万本电子书0元读

万本电子书0元读

The Norfolk Mystery (The County Guides)
The Norfolk Mystery (The County Guides)
Ian Sansom
¥57.09
Love Miss Marple? Adore Holmes and Watson? Professor Morley’s guide to Norfolk is a story of bygone England; quaint villages, eccentric locals – and murder! It is 1937 and disillusioned Spanish Civil War veteran Stephen Sefton is stony broke. So when he sees a mysterious advertisement for a job where ‘intelligence is essential’, he applies. Thus begins Sefton’s association with Professor Swanton Morley, an omnivorous intellect. Morley’s latest project is a history of traditional England, with a guide to every county. They start in Norfolk, but when the vicar of Blakeney is found hanging from his church’s bellrope, Morley and Sefton find themselves drawn into a rather more fiendish plot. Did the Reverend really take his own life, or was it – murder? Beginning a thrilling new detective series, ‘The Norfolk Mystery’ is the first of The County Guides. A must-read for fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, every county is a crime scene and no-one is above suspicion!
Summer Holiday
Summer Holiday
Penny Smith
¥57.09
A riotously funny novel from Penny Smith. Miranda Blake is divorced. At 45, things are starting to head south. She’s toying with the idea of Botox. Toying with the idea of facial surgery. And toying with getting a job or possibly a toy boy. The only block to all those things is her stiff, uppity daughter, 23-year-old Lucy. Pompous, is what Miranda calls her. (Sane, is how Lucy sees it.) Her friends are trying to set her up with a collection of bankers and company directors… Similar types to her ex-husband, Nigel (Nigel – just saying his name makes her wince) and every new date ends in disaster. So, one summer's day, Miranda decides to go and help clean out a local canal. She falls for Alex, a dreadlocked eco-warrior. But Lucy does not approve, and sets about sabotaging the relationship. She succeeds… Miranda, heartbroken, goes on holiday to Spain. But there, things only go from bad to worse – she falls in with a bad crowd, and is soon way out of her depth. What is it they know about Alex and his family? How is the wealthy recluse, and island owner, David Miller involved in their dodgy business activities? Aboard a glamorous yacht, hosting an award ceremony with former breakfast TV star Katie Fisher, Miranda might be in more trouble than she ever could have imagined. Will Alex get there in time to save her?
A Small Death in Lisbon
A Small Death in Lisbon
Robert Wilson
¥57.09
This stunning, atmospheric thriller set in war-torn Europe won the CWA Gold Dagger and has now been reissued with the Javier Falcon series. A Portuguese bank is founded on the back of Nazi wartime deals. Over half a century later a young girl is murdered in Lisbon. 1941. Klaus Felsen, SS, arrives in Lisbon and the strangest party in history where Nazis and Allies, refugees and entrepreneurs dance to the strains of opportunism and despair. Felsen’s war takes him to the bleak mountains of the north where a brutal battle is being fought for an element vital to Hitler’s blitzkrieg. Late 1990s, Lisbon. Inspector Ze Coelho is investigating the murder of a young girl with a disturbing sexual past. As Ze digs deeper he overturns the dark soil of history and unearths old bones. The 1974 revolution has left injustices of the old fascist regime unresolved. But there’s an older, greater injustice for which this small death in Lisbon is horrific compensation, and in his final push for the truth, Ze must face the most chilling opposition.
The Drowning of Arthur Braxton
The Drowning of Arthur Braxton
Caroline Smailes
¥57.09
The bestselling modern fairytale, with a new introduction from Luke Cutforth ‘I loved it … so good!’ CARRIE HOPE FLETCHER Arthur Braxton has had enough. His mum has left, his dad is broken and he’s the laughing stock of his high school. But things are about to change. When Arthur runs away and shelters in an old abandoned bathhouse, he sees a naked woman swimming in the pool. From this point on, his sad little life will never be the same.
Three Wise Men
Three Wise Men
Martina Devlin
¥57.09
A warm, witty and wise novel about love, friendship and being in your thirties. Gloria, Eimear and Kate have been friends since they were a trio of six-year-olds cast as the Three Wise Men in the nativity play. Twenty-five years on, they’ve left Omagh for Dublin and grown up to be Three Unwise Women, all too prone to misuse the gifts they’ve been given. Eimear’s beauty captivates men but robs her of independence. Kate’s dazzling wit blinds her to the consequences of betraying a friend. And Gloria’s urge to nurture, thwarted by infertility, threatens to destroy everything she holds dear. Aided and abetted in their misdeeds by the irresistible Jack, philandering poet and seducer extraordinaire, the troika find themselves putting their friendship to a test from which it may never recover. To this black comedy Martina Devlin brings a delightful lightness of touch, a turn of phrase to treasure, and three characters to take to your heart.
Scenes from Early Life
Scenes from Early Life
Philip Hensher
¥57.09
Winner of the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, this is the new novel from the author of ‘King of the Badgers’ and the Man Booker-shortlisted ‘The Northern Clemency’. “At that time, there were children you weren't supposed to play with. You knew why. Their parents had been informers during the war. And it hadn't been long since you could have got into trouble for singing a song. My grandfather hid all his Bengali poetry in the cellar. “I was a baby during the war. We stayed inside for months. All my aunts took turns in feeding me. I couldn't be heard to cry. You see, there were soldiers in the streets. They would have known what a crying baby meant. So I had to be kept silent. No, not everyone came out of the war alive.” One family’s life, and a nation – Bangladesh – are uniquely created through conversation, sacrifice, songs, bonds, blood, bravery and jokes. Narrated by a young boy born into a savage civil war, ‘Scenes from Early Life’ is a heartbreaking, funny and gripping novel by one of our finest writers.
Angels at Christmas: Those Christmas Angels / Where Angels Go
Angels at Christmas: Those Christmas Angels / Where Angels Go
Debbie Macomber
¥57.09
Perfect for fans of Maeve Binchy' - Candis If you had one wish this Christmas… Those Christmas Angels Anne Fletcher sends a heartfelt plea in the hope that someone is looking down on her this Christmas. One wish – for her son to be happy. She doesn’t expect to have her prayer answered by three mischievous angels! They’re about to do a little matchmaking on Anne’s behalf and make her Christmas wish come true. Where Angels Go The angels are on hand again for lovely Beth Fischer who, since her divorce, is looking for romance once more. At eighty-six, Harry has prayed for peace of mind and little Carter Jackson has just one Christmas wish. Angels Shirley, Goodness and Mercy will make miracles happen this Christmas… Make time for friends. Make time for Debbie Macomber.
Instances of the Number 3
Instances of the Number 3
Salley Vickers
¥57.09
The fantastic new edition of the bestselling second novel from the author of ‘Miss Garnet’s Angel’. Bridget Hansome and Frances Slater have only one thing in common. And that's Peter Hansome, who has died suddenly. Without their husband or lover, the women find that before they can rebuild their lives they must look to themselves and unravel mysteries that they had never before even suspected. So begins an unlikely alliance between wife and mistress and a voyage of discovery that is as comic as it is profound. ‘Instances of the Number 3’ is a funny, beguiling exploration of love, bereavement, Shakespeare, illusion and the impossibility of escaping your past. Following on from ‘Miss Garnet’s Angel’, this brilliant novel confirms Salley Vickers as a writer who transcends generations.
Fallen Skies
Fallen Skies
Philippa Gregory
¥57.09
Terrific novel set in the Roaring Twenties, reissued to accompany Philippa Gregory’s bestselling novel, The Other Boleyn Girl Lily Valance wants to forget the war. She's determined to enjoy the world of the 1920s, with its music, singing, laughter and pleasure. When she meets Captain Stephen Winters, a decorated hero back from the Front, she's drawn to his wealth and status. In Lily he sees his salvation – from the past, from the nightmare, from the guilt at surviving the Flanders plains where so many were lost. But it's a dream that cannot last. Lily has no intention of leaving her singing career. The hidden tensions of the respectable facade of the Winters household come to a head. Stephen's nightmares merge ever closer with reality and the truth of what took place in the mud and darkness brings him and all who loves him to a terrible reckoning…
Millennium People
Millennium People
J. G. Ballard,Iain Sinclair
¥57.09
Violent rebellion comes to London’s middle classes in the extraordinary new novel from the author of ‘Cocaine Nights’ and ‘Super-Cannes’. When a bomb explodes at Heathrow, it looks like just another random act of violence to psychologist David Markham. But when he discovers that his ex-wife is among the victims he is compelled to further investigate the mysterious and shocking circumstances surrounding her death. Acting on police suspicions he immerses himself in the strange world of London’s fringe protest movements. A quiet rebellion against middle-class normality is taking place. However as civic responsibility and the trappings of consumer society are jettisoned the movement grows steadily more bellicose and Markham is increasingly lured by the idea of revolution and terror.
Utterly Monkey
Utterly Monkey
Nick Laird
¥57.09
A very funny, energetic, wonderfully engaging novel about where we’re from and where we’d like to get to… Danny Williams is talented, upwardly mobile and has left his Northern Irish small town roots well behind him. In his mid-twenties he lives in a stylish London flat and has a job in a top London law firm. However, one innocuous Wednesday night his old mucker from home, Geordie Wilson, arrives at the door. On the run from a loyalist militia, whose operational funds he has taken, he manages to bring everything that Danny has been fleeing from right to his smart London doorstep. Taking place over an intense and gripping five-day period–set in both London and the fictional Irish town of Ballyglass–Nick Laird has written an hilarious, touching and ultimately redemptive novel about friendship.
The Raphael Affair
The Raphael Affair
Iain Pears
¥57.09
First in the Italian art-history crime series featuring English dealer and sleuth Jonathan Argyll, from the author of the best-selling masterpiece 'An Instance of the Fingerpost'. Flavia di Stefano is the kind of Italian beauty that art dealer Jonathon Argyll doesn't normally get to meet in his line of work. But, it turns out, all he had to do was get caught breaking into one of Rome's churches – for Flavia is the Art Theft officer tasked with interviewing Jonathon. A strange way to meet, perhaps, but then Jonathon has an even stranger tale to tell. His claim that the church contains a lost classic, hidden under another painting, is treated with cautious scepticism. But when the picture first vanishes, then turns up in the hands of a British art dealer claiming it's a newly discovered Raphael, it's clear there's more to it than meets the eye. When vandalism is followed by murder, it's up to Jonathan and Flavia to discover just how much more – a quest for the true nature of a painting with a lethal history…
The Scent of Death
The Scent of Death
Andrew Taylor
¥57.09
WINNER of the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award 2013* ‘Andrew Taylor wrote superb historical fiction long before Hilary Mantel was popular’ Daily Telegraph From the No.1 bestselling author of THE AMERICAN BOY comes a new historical thriller set during the American War of Independence. ‘This is the story of a woman and a city. I saw the city first, shimmering from afar like the new Jerusalem in the setting sun. It was Sunday, 2nd August 1778.’ Edward Savill, a London clerk from the American Department, is assigned to New York to investigate the claims of dispossessed loyalists caught on the wrong side of the American War of Independence. Surrounded by its enemies, British Manhattan is a melting pot of soldiers, profiteers, double agents and a swelling tide of refugees seeking justice from the Crown. Savill lodges with the respected Wintour family: the old Judge, his ailing wife and their enigmatic daughter-in-law Arabella. The family lives in limbo, praying for the safe return of Jack Wintour, Arabella's husband, who is missing behind rebel lines. The discovery of a body in the notorious slums of Canvas Town thrusts Savill into a murder inquiry. But in the escalating violence of a desperate city, why does one death matter? Because the secret this killing hides could be the key to power for whoever uncovers it…
Bloodstar (Star Corpsman, Book 1)
Bloodstar (Star Corpsman, Book 1)
Ian Douglas
¥57.09
Big, bold military science fiction action from one of the genre’s biggest names. In the 23rd Century, war is still hell… Corpsman Eliot Carlyle joined the Navy to save lives and see the universe. Now, he and Bravo Company’s Black Wizards of the interstellar Fleet Marine Force are en route to Bloodworld – a hellish, volatile rock, colonized by the fanatical Salvationists who desired an inhospitable world where they could suffer for humanity’s sins. However, their penance could prove fatal – for the mysterious alien race known as the Qesh have just made violent, bloody first contact. Suddenly, countless lives depend upon Bravo Company as the Marines prepare to confront a vast force of powerful, inscrutable enemies that unless stopped threaten the fate of homeworld Earth itself. And one dedicated medic, singled out by an extraordinary act of valour, will find himself with an astounding opportunity to alter the universe forever…
Abyss Deep (Star Corpsman, Book 2)
Abyss Deep (Star Corpsman, Book 2)
Ian Douglas
¥57.09
Big, bold military science fiction action from New York Times bestselling author, Ian Douglas. Marines are still the toughest sons of guns in the galaxy. As Bravo Company defuses a hostage crisis on an orbiting mining station, Navy Corpsman Elliot "Doc" Carlyle not only saves the lives of a wounded Marine and two extraterrestrial friendlies – he averts a terrorist strike intended to kill billions. His reward? Deployment on a recon mission into the darkest depths known to man… Abyss Deep is a foreboding ocean planet torn by extremes: boiling storm world on one side, unbroken glacier on the other. Humans established a research colony there to study the planet's giant sea serpents—but the colony has gone ominously silent. When Carlyle's team arrives, they discover a vessel belonging to a warlike alien species hovering above the atmosphere. But below the ice lurks a mystery so chilling it will make even Elliot Carlyle's blood run cold.
Betrayal in the Tudor Court
Betrayal in the Tudor Court
Darcey Bonnette
¥57.09
Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and your family closest of all… Orphaned at the age of eight, Lady Cecily Burkhart becomes the ward of a rich and prestigious family. Welcomed as one of their own, Cecily is nurtured and loved by Lord Hal and his wife Lady Grace. As the years pass the family’s devout daughter, Mirabella, becomes increasingly consumed by her religious vocation. But when Henry VIII’s reign of terror begins to spread throughout England, Mirabella’s monastic life is ripped from her. As her life is torn apart, the true reason for her religious fervour becomes clear – her forbidden love for the family’s priest and tutor, Father Alec. As the family falls apart, Cecily must hold them together. But a dangerous mutual attraction between her and Father Alec begins to grow. Plagued with jealousy, Mirabella unleashes a tumultuous chain of events that threatens to destroy everyone around her, especially Cecily…
Plague Child
Plague Child
Peter Ransley
¥57.09
The first instalment of a captivating trilogy set against the backdrop of the English Civil War. September 1625: Plague cart driver, Matthew Kneave, is sent to pick up the corpse of a baby. Yet, on the way to the plague pit, he hears a cry – the baby is alive. A plague child himself, and now immune from the disease, Matthew decides to raise it as his own. Fifteen years on, Matthew’s son Tom is apprenticed to a printer in the City. Somebody is interested in him and is keen to turn him into a gentleman. He is even given an education. But Tom is unaware that he has a benefactor and soon he discovers that someone else is determined to kill him. The civil war divides families, yet Tom is divided in himself. Devil or saint? Royalist or radicalist? He is at the bottom of the social ladder, yet soon finds himself within reach of a great estate – one which he must give up to be with the girl he loves. Set against the fervent political climate of the period, 'Plague Child' is a remarkable story of discovery, identity and an England of the past.
Happily Ever After
Happily Ever After
Harriet Evans
¥57.09
Funny, wistful and wise, I loved this book' Katie Fforde Absorbing storytelling at its very best from the Sunday Times bestselling author. The past catches up with you no matter how far you try to run… This is a story of a girl who doesn’t believe in happy endings. Or happy families. It’s the story of Eleanor Bee, a shy, book-loving girl who vows to turn herself into someone bright, shiny and confident, someone sophisticated. Someone who knows how life works. But life has a funny way of catching us unawares. Turns out that Elle doesn’t know everything about love. Or life. Or how to keep the ones we love safe…. Absorbing, poignant and unforgettable, Happily Ever After is a compelling story of a fractured family and a girl who doesn’t believe in love.
When the Lights Go On Again
When the Lights Go On Again
Annie Groves
¥57.09
The tide is turning, but on the home front, the battle is far from over for the Campions… Autumn 1944, the allies are invading Italy. On the home front, the Campion family are doing their bit –working tirelessly in the hope that the end of the war is now in sight. Sasha, newly engaged to Bobby has been tormented by nameless terrors ever since she was rescued from a bomb shaft. But she needs help if she is to face down her fears and look to the future. Lou, separated from her twin Sasha, is breaking the mould in her new role as a member of the Air Transport Auxiliary. But she is shaken to her core when a face from her past shows up, the devilishly handsome American GI, Kieran Mallory. Back in London Katie hopes that she is finally over Luke, the man who broke her heart, until a surprise letter from him arrives. But can they rebuild something stronger on the ashes of their love? Even though today is full of suffering and pain, there is hope that tomorrow the lights will go on again.
The Rescue (Guardians of Ga’Hoole, Book 3)
The Rescue (Guardians of Ga’Hoole, Book 3)
Kathryn Lasky
¥57.09
The owls of Ga'Hoole return in the third book of the series ready to battle new and far more dangerous threats. Based on Katherine Lasky's work with owls, this adventures series is bound to be a hit with kids. Join the owls in their quest to safeguard the owl kingdom from the encroaching evil! Out of the darkness a hero will rise… Ever since Soren was kidnapped and taken to the St Aegolius School for Orphaned Owls, he has longed to see his sister Eglantine again. Now Eglantine is back in Soren’s life, but she’s been through an ordeal too terrible for words. And Ezylryb, Soren’s mentor, has disappeared. Deep within Soren’s gizzard, something more powerful than knowledge tells him there’s a connection between these events. In order to rescue Ezylryb, Soren must embark upon a perilous quest. It will bring him face to face with a force more dangerous than anything the rulers of St Aggie’s could have devised – a truth that threatens to destroy the owl kingdom.
Zero Per Cent
Zero Per Cent
Mark Swallow
¥57.09
Jack Curling tells his life story from 11-15 while sitting in Business Studies GCSE, writing nothing but his number, knowing that this will earn him precisely 0%. Jack is caught in the slipstream of decisions, decisions made without reference to him and what he wants. Can't he run his life on his own terms? He's pretty famous at school – Jack Curling, entrepreneur and wheeler dealer. Surely his dad can see that he's OK doing it his way? It's time to prove a point. The exam is waiting. Can he get precisely 0%?