Search Results for: there will come a darkness

“Holy dark and delicious angst. Carian Cole did not hold back. I dare you not to shed a tear.”
?L.J. Shen, USA Today & Wall Street Journal bestselling author of VICIOUS

My innocence was stolen when I was abducted at five years old. For eleven years I held on by clinging to childhood fairytales. I waited for a prince to someday save me and carry me off to a happily ever after.

I had no idea my saviour would come as a scarred recluse, covered in tattoos, who can’t-or won’t-speak a word. Nevertheless, the moment our eyes met I knew he was the one.? My prince.

With his bare hands, he killed the monster who kept me captive. But people have a way of distorting the truth when the hero looks like a villain. As it turns out, Tyler Grace is many things: A myth. An outcast. A nightmare. Haunted by tragedy, he lives secluded in the forest. Some say they see him ride through town at night-straddling a black motorcycle, his face covered by a skeletal mask.

I’ve been warned to stay away, yet I can’t stop thinking about him. I ache to hear his voice. And I want nothing more than to break through his walls. I know he’s the only one who can break through mine.

Do we dare dream of a love that once felt impossible to find? Or will only our horrible, twisted past tie us together?

?Fans of angsty romance from Lauren Asher and Mia Sheridan will be hooked by this emotional novel following two broken souls connected by a dark, haunting past.

A riveting tell-all biography that delves into the extraordinary life of Hollywood’s most infamous private detective and “fixer” to the stars, revealing newly discovered shocking revelations from his never-before-seen investigative files.

During the height of Hollywood’s golden age, one man lorded over the city’s lurid underbelly of forbidden sin and celebrity scandal like no other: Fred Otash. An ex-Marine turned L.A.P.D. vice cop, Otash became the most sought-after private detective and fixer to the stars by specializing in the dark arts that would soon dominate the entertainment industry.

Otash was notorious for bugging the homes, offices, and playpens of movie stars, kingmakers, and powerful politicians, employing then state-of-the-art methods of electronic surveillance and wiretapping for a who’s who list of clients for whom he’d do “anything short of murder.” He lied to federal authorities to protect Frank Sinatra from criminal liability; recorded Rock Hudson’s coming out confession to his estranged wife; moved in with Judy Garland to help her get sober; taped President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s tragic love affairs with the greatest sex symbol of all time, and he listened to Marilyn Monroe die.

Based on Otash’s never-before-seen investigative files and personal archives, THE FIXER takes readers inside the sensational and nefarious world of the man whose art imitating life inspired the private eye characters portrayed by Jack Nicholson in Chinatown and Russell Crowe in LA Confidential.

*First Place Winner of the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Rachel Carson Environment Book Award*

With urgency and wit, Tatiana Schlossberg explains that far from being only a distant problem of the natural world created by the fossil fuel industry, climate change is all around us, all the time, lurking everywhere in our convenience-driven society, all without our realizing it.

By examining the unseen and unconscious environmental impacts in four areas-the Internet and technology, food, fashion, and fuel – Schlossberg helps readers better understand why climate change is such a complicated issue, and how it connects all of us: How streaming a movie on Netflix in New York burns coal in Virginia; how eating a hamburger in California might contribute to pollution in the Gulf of Mexico; how buying an inexpensive cashmere sweater in Chicago expands the Mongolian desert; how destroying forests from North Carolina is necessary to generate electricity in England.

Cataloging the complexities and frustrations of our carbon-intensive society with a dry sense of humor, Schlossberg makes the climate crisis and its solutions interesting and relevant to everyone who cares, even a little, about the planet. She empowers readers to think about their stuff and the environment in a new way, helping them make more informed choices when it comes to the future of our world.

Most importantly, this is a book about the power we have as voters and consumers to make sure that the fight against climate change includes all of us and all of our stuff, not just industry groups and politicians. If we have any hope of solving the problem, we all have to do it together.

“A compelling-and illuminating-look at how our daily habits impact the environment.”–Vanity Fair

“If you’re looking for something to cling to in what often feels like a hopeless conversation, Schlossberg’s darkly humorous, knowledge-is-power, eyes-wide-open approach may be just the thing.”–Vogue

“Shows how even the smallest decisions can have profound environmental consequences.”–The New York Times

A heartwarming novel of complicated families, new neighbors, and fresh hope from a New York Times bestselling author who writes “Southern comfort in a book.” -Sheila Roberts

Allie Logan has her hands full with a bad breakup, a struggling renovation business, a sister who won’t stop flaunting her engagement ring, and a grandmother who keeps wandering off at the most inopportune times. In fact, Granny Irene’s latest habit is sneaking out to the ranch next door, where’s she’s convinced a lost love awaits. But when Allie goes to collect her, she finds instead a new neighbor-six-foot-plus of tall, dark, and charming.
Blake Dawson is one more thing Allie can’t deal with right now. But since he’s hired her to help repair his rundown ranch, they’re suddenly spending an awful lot of time together. And as family secrets-past and present-start to come to light, Allie finds that opening her heart might just be the fresh start her life needs.

Includes the bonus novella Buttercup Farms, part of the Sunflower Ranch series–never before published!

“The magic here is not the supernatural kind, but rather an attention to the grace of the ordinary. It is the magic of watching these women come into their power.”-New York Times

“There’s romance and a familial drama and examinations of identity, and though there’s nothing quite supernatural, it creates a magic entirely its own.” – Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here

In this glittering triptych novel, Suzette, Maple and Agnes, three Black women with albinism, call Shreveport, Louisiana home. At the bustling crossroads of the American South and Southwest, these three women find themselves at the crossroads of their own lives.

Suzette, a pampered twenty-year-old, has been sheltered from the outside world since a dangerous childhood encounter. Now, a budding romance with a sweet mechanic allows Suzette to seek independence, which unleashes dark reactions in those closest to her. In discovering her autonomy, Suzette is forced to decide what she is willing to sacrifice in order to make her own way in the world.

Maple is reeling from the unsolved murder of her free-spirited mother. She flees the media circus and her judgmental grandmother by shutting herself off from the world in a spare room of the motel where she works. One night, at a party, Maple connects with Chad, someone who may understand her pain more than she realizes, and she discovers that the key to her mother’s death may be within her reach.

Agnes is far from home, working yet another mind-numbing job. She attracts the interest of a lonely security guard and army veteran who’s looking for a traditional life for himself and his young son. He’s convinced that she wields a certain “magic,” but Agnes soon unleashes a power within herself that will shock them both and send her on a trip to confront not only her family and her past, but also herself.

This novel, told in three parts, is a searing meditation on grief, female strength, and self-discovery set against a backdrop of complicated social and racial histories. Nobody’s Magic is a testament to the power of family-the ones you’re born in and the ones you choose. And in these three narratives, among the yearning and loss, each of these women may find a seed of hope for the future.

In WILLA & HESPER, two young women fall in love. When they fall apart, they unwittingly take the same path to heal from their breakup, seeking answers in the lands of their ancestors. From Tbilisi, Georgia to the war sites of Germany, they discover what can break and what can mend when you look to the past to understand your present.

Willa’s darkness enters Hesper’s light late one night in Brooklyn. Theirs is a whirlwind romance until Willa starts to know Hesper too well, to crawl into her hidden spaces and Hesper shuts her out. She runs, following her fractured family back to her grandfather’s hometown of Tbilisi, Georgia, looking for the origin story that he is no longer able to tell. But once in Tbilisi, cracks appear in her grandfather’s history-and a massive flood is heading toward Georgia, threatening any hope for repair.

Meanwhile, heartbroken Willa is desperate to leave New York that she joins a group trip for Jewish twenty-somethings to visit Holocaust sites in Germany and Poland, hoping to override her emotional state. When it proves to be more fraught than home, she must come to terms with her past-the ancestral past, her romantic past and the past that can lead her forward.

Told from alternating perspectives and ending in the shadow of Trump’s presidency, WILLA & HESPER is a deeply moving, cerebral and timely debut.

Annie Lakes has been plagued her entire life by nightmares of running through a dark, damp forest. But when a local girl’s murder suddenly awakens long-buried memories of watching someone cover up her five-year-old cousin’s body in the woods, she’ll stop at nothing to solve this cold case–even if it means teaming up with the sexy local detective who’s investigating a more recent murder–and who believes she’s a suspect.

Detective Mark Sutton has excellent instincts when it comes to cold cases. And he doesn’t trust Annie one bit. But he knows how to play her to get to the truth and he plans to do just that–no matter how beautiful she is. As they begin to uncover chilling family secrets about Annie’s past, Mark can see that Annie is shaken to the core–and in grave danger. Can Mark protect Annie when her past threatens both of their lives?

Bestselling author Joel Osteen presents a practical study guide for you to uncover the keys to finding light in the darkness and becoming the person of faith and character God designed you to be, even when hope seems impossible.

Through thoughtful questions and motivational activities, this guide will help you discover God’s divine plan when times are hard. There are seeds of talent, potential, and greatness buried deep within you that will only come to light through difficulty. Here is a valuable resource that will help you trust in God’s victory even in the middle of apparent defeat.

‘I Meant It Once explores longing, belonging and the big emotions that can make us feel small with unusual elegance and depth’ Coco Mellors, author of Cleopatra and Frankenstein

‘Gorgeously written and staggeringly honest . . . It will bewitch you’ Tess Gunty, author of The Rabbit Hutch

‘I Meant it Once signals the arrival of a major talent and voice’ Brandon Taylor, author of Booker Prize Finalist Real Life

‘I was enraptured by these stories… Perfect for fans of Greta Gerwig’ Edel Coffey

With this sharp and witty debut collection, author Kate Doyle captures precisely that time of life when so many young women are caught in between, pre-occupied by nostalgia for past relationships – with friends, roommates, siblings – while trying to move forward into an uncertain future. In “That Is Shocking,” a college student relates a darkly funny story of romantic humiliation, one that skirts the parallel story of a friend she betrayed. In others, young women long for friends who have moved away, or moved on. In “Cinnamon Baseball Coyote” and other linked stories about siblings Helen, Evan, and Grace, their years of inside jokes and brutal tensions simmer over as the three spend a holiday season in an amusing whirl of rivalry and mutual attachment, and a generational gulf widens between them and their parents. Throughout, in stories both lyrical and haunting, young women search for ways to break free from the expectations of others and find a way to be in the world.

Written with crystalline prose and sly humour, the stories in I Meant It Once build to complete a profoundly recognizable portrait of early adulthood and the ways in which seemingly incidental moments can come to define the stories we tell ourselves. For fans of Elif Batuman, Ottessa Moshfegh, Patricia Lockwood, and Melissa Bank, these stories about being young and adrift in today’s world go down easy and pack a big punch.

‘Perceptive, funny, forthright, and often alarmingly relatable, I Meant It Once is a tremendously good debut’ Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had

‘Gub is unlike anything I have ever read. In a playful demotic that is exhilarating, hilarious and never forced, Scott McKendry makes magic of a Belfast that in other hands would make grim reading. The most exciting poet to come out of the north of Ireland in many years’ Louise Kennedy, author of Tresspasses

‘There is nothing else like this in Irish poetry. A lyrical savant of the highest level, and one of the most exciting writers in Ireland today, McKendry is utterly his own beast’ Michael Nolan, author of Close To Home

‘A distinctive and energetic voice’ Sunday Times Ireland

‘McKendry is a joyful liar, a storyteller… McKendry writes “life’s not synonymous with pain” and it’s this sense, of a kind of all-encompassing appetite, that marks him out as fine company’ Declan Ryan


Demons, geese, The Laughing Cow, marching bands, LSD and pistols smuggled home from the USSR. You’ll find all these in Scott McKendry’s GUB.

Rooted in the language of working-class Belfast, and slipping between eras and time zones, closing the gap between the real and the fantastical, the academic and the everyday, the parish and the polis, McKendry’s exhilarating debut collection comes to terms with generational trauma, social decay and the rituals of a place with a fraught history and an uncertain future.

Invoking the balaclava’d gunmen, urban warlords and explosions which gripped the decades either side of the Good Friday Agreement, GUB drags the language of ghettoised Belfast into serious Irish poetry. Wearing the lyrical influences of his ‘ugly city’ lightly – Carson, McGuckian, Longley – McKendry’s tightly-wrought structures weave an unprecedented verse of mourning, witness, alter ego, class alienation and aesthetic turmoil.

Noisy, dark and witty, GUB is an utterly new voice out of Belfast, but one posting bulletins across inner-city neighbourhoods everywhere.

‘A mesmeric, enrapturing read’ Eimear McBride

‘Beautiful and original’ Colm Tóibín

‘In startling language filled with the flavor of Yiddish’s combination words, [Before All the World] moves forward and back and forward again in a dreamlike trance that acknowledges how the worst suffering exists side by side with the tender beauty of memory, friendship, words and the silences of recognition’ Ilana Masad, NPR

‘Before All the World is poetry as it should be: deliberate while feeling casual, a game with words that is at once playful and deadly serious (sometimes by turns, sometimes truly simultaneously) . . . It swallowed me up, and then all at once, a word or a phrase would reach me like a bolt of lightning, charring and electrifying me all through’ Jo Niederhoff, Seattle Book Review

‘Resembles something by Joyce or Samuel Beckett . . . A highly original and powerful tale told in defiance of the world’s darkness’ Stephanie Cross, The Daily Mail

‘Before All the World leaves you breathless . . . [Rothman-Zecher] has found a way to teach us how to find out what is most important about ourselves by losing himself in this novel of ingenious daring imagination and allowing us to accompany him on his ride. It is a masterful accomplishment that remains with the reader long after finishing this brilliant work’ Elaine Margolin, Women in Judaism

‘An emotionally evocative exploration of the impossibility of escaping trauma, yet finding hope nevertheless when all seems destroyed’ Hannah Srour-Zackon, The Canadian Jewish News

‘At its core, Before All the World considers one essential question: what does it mean to remember the past while still imagining the future? . . . Its most striking accomplishment is its invitation to the reader to become a part of the novel’s chorus. What will you do, it asks, now that you’ve read this story?’ Adina Applebaum, Jewish Book Council

‘Original, daring, experimental, moving, poignant, engaging . . . With shades of Tony Kushner and Cynthia Ozick . . . Before All the World understands how our worlds are made by words, and in the altering of the latter we may as yet redeem the former’ Ed Simon, The Millions, ‘Most Anticipated Books of 2022’

‘Rich and engrossing . . . A powerful story, brilliantly told’ Publishers Weekly, starred review

‘A one-of-a-kind creation’ Kirkus Reviews

‘ikh gleyb nit az di gantze velt iz kheyshekh’
‘I do not believe that all the world is darkness’

In the swirl of Prohibition-era Philadelphia, Leyb meets Charles. They are at a former speakeasy called Cricket’s, a bar that welcomes, as Charles says in his secondhand Yiddish, feygeles. Leyb is startled to hear his native tongue spoken by this beautiful Black man from the Seventh Ward whose life he will come to share.

Leyb is haunted by memories from before he came to America, growing up in the shtetl of Zatelsk, where one day every last person – except the ten non-Jews, a young poet named Gittl, and he himself – was taken to the forest and killed.

Flowing with a surge of language and synchrony, Gittl and Leyb are reunited – surrounded by the murmur of angelic voices – and together with Charles they each grapple with how to face, and sieze, whatever future lies ahead.

Carried along by questions of survival and hope, Before All the World lays bare the impossibility of escaping trauma, the necessity of believing in a better way, and the power that comes from our responsibility to the future. It asks, in the voices of its angels, the most essential question: What do you intend to do before all the world?

‘A compelling, fast-moving narrative . . . delivers real emotional impact’ Telegraph

‘A literary provocateur’ Guardian

SHORTLISTED for the POLARI PRIZE 2023
WINNER of DIVA Magazine‘s 2023 ‘Author of the Year’ Award

Isobel lives an isolated life in North London, where she works at a nearby library. She feels safe, so long as she keeps to her routines and doesn’t let her thoughts stray too far into the past. But a newspaper photograph of a missing local schoolgirl and a letter from her old teacher send her spiralling and bring back the trauma of what happened years ago, when she was a pupil at The Schoolhouse.

The Schoolhouse was a 1970s experimental school where Isobel’s days were a dark interplay of freedom and adventure, violence and fear. The only record of what happened there lies in the pages of her teenage diary.

The Schoolhouse taught Isobel that some truths must never be revealed, but as police investigating the missing girl start to ask uncomfortable questions, she realises the truth is coming for her – and it will put her, and everyone she has tried to protect, at risk.

From the Booker Prize-longlisted author of Love and Other Thought Experiments comes a masterful and gripping thriller about truth, silence, and the dead weight of the past.

‘Messed-up families, scandalous love affairs, art, life, death and the great state of Florida in one delicious, darkly funny package. Kristen Arnett is a wickedly talented and a wholly original voice’ Jami Attenberg

What does it take to come back to life?

In the wake of her father’s suicide, Jessa-Lynn Morton has stepped up to manage his failing taxidermy business while the rest of the Morton family falls apart. Her mother starts sneaking into the shop to make alarming art with stuffed animals; and while her brother Milo withdraws, his wife, Brynn – the only person Jessa’s ever been in love with – leaves home without a word. A string of unexpected incidents opens up the chance for the Mortons to mend: can they piece themselves together again?

Kristen Arnett’s breakout debut is a darkly funny family portrait; a peculiar, bighearted look at love and loss and the ways we live through them together.

‘This book is my song of the summer’ Parul Seghal, New York Times

‘Wonderful’ Esmé Weijun Wang, Guardian

‘Explores love, loss and death and is guaranteed to keep you gripped throughout’ Mirror

‘The writing is subtle and meditative, with the tactile weight of dense fur’ New Yorker

Set in an imagined town outside Tokyo, Clarissa Goenawan’s dark, spellbinding literary debut follows a young man’s path to self-discovery in the wake of his sister’s murder.

Ren Ishida has nearly completed his graduate degree at Keio University when he receives news of his sister’s violent death. Keiko was stabbed one rainy night on her way home, and there are no leads. Ren heads to Akakawa to conclude his sister’s affairs, failing to understand why she chose to turn her back on the family and Tokyo for this desolate place years ago.

But then Ren is offered Keiko’s newly vacant teaching position at a prestigious local school and her bizarre former arrangement of free lodging at a wealthy politician’s mansion, in exchange for reading to the man’s ailing wife. He accepts both, abandoning Tokyo and his crumbling relationship there in order to better understand his sister’s life and what took place the night of her death.

As Ren comes to know the eccentric local figures, from the enigmatic politician who’s boarding him to his fellow teachers and a rebellious, captivating young female student, he delves into his shared childhood with Keiko and what followed. Haunted in his dreams by a young girl who is desperately trying to tell him something, Ren realizes that Keiko Ishida kept many secrets, even from him.

A Bustle Most Anticipated Book of 2018
amNY, “Must Read Books in 2018”
The Huffington Post, “60 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018”
BookBub, “25 Debut Novels We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018”
iBooks, “10 Debut Novels You Must Read”

From the breakout author of There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé comes a profound and deceptively funny exploration of Black American womanhood.

‘2019 justly belongs to Morgan Parker. Her poems shred me with their intelligence, dark humor and black-hearted vision. Parker is one of this generation’s best minds’ Danez Smith, winner of the Forward Prize

‘A riveting testimony to everyday blackness . . . It is wry and atmospheric, an epic work of aural pleasures and personifications that demands to be read – both as an account of a private life and as searing political protest’ TIME Magazine

Magical Negro is an archive of Black everydayness, a catalogue of contemporary folk heroes, an ethnography of ancestral grief, and an inventory of figureheads, idioms and customs. These poems are both elegy and jive, joke and declaration, songs of congregation and self-conception. They connect themes of loneliness, displacement, grief, ancestral trauma and objectification, while exploring tropes and stereotypes of Black Americans.

Focused primarily on depictions of Black womanhood alongside personal narratives, the collection tackles interior and exterior politics – of both the body and society, of both the individual and the collective experience.

In Magical Negro, Morgan Parker creates a space of witness, of airing grievances, of pointing out patterns. In these poems are living documents, pleas, latent traumas, inside jokes and unspoken anxieties situated as firmly in the past as in the present – timeless Black melancholies and triumphs.

‘The Godfather in Great Yarmouth’ Ian Rankin

‘An atmospheric and riveting tale’ Guardian

* * * * * The Sun

‘Harry Brett writes a fun plot with witty elegance’ The Times

When local crime boss Richard Goodwin is pulled from the river by his office it looks like suicide. But as his widow Tatiana feared, Rich collected enemies like poker chips, and half of Great Yarmouth’s criminal fraternity would have had reason to kill him.

Realising how little she knows about the man she married, Tatty seeks to uncover the truth about Rich’s death and take over the reins of the family business, overseeing a waterfront casino deal Rich hoped would put Yarmouth on the map.

Out of the shadows at last, it is Tatty’s time now, and she isn’t going to let Rich’s brother, or anyone else, stand in her way. But an American has been in town asking the right people the wrong questions, more bodies turn up, along with a brutal new gang. The stakes have never been higher.

With her family to protect, and a business to run, Tatty soon learns that power comes with a price . . .

‘Fearsomely good’ Nicci French

‘A 21st century Long Good Friday’ Tony Parsons

‘Taut and atmospheric’ Eva Dolan

‘Gripping, compelling, original crime drama‘ Dreda Say Mitchell

‘Darkly brooding and atmospheric’ M.J. McGrath

‘Time to Win redraws the landscape of British noir’ Stav Sherez

‘A tour de force’ William Ryan

‘I loved Time to Win’ Julia Crouch

‘Gritty and stark‘ Sunday Mirror

‘Time To Win is firmly in the top flight of crime writing‘ Crime Scene

Perfect for fans of The Girls, this is a bittersweet, honest, and widely acclaimed coming-of-age novel that distills honest truths about American girlhood

Anna has had a miserable year. Everything feels wrong with her life. And rather than stay and face the mess, she steals a credit card and books herself a seat on the first flight out of town to Los Angeles, to crash with her sister. But soon after she lands, cold reality soon dawns on her: Hollywood isn’t the escape she needs. She is trapped in a town full of lost souls and wannabes, with no friends, no cash and no return ticket.

When she’s offered a job researching the murderous Manson girls for a dubious film, she reluctantly accepts – she needs the money. But soon enough, among the fake smiles and glitter-fuelled parties, things turn from strange, to dark, to dangerous . . .

This is not going to be the summer Anna had in mind.

My Favourite Manson Girl is a chilling story about being young, lost and female. This is a story about how girls disappear.

Ever since he can remember, Dom Joly has been fascinated by travel to odd places. In part this stems from a childhood spent in war-torn Lebanon, where instead of swapping marbles in the schoolyard, he had a shrapnel collection — the schoolboy currency of Beirut. Dom’s upbringing was interspersed with terrifying days and nights spent hunkered in the family basement under Syrian rocket attack or coming across a pile of severed heads from a sectarian execution in the pine forests near his home.

These early experiences left Dom with a profound loathing for the sanitized experiences of the modern day travel industry and a taste for the darkest of places. In this brilliantly odd and hilariously told travel memoir, Dom Joly sets out on a quest to visit those destinations from which the average tourist would, and should, run a mile. The more insalubrious the place, the more interesting is the journey and so we follow Dom as he skis in Iran on segregated slopes, spends a weekend in Chernobyl, tours the assassination sites of America and becomes one of the few Westerners to be granted entry into North Korea. Eventually Dom journeys back to his roots in Beirut only to discover he was at school with Osama Bin Laden.

Funny and frightening in equal measure, this is a uniquely bizarre and compelling travelogue from one of the most fearless and innovative comedians around.

‘In the same light-heartedly informative spirit as his previous Elemental, Tim James gives us an entertaining gallop through light years of space science, from the big bang to UFOs’
Andrew Crumey, author of The Great Chain of Unbeing

PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR
‘Humorous, yet deep . . . Fundamental will speak to all readers’
Professor Charles Antoine, Sorbonne University

‘Who said science was dry? Certainly not Tim James’
New York Post

Does the Big Bang prove the existence of God? What’s the Universe expanding into? Is Earth the only planet which supports life? Why did the greatest astronomer in history murder his pet moose?

Space is the biggest, oldest, hottest, coldest, strangest thing a human can study. It’s no surprise then, that the weirdest facts in science (not to mention the weirdest scientists themselves) are found in astrophysics and cosmology.

If you’re looking for instructions on how to set up your grandad’s telescope this book probably isn’t for you. In Astronomical, Tim James takes us on a tour of the known (and unknown) Universe, focusing on the most-mind boggling stuff we’ve come across, as well as unpacking the latest theories about what’s really going on out there.

Guiding us through Einstein’s relativity, quantum mechanics and string theory, Astronomical delves into the baffling corners of the cosmos and tackles the biggest mysteries we face: from alien life to the zodiac; from white holes to wormholes; from quasars to quark stars. This is the science of space at its absolute strangest!

From the creation of the Universe out of nothing to the Large Hadron Collider and the Universe’s ongoing expansion, Tim explores our planetary neighbours, where it snows metal on Venus, there are underground lakes on Mars and rivers of petrol on Titan.

He then looks beyond our solar system: to exoplanets which could support life, rogue planets, quark stars, quasars, neutron stars and more. Tim looks at black holes (and how to survive in one), wormholes, white holes as well as dark energy, dark matter and even a bit of string theory thrown in for good measure. He explains the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, including the discovery of Martian fossils in the Alan Hills meteorite and the tantalising ‘Wow signal’ transmission earth received in 1973 – still unexplained.

He also rebuts resurgent anti-science movements, including the Flat Earth Society and discusses what’s really going on inside Area 51.

To close, Tim finishes by looking at human achievements in space including how rockets work, how faster-than-light warp-drives (currently being investigated by NASA) work and how we plan to colonise both the moon and Mars.

‘The Dictionary of Crime is now the first book I reach for when beginning a new novel. An essential resource, it’s packed with explanations, insider information, contemporary and historical slang, as well as some downright bizarre laws and practices. It’s funny, fascinating and a damn good read’
M. W CRAVEN, winner of the 2019 Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year for The Puppet Show

‘A really good idea . . . executed neatly to come up with the perfect gift for crime lovers’
MAT COWARD, Morning Star

‘I found myself rolling around in it for hours, like a gangster’s moll on a bed full of money. Sheer delight!’
CATRIONA McPHERSON

‘Where was this book when I started writing? From Aconite to the Zodiac Killer is the essential companion for any serious reader or writer of crime’
LEYE ADENLE, author of When Trouble Sleeps

‘A fascinating compendium of crime facts which should be on the shelves of every crime writer ­­- and every crime reader’
SIMON BRETT

‘This is a dangerous book in so many ways, chock full of ways of killing people, from undetectable poisons to various types of guns. It contains riveting accounts of notorious murderers, is crammed with fascinating details of slang, and precise particulars of police procedures. The perfect gift for any true crime enthusiast and an indispensable guide for all crime fiction writers.’
S. W. WILLIAMS, author of Small Deaths and How to Write Crime Fiction

‘A remarkable achievement. At once elucidating and compelling, indispensable and unputdownable. It reads like a page-turning thriller. Whether a crime writer who needs to distinguish a blood agent from a bum beef or a reader with an interest in queer coal makers, this lexicon will keep you hooked, and leave you sublimely informed.’
GARY DONNELLY, author of Killing in Your Name and Blood Will Be Born

‘Fascinating, insightful and taking up permanent residency on my desk. Amanda Lees’ Dictionary of Crime is my new bible!’
CHRIS WHITTAKER, award-winning author of Tall Oaks, All The Wicked Girls and We Begin at the End

‘What a little gem this is ­- such a great idea and a valuable resource for writers. I found myself dipping into it at intervals and marvelling at the extent of the research that’s gone into it, as well as chuckling over some of the more unusual entries. My personal favourites? BINGO seat, nicker, moll buzzer and lully-prigger. Wouldn’t have had a clue what they meant . . . but I’m determined to work them in somewhere in a future novel!’
G. J. MINETTT, author of The Syndicate


‘A fascinating journey through the dark side of the human psyche. Highly recommended for anyone interested in criminals and crime’
PATRICK REDMOND, bestselling author of The Wishing Game

An essential popular A-Z reference guide for fans of crime fiction and true crime, in books, TV and film, helping to make sense of everything from asphyxiation to VX nerve agent.

This is an indispensable guide for fans of true crime and crime fiction, whether in books, film or on TV, who want to look behind the crime, to understand the mechanics of an investigation, to walk in their favourite detectives’ shoes and, most importantly, to solve the clues.

To do that, one needs to be fluent in the language of the world of crime. We need to know what that world-weary DI is talking about when she refers to another MISPER. We have to immediately grasp the significance of the presence of paraquat, and precisely why it is still a poison of choice.

If you want to know how many murders it takes for a killer to be defined as a serial killer, what Philip Marlowe means when he talks about being ‘on a confidential lay’ and why the ‘fruit of a poisonous tree’ is a legal term rather than something you should avoid on a country walk, this is the reference book you’ve been waiting for.

It covers police and procedural terms and jargon of many different countries; acronyms; murder methods; criminal definitions, including different types of killers; infamous killers and famous detectives; notorious cases often referred to in crime fiction and true crime; gangster slang, including that of the Eastern European mafia; definitions of illegal drugs; weapons; forensic terminology; types of poisons; words and phrases used in major crime genres, including detective fiction, legal thrillers, courtroom dramas, hardboiled crime, Scandi and Tartan Noir, cosy crime and psychological thrillers; criminology terms; and the language of the courts and the legal systems of British, American, French, Nordic and other countries.

From Aconite to the Zodiac Killer is an essential, go-to resource for readers and even for writers of crime fiction. More than simply a glossary, this is a guide that provides a doorway into a supergenre, and one that is not just for readers, but also for the many fans of film and TV dramas, of podcasts, and crime blogs. It is also an indispensable resource for writers or would-be writers of crime fiction.

When the Husband family realised that their son Paul was addicted to heroin, they did everything they could to help him but it seemed that every step in the right direction would be followed by another relapse as Paul lied to them, stole from them, and come close to losing his life.

This illustrated title from award-winning cartoonist Tony Husband tells the tale of those dark days as they worked as a family to get Paul into the right sort of supportive environment where he could truly recover from his dangerous addiction, and move from that dark place to a brighter future.

This inspiring and compelling story will appeal to anyone who has struggled with an addictive disorder, or any families or friends who have had to support someone through such a situation. Anyone who was touched by Tony’s Take Care, Son – The Story of my Dad and His Dementia will be similarly moved and uplifted by From A Dark Place.

‘An unputdownable thriller’ Gregory Dowling

‘It is no surprise to find that Philip Gwynne Jones lives in Venice… art and architecture interweave into a story that builds to an almost surreal climax’ Daily Mail

‘Gwynne Jones’s talent for evoking place and atmosphere is clear as ever’ Literary Review
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It’s the night of 12 November 2019. The worst flooding in 50 years hits the city of Venice. 85% of La Serenissima is underwater. Gale force winds roar across the lagoon and along the narrow streets. And the body of Dr Jennifer Whiteread- a young British art historian, specialising in the depiction of angels in Venetian painting – is found floating in a flooded antique bookshop on the Street of the Assassins.


As the local police struggle to restore order to a city on its knees, Nathan Sutherland – under pressure from the British Ambassador and distraught relatives – sets out into the dark and rain-swept streets in an attempt to discover the truth behind Whiteread’s death.

The trail leads to the “Markham Foundation”, a recent and welcome addition to the list of charities working to preserve the ancient city. Charming, handsome and very, very rich, Giles Markham is a well-known and popular figure in the highest Venetian social circles, and has the ear of both the Mayor and the Patriarch.

But a man with powerful friends may also have powerful enemies. And Nathan is about to learn that, in Venice at least, angels come in many forms – merciful, fallen and vengeful…
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Praise for Philip Gwynne Jones

‘Superb – always gripping, beautifully constructed and vivid’ Stephen Glover

‘Clever and great fun‘ The Times

‘Sinister and shimmering, The Venetian Game is as haunting and darkly elegant as Venice itself’ L.S. Hilton, bestselling author of Maestra

‘The Venetian setting is vividly described… good, fluid writing makes for easy reading’ Literary Review

‘Un-put-downable . . . If you love Venice, you’ll love this because you’ll be transported there in an instant. If you’ve not been to Venice, read this book and then go. If you like intrigue, and a clever plot, you’ll love this book’ Amazon reviewer, 5*****

‘The lively, colourful narrative scuds along as briskly as a water taxi…you’ll enjoy the ride‘ Italia Magazine

‘An unputdownable thriller’ Gregory Dowling

‘It is no surprise to find that Philip Gwynne Jones lives in Venice… art and architecture interweave into a story that builds to an almost surreal climax’ Daily Mail

‘Gwynne Jones’s talent for evoking place and atmosphere is clear as ever’ Literary Review

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No happy ever after for Nathan and Federica?

Newlyweds Nathan Sutherland and Federica Ravagnan are looking forward to weeks of sunshine and relaxation on the island of Pellestrina, in a cottage belonging to Federica’s late father, Elio.

The weather is idyllic, the views across the lagoon are spectacular and the seafood is the best in Venice. But when the body of an eminent Venetian lawyer is dredged up by a fishing boat, members of the close-knit island community start to take an unhealthy interest in the two honeymooners, and whispers and rumours begin to circulate about Elio’s association with a recently-deceased gang boss.

As Federica struggles to comes to terms with her father’s troubled legacy, Nathan finds himself dragged into the search for the missing proceeds of an unsolved jewellery heist, and the unwanted centre of attention of the Mala del Brenta – the Venetian Mafia.

Clearly Pellestrina is going to be no honeymoon…

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Praise for Philip Gwynne Jones

‘I devoured all Philip’s novels and felt transported to Venice with a new intimacy’ Val McDermid

‘Superb – always gripping, beautifully constructed and vivid’ Stephen Glover

‘Clever and great fun‘ The Times

‘Sinister and shimmering, The Venetian Game is as haunting and darkly elegant as Venice itself’ L.S. Hilton, bestselling author of Maestra

‘The Venetian setting is vividly described… good, fluid writing makes for easy reading’ Literary Review

‘Un-put-downable . . . If you love Venice, you’ll love this because you’ll be transported there in an instant. If you’ve not been to Venice, read this book and then go. If you like intrigue, and a clever plot, you’ll love this book’ Amazon reviewer, 5*****

‘The lively, colourful narrative scuds along as briskly as a water taxi…you’ll enjoy the ride‘ Italia Magazine

‘Vivid characters, great storytelling and a spine-tingling twist.’ Jo Spain

‘Dark, tense and richly atmospheric, the past is never far away in this twisty thriller where nothing is quite as it seems.’ Sam Blake

‘A very exciting read’ Patricia Gibney

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SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

Winter brings more than fierce Atlantic storms to the tourist town of Kylebeggan, County Kerry. On a cold January night a woman is found murdered and laid out in her wedding dress. The town is shocked, but there’s more to come. February brings a second murder. And when taxi driver Ellie Gillespie collects a bride-to-be from a hen party – and later discovers the woman has been killed in a similar way to the other women – Ellie decides to get involved.

SOMETHING BORROWED

The gardaí, mayor, and tourist board are desperate to minimise the negative publicity. But with the Special Crime Squad drafted in from Dublin and international media in town, it’s becoming harder and harder to manage the story.

SOMEONE DEAD

Ellie has her suspicions about a possible killer. She shares her thoughts with local journalist Cormac Scully, prompting him to dig into past secrets of the town. Can Ellie and Cormac figure out who it is before the Bride Collector strikes again?

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Praise for Siobhan MacDonald:

‘Page turner guilty of a gripping story. You could choke on the delicious venality & hypocrisy. Just one of the creepy thrills in this page turner.’ Irish Examiner

‘This is a terrifically dark, twisty thriller, skilfully plotted and stylishly written.’ Irish Times

‘GUILTY is a classy and cleverly plotted psychological thriller that grips from page one, packed with well-drawn characters and delivering an absolute zinger of a twist in the tale in the final pages.’ Sunday Independent

‘GUILTY is a twisty tale of ruthless ambition, family dysfunction and cold-blooded vengeance.’ RTE Guide

‘A full tapestry of secrets and lies. A perfect mix for a thrilling read.’ Patricia Gibney

‘An unsettling, suspenseful tale of heartbreak and revenge. I flew through it.’ Andrea Carter

‘The Bride Collector takes you on an irresistible rollercoaster ride which is utterly gripping and unputdownable from the very first page.’ Louise Phillips, winner of Best Irish Crime Novel

‘Murky goings-on in an Irish tourist town and a final twist I didn’t see coming, make The Bride Collector the ideal staycation read.’ Catherine Kirwan, author of Darkest Truth

‘Siobhan MacDonald has once again succeeded in haunting my dreams. Her tale has more twists than a corkscrew, characters you will not want to share a dark alley with, and perfectly flawed amateur sleuths. A satisfyingly scary read.’ Roisin Meaney