Florence looks like gold and smells like sulphur... In the colourful world of fifteenth-century Italy, Luciana Vetra is young and beautiful, a part-time model and full-time whore. When she is asked to pose as the goddess Flora for Sandro Botticelli's painting La Primavera, she is willing to oblige — until the artist abruptly sends her away without payment. Affronted, she steals an unfinished version of the painting — only to find that someone is ready to kill her to get it back. As friends and associates are murdered around her, Luciana turns to the one man who has never tried to exploit her beauty, Brother Guido della Torre, a novice at the monastery of Santa Croce. Fleeing Florence together, Luciana and Guido race through the nine great cities of Renaissance Italy, desperately trying to decode the painting's secrets before their enemies stop them.

Cri de coeur When Stephanie brains an intruder with a stale baguette, she doesn't realise she has assaulted the new owner of the village grocery. Parisian-exile Fabian's welcome goes from bad to worse as his attempts to drag the shop into the modern age are met with a resounding non by the residents of the small commune of Fogas in the French Pyrenees. He is on the verge of admitting defeat when he's hit by a coup de foudre and falls in love. Stephanie herself is too busy for l'amour. Working at l'Auberge and getting her garden centre off the ground is taking all her energy. She doesn't even notice that her daughter Chloe has something on her mind. Troubled by a sinister stranger she has seen loitering in the village, Chloe has no one to turn to. Her only hope is that someone hears her cries for help before it's all too late. In a chanson d'amour with more twists than a mountain road, the unexpected is just around the corner.

Inspired more than thirty years ago by works as diverse as J R R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and the spaghetti westerns of that time, the Dark Tower series is the backbone of Stephen King's legendary career. Eight books make up this bestselling fantasy series. THE DARK TOWER: THE COMPLETE CONCORDANCE is the definitive encyclopaedic reference book that will make navigating through the series an even more enjoyable reading experience for readers.With hundreds of characters, Mid-World geography, High Speech lexicon, and extensive cross-references, this comprehensive handbook is essential for any Dark Tower fan. This updated volume is an invaluable guide to all of Mid-World and one of Stephen King's most significant literary achievements.

Thursday Next, Head of JurisFiction and ex-SpecOps agent, returns to her native Swindon accompanied by a child of two, a pair of dodos and Hamlet, who is on a fact-finding mission in the real world. Thursday has been despatched to capture escaped Fictioneer Yorrick Kaine but even so, now seems as good a time as any to retrieve her husband Landen from his state of eradication at the hands of the Chronoguard. It's not going to be easy. Thursday's former colleagues at the department of Literary Detectives want her to investigate a spate of cloned Shakespeares, the Goliath Corporation are planning to switch to a new Faith based corporate management system and the Neanderthals feel she might be the Chosen One who will lead them to genetic self-determination. With help from Hamlet, her uncle and time-travelling father, Thursday faces the toughest adventure of her career. Where is the missing President-for-life George Formby? Why is it imperative for the Swindon Mallets to win the World Croquet League final? And why is it so difficult to find reliable childcare?

Banks is back — and this time he's investigating the murder of one of his own. Detective Inspector Bill Reid is killed by a crossbow in the tranquil grounds of a police rehabilitation centre, and compromising photos are found in his room. DCI Banks, brought in to investigate, is assailed on all sides. By Joanna Passero, the Professional Standards inspector who insists on shadowing the investigation in case of police corruption. By his own conviction that a policeman shouldn't be deemed guilty without evidence. By Annie Cabbot, back at work after six months' recuperation, and beset by her own doubts and demons. And by an English girl who disappeared in Estonia six years ago, who seems to hold the secret at the heart of this case...

An irresistible erotic, emotionally charged romance for fans of FIFTY SHADES OF GREY and BARED TO YOU of powerful man who's never heard 'no', a fiery woman who says 'yes' on her own terms and an unforgettable indecent proposal... He was the one man I couldn't avoid. And the one man I couldn't resist. Damien Stark could have his way with any woman. He was sexy, confident, and commanding: anything he wanted, he got. And what he wanted was me. Our attraction was unmistakable, almost beyond control, but as much as I ached to be his, I feared the pressures of his demands. Submitting to Damien meant I had to bare the darkest truth about my past — and risk breaking us apart. But Damien was haunted, too. And as our passion came to obsess us both, his secrets threatened to destroy him — and us — for ever.

Theodore Boone is the thirteen year old who knows more about the law than most adult lawyers. He certainly never expected to be the victim of crime himself. But then his bike is vandalised, he's attacked while doing his homework and, worst of all, framed for a robbery. When stolen computer equipment turns up in Theo's school locker, the police start leaning on him hard. And he is the only suspect. What if he is found guilty? What about his dreams of becoming a lawyer? In a race against time, aided by his renegade uncle, Ike, Theo must find the real felon and reveal the true motivation behind the crimes of which he stands accused.

The one thing to remember about an adventure is that if it turns out the way you expect it to, it has not been an adventure at all... Shanghai, 1925. Irene, a museum curator (and, unofficially, a treasure hunter) is searching for a set of legendary copper scrolls which describe the forgotten history of Cambodia's ancient Khmer civilisation. Her mentor has sent her to China to enlist the help of Simone, a mercurial Frenchwoman who — along with her notoriously violent husband, the most dangerous man in the Orient — has a reputation for both stealing artefacts and starting revolutions. Irene and Simone set off through the Cambodian jungle to search for the scrolls, but it soon becomes clear that each is determined to acquire them for her own reasons, and that once they have located them it will be every woman for herself... Gripping, evocative, lavish and thrilling, this is an unforgettable book that was listed as one of Amazon's top 100 Breakthrough Novels before it was even finished.

Mulholland Books presents... EDGE OF DARK WATER May Lynn dreamed of being a movie star. But her future was short, and it wasn't on the silver screen. It was down in the dark depths of the Sabine River with a sewing machine wired to her feet. In Depression-era Texas, a better life is hard to come by. May Lynn's friends Sue Ellen, Terry and Jinx know they need to leave, and now they have a reason — they're going to take May's ashes all the way to Hollywood. But silent obstacles stand in their way: a family's worth of betrayal, a fortune's worth of stolen gold, and a legendary killer who'll stop at nothing... Joe R. Lansdale is one of the great American crime writers and Edge of Dark Water shows him at his finest. If you haven't read him yet, you're missing out.

Sage is a young woman whose new friend, retired teacher and pillar of the community Josef Weber, tells her he was an SS guard at Auschwitz — and he wants her to kill him. Sage's grandmother is a Holocaust survivor. What do you do when evil lives next door? Picoult explores issues of justice, retribution and forgiveness in this mesmerising and heartbreaking new novel.

This hilarious flap book allows you to mix and match fairy tales and create your own sensible or silly stories! Great fun! What would happen if Goldilocks had two horrid stepsisters and fell asleep for a hundred years? Would she be woken by a hungry wolf or Little Red Riding Hood's Granny? This fantastic split page book allows the reader to mix and match different combinations of fairy tales with hilarious results.

No witnesses. No motive. No name. The homeless man's death seems an impossible case to solve. But Deputy District Attorney Rachel Knight isn't going to let that prevent her trying to bring his killer to justice. When she uncovers a link between this death and the vicious murder of an LAPD cop, one thing becomes clear: she's looking for someone who will kill to keep their secrets safe. Someone who is as smart and determined as Rachel herself. Someone who is already watching, just waiting for the chance to strike...

Amelia Harris gave up on her dreams of being a Hollywood scriptwriter when she married handsome, ambitious filmmaker Dean — who has just upped and left her for a younger model. From LA to Santa Barbara to London, Amelia goes on a journey with a suitcase full of her grandmother's vintage dresses in one hand and her broken heart in the other, determined to find out the secrets of her grandmother's past and just maybe, with any luck, change her own destiny too.

John Grisham delivers high intensity legal drama for a new generation of readers in the fourth novel in his bestselling Theodore Boone series. Though he's only thirteen, Theodore Boone has spent more time in the courtroom than almost anywhere else, and there's always a new adventure waiting. After having been falsely accused of vandalism and theft, Theo is happy to finally be out of the hot seat, once more dispensing legal advice to friends and community members, when an exciting new case demands his urgent attention.

As the temperature in Sweden reaches a record-breaking 45, forest fires break out. All those who have failed to escape Linkoping for the summer take shelter indoors, shocked and paralysed by the heat. However, when a teenage girl is discovered naked and bleeding in the local park, it is clear that the raging heat is not the only plague affecting the town.Then a second girl is found dead.Alarmed by the fact that the victims are the same age as her daughter, Tove, detective Malin Fors will work round-the-clock to capture the perpetrator. But as every lead comes to nothing, it is as though the oppressive heat is clogging up the wheels of her investigation. And time is not on Malin's side...

I spy with my little eye, where the bird goes when he doesn't fly, Mama said one mid-day, her words floating on the Richmond heat as we carried empty cookpots through the yard to the kitchen. Mama, your little girl is all grown up, and still playing our best game. I am a spy... Based on the true story of Mary Bowser, this perfect reading-group novel follows a slave who is freed by her mistress' abolitionist daughter and sent North to be educated. Blessed with a photographic memory and possessing enough spirit to allow her fearlessly to involve herself in the Underground Railroad movement, she returns South on the eve of the Civil War and winds up as a spy in the house of Jefferson Davis...

THE DIRTY STREETS OF HEAVEN is the first in a new set of fantasy-fuelled thrillers from the author George R. R. Martin cites as one of the major inspirations behind Game of Thrones: Tad Williams, international bestselling author of The Dragonbone Chair. BOBBY DOLLAR ISN'T YOUR AVERAGE ANGEL. Sure, he takes the occasional trip to Heaven, but his job as an advocate — arguing the fate of the recently deceased — keeps him pretty busy on Earth, and he's more than happy to spend the rest of his time propping up the bar with his fellow immortals. Until the day a soul goes missing, presumed stolen by 'the other side'. A new chapter in the war between heaven and hell is about to open. And Bobby is right in the middle of it, with only a desirable but deadly demon to aid him.

Most of us know a bit about what passes for good manners — holding doors open; sending thank-you notes; no elbows on the table. We certainly know bad manners when we see them. But where has this patchwork of beliefs and behaviours come from? How did manners develop? How do they change? And why do they matter so much to us? In SORRY! Henry Hitchings presents an amusing, illuminating and quirky audit of English manners. Ranging from basic table manners to appropriate sexual conduct, via hospitality, chivalry, faux pas and online etiquette, he traces the history of our country's customs and courtesies. Putting under the microscope some of our most astute observers of humanity, including Jane Austen and Samuel Pepys, he uses their lives and writings to pry open the often downright peculiar secrets of English behaviour. Hitchings's blend of history, anthropology and personal journey helps us understand our bizarre and contested cultural baggage.

The fourth in the Jack Nightingale supernatural thriller series by bestselling author Stephen Leather. When a murdered young girl miraculously returns to life saying she's spoken to God, it's clear that sinister forces are at play. And when those who speak to her inexplicably commit suicide shortly after their encounter, Nightingale is called in to investigate. As he probes deeper into the chilling tale, he discovers a demon has possessed the girl's body... and the only way to banish it is to kill her. And that's not all the PI has to deal with. After a farmer kills eight people before turning the gun on himself in a school shooting, the press label him as a Satanist. But when his brother visits Nightingale claiming his sibling has been set up, it seems there might be more to the case than meets the eye. Can Nightingale discover the real reason for the murderous rampage and keep himself out of danger?