The La Chance Mine Mystery

Build applications and infrastructures that leverage Function-as-a-Service and Docker About This Book ? Implement containerization in Serverless/FaaS environments ? Utilize Docker as a functional unit of work for Serverless/FaaS platforms ? Use Docker as a portable infrastructure for Serverless Applications Who This Book Is For If you are a Developer, a Docker Engineer, a DevOps Engineer, or any stakeholder interested in learning the use of Docker on Serverless environments then this book is for you. What You Will Learn ? Learn what Serverless and FaaS applications are ? Get acquainted with the architectures of three major serverless systems ? Explore how Docker technologies can help develop Serverless applications ? Create and maintain FaaS infrastructures ? Set up Docker infrastructures to serve as on-premises FaaS infrastructures ? Define functions for Serverless applications with Docker containers In Detail Serverless applications have gained a lot of popularity among developers and are currently the buzzwords in the tech market. Docker and serverless are two terms that go hand-in-hand. This book will start by explaining serverless and Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) concepts, and why they are important. Then, it will introduce the concepts of containerization and how Docker fits into the Serverless ideology. It will explore the architectures and components of three major Docker-based FaaS platforms, how to deploy and how to use their CLI. Then, this book will discuss how to set up and operate a production-grade Docker cluster. We will cover all concepts of FaaS frameworks with practical use cases, followed by deploying and orchestrating these serverless systems using Docker. Finally, we will also explore advanced topics and prototypes for FaaS architectures in the last chapter. By the end of this book, you will be in a position to build and deploy your own FaaS platform using Docker. Style and approach A practical guide that offers a simple way to easily understand Serverless Applications utilizing Docker as the development environment.

Learn the most powerful and primary programming language for writing smart contracts and find out how to write, deploy, and test smart contracts in Ethereum. About This Book ? Get you up and running with Solidity Programming language ? Build Ethereum Smart Contracts with Solidity as your scripting language ? Learn to test and deploy the smart contract to your private Blockchain Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone who would like to get started with Solidity Programming for developing an Ethereum smart contract. No prior knowledge of EVM is required. What You Will Learn ? Learn the basics and foundational concepts of Solidity and Ethereum ? Explore the Solidity language and its uniqueness in depth ? Create new accounts and submit transactions to blockchain ? Get to know the complete language in detail to write smart contracts ? Learn about major tools to develop and deploy smart contracts ? Write defensive code using exception handling and error checking ? Understand Truffle basics and the debugging process In Detail Solidity is a contract-oriented language whose syntax is highly influenced by JavaScript, and is designed to compile code for the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Solidity Programming Essentials will be your guide to understanding Solidity programming to build smart contracts for Ethereum and blockchain from ground-up. We begin with a brief run-through of blockchain, Ethereum, and their most important concepts or components. You will learn how to install all the necessary tools to write, test, and debug Solidity contracts on Ethereum. Then, you will explore the layout of a Solidity source file and work with the different data types. The next set of recipes will help you work with operators, control structures, and data structures while building your smart contracts. We take you through function calls, return types, function modifers, and recipes in object-oriented programming with Solidity. Learn all you can on event logging and exception handling, as well as testing and debugging smart contracts. By the end of this book, you will be able to write, deploy, and test smart contracts in Ethereum. This book will bring forth the essence of writing contracts using Solidity and also help you develop Solidity skills in no time. Style and approach Solidity is a high-level programming language best understood using examples. After covering basic concepts of Ethereum and Solidity, programming constructs will be explained with help of examples. As chapters progress, deployment, usage and testing of contacts will form major aspect of the book. Troubleshooting and unit testing is an important exercise and skill to master this language will also be covered in this book.

Building efficient Python applications at minimal cost by adopting serverless architectures About This Book ? Design and set up a data flow between cloud services and custom business logic ? Make your applications efficient and reliable using serverless architecture ? Build and deploy scalable serverless Python APIs Who This Book Is For This book is for Python developers who would like to learn about serverless architecture. Python programming knowledge is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Understand how AWS Lambda and Microsoft Azure Functions work and use them to create an application ? Explore various triggers and how to select them, based on the problem statement ? Build deployment packages for Lambda functions ? Master the finer details about building Lambda functions and versioning ? Log and monitor serverless applications ? Learn about security in AWS and Lambda functions ? Scale up serverless applications to handle huge workloads and serverless distributed systems in production ? Understand SAM model deployment in AWS Lambda In Detail Serverless architectures allow you to build and run applications and services without having to manage the infrastructure. Many companies have adopted this architecture to save cost and improve scalability. This book will help you design serverless architectures for your applications with AWS and Python. The book is divided into three modules. The first module explains the fundamentals of serverless architecture and how AWS lambda functions work. In the next module, you will learn to build, release, and deploy your application to production. You will also learn to log and test your application. In the third module, we will take you through advanced topics such as building a serverless API for your application. You will also learn to troubleshoot and monitor your app and master AWS lambda programming concepts with API references. Moving on, you will also learn how to scale up serverless applications and handle distributed serverless systems in production. By the end of the book, you will be equipped with the knowledge required to build scalable and cost-efficient Python applications with a serverless framework. Style and approach The book takes a pragmatic approach, using a real-world example to demonstrate building efficient, secure, and scalable serverless applications.

Improve the speed of your code and optimize the performance of your apps About This Book ? Understand the common performance pitfalls and improve your application’s performance ? Get to grips with multi-threaded and asynchronous programming in C# ? Develop highly performant applications on .NET Core using microservice architecture Who This Book Is For This book is for .NET developers looking at improving the speed of their code or simply wanting to take their skills to the next level. Basic C# knowledge is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Measure application performance using BenchmarkDotNet ? Explore the techniques to write multithreaded applications ? Leverage TPL and PLinq libraries to perform asynchronous operations ? Get familiar with data structures to write optimized code ? Understand design techniques to increase your application’s performance ? Learn about memory management techniques in .NET Core ? Develop a containerized application based on microservices architecture ? Learn tools and techniques to monitor application performance In Detail While writing an application, performance is paramount. Performance tuning for realworld applications often involves activities geared toward fnding bottlenecks; however, this cannot solve the dreaded problem of slower code. If you want to improve the speed of your code and optimize an application's performance, then this book is for you. C# 7 and .NET Core 2.0 High Performance begins with an introduction to the new features of what?explaining how they help in improving an application's performance. Learn to identify the bottlenecks in writing programs and highlight common performance pitfalls, and learn strategies to detect and resolve these issues early. You will explore multithreading and asynchronous programming with .NET Core and learn the importance and effcient use of data structures. This is followed with memory management techniques and design guidelines to increase an application’s performance. Gradually, the book will show you the importance of microservices architecture for building highly performant applications and implementing resiliency and security in .NET Core. After reading this book, you will learn how to structure and build scalable, optimized, and robust applications in C#7 and .NET. Style and approach This book will be a step by step easy to follow guide with focused examples to increase performance of applications and provide optimization techniques.

Enhance your software deployment workflow using containers About This Book ? Get up-and-running with basic to advanced concepts of Docker ? Get acquainted with concepts such as Docker containers, Docker images, orchestrators and so on. ? Practical test-based approach to learning a prominent containerization tool Who This Book Is For This book is targeted at system administrators, operations engineers, DevOps engineers, and developers or stakeholders who are interested in getting started with Docker from scratch. No prior experience with Docker Containers is required. What You Will Learn ? Containerize your traditional or microservice-based application ? Share or ship your application as an immutable container image ? Build a Docker swarm and a Kubernetes cluster in the cloud ? Run a highly distributed application using Docker Swarm or Kubernetes ? Update or rollback a distributed application with zero downtime ? Secure your applications via encapsulation, networks, and secrets ? Know your options when deploying your containerized app into the cloud In Detail Docker containers have revolutionized the software supply chain in small and big enterprises. Never before has a new technology so rapidly penetrated the top 500 enterprises worldwide. Companies that embrace containers and containerize their traditional mission-critical applications have reported savings of at least 50% in total maintenance cost and a reduction of 90% (or more) of the time required to deploy new versions of those applications. Furthermore they are benefitting from increased security just by using containers as opposed to running applications outside containers. This book starts from scratch, introducing you to Docker fundamentals and setting up an environment to work with it. Then we delve into concepts such as Docker containers, Docker images, Docker Compose, and so on. We will also cover the concepts of deployment, orchestration, networking, and security. Furthermore, we explain Docker functionalities on public clouds such as AWS. By the end of this book, you will have hands-on experience working with Docker containers and orchestrators such as SwarmKit and Kubernetes. Style and approach The simple end-to-end guide will help you learn everything about how to containerize, ship, and run both a traditional application and a modern microservice-based application on-premise or in the cloud.

Explore GIS processing and learn to work with various tools and libraries in Python. About This Book ? Analyze and process geospatial data using Python libraries such as; Anaconda, GeoPandas ? Leverage new ArcGIS API to process geospatial data for the cloud. ? Explore various Python geospatial web and machine learning frameworks. Who This Book Is For The audience for this book includes students, developers, and geospatial professionals who need a reference book that covers GIS data management, analysis, and automation techniques with code libraries built in Python 3. What You Will Learn ? Manage code libraries and abstract geospatial analysis techniques using Python 3. ? Explore popular code libraries that perform specific tasks for geospatial analysis. ? Utilize code libraries for data conversion, data management, web maps, and REST API creation. ? Learn techniques related to processing geospatial data in the cloud. ? Leverage features of Python 3 with geospatial databases such as PostGIS, SQL Server, and SpatiaLite. In Detail Python comes with a host of open source libraries and tools that help you work on professional geoprocessing tasks without investing in expensive tools. This book will introduce Python developers, both new and experienced, to a variety of new code libraries that have been developed to perform geospatial analysis, statistical analysis, and data management. This book will use examples and code snippets that will help explain how Python 3 differs from Python 2, and how these new code libraries can be used to solve age-old problems in geospatial analysis. You will begin by understanding what geoprocessing is and explore the tools and libraries that Python 3 offers. You will then learn to use Python code libraries to read and write geospatial data. You will then learn to perform geospatial queries within databases and learn PyQGIS to automate analysis within the QGIS mapping suite. Moving forward, you will explore the newly released ArcGIS API for Python and ArcGIS Online to perform geospatial analysis and create ArcGIS Online web maps. Further, you will deep dive into Python Geospatial web frameworks and learn to create a geospatial REST API. Style and approach The book takes a practical, example-driven approach to teach you GIS analysis and automation techniques with Python 3.

Practical, hands-on solutions in Python to overcome any problem in Machine Learning About This Book ? Master the advanced concepts, methodologies, and use cases of machine learning ? Build ML applications for analytics, NLP and computer vision domains ? Solve the most common problems in building machine learning models Who This Book Is For This book is for the intermediate users such as machine learning engineers, data engineers, data scientists, and more, who want to solve simple to complex machine learning problems in their day-to-day work and build powerful and efficient machine learning models. A basic understanding of the machine learning concepts and some experience with Python programming is all you need to get started with this book. What You Will Learn ? Select the right algorithm to derive the best solution in ML domains ? Perform predictive analysis effciently using ML algorithms ? Predict stock prices using the stock index value ? Perform customer analytics for an e-commerce platform ? Build recommendation engines for various domains ? Build NLP applications for the health domain ? Build language generation applications using different NLP techniques ? Build computer vision applications such as facial emotion recognition In Detail Machine learning (ML) helps you find hidden insights from your data without the need for explicit programming. This book is your key to solving any kind of ML problem you might come across in your job. You’ll encounter a set of simple to complex problems while building ML models, and you'll not only resolve these problems, but you’ll also learn how to build projects based on each problem, with a practical approach and easy-to-follow examples. The book includes a wide range of applications: from analytics and NLP, to computer vision domains. Some of the applications you will be working on include stock price prediction, a recommendation engine, building a chat-bot, a facial expression recognition system, and many more. The problem examples we cover include identifying the right algorithm for your dataset and use cases, creating and labeling datasets, getting enough clean data to carry out processing, identifying outliers, overftting datasets, hyperparameter tuning, and more. Here, you'll also learn to make more timely and accurate predictions. In addition, you'll deal with more advanced use cases, such as building a gaming bot, building an extractive summarization tool for medical documents, and you'll also tackle the problems faced while building an ML model. By the end of this book, you'll be able to fine-tune your models as per your needs to deliver maximum productivity. Style and approach This book is a step-by-step guide on how to develop machine learning applications for various domains. Each chapter of this book contains the practical guide on how to build specific machine learning applications from its base-line approach to the best possible approach. Basic necessary concepts, conman mistakes for every approach and optimization techniques are discussed for each application.

Get certified as an Azure architect by acing the 70-535 Architecting Microsoft Solutions (70-535) exam using this comprehensive guide with full coverage of the exam objectives About This Book ? Learn to successfully design and architect powerful solutions on the Azure Cloud platform ? Enhance your skills with mock tests and practice questions ? A detailed certification guide that will help you ace the 70-535 exam with confidence Who This Book Is For This book is for architects and experienced developers, who are gearing up for the 70-535 exam. Technical architects interested in learning more about designing Cloud solutions will also find this book useful. What You Will Learn ? Use Azure Virtual Machines to design effective VM deployments ? Implement architecture styles, like serverless computing and microservices ? Secure your data using different security features and design effective security strategies ? Design Azure storage solutions using various storage features ? Create identity management solutions for your applications and resources ? Architect state-of-the-art solutions using Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and Azure Media Services ? Use different automation solutions that are incorporated in the Azure platform In Detail Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions: Exam Guide 70-535 will get Azure architects and developers up-to-date with the latest updates on Azure from an architecture and design perspective. The book includes all the topics that are still relevant from the previous 70-534 exam, and is updated with latest topics covered, including Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and architecture styles. This exam guide is divided into six parts, where the first part will give you a good understanding of how to design a compute infrastructure. It also dives into designing networking and data implementations. You will learn about designing solutions for Platform Service and operations. Next, you will be able to secure your resources and data, as well as design a mechanism for governance and policies. You will also understand the objective of designing solutions for Platform Services, by covering Artificial Intelligence, IoT, media services, and messaging solution concepts. Finally, you will cover the designing for operations objective. This objective covers application and platform monitoring, as well as designing alerting strategies and operations automation strategies. By the end of the book, you'll have met all of the exam objectives, and will have all the information you need to ace the 70-535 exam. You will also have become an expert in designing solutions on Microsoft Azure. Style and approach This book offers clear and crisp explanations of the exam objectives that will help you with all the information needed to pass the 70-535 exam. The detail oriented approach will make you an expert on designing solutions on Microsoft Azure.

Unleash the power of the Raspberry Pi 3 board to create interesting IoT projects About This Book ? Learn how to interface various sensors and actuators with the Raspberry Pi 3 and send this data to the cloud. ? Explore the possibilities offered by the IoT by using the Raspberry Pi to upload measurements to Google Docs. ? A practical guide that will help you create a Raspberry Pi robot using IoT modules. Who This Book Is For If you're a developer or electronics engineer and are curious about the Internet of Things, then this is the book for you. With only a rudimentary understanding of electronics, the Raspberry Pi, or similar credit-card sized computers, and some programming experience, you will be taught to develop state-of-the-art solutions for the Internet of Things in an instant. What You Will Learn ? Understand the concept of IoT and get familiar with the features of Raspberry Pi ? Learn to integrate sensors and actuators with the Raspberry Pi ? Communicate with cloud and Raspberry using communication protocols such as HTTP and MQTT ? Build DIY projects using Raspberry Pi, JavaScript/node.js and cloud (AWS) ? Explore the best practices to ensure the security of your connected devices In Detail This book is designed to introduce you to IoT and Raspberry Pi 3. It will help you create interesting projects, such as setting up a weather station and measuring temperature and humidity using sensors; it will also show you how to send sensor data to cloud for visualization in real-time. Then we shift our focus to leveraging IoT for accomplishing complex tasks, such as facial recognition using the Raspberry Pi camera module, AWS Rekognition, and the AWS S3 service. Furthermore, you will master security aspects by building a security surveillance system to protect your premises from intruders using Raspberry Pi, a camera, motion sensors, and AWS Cloud. We'll also create a real-world project by building a Wi-Fi – controlled robot car with Raspberry Pi using a motor driver circuit, DC motor, and a web application. This book is a must-have as it provides a practical overview of IoT’s existing architectures, communication protocols, and security threats at the software and hardware levels—security being the most important aspect of IoT. Style and approach Internet of Things with the Raspberry Pi 3 contains the tools needed to design, sense the environment, communicate over the Internet, and visualize the results.

This book teaches you everything you need to know to create stunning Vaadin applications for all your web development needs. Deep dive into advanced Vaadin concepts while creating your very own sample Vaadin application. About This Book ? A one-stop book to enhance your working knowledge with Vaadin. ? Explore and implement the architecture of Vaadin applications. ? Delve into advanced topics such as data binding, authentication and authorization to improvise your application’s performance. Who This Book Is For If you area Software developer with previous experience with Vaadin and would like to gain more comprehensive and advanced skills in Vaadin web development, then this book is for you. What You Will Learn ? Modularize your Vaadin applications with Maven ? Create high quality custom components ? Implement robust and secure authentication and authorization mechanisms ? Connect to SQL databases efficiently ? Design robust CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) views ? Generate stunning reports ? Improve resource consumption by using lazy loading In Detail Vaadin is an open-source Java framework used to build modern user interfaces. Vaadin 8 simplifies application development and improves user experience. The book begins with an overview of the architecture of Vaadin applications and the way you can organize your code in modules.Then it moves to the more advanced topics about advanced topics such as internationalization, authentication, authorization, and database connectivity. The book also teaches you how to implement CRUD views, how to generate printable reports, and how to manage data with lazy loading. By the end of this book you will be able to architect, implement, and deploy stunning Vaadin applications, and have the knowledge to master web development with Vaadin. Style and approach This book follows a hands-on approach and takes the readers through practical examples of how to create and deploy Vaadin applications. This book teaches the readers about the Vaadin architecture. It then moves on to the more advanced topics about advanced topics such as internationalization, authentication, authorization, and database connectivity. This step by step guide equips the readers with all they need to know to use Vaadin for web development.

Leverage the power of PostgreSQL 10 to design, administer and maintain a high-performance database solution About This Book ? Obtain optimal PostgreSQL 10 database performance, ranging from initial design to routine maintenance ? Fine tune the performance of your queries and avoid the common pitfalls that can slow your system down ? Contains tips and tricks on scaling successful database installations, and ensuring a highly available PostgreSQL solution Who This Book Is For This book is designed for database administrators and PostgreSQL architects who already use or plan to exploit the features of PostgreSQL 10 to design and maintain a high-performance PostgreSQL database. A working knowledge of SQL, and some experience with PostgreSQL will be helpful in getting the most out of this book. What You Will Learn ? Learn best practices for scaling PostgreSQL 10 installations ? Discover the best hardware for developing high-performance PostgreSQL applications ? Benchmark your whole system – from hardware to application ? Learn by real examples how server parameters impact performance ? Discover PostgreSQL 10 features for partitioning and parallel query ? Monitor your server, both inside and outside the database ? Design and implement a good replication system on PostgreSQL 10 In Detail PostgreSQL database servers have a common set of problems that they encounter as their usage gets heavier and requirements get more demanding. Peek into the future of your PostgreSQL 10 database's problems today. Know the warning signs to look for and how to avoid the most common issues before they even happen. Surprisingly, most PostgreSQL database applications evolve in the same way—choose the right hardware, tune the operating system and server memory use, optimize queries against the database and CPUs with the right indexes, and monitor every layer, from hardware to queries, using tools from inside and outside PostgreSQL. Also, using monitoring insight, PostgreSQL database applications continuously rework the design and configuration. On reaching the limits of a single server, they break things up; connection pooling, caching, partitioning, replication, and parallel queries can all help handle increasing database workloads. By the end of this book, you will have all the knowledge you need to design, run, and manage your PostgreSQL solution while ensuring high performance and high availability Style and approach This book has been organized in such a manner that will help you understand basic PostgreSQL 10 performance tuning to an advanced-level configuration.

Design and implement scalable and maintainable RESTful solutions with Node.js 10 About This Book ? Create rich and scalable RESTful API solutions from scratch ? Explore the new features of Node.js 10, Express 4.0, and MongoDB ? Integrate MongoDB in your Node.js application to store and secure your data Who This Book Is For If you are a web developer keen to enrich your development skills to create server-side RESTful applications based on the Node.js platform, this book is for you. Some knowledge of REST would be an added advantage, but is definitely not a necessity. What You Will Learn ? Install, develop, and test your own Node.js user modules ? Understand the differences between HTTP and RESTful applications ? Use self-descriptive URLs and set accurate HTTP status codes ? Eliminate third-party dependencies in your tests with mocking ? Implement automation tests for a REST-enabled endpoint with Mocha ? Secure your services with NoSQL database integration within Node.js applications ? Integrate a simple frontend using JavaScript libraries available on a CDN server In Detail When building RESTful services, it is really important to choose the right framework. Node.js, with its asynchronous, event-driven architecture, is exactly the right choice for building RESTful APIs. This third edition of RESTful Web API Design with Node.js 10 will teach you to create scalable and rich RESTful applications based on the Node.js platform. You will be introduced to the latest NPM package handler and understand how to use it to customize your RESTful development process. You will begin by understanding the key principle that makes an HTTP application a RESTful-enabled application. After writing a simple HTTP request handler, you will create and test Node.js modules using automated tests and mock objects; explore using the NoSQL database, MongoDB, to store data; and get to grips with using self-descriptive URLs. You’ll learn to set accurate HTTP status codes along with understanding how to keep your applications backward-compatible. Also, while implementing a full-fledged RESTful service, you will use Swagger to document the API and implement automation tests for a REST-enabled endpoint with Mocha. Lastly, you will explore some authentication techniques to secure your application. Style and approach Step-by-step practical guide to building RESTful applications

Build and program smart robots with the EV3. About This Book ? Efficiently build smart robots with the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 ? Discover building techniques and programming concepts that are used by engineers to prototype robots in the real world ? This project-based guide will teach you how to build exciting projects such as the objecta-tracking tank, ultimate all-terrain vehicle, remote control race car, or even a GPS-navigating autonomous vehicle Who This Book Is For This book is for hobbyists, robotic engineers, and programmers who understand the basics of the EV3 programming language and are familiar with building with LEGO Technic and want to try some advanced projects. If you want to learn some new engineering techniques and take your experience with the EV3 to the next level, then this book is for you. What You Will Learn ? Understand the characteristics that make a robot smart ? Grasp proportional beacon following and use proximity sensors to track an object ? Discover how mechanisms such as rack-and-pinion and the worm gear work ? Program a custom GUI to make a robot more user friendly ? Make a fun and quirky interactive robot that has its own personality ? Get to know the principles of remote control and programming car-style steering ? Understand some of the mechanisms that enable a car to drive ? Navigate to a destination with a GPS receiver In Detail Smart robots are an ever-increasing part of our daily lives. With LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3, you can now prototype your very own small-scale smart robot that uses specialized programming and hardware to complete a mission. EV3 is a robotics platform for enthusiasts of all ages and experience levels that makes prototyping robots accessible to all. This book will walk you through six different projects that range from intermediate to advanced level. The projects will show you building and programming techniques that are used by engineers in the real world, which will help you build your own smart robot. You'll see how to make the most of the EV3 robotics platform and build some awesome smart robots. The book starts by introducing some real-world examples of smart robots. Then, we'll walk you through six different projects and explain the features that allow these robots to make intelligent decisions. The book will guide you as you build your own object-tracking tank, a box-climbing robot, an interactive robotic shark, a quirky bipedal robot, a speedy remote control race car, and a GPS-navigating robot. By the end of this book, you'll have the skills necessary to build and program your own smart robots with EV3. Style and approach This book will introduce you to the world of smart robots, then guide you through six different projects that can be completed with the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3. The projects range from intermediate to advanced difficulty. The book will enable you to learn by example, walking you through the building and programming for each project and teaching you about the engineering concepts that allow each smart robot to complete its mission.

Jeanne Willis worked as an advertising copywriter for TV, cinema and radio before becoming a full-time writer. Her picture books have won awards including the Silver Smarties Prize for Tadpole’s Promise, The Red House Children’s Book Award for Who’s in the Loo? and the Booktrust Early Years Award for The Bog Baby. She also writes children’s fiction including the Super Cat and Penguin Pandemonium books for HarperCollins.

’A heart-breaking tale of love, grief and devotion’ THE SUN ‘Exceptionally beautiful, emotionally charged and inspirational’ MIRANDA DICKINSON, Sunday Times bestseller ‘A wonderfully told tale of devastation, grief and ultimately hope’ KATHRYN HUGHES, bestselling author of THE LETTER and THE SECRET Is holding on harder than letting go? Dan’s life has fallen apart at the seams. He’s lost his house, his job is on the line, and now he’s going to lose his family too. All he’s ever wanted is to keep them together, but is everything beyond repair? Maria is drowning in grief. She spends her days writing letters that will never be answered. Nights are spent trying to hold terrible memories at bay, to escape the pain that threatens to engulf her. Jack wakes up confused and alone. He doesn’t know who he is, how he got there, or why he finds himself on a deserted clifftop, but will piecing together the past leave him a broken man? In the face of real tragedy, can these three people find a way to reconcile their past with a new future? And is love enough to carry them through?

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the sixth Inspector French novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’. A MURDER MYSTERY WITHOUT A CLUE When Sir John Magill, the wealthy Irish industrialist, fails to show up at his home town on a well-publicised visit, neither his family nor the Belfast police can explain his disappearance. Foul play is suspected when his bloodstained hat is discovered, and Scotland Yard is called in. With his characteristic genius for reconstruction, Inspector French evolves a gruesome theory about what happened to the elderly man, but his reputation – and that of Scotland Yard – will depend on finding out who was responsible . . .

The only authorised biography, and the only one written by an author who actually met J.R.R. Tolkien, with a redesigned cover to match the distinctive paperback editions of The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. In the 25 years since Tolkien's death in September 1973, millions have read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and become fascinated about the very private man behind the books. Born in Bloemfontein in January 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was orphaned in childhood, brought up in near-poverty and almost thwarted in adolescent romance. He served in the First World War, surviving the Battle of the Somme, where he lost some of his closest friends, and returned to academic life, achieving high repute as a scholar and university teacher, eventually becoming Merton Professor of English at Oxford. Then suddenly his life changed dramatically. One day while marking essay papers he found himself writing 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit' -- and worldwide renown awaited him. Humphrey Carpenter was given unrestricted access to all Tolkien's papers, and interviewed his friends and family. From these sources he follows the long and painful process of creation that produced The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and offers a wealth of information about the life and work of the twentieth century's most cherished author.

When Milly (aka actress Nicola Millbank of Mount Pleasant, Mr. Selfridge and Silent Witness) moved to London aged 18 to become an actress she had to learn to fend for herself and that included improving her cooking skills. With a love for home-cooked dishes, she wanted to make them her own but a bit fresher, lighter and more exciting. So followed a 10-year full-blown love affair with home cooking that became her food blog MILLY COOKBOOK.

Dan Hancox is a native Londoner who writes about music, politics, gentrification, social exclusion, protest and the margins of urban life, chiefly for the Guardian, but also the New York Times, Vice, The Fader, Dazed & Confused and XXL. He is the author of The Village Against the World (Verso).

Painstakingly restored from Tolkien’s manuscripts and presented for the first time as a continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of Beren and Lúthien will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, Dwarves and Orcs and the rich landscape and creatures unique to Tolkien’s Middle-earth. The tale of Beren and Lúthien was, or became, an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of the First Age of the World conceived by J.R.R. Tolkien. Returning from France and the battle of the Somme at the end of 1916, he wrote the tale in the following year. Essential to the story, and never changed, is the fate that shadowed the love of Beren and Lúthien: for Beren was a mortal man, but Lúthien was an immortal Elf. Her father, a great Elvish lord, in deep opposition to Beren, imposed on him an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed Lúthien. This is the kernel of the legend; and it leads to the supremely heroic attempt of Beren and Lúthien together to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, called Morgoth, the Black Enemy, of a Silmaril. In this book Christopher Tolkien has attempted to extract the story of Beren and Lúthien from the comprehensive work in which it was embedded; but that story was itself changing as it developed new associations within the larger history. To show something of the process whereby this legend of Middle-earth evolved over the years, he has told the story in his father's own words by giving, first, its original form, and then passages in prose and verse from later texts that illustrate the narrative as it changed. Presented together for the first time, they reveal aspects of the story, both in event and in narrative immediacy, that were afterwards lost.