Orion Books

NYPD sharp-shooter Bobby is called to a domestic incident. It's an address the police have visited before — a volatile husband and wife who routinely battle out their marriage. But this time it's different. Through his sights from the building opposite, Bobby can see the husband pointing a gun at his wife and child. As the husband moves to shoot his wife, Bobby gets a clear shot and shoots the man in the head. The wife, shaking and terrified, turns to face Bobby through the shattered window and mouths the words 'thank you'. Then all hell breaks loose. The man Bobby has shot is the son of one the city's most important judges. His wife, Catherine, has long been suspected of abusing their son. It seems Bobby has just killed the only man who could have protected the child. Meanwhile, Mr Bosu is back on the streets. A man who committed a crime so heinous, he was sentenced to life in prison at the tender age of twenty-two. A man so seriously committed to death and destruction, he found a way to continue to commit murder, even while behind bars. A man so feared, his fellow prisoners consider him a sort of inmate bogeyman. Now he's been «accidentally» released. In the past, Mr. Bosu has preyed on children. Now, as a freshly released felon, he's trying something new — murder for hire. He figures he's good at killing, and he always needs money, so why not combine the two interests? He's smart, he's unbelievably strong, and after spending twenty-five years locked behind bars, he possesses just a little bit of rage... Bobby, Catherine, Mr Bosu — all three tied together in a devil's pact, in a way they can't imagine...

Annie O'Neill has it all: a cosy Manhattan apartment, a beautiful bookshop and a network of supportive friends. But at the heart of her life is a hole — a place vacated by her father when he died in her childhood. So when a mysterious man named Forrester enters the shop and claims to be her father's oldest friend she jumps at the chance to find out more of her own past. But Forrester's not being free with the answers she needs. He's much more interested in telling her a story about a ruthless ganglord and a fifty-year-old betrayal. A betrayal that she will realise far too slowly, has something very much to do with her...

Daniel Ford has 30 days to live. Accused of the horrific murder of his best friend Nathan 12 years before, he has exhausted all appeals and now faces the long walk to the electric chair. All he can do is make peace with his God. Father John Rousseau is the man to whom the last month of Daniel's life has been entrusted. All the two men have left to do is rake over the last ashes of Ford's existence. So he begins to tell his story. Beginning with his first meeting with Nathan, aged 6, on the shores of a lake in 1952, through first loves, Vietnam, the death of Kennedy, and finally their flight from the draft which ended in Nathan's brutal murder.

Dexter Morgan isn't exactly the kind of man you'd bring home to your mum. At heart, he's the perfect gentleman: he has a shy girlfriend, and seems to lead a quiet, normal life bordering on the mundane. Despite the fact that he can't stand the sight of blood, he works as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police. But Dexter also has a secret hobby: he is an accomplished serial killer. So far, he's killed 36 people and has never been caught because he knows exactly how to hide the evidence. And while that may lead some people to assume he's not such a nice guy, he tempers his insatiable hunger for brutality by only killing the bad guys. However, Dexter's well-organised life is suddenly disrupted when a second, much more visible serial killer appears in Miami. Intrigued that the other killer favours a style similar to his own, Dexter soon realises that the mysterious new arrival is not simply invading his turf but offering him a direct invitation to 'come out and play'...

Flanders, 1625. After his tussles with the Inquisition and the intrigue of the Spanish court, Captain Alatriste has returned to the mud and desperation of the long war in Flanders. This is Inigo's first experience of war and the realities of hand to hand combat. It is on the battlefield that he will finally have the chance to become a man and prove his worth. The troops are weary and ill-nourished and the winter has been long. As Spain sinks ever further into depravity and corruption, the soldiers have not been paid and must survive by whatever ways they can. Mutiny is in the air, but the Spaniards are strong and their famous iron discipline has brought them many victories against the Calvinist forces of the heretics. Reputation, honour, and the glory of Spain will keep them in the fight, but for how long? Meanwhile, the Captain's trusted friend Quevedo's star is rising at court and he keeps Alatriste appraised of the machinations of his arch-enemy Luis de Alquezar and the notorious assassin with the black heart, Gualterio Malatesta.

Four hundred years from now mankind is strung out across a region of interstellar space inherited from an ancient civilization discovered on Mars. The colonies are linked together by the occasional sublight colony ship voyages and hyperspatial data-casting. Human consciousness is digitally freighted between the stars and downloaded into bodies as a matter of course. But some things never change. So when ex-envoy, now-convict Takeshi Kovacs has his consciousness and skills downloaded into the body of a nicotine-addicted ex-thug and presented with a catch-22 offer, he really shouldn't be surprised. Contracted by a billionaire to discover who murdered his last body, Kovacs is drawn into a terrifying conspiracy that stretches across known space and to the very top of society. For a first-time SF writer to be so surely in command of narrative and technology, so brilliant at world-building, so able to write such readable and enjoyable SF adventure, is simply extraordinary.

One hundred years from now, and against all the odds, Earth has found a new stability; the political order has reached some sort of balance, and the new colony on Mars is growing. But the fraught years of the 21st century have left an uneasy legacy... Genetically engineered alpha males, designed to fight the century's wars have no wars to fight and are surplus to requirements. And a man bred and designed to fight is a dangerous man to have around in peacetime. Many of them have left for Mars but now one has come back and killed everyone else on the shuttle he returned in. Only one man, a genengineered ex-soldier himself, can hunt him down and so begins a frenetic man-hunt and a battle survival. And a search for the truth about what was really done with the world's last soldiers. BLACK MAN is an unstoppable SF thriller but it is also a novel about prejudice, about the ramifications of playing with our genetic blue-print. It is about our capacity for violence but more worrying, our capacity for deceit and corruption. This is another landmark of modern SF from one of its most exciting and commercial authors.

A brilliant new collection of four stories about this favourite character — one of the few new characters to have emerged in recent years for this age group. Wickedly subversive, hilariously funny and bang up to date, Horrid Henry's fame is spreading. In this collection, Henry accompanies his father to the office, hacks into his parents' computer, meets the Demon Dinner Lady and plan the ultimate revenge on Perfect Peter.

Four hilarious new stories, in which Horrid Henry hits on a brilliant way to write thank you letters, negotiates over vegetables, competes with Perfect Peter over which of them is sickest, and finds himself wearing the wrong underpants, with dreadful consequences.

Nick presents eight of the most interesting traveller-chroniclers to have explored and reported on the state of the nation. From Gerald of Wales who embarked on a seven week journey around the wild perimeter of Wales in March 1188, to HV Morton, the journalist and travel writer who crossed the length and breadth of England by car in the 1920s. Others include Celia Fiennes who started her many journeys around Britain on horseback in the late 1600s at the age of 20, Tudor antiquarian John Leland, Daniel Defoe, William Cobbett, Thomas Pennant, and William Gilpin, who travelled through the north of England by boat in 1770.

1891. Seventeen-year-old Leonie Vernier and her brother abandon Paris for the sanctuary of their aunt's isolated country house near Carcassonne, the Domaine de la Cade. But in the nearby woods, Leonie stumbles across a ruined sepulchre — and a timeless mystery whose traces are written in blood. 2007. Meredith Martin arrives at the Domaine de la Cade as part of her research for a biography she's writing. But Meredith is also seeking the key to her own complex legacy and soon becomes immersed in the story of a tragic love, a missing girl, a unique deck of tarot cards, an unquiet soul and the strange events of one cataclysmic night more than a century ago...

FAITH OF THE FALLEN took The Sword of Truth into a new decade and onto new heights of intense, thoughtful and meaningful fantasy while never losing sight of the need to tell a compelling and sweeping story. THE PILLARS OF CREATION continues that progression and is written so that new readers to the series can plunge into the richness of his world. Terry Goodkind investigates new depths in his characters and is working to change fantasy and to make The Sword of Truth the dominant fantasy series of the first decade of the new millennium. The new novel introduces a new character, Jennsen, and takes Richard and Kahlan to the ends of the earth as they attempts to track down an unstoppable demon before it kills them and lays waste to the world.

Stalking a poisoner at the local zoo, Inspector John Rebus comes across a paedophile taking pictures of children. When the social workers claim he is there for legitimate educational reasons, Rebus is faced with a dilemma — should he be outed to protect local kids or given a chance to start anew? As the locals begin a hate campaign Rebus gets a call from the past: the son of a friend has gone missing and no one else will make time to ask the right questions. And then a fragment of Scotland's criminal history is repatriated at the end of a life sentence for murder. Once more Rebus's cup of trouble runneth over and the ghosts of past misdeeds return to haunt Edinburgh's streets.

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 her troubled past finally catch up with Rainie? 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 FBI agent daughter, Pierce is racing against time, frantically searching for answers to all the questions he's been afraid to ask. One man knows what happened that night — and he's already contacted the press. He wants money, he wants power, he wants celebrity. As the clock ticks, 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.

On the morning she will never forget, suburban teenager Cynthia Archer awakes with a nasty hangover and a feeling she is going to have an even nastier confrontation with her mom and dad. But when she leaves her bedroom, she discovers the house is empty, with no sign of her parents or younger brother Todd. In the blink of an eye, without any explanation, her family has simply disappeared. Twenty-five years later Cynthia is still haunted by unanswered questions. Were her family murdered? If so, why was she spared? And if they're alive, why did they abandon her in such a cruel way? Now married with a daughter of her own, Cynthia fears that her new family will be taken from her just as her first one was. And so she agrees to take part in a TV documentary revisiting the case, in the hope that somebody somewhere will remember something — or even that her father, mother or brother might finally reach out to her... Then a letter arrives which makes no sense and yet chills Cynthia to the core. And soon she begins to realise that stirring up the past could be the worst mistake she has ever made...

Set at the time of the Russian Revolution, the end of a centuries old dynasty, the rise of the Bolsheviks sent shockwaves around the world. This is the story of one man who was there. It's real history — about the riches and excesses, the glory of the Russian nobility, Nicholas and Alexandra, their haemophiliac son, Alexei, notorious Rasputin, Lenin and Trotsky who ruled from palaces where the Czars had once danced till dawn. The man was real too, his name was Arthur Ransome. He was a writer, accused of being a spy, perhaps even a double agent, and he left his wife and beloved daughter and fell in love with Russia and a Russian woman, Evgenia. Fictionalising history and blending it with real life, part i is told as a fairy tale. Wise and foolish kings, princesses, enchantresses (characters more suited to fairy tale than reality), wishes and magic, Russia with its vast cold plains and mighty cities, its riches and poverty, all play a part in the downfall of the Czars and rise of the new order. Part ii is about betrayal — Ransome the spy, bleak and threatening. Part iii is a love story, a fairy tale, ending — of Ransome's love for his daughter, Tabitha, and for Evgenia.

Dexter Morgan is busy planning his wedding to Rita to complete his nice-guy disguise. But when a student is found burnt, molested and headless — seemingly sacrificed to an ancient god — and Dex is brought in as forensic analyst to help investigate, he realises he could be dealing with someone a whole lot more sinister than he is. Soon it seems the dark passenger in Dexter's head has gone into hiding. And when something creeps out your friendly neighbourhood serial killer, you know it's serious ... As Halpern and Dexter are stalked by death, it looks like it's getting personal — especially as Dex now has a family to protect. Gradually, Dexter realises his stepchildren might share his extracurricular interest in death. Could he help them target their bloodlust, just as he steers his own? But to do that, Dex must cope with a certain mutilated sergeant from his past, and more importantly ...stay alive ...

Cameraman Richard Grey's memory has blanked out the few weeks before he was injured in a car bomb explosion. When he is visited by a girl who seems to have been his lover, his attempts to recall the forgotten period produce an odyssey through France and conflicting accounts of what happened. When Susan Kewley speaks to him of that time, he finds himself glimpsing a terrible twilight world — the world of «the glamour».

An editor receives a manuscript purporting to be the lost diary of history's greatest lover, Don Juan. An orphan left on the steps of a covent, Don Juan grew up within the church but his ambitions towards the priesthood fell to the wayside when he was seduced by a young nun. Evicted from the convent, he was taken under the wing of the libertine Don Pedro, the Marquis of Mota, who coached him in skills both courtly and amorous and then employed him as a spy at court. So began a life devoted to giving and receiving pleasure. But Abrams' Don Juan is no playboy; instead Don Juan's mastery of the arts of passion liberates the women he beds. Through his connections with Don Pedro, he is made an 'hidalgo', an honorary nobleman, and is therefore protected from the wrath of the Inquisition by the King, but his position is precarious. Then Don Juan embarks on the most perilous adventure of all — he falls in love, and finds that not only his reputation but also his life is in danger.

Chloe has been married for what feels like all eternity to Greg who tests his memory in infuriating ways, for example hiding the kettle from himself in the drum of the washing machine. Chloe is a successful psychotherapist with two children and a Famous Friend from hell. She's got it all. So why does she want to rub her life out and start all over again? Is it just because she hasn't had sex for 245 days? When Chloe meets temptation in the shape of Ivan, does she dare risk a passionate Russian romance before gravity wins the battle with her face and figure? Can she get away with one glorious, final fling...?

Until the early 1990s, when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, travelling behind the iron curtain was never easy. In undertaking his new journey through Eastern Europe, breathing in its rich history, and exquisite sights and talking to its diverse peoples, Michael fills what has been a void in his own experience and that of very many others. NEW EUROPE is very much a voyage of discovery, from the snows of the Julian Alps to the beauty of the Baltic sea, he finds himself in countries he'd barely heard of, many unfamiliar and mysterious, all with tragic histories and much brighter futures. During his 20-country adventure Palin meets Romanian lumberjacks, drives the 8.58 stopping train from Poznan to Wolsztyn, treads the catwalk at a Budapest fashion show, learns about mine-clearing in Bosnia and watches Turkish gents wrestling in olive oil. As with all his bestselling books, in his uniquely entertaining style, Palin opens up a new and undiscovered world to millions of readers.

RED MUTINY tells how the sailors of Imperial Russia's newest and most powerful battleship, POTEMKIN, seized control and flew the red flag of revolution in June 1905. It is a tale of dramatic adventure, naval battles, heroic sacrifices, treachery and intrigue at the court of the last Tsar. A dedicated band of revolutionaries inspire and lead the sailors to overthrow their tyrannical officers, but the POTEMKIN finds itself steaming around the Black Sea with the rest of the fleet in pursuit. Hunted from port to port, the mutineers enter Odessa, sparking a bloody insurrection (made famous by Eisenstein's film) and bringing Imperial Russia to its knees. As Lenin and many others recognised at the time, this was the key event that would make the Russian revolution possible. The political consequences of this mutiny were profound, but the author concentrates on the individuals involved in these dramatic events: it is a brilliantly realised, cinematic treatment that really brings the story to life.

The son of a brewer, Cromwell rose from obscurity to become Earl of Essex, Vice-Regent and High Chamberlain of England, Keep of the Privy Seal and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He manoeuvred his way to the top by intrigue, bribery and sheer force of personality in a court dominated by the malevolent King Henry. Cromwell pursued the interests of the king with single-minded energy and little subtlety. Tasked with engineering the judicial murder of Anne Boleyn when she had worn out her welcome in the royal chamber, he tortured her servants and relations, then organised a 'show trial' of Stalinist efficiency. He orchestrated the 'greatest act of privatisation in English history': the seizure of the monasteries. Their enormous wealth was used to cement the loyalty of the English nobility, and to enrich the crown. Cromwell made himself a fortune too, soliciting colossal bribes and binding the noble families to him with easy loans. He came home from court literally weighed down with gold.

In 1775, George Washington took command of a ragbag army of American insurgents and took on the might of the British Army. Through a brilliant campaign of ambush and indirect attacks, he finally succeeded in defeating the greatest military power in the world, and won America its independence. Today it is the USA that is the world's dominant superpower. When they entered Iraq in 2003 they made the same mistakes that the British made over 200 years ago: they underestimated the popular hostility against them, and believed they could fight a widespread insurgence using troops trained for conventional warfare. They are beginning to learn, as the British did, that sheer military power is not enough. As a former Director of UK Special Forces and Commander of the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia, Michael Rose is uniquely experienced in counter-insurgency warfare. In this hard-hitting book he explains the principles of guerrilla warfare as used in the American War of Independence, and shows how those same principles have been adopted by the insurgents in Iraq.