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A Gothic mystery of murder, mutilation, books and skin
William Blake is a private detective. When he is asked by an eccentric scientist to investigate the where-abouts of his amnesiac missing wife, Louise, Will finds himself entangled in layers of deceptions and disappearances that lead him inexorably back to an unsolved mystery in his own past: the loss of his young daughter Emily. The case takes Will to brothels, nightclubs and amusement arcades in the Scottish seaside resort of Portobello. Identities become con-fused as his sexual obsession with a nightclub singer becomes entwined with sightings of Louise, his own torturous memories, and new visions of the lost Emily. The Existential Detective is a surreal, dreamlike story of loss, incest and what it means to remember.
Set in the early nineteenth century, Pharos is a dazzling ghost story from award-winning author Alice Thompson. A young woman is washed up on the shores of Jacob's Rock, a remote lighthouse island off the coast of Scotland. She does not know who she is or how she got there. She has no memory. The keeper of the lighthouse and his assistant take her in and feed and clothe her. But this mysterious woman is not all that she seems, and neither is the remote and wind-swept island. Eerily reminiscent of Turn of the Screw and The Others, Pharos is a breathless tale of the supernatural.
In London, a man falls in love with a woman in a painting, then sees her double in real life. The novel describes his search for her, which requires seducing her twin sister. A study in obsession.
For disillusioned author Max Long, the offer of a writing-fellowship on the mysterious-sounding ‘Burnt Island’ is a godsend. Max is determined that, inspired by his tenure on this windswept outpost, he will produce every writer’s dream — the bestseller. And this time, he plans to subvert his usual genre and write a horror story. But upon arrival, Max’s fantasies of hermetic island life are overturned when he encounters a potential rival living in close proximity – the famously reclusive James Fairfax, author of the internationally-lauded novel, Lifeblood. Fairfax’s critical and financial success with Lifeblood, coupled with his refusal to court the limelight, has long been th...
‘A superb study ... brilliant stories, hilarious observations and jaw dropping revelations about so many figures in public life we thought we knew – but never understood’ EMILY MAITLIS Loss and adversity are part of the human condition, but an imperfect past isn’t always an indicator of what’s to come.
New York Times bestselling author Laura Thompson returns with Heiresses, a fascinating look at the lives of heiresses throughout history and the often tragic truth beneath the gilded surface. Heiresses: surely they are among the luckiest women on earth. Are they not to be envied, with their private jets and Chanel wardrobes and endless funds? Yet all too often those gilded lives have been beset with trauma and despair. Before the 20th century a wife’s inheritance was the property of her husband, making her vulnerable to kidnap, forced marriages, even confinement in an asylum. And in modern times, heiresses fell victim to fortune-hunters who squandered their millions. Heiresses tells the st...
'ONE NIGHT, NEW YORK transports the reader to the glitter and the danger of old New York. A page-turner with style.' ERIN KELLY 'ENTHRALLING' THE TIMES, BEST NEW HISTORICAL FICTION A THRILLING DEBUT NOVEL OF CORRUPTION AND MURDER, SET IN THE NIGHTCLUBS, TENEMENTS AND SKYSCRAPERS OF 1930s NEW YORK - FROM THE WINNER OF THE VIRAGO/THE POOL NEW CRIME WRITER AWARD. At the top of the Empire State Building on a freezing December night, two women hold their breath. Frances and Agnes are waiting for the man who has wronged them. They plan to seek the ultimate revenge. Set over the course of a single night, One Night, New York is a detective story, a romance and a coming-of-age tale. It is also a stor...
In 1855 an impoverished young English scientist went to chance his luck in Australia - as Government Astronomer and superintendent of Telegraphs for the small colony of South Australia. With him went his young wife Alice - after whom Alice Springs would be named. Charles Todd was following a dream - the near impossible task of stringing a telegraph wire across the wilderness of the Australian outback. In 1997, Charles Todd's great-great-great-granddaughter, Alice, followed in his footsteps. Her plan was to track the telegraph - and her ancestors - from Adelaide over the thousands of miles of desert, outback, swamp and mountain that Charles Todd had crossed in the 1860s with his four hundred men.
The diary of an ordinary woman of the early twentieth century documents the life of an outspoken feminist who struggled with the conflicts of career, marriage, children, sexuality, and spirituality