Showing titles in Historical

London, 1945. The capital is shrouded in the darkness of the blackout, and mystery abounds in the parks after dusk. During a stroll through Regent's Park, Bruce Mallaig witnesses two men acting suspiciously around a footbridge. In a matter of moments, one of them has been murdered; Mallaig's view of the assailant but a brief glimpse of a ghastly face in the glow of a struck match. The murderer's noiseless approach and escape seems to defy all logic, and even the victim's identity is quickly thrown into uncertainty.

When a man’s naked corpse is found strapped to a waterwheel, newly appointed Inspector Haze is called upon to investigate the crime. With the help of American surgeon Captain Redmond, he delves into the life of Frank Darrow, a man who inspired such hatred, his mere death wasn’t enough to satisfy his killer. Finding few clues and no obvious motive for the murder, Redmond and Haze must peel away the layers of Frank Darrow’s relationships to get to the shocking truth, while also coming to terms with unexpected developments in their own lives.

Evoking the golden age of crime, and for fans of Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie, comes A Gambling Man, from one of the world’s bestselling thriller writers, David Baldacci. A lucky roll of the dice California, 1949. Aloysius Archer is on his way to start a new job with a renowned Private...

A cry in the dark. A missing mother. A lifetime's search for the truth... The gripping new novel from the bestselling author of The Girl in the Letter is a moving story of cruel separation and the triumph of love. Inspired by real historical events. 'Gunnis skilfully recreates the atmosphere of...

The clock is ticking for Superintendent Jo Hamilton, who is just days from retirement from Sussex Police when the discovery of the bones of a young woman takes her back to a tragic unsolved case she worked on as WPC in the 1970s: the disappearance of a teenage girl from a notorious local children's home, not long after another young resident died in suspicious circumstances. Jo is determined track down the victim's sister, convinced that re-opening the hushed-up wrongs of the past will uncover the truth of the girls' deaths. But will the trail lead her disturbingly close to home?

England, 1586. Giordano Bruno returns to England to bring shocking new intelligence to Sir Francis Walsingham. A band of Catholic Englishmen are plotting to kill Queen Elizabeth and spring Mary Queen of Scots from prison to take the English throne in her place. Bruno is surprised to find that Walsingham is aware of the plot, led by the young, wealthy noble Anthony Babington and is allowing it to progress. His hope is that Mary will put her support in writing - and condemn herself to a traitor's death.

General Fentiman is found dead in his armchair at London's Bellona Club. His passing appears entirely natural for a ninety-year-old veteran. However, the exact time of his death sits at the centre of a fierce inheritance dispute. If the General died even a minute before his wealthy sister, Lady...

Invited by society beauty Lady Violet Boynton-Dale to her ancestral home, Boynton Hall, to investigate dangerous threats which are being made against her brother, the dashing Explorer Alaric Boynton-Dale, Posie leaves London for the sun-dappled beauty of the Cotswolds. She finds that Boynton Hall is a place of opulent grandeur, but also of dark secrets, not least that Alaric is a man with jilted lovers and jealous husbands left trailing in his wake.

In the fall of 1918, 13-year-old German immigrant Pia Lange longs to be far from Philadelphia's overcrowded streets and slums, and from the anti-German sentiment that compelled her father to enlist in the US Army, hoping to prove his loyalty. But an even more urgent threat has arrived. Spanish influenza is spreading through the city. Soon, dead and dying are everywhere. With no food at home, Pia must venture out in search of supplies, leaving her infant twin brothers alone....   

'Imagine Bridgerton crossed with Hustle (only 10 times better!)' ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐ 'Scoundrously entertaining, I loved everything about it' ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐ 'One major plot twist had me actually shouting at the book' ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐ 'Fast-paced, witty and fun' ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐ 'Be prepared...

The Palazzo Colombina is home to the Uccello family: three generations of men, trapped together in the dusty palace on Venice's Grand Canal. Awkward 15-year-old Nico. His distant, business-focused father. And his beloved grandfather, Paolo. Paolo is dying. But before he passes, he has secrets he's waited his whole life to share. 

Historian Archie Laverick, scarred mentally and physically by the Great War, travels to Berlin to research a famed Prussian general. His quiet study is shattered when he crosses paths with Esme Carmichael, a spirited young American intent on making her name as a foreign correspondent. When a shooting at a Saxon castle leaves a young Jewish woman accused of murder, Archie and Esme are drawn into a perilous hunt for the truth.

Renaissance Venice is a furnace of ideas and ambition. Artists flock here, not just for wealth and fame, but for revolutionary colour. Yet artist Giorgione 'Zorzo' Barbarelli's career hangs in the balance. Competition is fierce, and his debts are piling up. When Zorzo hears a rumour of a mysterious, other-worldly new pigment, brought to Venice by the richest man in Europe, he sets out to acquire the colour and secure his name in history. Winning a commission to paint a portrait of the man's wife, Sybille, Zorzo thinks he has found a way into the merchant's favour.

1940. It's been a month since rector's daughter Billie Harkness left her rural village to make a fresh start in the northern city of Hull. Now she has a new home and an exciting new job as one of only two female police constables in the whole city. But Hull still feels like a foreign country, and some people are less than impressed by the idea of a woman doing a "man's job". But determined to do her bit for the war effort, Billie throws herself into her work. The chance to prove her worth comes during a search for a missing air raid shelter inspector, when Billie makes a shocking discovery.

Murder's off the scale! Ginger Gold and her husband, Chief Inspector Basil Reed, enjoy a night out at the popular jazz club, the Cave of Harmony, run by the captivating Elsa Lanchester—a name well-known in London’s society pages in 1928. But after an evening of dancing and celebration, a band member plays a sour note and drops dead. What initially seems like a sudden, natural death soon turns sinister. A murderer is on the loose, and the Cave of Harmony is anything but harmonious.

Against the romantic backdrop of Edwardian Egypt, the irresistible Amelia Peabody and her charmingly unconventional family prove themselves to be formidable foes of villainy. In The Ape Who Guards the Balance Amelia must muster all of her considerable skills of detection to unravel a snarled web of stolen archeological treasures, murderous cults, and fallen women.

Finding an old manuscript in the attic has always been a fantasy of Sylvia’s. She just never expected the fantasy to come true, or for it to lead her to answers about her mysterious family.

When an apprentice from the Mapmakers' Guild goes missing, Matt and India are employed to find him. Going undercover as a married couple, they discover that not everyone at the guild is what they seem, and the lad's unearthly maps caused jealousy, suspicion and fear. With one of the apprentice's magic maps in their possession, India and Matt must use their wits and India's fledgling, untried magic to find him.

“You frighten me,” the Gypsy said. “Never have I seen my crystal ball so filled with darkness.” For Flavia de Luce, the old gypsy's words open up old wounds and new possibilities. Is she a faker, or is there some truth to her powers? And when the village is rocked by another ghastly murder, how will a growing fascination with gypsy lore help Flavia to solve it?

January 1916. Britain is on the brink of enforcing conscription. Eligible young men who have not yet signed up to fight are despised as ‘conchies’ and ‘shirkers’, subjected to hatred and verbal abuse. Cyril Ablatt, leader of Shoreditch’s group of conscientious objectors, makes a rousing speech at a meeting of the No-Conscription Fellowship, refusing to be ‘an instrument of slaughter in a khaki uniform’.