Barcelona, 1912. A city still recovering from the dramatic incidents of the so-called ` Tragic Week` when Catalonian conscripts bound for the unpopular war in Spanish Morocco had rebelled at the city`s dockside against the royalist forces. In the fighting, many were killed, & afterwards, even more put in prison. Including an Englishman, who was later found dead in his cell. The dead man had been a prominent businessman in Gibraltar, so what had he been doing in Barcelona? What part did he play in the illicit three-way trade between Gibraltar, Spanish Morocco & Barcelona? & just how did he really meet his end
- murdered, in a prison cell? The case, in Gibraltar`s view, crys out for investigation
- & by someone independent of the Spanish authorities. So Scotland Yard are summoned to send out one of their men
- but who? Seymour ticks all the right boxes
- he has experience of the tangled diplomatic world of that part of the Mediterranean. He speaks foreign languages. & possibly most importantly of all
- he grew up near the docks of London`s East End so with any luck, knows how to swim if pushed in the water...PRAISE FOR MICHAEL PEARCE`S A DEAD MAN IN...SERIES ` His sympathetic portrayal of an unfamiliar culture, impeccable historical detail & entertaining dialogue make enjoyable reading.` Sunday Telegraph ` The steady pace, atmospheric design, & detailed description re-create a complicated city. A recommended historical series.` Library Journal ` Sheer fun.` The Times




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The third exciting crime thriller in Michael Pearces Dead Man series. Why is Seymour of Scotland Yard summoned to somewhere so exotic as North Africa? Isn`t the death of a Frenchman there something for the local police? Well, yes & no. The local police are answerable to the International Committee, of which the chairman is the British Consul. So naturally the ensuing investigation has to be above board. & so Seymour is bought in as he has had experience of this sort of thing before. & if he fails
- well he is expendable, after all.. . Praise for Michael Pearce`s A Dead Man in.. .series ` The steady pace, atmospheric design, & detailed description re-create a complicated city. A recommended historical series` Library Journal ` Sheer fun` The Times ` His sympathetic portrayal of an unfamiliar culture, impeccable historical detail & entertaining dialogue make enjoyable reading` Sunday Telegraph
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Autumn 2004. In Bampton, Derbyshire, Lena Fisher is arrested for suffocating her husb&, Andrew. Spring 2016 A year after Lena`s release from prison, Andrew is found dead in a disused mortuary. Who was the man Lena killed twelve years ago, & who committed the second murder? When Lena disappears, her sister, Kat, sets out to follow a trail of clues delivered by a mysterious teenage boy. Kat must uncover the truth
- before there`s another death...A Deadly Thaw confirms Sarah Ward`s place as one of the most exciting new crime writers.
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Late spring, 1728 & Thomas Hawkins has left London for the wild beauty of Yorkshire
- forced on a mission he can`t refuse. John
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LONGLISTED FOR THE 2005 SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONDelving into Brazil’s baroque past, Peter Robb’s “A Death in Brazil” looks at its history of slavery & the richly multicultural but disturbed society that was left in its wake when the practice was abolished in the late nineteenth century. Even today, Brazil is a nation of almost unimaginable distance between its wealthy & its poor, a place of extraordinary levels of crime & violence. It is also one of the most beautiful & seductive places on earth. Using the art, food & the books of its great nineteenth-century writer, Machado de Assis, Robb takes us on a journey into a world like Conrad’s “ Nostromo”. A world so absurdly dramatic, like the current president Lula’s fight for power, that it could have come from one of the country’s immensely popular TV soap operas, a world where resolution is often only provided by death. Like all the best travel writing, “A Death in Brazil” immerses you deep into the heart of a fascinating country. ...

Detective Max Camara is under pressure. A renowned paella chef has been found dead; the town hall are set on demolishing El Cabanyal, the colourful fisherman`s quarter on Valencia`s sea-front; an abortionist has been kidnapped & with the Pope due to visit the city, the police are summoned to offer protection from crowds of the faithful & the danger of anti-religionists alike. When one of Camara`s long term adversaries is put in charge of the missing abortionist case, tensions are quickly running high, & with ominous cracks spreading across the walls of his flat, Camara soon has nowhere to turn. ...

Max Camara is feeling low. Ominous cracks have appeared in the walls of his flat; the body of a well-known paella chef has been washed up on the beach; there are rows & threats about abortion clinics; the town hall are set on demolishing El Cabanyal, the colourful fisherman's quarter on Valencia's sea-front. As Camara untangles these threads, he stumbles into a web of corruption & violence, uncovering deep animosities & hidden secrets, & forcing him to question his own doubts & desires. Starring the determined Camara, with his love of flamenco & brandy, & occasional doped-out high, A Death in Valencia delves into issues that rouse unruly passions & divide the Spanish people today. ...

John le Carre's A Delicate Truth is a furiously paced story of moral dilemma, bold action & unexpected love. Gibraltar, 2008. A counter-terror operation, codenamed Wildlife, is being mounted in Britain's most precious colony. Its purpose: to capture & abduct a high-value jihadist arms-buyer. Its authors: an ambitious Foreign Office Minister, & a private defence contractor who is also his close friend. So delicate is the operation that even the Minister's private secretary, Toby Bell, is not cleared for it. Cornwall, UK, 2011. A disgraced Special Forces soldier delivers a message from the dead. Was Operation Wildlife the success it was cracked up to be
- or a human tragedy that was ruthlessly covered up? Summoned by Sir Christopher Probyn, retired British diplomat, to his decaying Cornish manor house, & closely observed by Probyn's beautiful daughter, Emily, Toby must choose between his conscience & duty to his Service. If the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing, how can he keep silent? When I was under house arrest I was helped by the books of John le Carre.. .they were a journey into the wider world... These were the journeys that made me feel that I was not really cut off from the rest of humankind. (Aung San Suu Kyi). One of those writers who will be read a century from now. (Robert Harris). If you want to know about the state of Britain today, forget the Booker shortlist. Just read John le Carre's latest thriller. (Evening Standard). John le Carre was born in 1931. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy & Smiley's People. His recent novels include The Constant Gardener, A Most Wanted Man & Our Kind of Traitor.
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” With A Delicate Truth, le Carre has, in a sense, come home. & it`s a splendid homecoming... Satisfying, subtle & compelling”. (The Times). A counter-terror operation, codenamed Wildlife, is being mounted in Britain`s most precious colony, Gibraltar. Its purpose: to capture a high-value jihadist arms-buyer. Its authors: an ambitious Foreign Office Minister, & a private defence contractor who is also his close friend. So delicate is the operation that even the Minister`s Private Secretary, Toby Bell, is not cleared for it. Three years later, when the horrifying truth behind Operation Wildlife is uncovered, Toby will be forced to choose between his conscience & his duty to the Service. If the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing, how can he keep silent? ”A brilliant climax, with sinister deaths, casual torture, wrecked lives & shameful compromises”. (Observer). ” This is writing of such quality that
- as Robert Harris put it
- it will be read in one hundred years”. (Daily Mail). ” Perhaps the most significant novelist of the second half of the twentieth century in Britain”. (Ian Mc Ewan).

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One of the greatest travellers in Scotl&, Martin Martin was also a native Gaelic speaker. This text offers his narrative of his journey around the Western Isles, & a mine of information on custom, tradition & life. Martin Martin`s wrote before the Jacobite rebellions changed the way of life of the Highlander irrevocably. The volume

Includes:: the earliest account of St Kilda, first published in 1697 & Sir Donald Monro, High Dean of the Isles, account written in 1549 which presents a record of a pastoral visit to islands still coping with the aftermath of the fall of the Lords of the Isles.

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