An American couple on holiday in the atmospheric Italian town of Siena are on their way to witness the time-honoured Palio horse race. When they are waylaid they end up in a quiet courtyard being told a mesmerising story by a strange young man. It is an unforgettable tale that begins with the persecution of a young nun in the...

'In twelve hours Lydia Chin will be dead...' The phone call comes in the early hours. A cold, electronic voice informs detective Bill Smith that his best friend is being held hostage. And the clock is ticking... If Bill wants his partner back he'll have to play the kidnapper's sadistic game to find her - and find her fast -...

A terrifying secret. A shocking discovery has been made deep within Rome's ancient catacombs. One that the Vatican is determined must never be made public - for the sake of all mankind. A deadly conspiracy. But there are others who want to keep the truth hidden for far more sinister reasons, others who believe that not only are the church...

'No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades. The Alex Cross series proves it.'LEE CHILD 'Alex Cross is a legend.' HARLAN COBEN _________________________________________ THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER The President's children have been kidnapped. Detective Alex Cross is investigating the shocking crime, but someone powerful is trying to keep...

At the Universal Advertising Agency on the Strand, London, a murder is being planned. Three men have been discovered taking bribes and face the grim prospect of the dole queue, unless they can get rid of the person who caught them. Their ringleader, thick-set and vicious Mr Morris, soon discovers that killing is far easier than he thought - and...

The hit BBC series Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, offers a fresh, contemporary take on the classic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories, and has helped introduce a whole new generation of fans to the legendary detective. In this new edition of Conan Doyle's first collection of short stories, Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss explains how these gripping tales inspired and influenced the...

An astonishing and beautiful tale of a frontier scout who saves a young Cheyenne girl from the prospect of rape and murder at the hands of his own army. The favour is returned when the scout is saved by the Cheyenne and given mercy, but when he falls in love with the girl he saved he knows that the tribe...

This breathtaking mystery thriller international bestselling author Michael White expertly meshes past and present, cryptic clues and constant menace. It's absolutely perfect for fans of Dan Brown, James Becker and Chris Kuzneski. READERS ARE LOVING THE MEDICI SECRET! 'If you like historic mysteries where the plot is unravelling the clues, this is the book for you.' -- ***** Reader review...

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. Sir Rudri Hopkinson, an eccentric amateur archaeologist, is determined to recreate ancient rituals at the temple of Eleusis in Greece in the hope of summoning the goddess Demeter. He gathers together a motley collection of people...

The hit BBC series Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, offers a fresh, contemporary take on the classic Arthur Conan Doyle stories, and has helped introduce a whole new generation of fans to the legendary detective. The debut episode took as its inspiration the very first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet - and this edition of Conan Doyle's novel will...

'A breath of fresh cold air . . . a dangerous edge to gladden fans of Lisbeth Salander' Boyd Tonkin The first in the Rebecka Martinsson series from the million-book bestselling author, for fans of Stieg Larsson, The Bridge and The Killing TV series. A church in the glittering frozen wastes of northern Sweden. Inside, a sacrifice: the body of...

A Dead Handis a dark tale of crime in Calcutta, by Paul Theroux. Jerry Delfont is a travel writer with writer's block. Lounging in Calcutta one day, he receives a mysterious letter. It comes from an American philanthropist, Mrs Merrill Unger. An Indian friend of her son is in trouble: he woke up in a hotel room with a dead...

At first, they put Konrad's absentmindedness down to an immoderate fondness for alcohol. For years he had been a benign parasite on the Koch family, first as the childhood playmate of Thomas, heir to the Koch family fortune, later as caretaker of the Koch family holiday villa on Corfu. And they, in their turn, had used him as the mood...

The New World, 1545... Vanquished by the Spanish Empire, little remains of the Aztec and Mayan civilizations. From the ashes of their cities, a unified legend emerges: the Christians who conquered them possessed a mysterious object, an artifact so powerful-so deadly-that it was known throughout the Americas as the death relic. Yucatan Peninsula, present day... When Maria Pelati's research team...

When an anonymous man is brutally murdered on a London council estate the police race to gather evidence against his killers. They have two men in custody and they know that they are guilty. But when a brilliant QC intervenes in their defence a startling and unsettling justice is delivered. Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously...