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Sharpe’s Christmas
Sharpe’s Christmas
Bernard Cornwell
¥9.71
A Richard Sharpe short story, featuring scenes of action and adventure at Christmas. ‘You’ll like Irati,’ Colonel Hogan said. ‘It’s a nothing place, Richard. Hovels and misery, that’s all it is and all it ever will be, but that’s where you’re going for Christmas.’ Sharpe was sent to Irati because maybe the French were going there. The garrison planned to march at Christmas in the hope that their enemies would be too bloated with beef and wine to fight, but Hogan had got wind of their plans and was now setting his snares on the only two routes that the escaping French could use. One, the eastern road, was by far the easier route, for it entered France through a low pass, and Hogan guessed it was that route that the French would choose. But there was a second road, a tight, hard, steep road, and that had to be blocked as well and so the Prince of Wales’s Own Volunteers, Sharpe’s regiment, would climb into the hills and spend their Christmas at a place of hovels and misery called Irati. Soldier, hero, rogue – Sharpe is the man you always want on your side. Born in poverty, he joined the army to escape jail and climbed the ranks by sheer brutal courage. He knows no other family than the regiment of the 95th Rifles whose green jacket he proudly wears.
Second Chance
Second Chance
Elizabeth Wrenn
¥51.50
Every woman needs a best friend… And Deena Munger needs one more than most. Faced with an almost empty nest, a marriage that's as stale as week-old bread, and hot flushes that are driving her mad, no wonder she feels running away. Despite her twenty extra pounds, Deena feels invisible and wonders when she started to disappear. And how come she never even noticed. Until the day Heloise enters her life. To the astonishment of her family, Deena volunteers to raise a Guide dog-and suddenly her world is turned upside down. Can this messy, boisterous, playful Labrador puppy show her the way out of the darkness? Seeing really is believing…
Drowned Wednesday (The Keys to the Kingdom, Book 3)
Drowned Wednesday (The Keys to the Kingdom, Book 3)
Garth Nix
¥53.76
On the third day, there were PIRATES! Arthur Penhaligon finds himself on an adventure that will pit him against pirates, storms, explosions and a vast beast that eats everything it encounters. Will our unwitting hero be able to find the third part of the Will and claim the Third Key? No rest for poor Arthur Penhaligon. As Grim Tuesday ends, he discovers a square of stiff cardboard under his pillow, gilt-edged and inscribed with the following words: LADY WEDNESDAY Trustee of the Architect and Duchess of the Border Sea has great pleasure in inviting ARTHUR PENHALIGON to a Particular Luncheon of Seventeen Removes Transport has been arranged RSVP not required… It’s an invitation he cannot refuse. From hospital room to the high seas, Arthur finds himself on an adventure that will pit him against pirates, storms, explosions of Nothing-laced gunpowder, and a vast beast that eats everything it encounters. Through it all, he is drawn deeper into the central mystery of the House. Arthur must find the third part of the Will and claim the Third Key – not just for himself, but for the millions (if not trillions) who will suffer if he doesn't. The first step? Surviving life aboard ship on the Border Sea…
The Knitting Circle
The Knitting Circle
Ann Hood
¥73.28
Come on in and join the knitting circle – it might just save your life… Spinning yarns, weaving tales, mending lives… Every Wednesday a group of women gathers at Alice's Sit and Knit. Little do they know that they will learn so much more than patterns… Grieving Mary needs to fill the empty days after the death of her only child. Glamorous Scarlet is the life and soul of any party. But beneath her trademark red hair and beaming smile lurks heartache. Sculptor Lulu seems too cool to live in the suburbs. Why has she fled New York's bright lights? Model housewife Beth never has a hair out of place. But her perfect world is about to fall apart…. Irish-born Ellen wears the weight of the world on her shoulders but not her heart on her sleeve. What is she hiding? As the weeks go by, under mysterious Alice's watchful eye, an unlikely friendship forms. Secrets are revealed and pacts made. Then tragedy strikes, and each woman must learn to face her own past in order to move on…
Damaged Goods
Damaged Goods
Helen Black
¥66.22
A daughter accused of murder. And unable to defend herself… A dark, gritty thriller, perfect for fans of Kimberley Chambers and Jessie Keane. When a prostitute is found butchered on a notorious Luton council estate, the finger is immediately pointed. The prime suspect? Her 14-year-old daughter, Kelsey. But Kelsey is unable to defend herself. After an attempt to take her own life, Kelsey has been left horrifically scarred and mute – unable to even utter the words ‘not guilty’. It’s down to Lilly Valentine – a tough-talking Yorkshire lawyer – to prove Kelsey’s innocence. Prostitution, paedophilia, drugs and blackmail: Lily must put her own life at risk to save a silent, terrified child and find the real killer…
Mosquito
Mosquito
Roma Tearne
¥63.18
A lyrical and profoundly moving story of love, loss and civil war, set in Sri Lanka, London and Venice. When author Theo Samarajeeva returns to his native Sri Lanka after his wife’s death, he hopes to escape his gnawing loss amid the lush landscape of his increasingly war-torn country. But as he sinks into life in this beautiful, tortured land, he also finds himself slipping into friendship with an artistic young girl, Nulani, whose family is caught up in the growing turmoil. Soon friendship blossoms into love. Under the threat of civil war, their affair offers a glimmer of hope to a country on the brink of destruction… But all too soon, the violence which has cast an ominous shadow over their love story explodes, tearing them apart. Betrayed, imprisoned and tortured, Theo is gradually stripped of everything he once held dear – his writing, his humanity and, eventually, his love. Broken by the belief her lover is dead, Nulani flees Sri Lanka to a cold and lonely life of exile. As the years pass and the country descends into a morass of violence and hatred, the tragedy of Theo and Nulani's failed love spreads like a poison among friends sickened by the face of civil war, and the lovers must struggle to recover some of what they have lost and to resurrect, from the wreckage of their lives, a fragile belief in the possibility of redemption. Beautifully written, by turns heartbreaking and uplifting, `Mosquito’ is a first novel of remarkable and compelling power.
The Flight
The Flight
Bryan Malessa
¥58.86
A powerful novel set at the end of World War II about one woman and her family's struggle for survival. The thrust of this epic novel occurs in the spring of 1945, during an event known in Germany as Die Flucht, or The Flight, when some 12 million Eastern European ethnic-Germans fled their ancestral homes to escape the advancing Soviet Army. ‘The Flight’ tells the story of Ida, a mother who attempts to take her children from their village in East Prussia to the assumed safety of Berlin. Travelling by foot, boat and rail across enemy lines, she quickly discovers that their survival is dependent on her will to save them, and on overriding the silent tragedies they will face during the journey west. Ida's is a terrifying passage, soaked with a bleak sadness, but her quiet bravery and sorrowful resilience in the face of the depravity of war is captivating. Told with clarity and beauty, in a remarkably understated way, ‘The Flight’ is a captivating novel of authenticity and power, which opens up a chapter of World War II long overlooked.
Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures
Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures
Vincent Lam
¥69.26
An astonishing literary debut, this collection of mature and intricate stories introduces a powerful new voice in fiction. ‘A STUNNING DEBUT’ Margaret Atwood ‘IRRESISTIBLE’ Alice Munro In this beautifully written collection, Vincent Lam weaves together black humour, investigations of both common and extraordinary moral dilemmas, and a sometimes shockingly realistic portrait of today's medical profession. Twelve interlinked stories introduce us to a group of medical students over ten years, as they make the transition from medical school to hospital life. The stories span the unique challenges faced by young, inexperienced doctors – having to decide during a first human dissection whether it is more important to follow the anatomy textbook or keep a tattoo intact – but also delve into their private lives, their relationships and family histories, their fears and motivations. Riveting, convincing and precise, ‘Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures’ looks with rigorous honesty at the specificities of the lives of doctors and their patients and brings us to a deeper understanding of the challenges and temptations that surge around us all.
Alfred and Emily
Alfred and Emily
Doris Lessing
¥57.09
Doris Lessing’s first book after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature revisits her childhood in Southern Africa and the lives, both fictional and factual, that her parents led. ‘I think my father'’s rage at the trenches took me over, when I was very young, and has never left me. Do children feel their parents' emotions? Yes, we do, and it is a legacy I could have done without. What is the use of it? It is as if that old war is in my own memory, my own consciousness.’ In this extraordinary book, Doris Lessing explores the lives of her parents, both of them irrevocably damaged by the Great War. Her father wanted the simple life of an English farmer, but shrapnel almost killed him in the trenches, and thereafter he had to wear a wooden leg. Her mother Emily's great love was a doctor who drowned in the Channel, and she spent the war nursing the wounded in the Royal Free Hospital. In the first half of this book, Lessing imagines the lives her parents might have made for themselves had there been no war, a story that has them meeting at a village cricket match as children but leading separate lives. This is followed by a piercing examination of their lives as they actually came to be in the shadow of that war, their move to Rhodesia, a damaged couple hulking over Lessing’s childhood in a strange land. ‘Here I still am,’ says Doris Lessing, ‘trying to get out from under that monstrous legacy, trying to get free.’
Touch the Devil
Touch the Devil
Jack Higgins
¥54.25
Classic adventure from the million copy bestseller Jack Higgins If there’s such a thing as a grade A terrorist then his name is Frank Barry. His ideology is money and his track record is flawless. When the Russians want review copies of the latest NATO missile system, Barry’s the man to deliver them. Stopping him will be near enough impossible, but one man knows all the moves. Martin Brosnan is a poet, scholar and trained killer. A graduate of Vietnam and polished in the ranks of the IRA he could be the key to ending Barry’s reign. There’s one problem, Brosnan is languishing in a French prison, and only the powerfully persuasive Liam Devlin can get him out and working for British intelligence.
The Last Straw (DCI Warren Jones, Book 1)
The Last Straw (DCI Warren Jones, Book 1)
Paul Gitsham
¥39.24
When Professor Alan Tunbridge is discovered in his office with his throat slashed, the suspects start queuing up. The brilliant but unpleasant microbiologist had a genius for making enemies.For Warren Jones, newly appointed Detective Chief Inspector to the Middlesbury force, a high-profile murder is the ideal opportunity. He's determined to run a thorough and professional investigation but political pressure to resolve the case quickly and tensions in the office and at home make life anything but easy. Everything seems to point to one vengeful man but the financial potential of the professor's pioneering research takes the inquiry in an intriguing and, for Jones and his team, dangerous direction. More DCI Warren Jones books by Paul Gitsham: No Smoke Without Fire Blood is Thicker Than Water Silent as the Grave Praise for Paul Gitsham:"A wonderfully classy crime novel. Fluent writing style, great pace to the action. What's not to like? I'll be reading number 2 as quickly as I can download it. Highly recommended. Crime Writing at its very best" - Kate Rhodes, author of Crossbones Yard and the Alice Quentin series
A Voice in the Dark (Mills & Boon Intrigue)
A Voice in the Dark (Mills & Boon Intrigue)
Jenna Ryan
¥31.10
Scarred Noah didn’t show his face, until he saved FBI agent Angel from the killer who ruined his own life. Now Angel’s had a glimpse into Noah’s world and she wants more. Can Angel bring him out of the shadows and convince him to help her solve the case?
Dead Witch Walking
Dead Witch Walking
Kim Harrison
¥18.93
From New York Times best-selling author, Kim Harrison, comes the first book in her brilliant Hollows series; packed with the perfect balance of wry humour and thrilling action, which will delight fans of thrillers and fantasy alike. Rachel Morgan lives in a world where a bioengineered virus wiped out most of the world's human population – exposing the existence of supernatural communities that had long lived alongside humanity. It’s her job as a white witch working for Inderland Security to protect the humans from things that go bump in the night. For the last five years Rachel has been tracking down lawbreaking Inderlanders in modern-day Cincinnati, but now she wants to leave and start her own agency. Her only problem: no one quits the I.S. Marked for death, Rachel will have to fend off fairy assassins and homicidal werewolves armed to the teeth with deadly curses. Unless she can appease her former employers by exposing the city's most prominent citizen as a drug lord, she might just be a dead witch walking.
The Blue Zone
The Blue Zone
Andrew Gross
¥45.62
A breathtaking novel of suspense from the co-author of five bestselling James Patterson novels, including ‘Judge and Jury’ and ‘Lifeguard’. THERE ARE NO RULES IN THE BLUE ZONE. They were the perfect family. And he was the perfect family man. One day changed it all. Arrested for racketeering, Ben Raab must take his family into America’s Witness Protection Programme. Only his eldest daughter, Kate, chooses to stay on the outside. But the Programme's perfect success rate is about to come to a shocking end. A case agent is tortured to death and Ben vanishes. The one person who might be able to find him is Kate. Pursued by killers, forced to question everything she knows about her life so far, Kate is plunged into a terrifying existence for which nothing has prepared her. Most people would call it certain death. The FBI calls it the Blue Zone.
Grim Tuesday (The Keys to the Kingdom, Book 2)
Grim Tuesday (The Keys to the Kingdom, Book 2)
Garth Nix
¥31.49
Second title in Garth Nix’s gripping new fantasy adventure series. Arthur Penhaligon didn't think he would ever have to return to the strange house that nearly killed him on Monday – the house that contains a fantastical and sinister realm inside. But the next day brings new challenges – in the form of an enemy named Grim Tuesday, who threatens the safety of both Arthur's family and his world. Arthur must retrieve the Second Key from Grim Tuesday in order to save everything – an adventure that will force him to steal a Sunship, survive a very weird work camp, befriend a bearlike spirit and fight the void Nithlings. Even after all that, he will still have to venture into the scary Far Reaches for an ultimate showdown.
The Last Warrior (Mills & Boon M&B)
The Last Warrior (Mills & Boon M&B)
Susan Grant
¥45.03
As a decorated soldier, the young General Tao knows only one kind of honor–to his people. But when his own king betrays him, he discovers that his sacrifices, his successes, may not have been for the good of the country at all. Fate–and his enemies–throw him together with Elsabeth, a red-haired beauty who has served as the royal tutor. Her loyalties, though, remain with her father's people, the rebellious Kurel, who worship the old ways, even harboring the forbidden arks that brought the Kurel to this planet ages ago. When a threat greater than their peoples' war looms, intent on destroying the world they both know, the fierce warrior and the sensitive scholar must unite. Together, they must fight for their planet, for their world and for their love.
Let’s All Kill Constance
Let’s All Kill Constance
Ray Bradbury
¥72.99
On a dismal evening in the previous century, an unnamed writer in Venice, California, answers a furious pounding at his beachfront bungalow door and again admits Constance Rattigan into his life. An aging, once-glamorous Hollywood star, Constance is running in fear from something she dares not acknowledge -- and vanishes as suddenly as she appeared, leaving the narrator two macabre books: twin listings of the Tinseltown dead and soon to be dead, with Constance's name included among them. And so begins an odyssey as dark as it is wondrous, as the writer sets off in a broken-down jalopy with his irascible sidekick Crumley to sift through the ashes of a bygone Hollywood -- a graveyard of ghosts and secrets where each twisted road leads to grim shrines and shattered dreams ... and, all too often, to death.
Lost Days (Emily the Strange)
Lost Days (Emily the Strange)
Rob Reger
¥66.22
Emily is not your average thirteen year-old girl. She wears the same black dress every day. She loves maths and science. Her best friends are four black cats and she's into old rock and punk music. Emily is anything but typical and so is this exciting new series of novels about her life. 13 elements you will find in the first Emily the Strange novel: ? Mystery ? A beautiful golem ? Souped-up slingshots ? Four black cats ? Amnesia ?Calamity Poker ? Angry ponies ? A shady truant officer ? Top-13 lists ? A sandstorm generator ? Doppelgangers ? A secret mission ?Earwigs
Dark Times (Emily the Strange)
Dark Times (Emily the Strange)
Rob Reger
¥57.09
Emily's uniquely strange homeschool syllabus includes . . . 1. Time Travel 101 2. Advanced Spy Photography 3. Bonnet Basics 4. Great-Aunts Through the Ages 5. Intro to Germ Theory 6. Care and Feeding of 'Squito Fish 7. Fundamentals of Black Rock 8. Spiderweb Embroidery 9. Historical & Contemporary Felines 10. Pop Quizzes 11. Foodstuffs of the 1790s 12. Thwarting Ancestral Enemies 13. Techniques in Parallel Universe Management
Thomasina (Essential Modern Classics)
Thomasina (Essential Modern Classics)
Paul Gallico
¥48.07
Collins Modern Classics are re-launched in gorgeous new covers bringing these familiar stories to a new generation. From the author of best-loved classic ‘The Snow Goose’. “I was aware, from the very beginning, that I was a most unusual cat…” Thomasina is the beloved pet cat of 7-year-old Mary Ruadh, whose strict father is the town's vet. When Thomasina falls ill, her father sees no other option but to put the cat down. Heartbroken by his cruelty, Mary stops speaking to her father and falls dangerously ill herself. Meanwhile, Thomasina is rescued by Lori, a young woman who lives alone in an isolated glen and is rumoured to be a witch with healing powers. While Lori helps Thomasina recover from her ordeal, Mary's health continues to deteriorate and it is only when Thomasina makes her miraculous return, on a dark and stormy night, and is reunited with her owner that Mary is pulled from the brink of death.
Vulgar Things
Vulgar Things
Lee Rourke
¥66.22
The second novel from Lee Rourke, author of the cult hit ‘The Canal’. Jon Michaels – a divorced, disaffected and fatigued editor living a nonde* life in North London – wakes one morning to a phone call informing him that his uncle has been found dead in his caravan on Canvey Island. Dismissed from his job only the day before and hung-over, Jon reluctantly agrees to sort through his uncle’s belongings and clear out the caravan. What follows is a quixotic week on Canvey as Jon, led on by desire and delusion, purposeful but increasingly disorientated, unfolds a disturbing secret, ever more enchanted by the island – its landscape and its atmosphere. Haunted and haunting, ‘Vulgar Things’ is part mystery, part romance, part odyssey: a novel in which the menial entrances and the banal compels.