactical error. Through sheer good luck — which her brother doesn't share — Monzcarro survives the long and fatal drop Orso arranged for her, and staggers away from her encounter with a ruined right hand, an opium addiction... and a plan to come back with a fortune, plenty of bladed weapons, and a single-minded determination to kill the seven men in the room when her brother was murdered. Preferably in as gruesome a manner as she can...

The political upheaval of the mid-seventeenth century has no parallel in English history. Other events have changed the occupancy and the powers of the throne, but the conflict of 1640-60 was more dramatic: the monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished, to be replaced by a republic and military rule. In this wonderfully readable account, Blair Worden explores the events of this period and their origins — the war between King and Parliament, the execution of Charles I, Cromwell's rule and the Restoration — while aiming to reveal something more elusive: the motivations of contemporaries on both sides and the concerns of later generations.