When poverty strikes, an ageing farmer is forced to make a heartbreaking choice: relinquish his oldest son in the hope of appeasing the gods or see his family face certain starvation. And so it follows that young Lucius Ulpia Porcianus is sacrificed to Rome. Embarking on his new life, Lucius travels to Ancona to enlist […]
The Bratinsky Affair by Jim Loughran
Wicklow, 1976, and the dramatic death of Countess Irina Bratinsky, a well-connected dealer in Fabergé jewellery, becomes international news. But why are the Irish, French and Russian police so interested in her death? For journalist Tom O’Brien it’s an opportunity to advance his career as he exposes the countess’s secret life of espionage and crime. […]
Murder of an Oxford Scientist by Fiona Veitch Smith
Oxford, 1925, and intrepid reporter Poppy Denby is heading to Oxford, where a young female scientist, Dr June Leighton, has been found dead. Though June’s death is ruled an accident by the authorities, one of her colleagues, Sophie Blackburn, an old associate of Poppy’s, is convinced June was murdered for threatening to expose a male colleague for plagiarism. […]
The Dressmakers of London by Julia Kelly
Isabelle Shelton has always found comfort in the predictable world of her mother’s dressmaking shop, Mrs Shelton’s Fashions, while her sister Sylvia turned her back on the family years ago to marry a wealthy doctor whom Izzie detests. When their mother dies unexpectedly, the sisters are stunned to find they’ve jointly inherited the family business. […]
Murder in Anglo-Saxon England: Justice, Wergild, Revenge by Annie Whitehead
Historian and author Annie Whitehead has collated around 100 cases in Anglo-Saxon England, from regicides to robberies gone wrong, and from personal feuds to state-sanctioned slaughter, examining their veracity and asking what, if anything, they can tell us about the motives of those who recorded them and about Anglo-Saxon governance and society. The records contain […]
Grub Street: The Origins of the British Press by Ruth Herman
Love it or loathe it, the British press is a remarkable institution. Sometimes referred to as the fourth estate and accused of wielding power without responsibility, it has often been a channel for the dissemination of information that those at the top of the pyramid of power would rather stayed hidden. It has also delighted […]
The Shadow Key by Susan Stokes-Chapman
After a grave mistake, Henry Talbot has been forced to take a position as village doctor in remote Wales where he can’t speak the language and belief in myth and magic is rife. When Henry discovers his predecessor died in mysterious circumstances, and starts to notice a cryptic symbol appearing in odd places, he sets […]
A Mother’s Promise by Kate Thompson and Renee Salt
From invasion to liberation, September 1939 to April 1945, as Renee was marched from ghetto to camp, there was one constant. One hand that clutched hers – her mother’s. Every day for nearly six years, mother and daughter were bound together in hell. From Auschwitz-Birkenau to Bergen-Belsen, they were a powerful source of solace and […]