Nancy Foster has harboured a devastating secret that shattered her professional and personal life. On meeting her, journalist Stef Lansdown realizes that she has the power to restore Nancy’s reputation and to heal the wounds, if only Nancy will trust her. But someone else wants to get to the bottom of the story first, someone […]
The Face Stealer by Sarah Rayne
In London, in 1909, the Fitzglens combine running London’s finest theatre with a very profitable side-line in stealing. But while they might be thieves, they still have principles. They never pinch anything their victim couldn’t afford to lose. When a stranger approaches Jack Fitzglen after a performance, claiming that a Fitzglen has committed a grave […]
Review: Wuthering Heights – the film – and Catherine by Essie Fox
February, 2026 has given us the full Bronte with two retellings of Wuthering Heights. Kate Griffin, the author of several Gothic novels and lover of films set in the Victorian era, is the ideal person to review both the new film reimagining of Emily’s Bronte’s story and Essie Fox’s reframing in her novel, Catherine. There’s […]
Beattie Cavendish and the Highland Hideaway by Mary-Jane Riley
The Cold War is intensifying in 1949 and rumours abound that the Russians are close to creating an atomic bomb. Beattie Cavendish, special operative for a covert section of GCHQ, is sent to Scotland, to the listening station at Kilbray. Beattie’s arrival is greeted with suspicion by the station’s staff. She faces an uphill battle […]
Beattie Cavendish and the White Pearl Club by Mary-Jane Riley
In 1948 the shadow of war still lingers over Britain and Beattie Cavendish, former Secret Operations Executive agent, refuses to settle into civilian life. When offered an undercover role at the newly-formed GCHQ, the nerve centre of Britain’s intelligence network, she doesn’t hesitate. Her first mission is to infiltrate the powerful Bowen family and find […]
Written in Blood by Fiona Forsyth
Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, is dead. The Empire’s new leader, Tiberius, is vulnerable. As mutinous legions rise and Tiberius struggles to control even his own formidable mother, Livia, the ripples of uncertainty reach even the shores of Tomis on the Black Sea. There, the exiled poet Ovid dares to hope that a new emperor will […]
The Reckoning by Paul Bernardi
January 1069 in Northumbria, and Oslac, thegn of the village of Acum, is seething. Angered by the insipid failure of the previous year’s uprising against King William, he yearns for the day when the English will defeat their Norman invaders. Meanwhile, in London, the King’s patience has worn thin. Determined to bring an end to […]
Catherine by Essie Fox
With a nature as wild as the moors she loves to roam, Catherine Earnshaw grows up alongside Heathcliff, a foundling her father rescued from the streets of Liverpool. Their fierce, untamed bond deepens as they grow – until Mr Earnshaw’s death leaves Hindley, Catherine’s brutal brother, in control and Heathcliff reduced to servitude. Desperate to […]