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Zodiac
by Neal StephensonTwo centuries after the Boston Tea Party, harbour dumping is still a favourite local sport, only this time it's major corporations piping toxic wastes into the water. Environmentalist and professional pain in the ass Sangaman Taylor is Boston's modern -day Paul Revere, spreading the word from a 40-horsepower Zodiac raft. Embarrassing powerful corporations in highly telegenic ways is the perfect method of making enemies, and Taylor has a collection that would do any rabble-rouser proud.After his latest exploit, he's wanted by the FBI, possibly by the Mafia, and definitely by a group of Satanist angel-dust heads who think he's looking for a PCP factory, not PCB contamination. Pretty soon dodging bullets is the least of Taylor's problems - because somewhere out there are an unhinged genetic engineer and a lab-concocted bacterium that could destroy all ocean life and that's just for appetizers.Frightening, funny, fast and furious, Zodiac is thrilling speculative fiction torn straight from today's headlines.
The System Of The World: Volume Three Of The Baroque Cycle (The\baroque Cycle Ser. #3)
by Neal StephensonNeal Stephenson follows his highly-praised historical novels, Quicksilver and The Confusion, with the extraordinary third and final volume of the Baroque Cycle.The year is 1714. Daniel Waterhouse has returned to England, where he joins forces with his friend Isaac Newton to hunt down a shadowy group attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers with 'Infernal Devices' - time bombs. As Daniel and Newton conspire, an increasingly vicious struggle is waged for England's Crown: who will take control when the ailing queen dies?Tories and Whigs clash as one faction jockeys to replace Queen Anne with 'The Pretender' James Stuart, and the other promotes the Hanoverian dynasty of Princess Caroline. Meanwhile, a long-simmering dispute between Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz comes to a head, with potentially cataclysmic consequences.Wildly inventive, brilliantly conceived, The System of the World is the final volume in Neal Stephenson's hugely ambitious and compelling saga. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters in a time of genius, discovery and change, the Baroque Cycle is a magnificent and unique achievement.
The Reconstructionist: A Novel
by Nick ArvinAt a loose end after college, Ellis Barstow drifts back to his hometown and takes a job as a reconstructionist – investigating and recreating the details of fatal car accidents. Ellis forms a bond with his boss John Boggs, who believes that if two cars meeting at an intersection can be called an accident, then anything can – where we live, what we do, even who we fall in love with. For Ellis these things are certainly no accident and he harbours two secrets of his own. The car crash that killed his half-brother is a memory that still haunts him, and his feelings for John’s wife threaten to blow apart the men’s lives. As Ellis tries to make sense of his own life, the story’s momentum builds to a desperate race towards confrontation, reconciliation and survival.
The Forbidden Temple
by Patrick WoodheadTo Luca Matthews the dangers of the high mountain peaks are the air upon which he thrives.In the ruthless pursuit of his goals he would sacrifice anything - even another climber's life. His friends and family know and fear it. So when he sights a virgin peak in the Himalayas that exists on no map, no one is surprised when he becomes obsessed with being the first to scale it. Together with his climbing partner, Bill Taylor, they set off into a region of Tibet highly restricted by the Chinese. But a freak accident puts one of their team in mortal danger and it is left to a local Tibetan girl to lead them to Geltang, a monastery that has been hidden from the outside world since the Chinese Cultural Revolution, when most of the monasteries were pillaged and burned. When the Chinese secret police get wind of them, Luca and Bill find themselves embroiled in an age-old struggle, not for their lives but to protect the precious secret that Geltang hides, and the legacy of Tibet itself.
At Sixes And Sevens
by Rosie HarrisTwo sisters. One man. One moment that will change all their lives forever... Living in the shadow of their domineering father, Rhianon and Sabrina Webster plan two very different futures. Edwin dotes on his youngest daughter, beautiful, flighty Sabrina, but it is homely, steady Rhianon who holds their little family together. Until one fateful day when Pryce Pritchard, the man Rhianon loves, gets into a fight and all their worlds are thrown into turmoil. Pryce is arrested - and Sabrina disappears...Months later Rhianon chances upon her sister and is shocked to find her pregnant, living in squalid lodgings in the poorest part of Cardiff. When Davyn is born Sabrina will have nothing to do with him, and kind-hearted Rhianon looks after the little boy, patiently awaiting Pryce's release. But when Pryce is finally set free, he brings with him secrets that will devastate them all.
Patsy Of Paradise Place
by Rosie HarrisA GRIPPING AND MOVING SAGA SET IN 1920S MERSEYSIDE.She saved the business, but can she save herself?After years of neglect by her mother, when her father comes home from sea and sets up as a carrier at the Liverpool Docks, Patsy dreams of being a proper family again. But when her father is killed in an accident and her mother returns to her errant ways, Patsy must keep the business going with the help of her childhood friend, Billy Grant.And when Patsy falls passionately in love with fairground showman Bruno Alvarez, who leaves her, pregnant and heartbroken, only loyal Billy stands by her in her troubles. But when he is badly injured at work Patsy is left friendless and without a home...
One Step Forward: a gripping and heart-warming saga set in Wales from much-loved bestseller Rosie Harris
by Rosie HarrisShe longs to be free, but will she always be tied to the past?Ever since she was eight years old, Katie Roberts has dreamed of getting away from the Cardiff slums where she lives.When she is only a girl, her handsome but wicked father, Lewis, is imprisoned for theft, leaving Katie and her mother homeless and penniless. Life is hard for Katie - not only because of their poverty but also because of the stigma of her father's shame.When Lewis is released years later, it seems that life must improve. But to Katie's horror, it becomes worse than she has ever known it. When she and her father are left alone together, Katie seeks happiness and love elsewhere, but as she struggles to make a new life for herself, there is difficulty and danger at every turn ...
Winnie Of The Waterfront
by Rosie HarrisCrippled by polio, young Winnie Molloy has little to look forward to in life. Her father, Trevor, adores her but she is neglected by her feckless mother, Grace. When war comes Trevor Molloy is called up. He fears for Winnie and persuades Sandy Coulson to wheel her to school each day in a converted pram. Two years older than her, Sandy sticks up for Winnie and promises to be her lifelong friend. But Grace is drinking very heavily and loses one job after another. To pay the rent on the one squalid room they are now living in she takes Winnie in the pram out begging until she is given a warning by the police. When Trevor is reported 'Missing Presumed Dead' Grace goes on a drinking spree, meets with an accident and dies. And Winnie is left loveless and alone...
The Cobbler's Kids
by Rosie HarrisHe was a tyrant. She was his daughter. Kept a virtual stranger by her bullying father, fourteen-year-old Vera Quinn longs for a life of her own. Michael Quinn is admired and liked by his customers, but he rules his family with a rod of iron. After her mother's untimely death, Vera is expected to keep house for both Michael and her brothers Eddy and young Benny. And so begins a life of great hardship and little joy - Michael drinks away anything he earns and even the small wages Vera and Eddy bring in are barely enough to keep the family going. But then one day Michael brings Di Deverill home and life becomes an even greater hell for Vera. Will she ever be saved from a life of drudgery?
Sunshine And Showers: a moving and heartfelt Welsh saga of one woman's search for love and happiness
by Rosie HarrisLove and happiness - hatred and despair...Life seems to alternate between periods of stunning happiness for pretty seventeen-year-old Sheryl Williams after she marries dashing soldier Alun Powell, and times when bad luck and despair almost drown her happiness forever.When their baby Caitlin is born and Alun, having recently left the army, is unable to find work, they are reduced to living in the slums of Cardiff's Tiger Bay. Their life together is full of rows and recriminations and when Alun is involved in a vicious fight and imprisoned, estranged from her own family a desperate Sheryl is forced to turn to the Powells. At first reluctant to help, they agree to take in little Caitlin whilst Sheryl seeks work in Cardiff. But Sheryl soon spirals into a life of unhappiness and despair.Until one fateful day, seven-year-old Caitlin takes off for Cardiff in search of her mother. As night falls and the police continue to look for the young girl, Sheryl fears she will never see her beloved daughter again ...
Megan of Merseyside: New Beginnings, Fresh Sorrows...
by Rosie HarrisA POWERFUL SAGA SET IN LIVERPOOL.She fell in love - he broke her heartYoung Megan Williams has come to Liverpool in search of work and a fresh start. She soon joins her father at Walker's Shipping Company where his co-driver Robert Field takes a great interest in her. But she has fallen deeply in love with dashing Miles Walker and does all she can to discourage Robert.Then, one fateful day, Megan's world falls apart when her younger sister is killed in a tragic accident. Distraught, Megan is also faced with shocking revelations about Miles, which force her to realise he's not the man she thought he was.Heartbroken, but determined to get on with her life, Megan starts up her own business, but will she ever love again...?
The Power of Dreams: a dramatic Welsh saga from from much-loved bestseller Rosie Harris
by Rosie HarrisWhen all hope is gone, are dreams enough...?After losing both her parents, sixteen-year-old Merrion Roberts is left to bring up her baby sister. Unable to cope alone, she teams up with Rhonda Rees, a trained milliner, who also has a young baby. They share rooms in notorious Tiger Bay in Cardiff, struggling to make ends meet. In time, though, they are able to open up a little shop and it seems as if life is looking up for both young women.But fate soon intervenes and they are reduced to living in even greater squalor, barely able to eke out enough money to support themselves let alone their two children. Meanwhile, Merrion's brother and her childhood sweetheart have both gone to sea and she has almost given up hope of ever seeing them alive again...
Sing for Your Supper
by Rosie HarrisA mother will do anything to protect her child...Karen and Tudor Morgan have moved from a small mining community to the bustle and noise of Cardiff in search of a new life. Tudor longs to be a star entertainer and so Karen gets a job, leaving her husband to look after their young daughter Delia, doing stints at clubs in the evening, whenever he can get them. Until one day Tudor is arrested for begging and Karen is horrified to learn that he has been busking during the day and taking three-year-old Delia with him to collect the money. When Tudor comes out of prison he gets an honest job but soon he is back to his old ways. And when his life of petty crime quickly turns into something far more sinister, it is all Karen can do to ensure she and her daughter survive ...
Waiting for Love
by Rosie HarrisA life full of shattered hopes...Brenda O'Donnell is turned out by her family when she finds herself pregnant at sixteen. Widowed Sid Rawlins, the rag-and-bone man, says she can come and live with him and he will give her child a name in return for her running his home and looking after his children. Despite the gossip a desperate Brenda has little choice but to accept. Life isn't easy for Brenda and little Ruby but they try make the best of things. Until Brenda falls in love with Sid's eldest son, Danny, and their affair causes trouble within the family. And when Sid dies and leaves the business to his cousin, Charlie, life becomes even harder for Brenda as she faces the threat of losing everything she holds dear...
A Love Like Ours: an engrossing and captivating saga set in Cardiff from much-loved and bestselling author Rosie Harris
by Rosie HarrisThey shared a secret no one must ever know...When seventeen-year-old Ruth Davies' father is invalided out of the Great War, the whole family has little choice but to move to the infamous Tiger Bay area of Cardiff. Not only faced with a life of adversity, Ruth and her mother Caitlin also share a secret, one that no one else must ever know. Ruth and Caitlin's wages are barely enough to put food on the table let alone pay the rent. And an increasingly neglected young Glynis runs wild. When Caitlin contracts tuberculosis and dies they have no option but to move into an even more squalid neighbourhood. But Ruth is still determined to keep their secret, at all costs. That is, until their father dies unexpectedly and an ever more desperate Ruth and Glynis find themselves living hand-to-mouth...
The Playground Mafia
by Sarah TuckerMeet Caroline Gray: divorcee and newly-single mother. Firmly closing the door on her acrimonious divorce, Caroline and son Ben have moved to trendy Frencham where they join Caroline's long-time best friends, Heather and Eva. Settling into their new life is easy, but nothing has prepared Caroline for the demands of motherhood at The Sycamore, the school the trio's beloved offspring attend. Forget classroom bullies, forget trips to the head's office, this is full-scale adult playground politics. This is battle with the mothers who won't take no for an answer -- the Playground Mafia.Amidst the four-wheel drives, Ben's complicated afterschool play-date schedule and her friends' perilous extra-marital affairs, Caroline tries to keep a low and very single profile. But it's not long before she too finds herself under the mafia's scandal-radar, and her life takes an unexpected turn ...
The Battle for Big School
by Sarah TuckerThere are 50 places at The Oaks, the best grammar school in Letchbury, and 1,000 children applying. Competition is fierce and parents are prepared to do anything and everything to get their child one of the coveted spaces. Close friends Lily, Julie, Karen and house husband Paul aren't overly concerned. After all, aren't their children bright and sociable enough? But they're quickly shaken out of their complacency when enrolment time approaches and turns out to be little more than a rigged lottery, where only the most ruthless hold the cards. Marriages and friendships crumble under the pressure, fake addresses are abound and tutors rates soar. As measures get more and more extreme, the four quickly rally their troops and throw themselves into the battle for big school. Initially wary to be in competition with each other, they realise that the only way of out-smarting the rest of the pack is by coming up with a plan. Because getting their kids into The Oaks will demand determination and strategy akin to Mission Impossible ...
The Riddle Of St Leonard's: An Owen Archer Mystery (An\owen Archer Mystery Ser. #Bk. 5)
by Candace RobbAnno Domini 1369. The much loved Queen Philippa lies dying at Windsor, and the plague has returned to the city of York. In an atmosphere of fear and superstition, rumours spread that a spate of deaths at St Leonard's Hospital in York is no accident. The hospital is in debt and has suffered thefts: Sir Richard de Ravenser, Master of the Hospital, returns from Winchester painfully aware that scandal could ruin his own career. Anxious to avert a crisis, he requests the services of Owen Archer, spy for the Archbishop.With plague rife and the city's inhabitants besieging his wife, the Apothecary, for new cures, Owen Archer is unwilling to become involved. There is too little to link the victims to each other: the riddle seems unsolvable. But careful enquiries reveal a further riddle, connected to one of the victims. Is this where the truth lies?
Kensington Heights
by Leslie ThomasFrank Inigo Savage simply wants to be alone and the top flat of Kensington Heights seems just the place. Until the other bizarre and eccentric inhabitants of the building start arriving on his doorstep.And the Savage gets a visit from a homeless waif he meets in the local launderette called Korky.Korky's intrusion on Savage's private world alters his whole existence. High above the London rooftops this strange and contradictory relationship blooms like an improbable flower and Savage begins to realise that the world can creep under even the most firmly closed doors.'As ever in a Thomas novel, we constantly shift from tears to laughter and back again' Daily Express' A moving and jolly book ... with hardly a dull moment and difficult not to be cheered by' Times
Silence Of The Lambs: (Hannibal Lecter) (Hannibal Lecter #4)
by Thomas Harris_________________________THE CLASSIC THRILLER BEHIND THE OSCAR-WINNING MOVIEFBI trainee Clarice Starling has an elusive serial killer to hunt.Only one man can help.Psychopathic cannibal Hannibal Lecter...The serial killer nicknamed 'Buffalo Bill' has been capturing and starving women, then murdering and skinning them. FBI rookie Clarice Starling is assigned to solicit help from imprisoned psychopath Dr Hannibal 'the Cannibal' Lecter, whose insight into the depraved minds of serial killers is second to none.But in exchange for inviting her into the darkest chambers of his mind, Hannibal begins to probe at hers, demanding knowledge of her childhood demons as the price of understanding Buffalo Bill's.Clarice knows how dangerous this man is, and the terrible things he can do with this information. But women are still disappearing, and time is running out...
Red Dragon: (Hannibal Lecter) (Hannibal Lecter #2)
by Thomas Harris_________________________THE LEGENDARY THRILLER THAT CREATED DR HANNIBAL LECTERWill Graham was a brilliant profiler of criminals for the FBI - until he suffered terrible injuries in the process of capturing Dr Hannibal 'the Cannibal' Lecter.Years later, a serial killer nicknamed 'the Tooth Fairy' is massacring entire families each full moon. With the FBI desperate for progress, Will reluctantly agrees to consult. But he soon realises that he alone can't crack the case; he needs the help of the only mind even better than his own at understanding the mentalities of psychopaths.The mind of Hannibal Lecter.But Hannibal is playing his own twisted game from the asylum for the criminally insane. Will isn't alone in getting advice from the cannibal. So is the Tooth Fairy - the man haunted by visions of the murderous Red Dragon...
Soldiers and Lovers
by Leslie ThomasIn a sunlit, secret valley in the green mountains of central Italy, two people meet away from the horrors and clamour of battle. David Hopkins, a young fisherman from west Wales and Kate Medhurst, from a genteel town in the Thames Valley, embark upon an idyllic love affair away from the conflict that surrounds them. However, they cannot escape the war forever, and when they are targeted by a single enemy aeroplane their dreams are destroyed.Weeks later, Hopkins wakes up in a Russian hospital in Vienna where he's slowly recovering from serious wounds - with no recollection of the past. Eventually, transferred to an American hospital and then repatriated to Britain, Hopkins reluctantly returns to Wales. And there, alone and haunted by the months he cannot remember, Hopkins embarks upon a journey of rediscovery...
The Virgin Soldiers
by Leslie Thomas'It rained a lot and steamed when the sun shone. It was always hot. But it was safe...'One way or another the Communist guerrilla war in Malaya kept a whole British army occupied from 1948 until 1952. They were the virgin soldiers. Idle, homesick, afraid, bored, oversexed and unsatisfied.A young virgin like Brigg had to grab his fun while and where he could - in the Liberty Club, in Juicy Lucy's flat or up in Phillipa's room - in one frantic attempt at living before he died or got demobbed...
Stand Up Virgin Soldiers
by Leslie ThomasThe worst has happened. On the eve of their return to Blighty, Brigg and his fellow National Servicemen find themselves sentenced to another six months in Panglin Barracks...Many of the surviving characters from The Virgin Soldiers live again in these pages: dogged Tasker, the odious Sergeant Wellbeloved, the vulnerable Colonel Bromley Pickering and the comically touching Juicy Lucy.But we encounter new characters too: the fanatical and demented Lieutenant Grainger; the endearing Welshman, Morris Morris - strong as a horse but bafflingly buxom; US Private Clay - mysteriously lost in transit by the American Army; and last, but not least, Bernice Harrison, the sporting nurse who threatens to replace the wayward Lucy in Brigg's affections...
Onward Virgin Soldiers
by Leslie ThomasBursting with life and bawdy humour, National Serviceman Brigg is now a Regular Army sergeant defending the Empire in the beds and bars of Hong Kong.Peace-time diversions include sensual fireworks with a pair of delicious Chinese twins and a tender, erotic affair with the lonely wife of an American serviceman.