Build enterprise-grade microservice ecosystems with intensive case studies using C# About This Book ? Learn to build message-based microservices ? Packed with case studies to explain the intricacies of large-scale microservices ? Build scalable, modular, and robust architectures with C# Who This Book Is For C# developers, software architects, and professionals who want to master the art of designing the microservice architecture that is scalable based on environment. Developers should have a basic understanding of.NET application development using C# and Visual Studio What You Will Learn ? Explore different open source tools within the context of designing microservices ? Learn to provide insulation to exception-prone function calls ? Build common messages used between microservices for communication ? Learn to create a microservice using our base class and interface ? Design a quantitative financial machine microservice ? Learn to design a microservice that is capable of using Blockchain technology In Detail C# is a powerful language when it comes to building applications and software architecture using rich libraries and tools such as .NET. This book will harness the strength of C# in developing microservices architectures and applications. This book shows developers how to develop an enterprise-grade, event-driven, asynchronous, message-based microservice framework using C#, .NET, and various open source tools. We will discuss how to send and receive messages, how to design many types of microservice that are truly usable in a corporate environment. We will also dissect each case and explain the code, best practices, pros and cons, and more. Through our journey, we will use many open source tools, and create file monitors, a machine learning microservice, a quantitative financial microservice that can handle bonds and credit default swaps, a deployment microservice to show you how to better manage your deployments, and memory, health status, and other microservices. By the end of this book, you will have a complete microservice ecosystem you can place into production or customize in no time. Style and approach A step-by-step guide that enables readers to create a complete microservice ecosystem they can place into production or customize in no time.

Transform games into environments using machine learning and Deep learning with Tensorflow, Keras, and Unity About This Book ? Learn how to apply core machine learning concepts to your games with Unity ? Learn the Fundamentals of Reinforcement Learning and Q-Learning and apply them to your games ? Learn How to build multiple asynchronous agents and run them in a training scenario Who This Book Is For This book is intended for developers with an interest in using Machine learning algorithms to develop better games and simulations with Unity. The reader will be required to have a working knowledge of C# and a basic understanding of Python. What You Will Learn ? Develop Reinforcement and Deep Reinforcement Learning for games. ? Understand complex and advanced concepts of reinforcement learning and neural networks ? Explore various training strategies for cooperative and competitive agent development ? Adapt the basic script components of Academy, Agent, and Brain to be used with Q Learning. ? Enhance the Q Learning model with improved training strategies such as Greedy-Epsilon exploration ? Implement a simple NN with Keras and use it as an external brain in Unity ? Understand how to add LTSM blocks to an existing DQN ? Build multiple asynchronous agents and run them in a training scenario In Detail Unity Machine Learning agents allow researchers and developers to create games and simulations using the Unity Editor, which serves as an environment where intelligent agents can be trained with machine learning methods through a simple-to-use Python API. This book takes you from the basics of Reinforcement and Q Learning to building Deep Recurrent Q-Network agents that cooperate or compete in a multi-agent ecosystem. You will start with the basics of Reinforcement Learning and how to apply it to problems. Then you will learn how to build self-learning advanced neural networks with Python and Keras/TensorFlow. From there you move o n to more advanced training scenarios where you will learn further innovative ways to train your network with A3C, imitation, and curriculum learning models. By the end of the book, you will have learned how to build more complex environments by building a cooperative and competitive multi-agent ecosystem. Style and approach This book focuses on the foundations of ML, RL and DL for building agents in a game or simulation

Use Java features such as JAX-RS, EJBs, and JPAs to build powerful middleware for newer architectures such as the cloud About This Book ? Explore EJBs to build middleware solutions for enterprise and distributed applications ? Understand middleware designs such as event-based and message-driven web services ? Learn to design and maintain large-scale systems and vendor disputes Who This Book Is For Enterprise architects, designers, developers, and programmers who are interested in learning how to build robust middleware solutions for enterprise software will find this book useful. Prior knowledge of Java EE is essential What You Will Learn ? Implement the latest Java EE 8 APIs and manage dependencies with CDI 2.0 ? Perform CRUD operations and access databases with JPA 2.1 ? Use bean validation API 2.0 to validate data ? Develop business logic with EJB 3.2 ? Incorporate the REST architecture and RESTful API design patterns ? Perform serialization and deserialization on JSON documents using JSON-B ? Utilize JMS for messaging and queuing models and securing applications ? Test applications using JUnit and Mockito and deploy them using Docker In Detail Middleware is the infrastructure in software based applications that enables businesses to solve problems, operate more efficiently, and make money. As the use of middleware extends beyond a single application, the importance of having it written by experts increases substantially. This book will help you become an expert in developing middleware for a variety of applications. The book starts off by exploring the latest Java EE 8 APIs with newer features and managing dependencies with CDI 2.0. You will learn to implement object-to-relational mapping using JPA 2.1 and validate data using bean validation. You will also work with different types of EJB to develop business logic, and with design RESTful APIs by utilizing different HTTP methods and activating JAX-RS features in enterprise applications. You will learn to secure your middleware with Java Security 1.0 and implement various authentication techniques, such as OAuth authentication. In the concluding chapters, you will use various test technologies, such as JUnit and Mockito, to test applications, and Docker to deploy your enterprise applications. By the end of the book, you will be proficient in developing robust, effective, and distributed middleware for your business. Style and approach Learn how to design and implement professional enterprise middleware solutions using the latest techniques and features provided by the Java EE 8 platform.

This book will give you an all encompassing view of the domain name ecosystem combined with a comprehensive set of operations strategies. About This Book ? Manage infrastructure, risk, and management of DNS name servers. Get hands-on with factors like types of name servers, DNS queries and and so on. ? Practical guide for system administrators to manage mission-critical servers ? Based on real-world experience - Written by an industry veteran who has made every possible mistake within this field. Who This Book Is For Ideal for sysadmins, webmasters, IT consultants, and developers-anyone responsible for maintaining your organization's core DNS What You Will Learn ? Anatomy of a domain - how a domain is the sum of both its DNS zone and its registration data, and why that matters. ? The domain name ecosystem - the role of registries, registrars and oversight bodies and their effect on your names. ? How DNS queries work - queries and responses are examined including debugging techniques to zero in on problems. ? Nameserver considerations - alternative nameserver daemons, numbering considerations, and deployment architectures. ? DNS use cases - the right way for basic operations such as domain transfers, large scale migrations, GeoDNS, Anycast DNS. ? Securing your domains - All aspects of security from registrar vendor selection, to DNSSEC and DDOS mitigation strategies. In Detail Managing your organization's naming architecture and mitigating risks within complex naming environments is very important. This book will go beyond looking at “how to run a name server” or “how to DNSSEC sign a domain”, Managing Mission Critical Domains & DNS looks across the entire spectrum of naming; from external factors that exert influence on your domains to all the internal factors to consider when operating your DNS. The readers are taken on a comprehensive guided tour through the world of naming: from understanding the role of registrars and how they interact with registries, to what exactly is it that ICANN does anyway? Once the prerequisite knowledge of the domain name ecosystem is acquired, the readers are taken through all aspects of DNS operations. Whether your organization operates its own nameservers or utilizes an outsourced vendor, or both, we examine the complex web of interlocking factors that must be taken into account but are too frequently overlooked. By the end of this book, our readers will have an end to end to understanding of all the aspects covered in DNS name servers. Style and approach The book is divided into two parts, the first part looks at the wider domain name ecosystem: registries, registrars and oversight policies. The second and larger part goes into operations. Every aspect of naming is considered from the viewpoint of how this affects ones domains, what are the ramifications of different operating methods as portfolios scale.

Find out how to create visually stunning and feature-rich applications by empowering Python's built-in Tkinter GUI toolkit About This Book ? Explore Tkinter's powerful features to easily design and customize your GUI application ? Learn the basics of 2D and 3D animation in GUI applications. ? Learn to integrate stunning Data Visualizations using Tkinter Canvas and Matplotlib. Who This Book Is For This book will appeal to developers and programmers who would like to build GUI-based applications. Knowledge of Python is a prerequisite. What You Will Learn ? Implement the tools provided by Tkinter to design beautiful GUIs ? Discover cross-platform development through minor customizations in your existing application ? Visualize graphs in real time as data comes in using Tkinter's animation capabilities ? Use PostgreSQL authentication to ensure data security for your application ? Write unit tests to avoid regressions when updating code In Detail Tkinter is a lightweight, portable, and easy-to-use graphical toolkit available in the Python Standard Library, widely used to build Python GUIs due to its simplicity and availability. This book teaches you to design and build graphical user interfaces that are functional, appealing, and user-friendly using the powerful combination of Python and Tkinter. After being introduced to Tkinter, you will be guided step-by-step through the application development process. Over the course of the book, your application will evolve from a simple data-entry form to a complex data management and visualization tool while maintaining a clean and robust design. In addition to building the GUI, you'll learn how to connect to external databases and network resources, test your code to avoid errors, and maximize performance using asynchronous programming. You'll make the most of Tkinter's cross-platform availability by learning how to maintain compatibility, mimic platform-native look and feel, and build executables for deployment across popular computing platforms. By the end of this book, you will have the skills and confidence to design and build powerful high-end GUI applications to solve real-world problems. Style and approach This is a comprehensive guide that explores the essential Tkinter features and modules and implements them in building real-world cross-platform GUI applications

Learn to build a full-fledged application in Spring and Kotlin taking a reactive, microservice-based approach for scalability and robustness in the cloud About This Book ? Build a full-fledged application in Spring and Kotlin ? Architect your application to take a microservice-based approach in the cloud ? Integrate your application with a variety of Spring components Who This Book Is For Developers comfortable using Spring who have basic knowledge of Kotlin and want to take their development skills to the next level and build enterprise-grade applications will benefit from this book. What You Will Learn ? Explore Spring 5 concepts with Kotlin ? Learn both dependency injections and complex configurations ? Utilize Spring Data, Spring Cloud, and Spring Security in your applications ? Create efficient reactive systems with Project Reactor ? Write unit tests for your Spring/Kotlin applications ? Deploy applications on cloud platforms like AWS In Detail Kotlin is being used widely by developers because of its light weight, built-in null safety, and functional and reactive programming aspects. Kotlin shares the same pragmatic, innovative and opinionated mindset as Spring, so they work well together. Spring when combined with Kotlin helps you to reach a new level of productivity. This combination has helped developers to create Functional Applications using both the tools together. This book will teach you how to take advantage of these developments and build robust, scalable and reactive applications with ease. In this book, you will begin with an introduction to Spring and its setup with Kotlin. You will then dive into assessing the design considerations of your application. Then you will learn to use Spring (with Spring Boot) along with Kotlin to build a robust backend in a microservice architecture with a REST based collaboration, and leverage Project Reactor in your application. You’ll then learn how to integrate Spring Data and Spring Cloud to manage configurations for database interaction and cloud deployment. You’ll also learn to use Spring Security to beef up security of your application before testing it with the JUnit framework and then deploying it on a cloud platform like AWS. Style and approach Everything you learn will be demonstrated on real-world Spring project. In each chapter we will cover some of Spring features and apply it on our project. We will guide you from the project initialization till the project deployment.

Discover how to use the next-generation language Red for full-stack development, from systems coding over user-interfaces to blockchain programming About This Book ? Explore the latest features of Red to build scalable, fast, and secure applications ? Learn graphical programming and build highly sophisticated reactive applications ? Get familiar with the specific concepts and techniques of Red development, like working with series, viewing code as data, and using dialects. Who This Book Is For This book is for software developers and architects who want to learn Red because of its conciseness, flexibility, and expressiveness, and more specifically for its possibilities in GUI apps and blockchain / smart contracts programming. Some knowledge of the basic concepts and experience of any programming language is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Set up your Red environment to achieve the highest productivity ? Get grounded in Red, gaining experience and insight through many examples and exercises ? Build simple, compact, and portable applications ? Analyze streams of data through Parse ? Compose GUI applications with View and Draw ? Get prepared for smart contract blockchain programming in Red In Detail A key problem of software development today is software bloat, where huge toolchains and development environments are needed in software coding and deployment. Red significantly reduces this bloat by offering a minimalist but complete toolchain. This is the first introductory book about it, and it will get you up and running with Red as quickly as possible. This book shows you how to write effective functions, reduce code redundancies, and improve code reuse. It will be helpful for new programmers who are starting out with Red to explore its wide and ever-growing package ecosystem and also for experienced developers who want to add Red to their skill set. The book presents the fundamentals of programming in Red and in-depth informative examples using a step-by-step approach. You will be taken through concepts and examples such as doing simple metaprogramming, functions, collections, GUI applications, and more. By the end of the book, you will be fully equipped to start your own projects in Red. Style and approach This book will gently guide you step by step into the fascinating programming universe of the Red language, offering real-world examples and practical exercises to sharpen your insight.

Build next-generation Artificial Intelligence systems with Java About This Book ? Implement AI techniques to build smart applications using Deeplearning4j ? Perform big data analytics to derive quality insights using Spark MLlib ? Create self-learning systems using neural networks, NLP, and reinforcement learning Who This Book Is For This book is for you if you are a data scientist, big data professional, or novice who has basic knowledge of big data and wish to get proficiency in Artificial Intelligence techniques for big data. Some competence in mathematics is an added advantage in the field of elementary linear algebra and calculus. What You Will Learn ? Manage Artificial Intelligence techniques for big data with Java ? Build smart systems to analyze data for enhanced customer experience ? Learn to use Artificial Intelligence frameworks for big data ? Understand complex problems with algorithms and Neuro-Fuzzy systems ? Design stratagems to leverage data using Machine Learning process ? Apply Deep Learning techniques to prepare data for modeling ? Construct models that learn from data using open source tools ? Analyze big data problems using scalable Machine Learning algorithms In Detail In this age of big data, companies have larger amount of consumer data than ever before, far more than what the current technologies can ever hope to keep up with. However, Artificial Intelligence closes the gap by moving past human limitations in order to analyze data. With the help of Artificial Intelligence for big data, you will learn to use Machine Learning algorithms such as k-means, SVM, RBF, and regression to perform advanced data analysis. You will understand the current status of Machine and Deep Learning techniques to work on Genetic and Neuro-Fuzzy algorithms. In addition, you will explore how to develop Artificial Intelligence algorithms to learn from data, why they are necessary, and how they can help solve real-world problems. By the end of this book, you'll have learned how to implement various Artificial Intelligence algorithms for your big data systems and integrate them into your product offerings such as reinforcement learning, natural language processing, image recognition, genetic algorithms, and fuzzy logic systems. Style and approach An easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to help you get to grips with real-world applications of Artificial Intelligence for big data using Java

Explore the features included in the latest versions of MQTT for IoT and M2M communications and use them with modern Python 3. About This Book ? Make your connected devices less prone to attackers by understanding security mechanisms ? Take advantage of MQTT features for IoT and Machine-to-Machine communications ? The only book that covers MQTT with a single language, Python Who This Book Is For This book is for developers who want to learn about the MQTT protocol for their IoT projects. Prior knowledge of working with IoT and Python will be helpful. What You Will Learn ? Learn how MQTT and its lightweight messaging system work ? Understand the MQTT puzzle: clients, servers (formerly known as brokers), and connections ? Explore the features included in the latest versions of MQTT for IoT and M2M communications ? Publish and receive MQTT messages with Python ? Learn the difference between blocking and threaded network loops ? Take advantage of the last will and testament feature ? Work with cloud-based MQTT interfaces in Python In Detail MQTT is a lightweight messaging protocol for small sensors and mobile devices. This book explores the features of the latest versions of MQTT for IoT and M2M communications, how to use them with Python 3, and allow you to interact with sensors and actuators using Python. The book begins with the specific vocabulary of MQTT and its working modes, followed by installing a Mosquitto MQTT broker. You will use different utilities and diagrams to understand the most important concepts related to MQTT. You will learn to?make all the necessary configuration to work with digital certificates for encrypting all data sent between the MQTT clients and the server. You will also work with the different Quality of Service levels and later analyze and compare their overheads. You will write Python 3.x code to control a vehicle with MQTT messages delivered through encrypted connections (TLS 1.2), and learn how leverage your knowledge of the MQTT protocol to build a solution based on requirements. Towards the end, you will write Python code to use the PubNub cloud-based real-time MQTT provider to monitor a surfing competition. In the end, you will have a solution that was built from scratch by analyzing the requirements and then write Python code that will run on water-proof IoT boards connected to multiple sensors in surfboards. Style and approach This book shows you what MQTT is, and how to install and secure an MQTT server. You will write Python 3 code to control a vehicle with MQTT messages, test and improve, then monitor a surfing competition with cloud-based real-time MQTT providers.

Explore the latest features of Unity 2018 to create immersive VR projects for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Daydream and Gear VR About This Book ? A project-based guide to teach you how to develop immersive and fun VR applications using Unity 3D ? Build experiences with interactable objects, physics, UI, animations, C# scripting, and other Unity features ? Explore the world of VR by building experiences such as diorama, first-person characters, 360-degree projections, social VR, audio fireball game, and VR storytelling Who This Book Is For If you're a non-programmer unfamiliar with 3D computer graphics, or experienced in both but new to virtual reality, and are interested in building your own VR games or applications, then this book is for you. Any experience in Unity is an advantage. What You Will Learn ? Create 3D scenes with Unity and other 3D tools while learning about world space and scale ? Build and run VR applications for specific headsets, including Oculus, Vive, and Daydream ? Interact with virtual objects using eye gaze, hand controllers, and user input events ? Move around your VR scenes using locomotion and teleportation ? Implement an audio fireball game using physics and particle systems ? Implement an art gallery tour with teleportation and data info ? Design and build a VR storytelling animation with a soundtrack and timelines ? Create social VR experiences with Unity networking In Detail Unity has become the leading platform for building virtual reality games, applications, and experiences for this new generation of consumer VR devices. Unity Virtual Reality Projects walks you through a series of hands-on tutorials and in-depth discussions on using the Unity game engine. With its practical and project-based approach, this book will get you up to speed with the specifics of Virtual Reality development in Unity. You will learn how to use Unity to develop VR applications that can be experienced with devices such as Oculus, Daydream, and Vive. Among the many topics and projects, you will explore gaze-based versus hand controller input, world space UI canvases, locomotion and teleportation, software design patterns, 360-degree media, timeline animation, and multiplayer networking. You will learn the Unity 3D game engine via the interactive Unity Editor as well as C# programming. By the end of the book, you will be fully equipped to develop rich, interactive virtual reality experiences using Unity. Style and approach A practical step-by-step guide to building impressive VR experiences with Unity 2018.

Connect things to create amazing IoT applications in minutes About This Book ? Use Blynk cloud and Blynk server to connect devices ? Build IoT applications on Android and iOS platforms ? A practical guide that will show how to connect devices using Blynk and Raspberry Pi 3 Who This Book Is For This book is targeted at any stakeholder working in the IoT sector who wants to understand how Blynk works and build exciting IoT projects. Prior understanding of Raspberry Pi, C/C++, and electronics is a must. What You Will Learn ? Build devices using Raspberry Pi and various sensors and actuators ? Use Blynk cloud to connect and control devices through the Blynk app ? Connect devices to Blynk cloud and server through Ethernet and Wi-Fi ? Make applications using Blynk apps (App Builder) on Android and iOS platforms ? Run Blynk personal server on the Windows, MAC, and Raspberry Pi platforms In Detail Blynk, known as the most user-friendly IoT platform, provides a way to build mobile applications in minutes. With the Blynk drag-n-drop mobile app builder, anyone can build amazing IoT applications with minimal resources and effort, on hardware ranging from prototyping platforms such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi 3 to industrial-grade ESP8266, Intel, Sierra Wireless, Particle, Texas Instruments, and a few others. This book uses Raspberry Pi as the main hardware platform and C/C++ to write sketches to build projects. The first part of this book shows how to set up a development environment with various hardware combinations and required software. Then you will build your first IoT application with Blynk using various hardware combinations and connectivity types such as Ethernet and Wi-Fi. Then you'll use and configure various widgets (control, display, notification, interface, time input, and some advanced widgets) with Blynk App Builder to build applications. Towards the end, you will learn how to connect with and use built-in sensors on Android and iOS mobile devices. Finally you will learn how to build a robot that can be controlled with a Blynk app through the Blynk cloud and personal server. By the end of this book, you will have hands-on experience building IoT applications using Blynk. Style and approach A step-by-step guide that will help you build simple yet exciting project in no time.

Archer B. Hemsley and friends are back and yearning for adventure in this second beautifully told, stunningly-illustrated story from author-illustrator Nicholas Gannon. After two years, Archer B. Helmsley’s famous explorer grandparents are finally coming home. They had been missing – abandoned on an iceberg – and Archer and his best friends, Adéla?de L. Belmont and Oliver Grub led an adventurous mission to rescue them. Archer is overjoyed by his grandparents return. However, he seems to be the only one. Rumours begin to surface that Archer’s grandparents weren’t abandoned after all. People are claiming that they made it all up. Well, Archer knows those rumours are false, and with the help of his best friends and new neighbour, Kana, he is going to prove it. Off the foursome set, into a snowstorm and beyond, to restore his grandparent’s reputation.

Tara Button is the CEO and founder of Buymeonce.com. Having worked in advertising for many years and having been a cluttered impulse shopper for all her life, she is now an active campaigner influencing manufacturers to up their game in terms of product longevity and to encourage consumers to buy once and buy well.

From the author of The Madam and The Mother comes a gripping new thriller that will have everyone talking! ‘I absolutely flipping well loved it’ Gingerbookgeek Sometimes you have to take the law into your own hands… DI Laura Jefferson will do whatever it takes to bring down London’s most notorious crime boss. When her team receive a deadly threat – stop their investigation or the police and their families will be targeted – but they aren’t willing to back down… Then the killings begin. A new body is turns up every day, and with no leads, Laura knows she has to take action. Her family is innocent and she’ll stop at nothing to protect them. When someone close to her is hurt, she’ll break every rule in the book to get vengeance.

A forbidden love. A deadly secret. ‘An absorbing, well-researched story that brings to life an extraordinary period in history’ GILL PAUL, bestselling author of The Secret Wife It’s 1943 and Hitler’s Germany is a terrifying place to be. But Magda Ritter’s duty is the most dangerous of all… Assigned to The Berghof, Hitler’s mountain retreat, she must serve the Reich by becoming the Führer’s ‘Taster’ – a woman who checks his food for poison. Magda can see no way out of this hellish existence until she meets Karl, an SS officer who has formed an underground resistance group within Hitler’s inner circle. As their forbidden love grows, Magda and Karl see an opportunity to stop the atrocities of the madman leading their country. But in doing so, they risk their lives, their families and, above all, a love unlike either of them have ever known… Lose yourself in this sweeping, heroic love story fraught with danger. The perfect read for fans of Dinah Jeffries and Gill Paul.

A charming and evocative tale of family and fortune from the queen of West Country saga, Linda Finlay. Isabella Carrington has been brought up in a life of privilege in London. Her life seems perfect, until her father suddenly announces bankruptcy. To save Isabella from destitution he sends her to stay with family she has never met, far away on a violet farm deep in Devon. Isabella is horrified to find her uncle expects her to work for her keep, packing up the flowers and selling them in the nearby market. However she soon discovers that life on a violet farm may not be so bad, especially when she meets handsome local farmer Felix Furneaux… Perfect for fans of Dilly Court and Katie Flynn.

‘Brilliantly funny, emotional and uplifting’ Miranda Dickinson Heartwarming, hilarious and joyful – the perfect read for anyone who loved Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, A Man Called Ove, Ruth Jones and JoJo Moyes. Evie Gallagher is regretting her hasty move into a care home. She may be seventy-five and recently widowed, but she’s absolutely not dead yet. And so, one morning, Evie walks out of Sheldon Lodge and sets off on a Great Adventure across Europe. But not everyone thinks Great Adventures are appropriate for women of Evie’s age, least of all her son Brendan and his wife Maura, who follow a trail of puzzling text messages to bring her home. When they finally catch up with her, there are shocks in store . . . because while Brendan may have given up on life and love, Evie certainly has not. 'Lovely . . . a book that assures that life is far from over at seventy' Cathy Hopkins, bestselling author of The Kicking the Bucket List ’Brimming with warmth, humour and a love of life . . . a wonderful escapade’ Fiona Gibson, bestselling author of The Woman Who Upped and Left ‘I absolutely loved everything about this book… 5* out of 5*’ The Ginger Book Geek ‘By its end I’d laughed, cringed, felt really concerned, giggled, cried (rather a lot) and emerged into the rosier future with a heart broken, mended, and singing with joy’ Being Anne ‘5 stars! I Loved Evie . . . She has a Passion and Zest for life… I want to go travelling with her! . . . If you read one book that is a little different this month let it be A Grand Old Time! You won't regret It!’ Dash Fan

THE HUNT IS ON When a sniper leaves Ben Hope’s friend fighting for his life, the former SAS major declares war on the men responsible. But what begins as a straightforward revenge mission gets complicated when a mysterious letter reveals Ben to be the real target. And his isn’t the only name on a crazed killer’s list. Professor Anna Manzini has no idea she’s in grave danger from a man she’d thought dead. She’s on the cusp of a major discovery: the location of the lost Babylon idol, a golden statue of immeasurable value. But when word of Anna’s work reaches her enemies, it sets off a cat-and-mouse chase that will lead Ben and Anna halfway across Europe and into the heart of war-torn Syria. To reach the precious idol first, Ben must keep one step ahead of a powerful maniac. If he fails, it won’t just be Ben and Anna’s lives in danger, but the world. BEN HOPE is one of the most celebrated action adventure heroes in British fiction and Scott Mariani is the author of numerous bestsellers. Join the ever-growing legion of readers who get breathless with anticipation when the countdown to the new Ben Hope thriller begins…

Experienced foster carer, Rosie Lewis, takes on the heart-breaking case of Megan, a baby born with a drug addiction and a cleft palate. Addicted to drugs from birth because of her mother’s substance abuse during pregnancy, new-born Megan is taken into Rosie’s loving care. Rosie is supposed to help Megan find her new permanent home, but it turns out that Megan has already found her ‘forever mummy’ in Rosie. Rosie grows incredibly attached to Megan and applies to adopt her, but the system refuses her in favour of a young couple and Rosie is devastated. Against all her instincts, Rosie does her job and prepares Megan for her new ‘forever family’, but everything about Megan leaving feels wrong. When Rosie learns a few months later that Megan’s adoption has broken down, she is saddened but also filled with hope – will this little girl be allowed to return to her true ‘forever home’?

The nail-bitingly tense sequel to THE OUTLIERS by New York Times bestselling author Kimberly McCreight. “Wylie, trust your instincts.” The line goes dead… Wylie may have escaped the isolated camp in the woods, but she is far from safe. The only way to protect herself is to understand her strange abilities as an Outlier, fast. But allowing herself to read other peoples’ emotions isn't just difficult, it's dangerous. And Wylie isn’t the only one at risk. Ever since they returned home, Jasper has been wracked with guilt. He can’t let go of the blame he so desperately feels, especially when someone has been taunting him with reminders of it. Wylie and Jasper would do anything for each other, but is their bond is strong enough to overcome demons from the past? Amid this uncertainty and fear, Wylie is confronted with a choice. She was willing to do whatever it took to help Cassie, but is she prepared to go to the same extremes for complete strangers… even if they are just like her? New York Times bestselling author Kimberly McCreight raises the stakes in the second book of this heart-pounding series about secrets, betrayal and a group of people are blessed – or cursed – with an incredible power.

A raw, intensely personal memoir of spiritual exploration from one of the world’s great commentators on religion.