Kineas, the Athenian cavalry commander, has come a long way since being dismissed from the army of Alexander and vengefully exiled by his own city. Together, his mercenary force and their Scythian allies have defeated a mighty Macedonian army at the Ford of the River God, and his adopted city of Olbia is now free once more. But his destiny will not allow him to enjoy the fruits of victory for long. Far to the east, at the farthest edge of the Sea of Grass, Alexander is threatening to crush the Scythian hordes once and for all. The Lady Srayanka of the Cruel Hands, the Scythian warrior-princess who spurned a king's love to be at Kineas's side, is pledged to take her tribe east to help stop 'the monster' — and Kineas knows he has no choice but to follow, even if it means embracing the violent death in battle that he has seen prefigured in countless dreams. But long before he can confront the might of Alexander's army alongside his beloved Srayanka, he must undertake an epic journey of breathtaking daring...

The supernatural community in Bon Temps, Louisiana is reeling from two hard blows: the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina, and the manmade horror of the explosion at the vampire summit in the up-north city of Rhodes. Sookie Stackhouse is safe but dazed, and she's yearning for things to get back to normal. But that's just not happening. Too many vampires — some friends, some not — were killed or injured, and her were-tiger boyfriend Quinn is among the missing. It's clear that things are changing, whether the weres and vamps like it or not. And Sookie, Friend to the Pack, blood-bonded to the leader of the local vampire community, is caught up in those changes. She's about to find herself facing danger and death and, not for the first time, betrayal by someone she loves. And when the fur has finished flying and the cold blood has stopped flowing, Sookie's world will be forever altered...

Genevieve Taylor is a Sidhe, one of the noble fae, and she's unusual, even in present-day London where celebrity vampires, eccentric goblins and scheming lesser fae mix freely with the human population. Genny is a rising star at Spellcrackers.com, where she finds the M' in magic — and that invariably leads to mischief, malice and — too often — murder. Spellcrackers.com is affiliated to the Witch Council, whose ancient tenets prohibit any contact with vampires. Genny also works as a volunteer at a clinic which treats victims of vampire attacks. Then there's her extra-curricular activity, extracting vulnerable fae lured by the local fang gangs. Genny certainly doesn't wants any closer involvement with the vampire community. But when Mr October, one of the hot calendar pin-up vamps, is accused of violently murdering his girlfriend, Genny's called on to repay an old debt and prove his innocence. And that means consorting with some of the sexiest vamps in London! THE SWEET SCENT OF BLOOD is the first book of SPELLCRACKERS.COM, a sexy, sassy new series guaranteed to spice up your reading life!

Sookie's life is on the line, and the suspects range from rogue weres to her first love, the vampire Bill Sookie doesn't have that many relations, so she hated to lose one — but of all the people to go, she didn't expect it to be her cousin Hadley, a consort of New Orleans' vampire queen — after all, Hadley was technically already dead. But she is gone, beyond recall, and she's left Sookie an inheritance — one that comes with a bit of a risk — not least because someone doesn't want Sookie digging too deep into Hadley's past — or her possessions. Sookie's life is once again on the line, and this time the suspects range from the rogue werewolves who have rejected Sookie as a friend of the pack to her first love, the vampire Bill. Sookie's got a lot to do if she's going to keep herself alive... The Sookie Stackhouse books are delightful Southern Gothic supernatural mysteries, starring Sookie, the telepathic cocktail waitress, and a cast of increasingly colourful characters, including vampires, werewolves and things that really do go bump in the night.

Sookie's got just a month, before the next full moon, to find out who wants her brother dead — and to stop the fiend! Sookie Stackhouse enjoys her life, mostly. She's a great cocktail waitress in a fun bar; she has a love life, albeit a bit complicated, and most people have come to terms with her telepathy. The problem is, Sookie wants a quiet life — but things just seem to happen to her and her friends. Now her brother Jason's eyes are starting to change: he's about to turn into a were-panther for the first time. She can deal with that, but her normal sisterly concern turns to cold fear when a sniper sets his deadly sights on the local changeling population. She afraid not just because Jason's at risk, but because his new were-brethren suspect Jason may be the shooter. Sookie has until the next full moon to find out who's behind the attacks — unless the killer decides to find her first. The Sookie Stackhouse books are delightful Southern Gothic supernatural mysteries, starring Sookie, the telepathic cocktail waitress, and a cast of increasingly colourful characters, including vampires, werewolves and things that really do go bump in the night.

Paige Carson — starlet, diva, mess. The daughter of an 80s soap star and a rock god, it's no wonder Paige has no idea what 'normal' means. And Hollywood life isn't helping. She's sick of working with her latest co-star, a boorish Aussie heartthrob, sick of being told she's over-the-hill at 29, and sick of dates that are nothing more than PR stunts. So when she's offered a Shakespearean role on the London stage, it seems the perfect chance to get away from it all, gain some artistic cachet and catch up with her best friend who quit the States and the music business for a new life as lady of the manor with her British husband. But Paige is in for a surprise. London is damper, dirtier and far more carb-heavy than the life she's accustomed to. As opening night looms, Paige must learn not only how to ditch her Dick Van Dyke attempt at a Brit accent, but how to stand on her own two feet for the first time. And though she may not have her therapist on speed-dial, on her way she'll find real friends and maybe love, too.

Introducing an intriguing new hero in the world of crime fiction... American novelist Denton is an uncomfortable outsider in class-ridden turn-of-the-century England. But he is about to be plunged into the dark heart of a society where privilege and propriety hide unspeakable horrors. When a stranger turns up at his door declaring he has just seen Jack the Ripper, Denton dismisses his lurid ravings as the delusions of a madman. But then a prostitute's horribly mutilated body is discovered that night — and Denton suspects the two events are connected. While the police investigation grinds towards a seemingly pre-ordained conclusion, Denton becomes obsessed with finding out who the victim really was and who killed her — a search that leads him by degrees into the darkest, most violent underbelly of London...

My dad used to say to me, 'Try to keep a cool head and a warm heart'. At least I think it was my dad. I don't really remember him. Gravy worked in the graveyard — hence the name. He was having a normal day until his friend Benjy turned up in a car Gravy didn't recognise. Benjy had a bullet hole in his chest, but lived just long enough to ask Gravy to hide him and look after his gun. Gravy had looked after things for Benjy before, but never a gun. When Gravy looked in the car he found blood, a balaclava and a bag stuffed with money. Gravy's not too bright but he wants to help his friend. So Gravy finds himself caught up in the middle of a robbery gone wrong, a woman who witnessed a murder, and some very unpleasant men who will do anything to get back the money Benjy stole...

Hidden beneath the floorboards in a house he's remodeling, Christopher Flynn discovers something very tempting-and troubling. Summoning every bit of maturity and every lesson he's learned the hard way, Chris leaves what he found where he found it and tells his job partner to forget it, too. Knowing trouble when he sees it-and walking the other way-is a habit Chris is still learning. Chris's father, Thomas Flynn, runs the family business where Chris and his friends have found work. Thomas is just getting comfortable with the idea that his son is grown, working, and on the right path at last. Then one day Chris doesn't show up for work-and his father knows deep in his bones that danger has found him. Although he wishes it weren't so, he also knows that no parent can protect a child from all the world's evils. Sometimes you have to let them find their own way home.

Returning from the Synod in St Petersburg — and an official rebuke of her crime-fighting ways — Sister Pelagia finds herself aboard a steamer dodging pickpockets, zealots and a sinister man with a detachable eye. But a brutal murder in the next cabin spells the end of her sleuthing retirement, and the start of an investigation that will take her to the Holy Land and far beyond. Pelagia's journey is peppered with tales of miracles and roosters, and caves that act as portals to other worlds. But an assassin is closing in, pursuing the sister to the land of the Gospels where her criminal enquiry becomes a spiritual enquiry as she sets down her knitting needles to question the very foundations of her faith...

General Khrapov, newly appointed Governor-General of Siberia and soon-to-be Minister of the Interior, is murdered in his official saloon carriage on his way from St Petersburg to Moscow. The killer, disguised as Fandorin, leaves a knife thrust up to the hilt in his victim's chest and escapes through the window of the carriage. Can Fandorin escape suspicion? A battle of wills and ideals, revolutionaries and traditionalists and good versus evil.

When the bones of a boy are found scattered in the Hollywood Hills, Harry Bosch is drawn into a case that brings up dark memories from his past. Unearthing hidden stories, he finds the child's identity and reconstructs his fractured life, determined that he won't be forgotten. At the same time, a new love affair with a female cop begins to blossom — until a stunningly blown mission leaves him in more trouble than ever before. The investigation races to a shocking conclusion and leaves Bosch on the brink of an unimaginable decision...

The relaunch of the re-inked, re-coloured and re-designed Asterix series, now published in the correct order for the first time. Gaul was divided into three parts. No, four parts — for one small village of indomitable Gauls still held out against the Roman invaders. Book 3. Again Getafix is kidnapped, this time by a raiding band of Goths. Asterix and Obelix follow them into Germania and, in the process of rescuing their druid, set off a whole series of tribal wars.

May 1941. At four in the morning, a rust-streaked tramp freighter steams up the Tagus river to dock at the port of Lisbon. She is the Santa Rosa, flies the flag of neutral Spain, and is in Lisbon to load cork oak, tinned sardines and drums of cooking oil bound for the Baltic port of Malmo. But she is not the Santa Rosa. She is the Noordendam, a Dutch freighter under the command of Captain Eric DeHaan. She sails for the intelligence division of the British Royal Navy and is involved in a secret mission. On board are a Polish engineer and British spy, Spaniards who fought for Franco and Germans who fought against Hitler. For them, this is a last desperate flight to freedom.

After crashing and burning during his PhD viva, Mason Ambrose is offered a large amount of money to go to a mysterious tropical island — Isla de Sangre. His employer is wealthy recluse Edwina Sabachtani whose daughter has supposedly lost her sense of right and wrong after a diving accident. Mason is to use his knowledge as a philosopher to instil a conscience, a moral compass in the child. Mason happily instructs her in schools of thought, from the stoics to the epicureans, but it is when he introduces Londa to the Beatitudes that the seeds of a rampaging sense of justice are sown. Venturing from the confines of the island, Londa sets out to create a world that is more just. But when she takes her crusade too far, kidnapping a boat full of wealthy industrialists, Mason realises he must take desperate measures...

The expansion of the congestion charge zone, prices going up on the Underground, bendy buses — all ideas brought about to try to make the traffic situation in our capital city run more smoothly. Surely there must be a better way? In fact there is. In Roman times, when the streets were even more crowded, Caesar decreed that all vehicles (except those involved in building work) were banned from the City, while Nero took advantage of a major fire to broaden the streets to improve access. Whatever the problem, from the leader whose deputy wants to replace him to the question of how to make democracy really work, you can guarantee that our Classical forebears faced the same situation and came up with some far more effective solutions than our current politicians. In this enthralling, informative and hugely entertaining book, Peter Jones, one of the UK's leading Classicists, highlights just how much we have to learn from the past and how things really were once so much better.

Nina is the peacemaker of the family — dutiful daughter, sister and wife. Richard is the baby of the family — he's always been spoilt, and in his mother's eye, can do no wrong. Susan is envious of everyone. She has always got the worst of everything — or so she believes. Nina has been married to workaholic Alex long enough to decide that it's time for a child, but for him the moment is never right. There's always another property to buy, another deal to be struck. Or is there something else that's keeping him late so often at the office, something readily on offer that he cannot refuse? But as the secrets of those closest to her are shockingly revealed, suddenly everything is under threat — her marriage, her home and her future happiness.

Lizzie Buckley has a life many women dream of — a gorgeous husband, wonderful home and beautiful (when they're not fighting) three year old twins. But there's a snag. It's not that Lizzie has gone off marriage, as such. Well, not exactly. She's just gone off the physical side of it. Ever since the birth of the twins, she's had a fantasy about locking herself in her bedroom for 24 hours alone with a good book and a box of chocolates. Unfortunately, her husband James doesn't understand her feelings. And when Lizzie hits 'send' on the wrong email, suddenly everything starts to unravel. With the word 'divorce' ringing in her ears, Lizzie finds herself moving out and embarking on a totally different life — new house; new neighbours; no husband. But despite transforming her body, her neglected career and her libido (courtesy of the local landscape gardener), Lizzie can't get over her soon-to-be ex. Still mulling over her failed marriage, Lizzie can't help wondering whether she was ever good enough for gorgeous James. Or, as her mother-in-law suggests, was she just the wrong sort of wife? The other side of much misunderstanding, mayhem and more than a little merlot, Lizzie will find out if she wanted the fairy tale ending after all?

London, June 1940. When the body of silent screen star Mabel Morgan is found impaled on railings in Fitzrovia, the coroner rules her death as suicide, but DI Ted Stratton of the CID is not convinced. Despite opposition from his superiors, he starts asking questions, and it becomes clear that Morgan's fatal fall from a high window may have been the work of one of Soho's most notorious gangsters. MI5 agent Diana Calthrop, working with senior official Sir Neville Apse, is leading a covert operation when she discovers that her boss is involved in espionage. She must tread carefully — Apse is a powerful man, and she can't risk threatening the reputation of the Secret Service. Only when Stratton's path crosses Diana's do they start to uncover the truth. But as they discover Morgan's connection with Apse and their mutual links to a criminal network and a secretive pro-fascist organisation, they begin to realise that the intrigues of the Secret Service are alarmingly similar to the machinations of war-torn London's underworld.

That Sunday feeling... The weekend's over, there's nothing on TV except for the Antiques Roadshow. The only thing you can do is face the fact that the working week is just around the corner. And for Matt Bletch, the working week is not a prospect to be relished. He's moved to middle of nowhere and taken a job at the only school that would have him. Surrounded by social misfits, clowns and psychopaths (and that's just his fellow teachers) he's left his girlfriend, social life and sanity back in London in the hope of earning some cash and maybe even finishing off his novel in the school holidays. Unfortunately, no one told Matt that a year spent in the dead-end town of Buxdon is unlikely to get the creative juices flowing. Walking through town before the first week of term, everything is grey, damp and smells slightly dubious. Will he ever tempt his girlfriend down to stay? Will the kids lynch him? And will Matt survive a year in the place where every day is like Sunday?