Sarah Hawkswood April, 1145. Thorgar the Ploughman is found by the bloodied body of Father Edmund, a village priest in Ripple, and is summarily hanged for being caught in the act, despite his pleas of innocence.
When his sister goes to Worcester to seek justice for Thorgar, the lord Sheriff sends Hugh Bradecote, with Serjeant Catchpoll and Under Serjeant Walkelin, to discover the truth. They soon expose strong motives for placing the blame on the ploughman’s shoulders, some unpleasant secrets festering among the villagers, as well as the whisper of a treasure long lost and now rediscovered. The shadow the noose casts is a long one, but the Sheriff’s men will need to plumb the darkness to uncover the true killer.
Leonie Swann The year is rapidly drawing to an end, Hettie the tortoise is hibernating and Agnes, Charlie, Marshall, and the other elderly residents of Sunset Hall are going stir-crazy at home. They’ve had enough of the broken boiler, draughty bedrooms, and Christmas jingles on the radio. And to top it all off, another series of murders is rocking the hamlet of Duck End. It seems like every villager and his dog is trying to make up for all of the thwarted murders of the past thirty years.
Most unpleasant! The residents of Sunset Hall don’t want anything to do with the criminal activities. So when Edwina manages to slip onto Marshall’s computer in an unobserved moment and promptly wins a stay in an exclusive coastal hotel in Cornwall, the Sunset Hall crew doesn’t waste any time in deciding to join her. After all, Edwina can’t be left unsupervised.
But they’ve barely unpacked their bags when Agnes sees something unsettling from the terrace of the hotel: two figures in hoods walk away from the hotel along the cliffs, but only one returns. Worried she’s witnessed a murder, Agnes tells the others. At first nobody really believes her, after all the crew have enough to do working their way through the incredible menu, exploring the hotel’s wellness-landscape, navigating old and new love affairs and adopting a boa constrictor. But when the hotel ends up isolated from the outside world after a storm, it becomes clear that a murderer really is on the loose—and they’re trapped, just like all of the other guests!
Antti Tuomainen A cold-blooded killer strikes at the hottest the head of a sauna-heater company is murdered … in the sauna. Who has turned up the temperature and burned him to death?
The evidence points in the direction of Anni Korpinen – top salesperson and potential successor at Puhti Saunas. And as if hitting middle-age, being in a marriage that has lost its purpose, and struggling with work weren’t enough, Anni realizes that she must be quicker than both the police and the murderer to uncover who is behind it all – before it’ s too late…
Kyle Mewburn It’s winter of 1928, and young German man Wilhelm Erdinger is left stranded in the remote New Zealand village of Falters Mill. Wilhelm purchases a piece of land capable of providing the kind of sustainable, self-sufficient life he craves, and a shack he soon begins to call home. Though he is regarded with suspicion by many in the local community, he soon attracts a small number of friends, each outsiders in their own way.
With a little help from the ecological theories of Steiner and the poetic inspiration of Goethe, Wilhelm survives, at times even flourishes, in a country rocked by the effects of war and the Depression. However, it is the arrival of a new war ― coupled with the sometimes-brutal climate of Central Otago ― that threatens to destroy the utopia he has created.
Sewing Moonlight is a tragic tale of love, loss and biodynamics in a challenging time. More than this, it is a story of one man’s journey from alienation to acceptance. Like the moon, which looms large over everything, each ending is also a new beginning
Sally Hepworth The small suburb of Pleasant Court lives up to its name. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows their neighbours, and children play in the street. Isabelle Heatherington doesn’t fit into this picture of family paradise. Husbandless and childless, she soon catches the attention of three Pleasant Court mothers.
But Ange, Fran and Essie have their own secrets to hide. Like the reason behind Ange’s compulsion to control every aspect of her life. Or why Fran won’t let her sweet, gentle husband near her new baby. Or why, three years ago, Essie took her daughter to the park – and returned home without her.
As their obsession with their new neighbour grows, the secrets of these three women begin to spread – and they’ll soon find out that when you look at something too closely, you see things you never wanted to see.
Nicole Alexander It is January 1951, and after a year away Eleanor Webber has returned home to River Run, her family’s sprawling sheep property in western New South Wales. Fleeing a failed love affair back in Sydney, she hopes for some time and space to heal. But with shearing of over 25,000 sheep about to commence, and the infamous and moneyed Margaret Winslow and her husband Keith staying in the main house as her mother’s guests, that dream is quickly dashed.
More worryingly, her half-brother Robbie is increasingly running wild, playing tricks on his governess, antagonising the jackeroos and obsessing about a communist invasion. Though only eleven, Robbie has appointed himself guardian of the property and, in his treehouse by the river, he readies for an imminent attack. Armed with a gun.Then, with a storm looming and tensions rising in the shearing shed, a mysterious stranger appears on the horizon. And in one disastrous moment young Robbie entangles Eleanor in a situation that will have serious repercussions for every member of the Webber family . . .
Julian Stockwin Following the loss of his fiancée, Lieutenant Thomas Kydd descends into depression in the latest installment of this riveting nautical-adventure series. Rescued from despair by his close friend, Renzi, Kydd finds life increasingly difficult when he is framed and dismissed from his ship. The pair eke out a pitiful existence in Guernsey, where, in a moment of desperation, Renzi offers his services to the Prince de Bouillon and becomes embroiled in covert operations. Meanwhile, Kydd accepts the captaincy of a privateer and is soon taking many prizes. Kydd longs to rejoin his rightful place in the navy, however, and when he gets his chance, he risks all for revenge and restoration.
Julian Stockwin In the 8th volume in the popular high-seas nautical adventure series, Thomas Kydd and Nicholas Renzi return to England in 1803 after tumultuous episodes on the other side of the world, only to find England in peril of starvation and bankruptcy. Kydd is placed back in command of his beloved vessel Teazer, but he barely has time to prep her for the sea before he is sent on an urgent mission. Smugglers, enemy privateers, and treacherous sea conditions await Kydd on his journey to northern France on the eve of war, but equally worrisome events are occurring ashore.
When a growing attachment to the admiral’s daughter curbs Kydd’s blissful reunion with Teazer, he is forced to make a terrible decision that may cause the end of his friendship with Renzi—or the end of his naval career.
Julian Stockwin In this seventh book of the series, Thomas Kydd is master of his own brig-sloop Teazer and he must race the clock to make her battle-ready to defend Malta against Barbary pirates and the French, who are frantically trying to rescue the remnants of their army in the Levant. Suddenly, peace is declared, and the young captain finds himself ashore. To make ends meet, he agrees to transport convicts to Australia. Little does he know that his friend Renzi, weakened by illness and embittered with the service, is also bound for that colony as a settler. There they will be forced to face their deepest fears and prove themselves against all odds.
Julian Stockwin This book finds Thomas Kydd aboard Tenacious, part of a small squadron commanded by Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson. Its mission is to scour the Mediterranean and locate Napoleon and his army. Kydd’s newly fired ambition leads him to volunteer for shore service in the capture of Minorca. Later, he faces the great ships-of-the-line at the Battle of the Nile as the British take on the French in a no-holds-barred struggle for supremacy in southern waters. But there is one more test to come: the Siege of Acre, where Kydd and a handful of British seamen under the command of Sir Sidney Smith face an army of thirteen thousand!
