Orion Books

For very-nearly-eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, the discovery of a dead snipe on the doorstep of Buckshaw, the crumbling de Luce country seat, was a marvellous mystery — especially since this particular snipe had a rather rare stamp neatly impaled on its beak. Even more astonishing was the effect of the dead bird on her stamp-collector father, who appeared to be genuinely frightened. Soon Flavia discovers something even more shocking in the cucumber patch and it's clear that the snipe was a bird of very ill omen indeed. As the police descend on Buckshaw, Flavia decides it is up to her to piece together the clues and solve the puzzle. Who was the man she heard her father arguing with? What was the snipe doing in England at all? Who or what is the Ulster Avenger? And, most peculiar of all, who took a slice of Mrs Mullet's unspeakable custard pie that had been cooling by the window...?

Defence lawyer Mickey Haller has had some problems but now he's put all that behind him and is ready to resume his career. Then another lawyer, Vincent, dies, and Haller gets an unexpected windfall: he inherits all Vincent's clients — putting his stalled career back on track at a stroke. Not only that, but Vincent had taken on a high profile and potentially lucrative murder case. It'll be a trial that promises big fees and an even bigger place in the media spotlight — and if Mickey can win against the odds, he'd really be back in the big leagues. The only problem is the detective handling the case — a certain Harry Bosch — is convinced the killer must be one of Vincent's clients. Suddenly Mickey is faced with the biggest challenge of his career: how to successfully defend a client who might just be planning to murder him.

International bestselling authors Allan and Barbara Pease focus their insight and wit on the most popular, and some would maintain, important part of any relationship: sex. In their inimitable style they explore what men and women want from a sexual relationship and give humourous and practical advice. Discover: What men and women really want from love and sex How to find a great partner What to do when the chemistry is wrong How to have a happy future with your partner.

Alice Shoemaker habitually goes to great lengths to avoid telling the truth about herself and her past. After agreeing to help out a friend, by shopping and cleaning for the unknown man staying at Cuckoo House, she soon becomes suspicious that her strange and obnoxiously rude client has something to hide... Clayton Miller's life is a mess. His career as one of the country's best comedy script writers has stalled and his long-term girlfriend has left him for his ex best friend and ex writing partner. Just when he thinks his life couldn't get any worse, he commits a spectacularly public fall from grace and with the press hounding him, his agent banishes him to the middle of nowhere until the dust has settled. And there he meets Alice... When Alice and Clayton discover the truth about each other they form an unlikely friendship — until Alice discovers Clayton has betrayed her in the worst possible way.

The end is approaching... Can Jack West unravel the ancient secrets of The Five Greatest Warriors and save the world? With the end of the world fast approaching, Jack West Jr must rebuild the final pieces of the fabled, ancient 'Machine' — the only thing that can prevent global catastrophe. But he is out of clues, out of leads... until he is presented with an ancient text about five unnamed warriors, great historical figures who were all in some way connected to the mysterious Machine. And so Jack and his loyal team set out to discover their identities — and their secrets. Soon Jack is on the trail of a legendary list of greats: from Moses to Genghis Khan and Napoleon, and finally to one most unlikely warrior, the unknown 'Fifth', who, it is said, will be there 'at the end of all things...'

Pride: Gazing from his magnificent Chawbury Manor, Miles Straker has it all. A society wife who runs his home like clockwork, four gorgeous children, a smart stucco in West London and, most importantly of all, his multi-national PR business. Greed. Utterly ruthless in both business and pleasure, Miles is a man who gets what he wants in a heartbeat, with a web of power that can bring a company to its knees or get you splashed on every front page. Envy. When self-made millionaire Ross Clegg buys the land adjoining the Straker Chawbury estate, Miles is wreaked with jealousy. Not only are Ross and his family welcomed by the country elite, Ross's booming business means he's hailed as a hero of the people. Wrath. But Miles Straker is a dangerous enemy and he vows to take the Clegg empire apart piece by piece, starting with his obnoxious family... Battle rages from the boardroom to the bedroom as old money takes on the new, and two families are plunged into a bitter feud.

'I hate you. When I'm a mother, I'm never going to be like you...' These words come back to haunt Ros, years later. As her marriage of twenty years collapses and her beloved twin sons prepare to flee the nest, Ros's world is tilting on its axis. It doesn't help that her dead mother seems to have taken up residence in her head, reminding her of things she once said. As Ros tries to adapt to sharing custody of the family dog and life without her husband and boys in the house, she embarks on a new regime to stay sane: yoga, herbal remedies, internet dating. But as Ros is trying to find herself, the arrival of a memoir her mother wrote begins to reveal a woman she never knew, taking her on a journey into her mother's past that will change forever her idea of who she is.

The shooting of a Chinese liquor store owner in LA brings Harry Bosch back to the Rodney King riots and the moment a stranger gave a young cop sanctuary. Now the debt must be repaid, and Harry soon discovers the old man's death was no ordinary hold-up. Homing in on clues disregarded by the cops on the scene, Harry builds a picture of corruption and intimidation, with the local Triads at the heart of it. But as he tries to build a case and breach the impenetrable wall of silence in the local community, he finds he is taking a dragon by the tail — a dragon whose talons reach well beyond LA, and even the States. Suddenly the most precious thing in Harry's life is under threat, and he will need to leave the familiarity of his home turf, alone and without backup, if he is going to stop his worst nightmare from happening.

n the bitter winter of 2009, following the death of their grandmother, Erica Calcott and her sister Beth return to Storton Manor, a grand and imposing Wiltshire house where they spent their summer holidays as children. When Erica begins to sort through her grandmother's belongings, she is flooded with memories of her childhood — and of her cousin, Henry, whose disappearance from the manor tore the family apart. Erica sets out to discover what happened to Henry — so that the past can be laid to rest, and her sister, Beth, might finally find some peace. Gradually, as Erica begins to sift through remnants of the past, a secret family history emerges; one that stretches all the way back to turn-of-the-century America, to a beautiful society heiress and a haunting, savage land. As past and present converge, Erica and Beth must come to terms with two terrible acts of betrayal — and the heart-breaking legacy left behind. THE LEGACY is an unforgettable, deeply satisfying story that will stay with you long after the last page has been turned.

Louisiana veterinarian Lorna Polk stumbles upon a shipwrecked fishing trawler carrying a caged group of exotic animals, clearly part of a black market smuggling ring. Yet, something is wrong with these beasts, disturbing deformities that make no sense. They also all share one uncanny trait — heightened intelligence. To uncover the truth about the origin of this strange cargo and the terrorist threat it poses, Lorna must team up with Jack Menard, a man who has a dark and bloody past. Together, they must hunt for a beast that escaped the shipwreck while uncovering a mystery that traces back to mankind's earliest roots...

Nicholas Bryson spent years as a deep cover operative for the American secret intelligence group, The Directorate. After a disastrous mission, Bryson was retired to a new identity. Now, years later, his cover is cracked and Bryson learns that The Directorate was not what it claimed — that he was, in fact, a pawn being used against his country's interests. The Directorate is headed for a dangerous endgame, and the CIA recruits Bryson to stop them. But after years on the sidelines, Bryson's field skills are rusty, his contacts unreliable, his instincts suspect, and he no longer knows who — if anyone — can be trusted.

Ben Hartman is on holiday in Switzerland when he meets a childhood friend — who promptly tries to kill him. In self-defence, Ben kills his attacker, but soon the body and all evidence of the confrontation have disappeared. Anna Navarro, a US government agent, is sent to look into a string of deaths around the world. The only thing the victims have in common is an old OSS file, codenamed SIGMA. But as soon as she starts to get somewhere, she is dragged off the case and declared rogue. Someone wants this secret kept, and not only the future of Hartman and Navarro is at stake, but that of the world...

1940. American Stephen Metcalfe is a minor asset in the US's secret intelligence forces in Europe. Through a wild twist of fate, he must instigate a bold plan that may be the only hope for what remains of the free world. Now he must travel to wartime Moscow to find, and possibly betray, a former lover... 1991. The Communist empire is on the verge of oblivion, and a coup is being planned by a powerful new cabal. Stephen Metcalfe, now a retired ambassador, must return to Moscow and finally reveal a secret that has haunted him since the fall of Berlin... a secret that might just avert a global cataclysm.

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...

Twenty years ago, KGB and CIA agents worked together to bring down the Matarese Circle. Now they are back — and the only man with the power to stop them may already have run out of time... CIA officer Cameron Pryce is hot on the trail of the new Matarese alliance. His only chance to terminate its ruthless activities is to follow a trail of blood money and stone-cold killers right to the heart of its deadly conspiracy. Then he gets a lucky break. One of the Matarese victims lives long enough to whisper dying words that will blow the case wide open: the code name for legendary agent Brandon Scofield — the only man to infiltrate the Matarese circle, and survive.

James Barbour Matlock is a Vietnam veteran and college professor — but now the US government have an assignment for him. They want him to investigate what seems to be a large-scale dope and prostitution business; and they'll go to any lengths to find the answers they need. Matlock is soon trapped in a maze of unrelenting terror, as the people he cares for most are under threat. Would he have accepted the job if he'd known just what it would mean? But the faceless men in Washington only care about one thing: that Matlock is the perfect man for the job — for a reason that is deadly, violent and extremely disturbing...

Inver Brass: a group of high-minded and high-placed intellectuals. They see a monstrous threat to the country in Hoover's unethical use of his scandal-ridden private files. And so they decide to do away with him — quietly, efficiently, with no hint of impropriety. Until bestselling thriller writer Peter Chancellor stumbles onto information that makes his previous books look like harmless fairy tales. Now Chancellor and Inver Brass are on a deadly collision course, spiralling across the globe in an ever-widening arc of violence and terror. They are hurtling towards a showdown that will rip Washington's intelligence community apart, leaving only one damning document to survive: The Chancellor Manuscript...

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, better know as Lady Gaga, is a born performer. Forget the fake, wannabee starlets who become famous overnight — Gaga earned her success the hard way, performing at every club in New York, getting booed offstage — and then finding herself — as a singer, a dancer, a performer — as an artist. She's shocked the public with her crazy outfits, individual sense of style and headstrong manner. This is one girl who says what she thinks, and doesn't care if you like it or not. She's sold millions of records, performed to millions of people and won hearts with her brashness and honesty. And now, she's just trying to change the world — one sequin at a time. This is the incredible story of the artist that is Lady Gaga.

A uniquely powerful novel of a society in decay. On a planet whose very nature is a mystery a massive decrepit city is pulled along a massive railway track, laying the line down before it as it prgresses into the wilderness. The society within toils under an opressive regime, its structures always on the point of collapse, the lives of its individuals lived in misery. No one knows where they are going, why they are going or what they will find when they get there. The ending of the novel provides one of the most profound twists in SF.

Russia, 1946, the Nazis recently defeated. Stalin gathers half a dozen of the top Soviet science fiction authors in a dacha in the countryside somewhere. Convinced that the defeat of America is only a few years away, and equally convinced that the Soviet Union needs a massive external threat to hold it together, to give it purpose and direction, he tells the writers: 'I want you to concoct a story about aliens poised to invade earth... I want it to be massively detailed, and completely believable. If you need props and evidence to back it up, then we can create them. But when America is defeated, your story must be so convincing that the whole population of Soviet Russia believes in it — the population of the whole world!' The little group of writers gets down to the task and spends months working on it. But then new orders come from Moscow: they are told to drop the project; Stalin has changed his mind; forget everything about it. So they do. They get on with their lives in their various ways; some of them survive the remainder of Stalin's rule, the changes of the 50s and 60s.And then, in the aftermath of Chernobyl, the survivors gather again, because something strange has started to happen. The story they invented in 1946 is starting to come true... A typically mind-blowing SF novel from one of the genre's literary stars.

All Genny wants is to live the quiet life and to do her job at Spellcrackers.com but there's her tangled personal life to sort out first. She's being haunted by ghosts who want her help. Her witch neighbours want her evicted. Genny's sort-of-Ex — and now her new boss — can't decide whether he wants their relationship to be business or pleasure now he knows all her darkest secrets. And then there's the queue of vampires all wanting her to paint the town red — how long will it be before they stop taking 'no' for an answer and Genny's life becomes even more complicated? But when one of her human friends is murdered by sidhe magic, Genny is determined to find the killer. Her efforts to find the real murderer lead her to some of the most dangerous and seductive fae — but her search is hindered by the vampires, who have their own political agenda. Then when all the evidence points to Genny — she's the only sidhe fae in London — and she's named the main suspect; it's not long before she's on the run — and not just from the police — but from some of London's most powerful supernaturals.

Half-vampire Catherine Crawfield is going after the undead with a vengeance, hoping that one of these deadbeats is her father — the guy responsible for ruining her mother's life. But when she's captured by Bones, a bounty hunter and a vampire, she finds herself forced into an unholy partnership. In exchange for his help in finding her father, and still astonished she hasn't ended up as his dinner, Cat agrees to train with the sexy night stalker until her battle reflexes are as sharp as his fangs. But that's not all Bones has to show her — Cat's starting to believe maybe vampires aren't all evil after all, especially ones as cute as Bones. She's half-convinced that being half-dead doesn't have to be all bad. But before she can enjoy her newfound status as confident kick-ass demon hunter she stumbles across group of killers. With them in hot pursuit, Cat is going to have to pick a side — and fast...

As the waters rose in FLOOD, high in the Colorado mountains the US government was building an ark. Not an ark to ride the waves but an ark that would take a select few thousand people out into space to start a new future for mankind. Sent out into deep space on a journey lasting centuries, generations of crew members carry the hope of a new beginning on a new, incredibly distant, planet. But as the ages pass knowledge and purpose is lost and division and madness grows. And back on earth life, and man, find a new way. This is the epic sequel to the acclaimed FLOOD; a stirring tale of what mankind will do to survive and the perfect introduction for new readers to one of SFs greatest tropes; the generation ship. Written by one of the most significant SF writers of the last 30 years, a man considered to be the heir of Arthur C. Clarke as a writer with a unique ability to popularize science and science fiction for the largest possible audience FLOOD and ARK together form a landmark in modern SF.

Imagine a distant world where gods walk as men, but wield vast and hidden powers. Here they have made the stage on which they build a subtle pattern of alliance, love, and deadly enmity. Are they truly immortal? Who are these gods who rule the destiny of a teeming world? Their names include Brahma, Kali, Krishna and also he who was called Buddha, the Lord of Light, but who now prefers to be known simply as Sam. The gradual unfolding of the story — how the colonization of another planet became a re-enactment of Eastern mythology — is one of the great imaginative feats of modern science fiction.