More than four hundred years ago, seven people — five of them women — were beheaded in the Tower of London. Three had been queens of England. The others were found guilty of treason. Why were such important people put to death? Alison Weir's gripping book tells their stories: from the former friend betrayed by a man set on being king, to the young girl killed after just nine days on the throne. Alison Weir is a wonderful storyteller. Through her vivid writing, history comes alive.

Ada grows up motherless in the Jewish pogroms of a Ukrainian city in the early years of the twentieth century. In the same city, Harry Sinner, the cosseted son of a city financier, belongs to a very different world. Eventually, in search of a brighter future, Ada moves to Paris and makes a living painting scenes from the world she has left behind.

The world is changing — the government has seized control of every aspect of society, and now kids are disappearing. For fifteen-year-old Wisty and her older brother Whit, life turns upside-down when they are hauled out of bed one night, separated from their parents, and thrown into a secret compound for no reason they can comprehend. The new government is clearly trying to suppress life, liberty, and the pursuit of being a normal teenager. Imprisoned together and condemned to death, Wisty and Whit begin exhibiting strange abilities and powers they never dreamed of. Maybe there is a reason they were singled out. Can this newly discovered witch and a wizard master their skills in time to save themselves, their parents — and maybe the world?

Abbey of Ruac, rural France: A medieval script is discovered hidden behind an antique bookcase. Badly damaged, it is sent to Paris for restoration, and there literary historian Hugo Pineau begins to read the startling fourteenth-century text. Within its pages lies a fanciful tale of a painted cave and the secrets it contains and a rudimentary map showing its position close to the abbey. Intrigued, Hugo enlists the help of archaeologist Luc Simard and the two men go exploring.

Look at the Birdie evokes a world in which squabbling couples, high school geniuses, misfit office workers, and small-town Lotharios struggle to adapt to changing technology, moral ambiguity, and unprecedented affluence. In Confido, a family learns the downside of confiding their deepest secrets into a magical invention. In Ed Luby's Key Club, a man finds himself in a Kafkaesque world of trouble after he runs afoul of the shady underworld boss who calls the shots in an upstate New York town. In Look at the Birdie, a quack psychiatrist turned 'murder counsellor' concocts a novel new outlet for his paranoid patients. The stories are cautionary they also brim with his trademark humour. Wry, ironic, satirical and poignant Look at the Birdie reflects the anxieties of the postwar era in which they were written and provides an insight into the development of Vonnegut's early style.

Suitable for younger readers, this book covers the wonder and mysteries of time and space, the frequently bizarre and often obsessive scientists and the methods they used, and the extraordinary accidental discoveries which suddenly advanced whole areas of science when the people were actually looking for something else (or in the wrong direction).

An innocent man is days from execution. Only a guilty man can save him. Travis Boyette is a murderer. In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, he abducted, raped, and strangled a popular high-school cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never be found, then watched and waited as police and prosecutors arrested Donte Drumm.

I Am a Chechen! offers a lyrical fusion of exotic legends, stories and memories of Chechnya: a land of wondrous beauty, site of genocides past and present, and the author's ancestral home. Haunted by memories of the land he deserted, Sadulaev tells the stories of those who stayed behind. He brings to life his friends — now reduced to pieces of flesh — revisiting their first loves, their passion for rock music, their quests for martyrdom. And he immerses us in the intoxicating beauty of his homeland's mountains, blossoms and the flocks of migratory swallows that fill its skies. I Am a Chechen! is an intensely personal journey through the carnage of the war, exploring the pain, the challenge, and above all the meaning of being a Chechen.

A wonderfully rich and vibrant novel that tells the story of one of Russia's post-Communist Oligarchs and the two women who marry him, from impoverished boyhood, through unimaginable power and wealth, to the moment when he finally overreaches himself.

A glorious historical novel based on the 17th century life of Eleanor Glanville who was destined to become one of the most famous entomologists in history. But not before she had endured a life of extraordinary vicissitude: two marriages and an all-consuming love which would prove her undoing.

It is Midwinter's Eve, the night before Will's eleventh birthday. But there is an atmosphere of fear in the familiar countryside around him. Will is about to make a shocking discovery — that he is the last person to be born with the power of the Old Ones, and as a guardian of the Light he must begin a dangerous journey to vanquish the terrifyingly evil magic of the Dark.

In their desperate quest to find the grail, stolen by the forces of the Dark, the Drew children have returned to Trewissick. One night, in a strange ceremony, Jane watches the village women construct the Greenwitch: an ancient offering to the sea. Overcome by the Greenwitch's power, Jane makes a perilous wish — one that will tip the balance in the ongoing struggle between good and evil.

In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future — between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death? Carrie Ryan lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

This the official guide contains facts and profiles from the hit TV show. In a land of myth and a time of magic there is a constant battle to maintain the balance of the world. Evil forces are at work to destabilize the kingdom. Meet the villains out to destroy Camelot in this official guide. Filled with tales of dreadful deeds, fascinating facts and fun activities this is the must-have guide for all Merlin fans.

The son of one of New York's wealthiest families is snatched off the street and held hostage. His parents can't save him, because this kidnapper isn't demanding money. Instead, he quizzes his prisoner on the price others pay for his life of luxury. In this exam, wrong answers are fatal. Detective Michael Bennett leads the investigation. With ten kids of his own, he can't begin to understand what could lead someone to target anyone's children. As another student disappears, one powerful family after another uses their leverage and connections to turn up the heat on the mayor, the press, anyone who will listen, to stop this killer. Their reach extends all the way to the FBI, who send their top Abduction Specialist, Agent Emily Parker. Bennett's work life — and love life — suddenly get even more complicated. Before Bennett has a chance to protest the FBI's intrusion on his case, the mastermind changes his routine. His plan leads up to the most deadly demonstration yet — one that could bring cataclysmic devastation to every inch of New York.

With the insight, humor, and compassion we have come to expect from her, Maeve Binchy tells a story of family, friends, patients, and staff who are part of a heart clinic in a community caught between the old and the new Ireland. Dr. Clara Casey has been offered the thankless job of establishing the underfunded clinic and agrees to take it on for a year. She has plenty on her plate already — two difficult adult daughters and the unwanted attentions of her ex-husband — but she assembles a wonderfully diverse staff devoted to helping their demanding, often difficult patients. Before long the clinic is established as an essential part of the community, and Clara must decide whether or not to leave a place where lives are saved, courage is rewarded, and humor and optimism triumph over greed and self-pity. Heart and Soul is Maeve Binchy at her storytelling best.

As darkness falls each night, demons surface from the ground. They possess supernatural strength and burn with a hatred of humanity. Three young survivors of vicious demon attacks dare to risk everything in a desperate quest to regain the secrets of the past.

In a spellbinding blend of suspense and human drama, Steel tells a powerful and unusual story of one woman's journey from darkness into light, as she fights to escape a mesmerizing sociopath who holds her in his thrall.

Following the massive success of Pride Prejudice and Zombies, and the impressive pre-pub sales of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, we have Quirk Classic 3. Like 1 and 2 the suspense will build as we discover what new monster mayhem will descend upon us this Spring. Certain to create the same buzz and excitement as the previous Quirk Classic titles.

Ein verwunschener Garten, eine adlige Familie, ein dunkles Geheimnis. Als die junge Australierin Cassandra von ihrer Großmutter ein kleines Cottage an der Küste Cornwalls erbt, ahnt sie nichts von dem unheilvollen Versprechen, das zwei Freundinnen ein Jahrhundert zuvor an jenem Ort einlösten. Auf den Spuren der Vergangenheit entdeckt Cassandra ein Geheimnis, das seinen Anfang in den Gärten von Blackhurst Manor nahm und seit Generationen das Schicksal ihrer Familie bestimmt. Blackhurst Manor, Cornwall, Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts: Nach dem Tod ihrer Eltern wächst Eliza bei ihrem Onkel auf Blackhurst Manor, dem Familienbesitz der Mountrachets, auf. Sie und ihre Cousine Rose werden schnell unzertrennlich. Um der Welt der Erwachsenen zu entfliehen, erkunden sie das geheimnisvolle Anwesen und entdecken einen verborgenen Garten mit einem Cottage — ein Ort, an den sich die fantasievolle Eliza immer wieder zurückziehen kann. Doch als die Mädchen erwachsen werden, zerbricht ihre einstige Freundschaft. Rose verliebt sich in Nathaniel, und als die beiden heiraten, zieht sich Eliza in das Cottage zurück, um sich ganz dem Schreiben von Geschichten zu widmen. So ahnt sie nicht, dass Rose zutiefst unglücklich ist, weil ihre Ehe kinderlos bleibt. In ihrer Verzweiflung bittet sie Eliza um Hilfe. Ein unheilvoller Plan wird in die Tat umgesetzt und bestimmt fortan das Schicksal der nachfolgenden Generationen.