A.D. 79 - Rome's rich and shameless are relaxing in their luxury holiday villas on the coast. The Imperial Navy is peacefully at anchor at Misenum. Tourists are out and about in the resorts of Baiae, Herculaneum and Pompeii. Only one man is worried. Engineer Marius Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay of Naples. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. His predecessor has disappeared. And now there's a crisis on the Augusta's sixty-mile mainline, north of Pompeii on the slopes of Vesuvius. Attilus - decent, practical and incorruptible - assures Pliny, the scholarly naval commander, the he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. But as he makes his way to Vesuvius he finds there are forces in the world which even the world's only superpower cannot control.
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Pompeii: Robert Harris
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The Hawaii of 1930 was a colonial paradise of soft winds and smooth seas that lured the white man. The availability of cheap labour was also encouraging. Five families now control the wealth of the islands, the U.S. Navy patrols the Pacific from Pearl Harbour. The last Hawaiian family princess, Luahine, lives in exile on a distant island, stripped of her powers. Then the facade of genteel civilisation is shattered when Hester Murdoch, the young society wife of a Navy lieutenant, is found battered and bleeding on a lonely road. She unjustly accuses four local boys of rape and assault. The boys are brought to trial amidst unprecedented media attention, their only defence a scared young local lawyer. The verdict sets in motion a whirlwind of emotions, violence and passion. Based on the true story of the famous Massie murder and rape case that shook Hawaii in the 1930s. -
Landlords are never the most popular people, and there is little grief when the greedy, ruthless Mahendralal Bakhle is blown up in his boat on beautiful Periyar Lake. Suspicion falls on the boat-boy who died with him but Dominic Felse, a member of a party of young tourists who were accidentally involved with the tragedy, is not convinced of the boy's guilt. And when they move on, it seems the terror is still pursuing them. Violence and death erupt in the home of a very different landowner, where Dominic and his friends are guests, and follow them relentlessly south to the very tip of India where Dominic and the Swam Premanathanand, a man of peace, unravel a deadly Indian rope trick of hatred and murder.
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From the creator of Cadfael. When Herbert Terrell falls off a mountain during his annual climbing holiday in Czechoslovakia, accidental death seems to be the inevitable verdict. But his young step-daughter, Tossa, doesn't accept the inevitable. She'd been planning a summer holiday in Europe, so what could be simpler than to persuade her companions to the scene of the crime? Dominic Felse, a little bewitched by Tossa's brown eyes, is game for a change of plans, although ignorant of her real motive. And he's certainly not prepared for their touring holiday to become a deadly game of cat and mouse. A fragment of an English folk song, the plaintive lament of a pipe and an unexpected corpse are the clues the amateur sleuths must solve to discover the riddle of the piper on the mountain.
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Déjà Dead: Kathy Reichs
$6.00The bones of a woman are discovered in the grounds of an abandoned monastery and the case is handed to Dr.Temperance Brennan, Director of Forensic Anthropology for the province of Quebec. Researching recent disappearances in the city convinces Brennan that a serial killer is at work, despite the cynicism of Detective Claudel, heading the investigation Breannan's forensic expertise and contacts at Quantico finally convince him otherwise, but only after the body count rises...
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Alex Cross, Book IV. Psychopath Gary Soneji is back - filled with hatred and obsessed with revenge on Detective Alex Cross. Soneji is determined to go down in a blaze of glory and he wants Alex to be there. Will this be the final showdown?
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Spenser No XXIV. Ellis Alves is no angel, but his lawyer says he was framed for the murder of college student Melissa Henderson - and asks Spenser for help. From Boston's back streets to Manhattan's elite, Spenser and Hawk search for suspects - including Melissa's rich-brat tennis-star boyfriend. But when a man with a .22 puts Spenser in a coma, the hope for justice may die with the detective.
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It's the job offer of a lifetime: £120,000 a year, a top of the range BMW, and the chance to work with charismatic sportswear billionaire Nathan Strauss. But on the day that Chris Treiger celebrates his new job with Britain's most powerful PR firm, Nathan Strauss stuns the corporate world by falling off the balcony of his ninth floor hotel suite. Chris will now report to Nathan's brother Jacob and his sinister spin doctor - a man whose loyalty borders on the obsessive. Meanwhile, investigating the bizarre death of a leading financial analyst, Chris's ex-lover Judith Laing discovers he was on the point of revealing damaging evidence about Chris's new bosses. Chris refuses to believe her - until another death occurs.
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Sydney Bryant No. III. When P.I Sydney Bryant takes on a routine 'lover's profile' for smitten mate Victor, she has no idea it would lead to murder. But the mysterious blonde beauty was not quite what she appeared - and now she's dead. Someone has brutally stabbed Martina Saxon and left her lifeless body floating in the pool of her family mansion - leaving a whole lot of questions unanswered. At the top of the list is why the heiress to the mega rich Saxon family had taken a lowly reporters job on the local paper? While Sydney puzzles out what led Martina to give up bloodlines for headlines, she finds herself confronted by an entire family tree of suspects: from the besotted uncle to the conniving fiancee, from the jealous sibling to the Machiavellian matriarch. And now an anonymous source has put Sydney herself under a deadline: either find the killer or be his next victim.
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Sequel to Black Notice. Chandonne has been arrested, but Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta's problems are just beginning. She's under suspicion and criminal investigation. The Werewolf murders may have extended to New York City and into the darkest corners of her past. When a tough female prosecutor is brought into the case, Scarpetta struggles to make the truth known against a mountain of unnerving evidence to the contrary. Where do you go when there's nowhere left? The Last Precinct, of course...
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When a priest dies in a mysterious fall from atop a statue of Tutankhamun, many consider the death a fateful one for the fourteen year old Pharaoh. Indeed, the Hittites are at Eygpt's borders and the late Akhenaton's enemies have transferred their hatred to the new young Pharaoh. Under the luxury of the court at Thebes lurk viciousness, evil and murder. Until the enemies of the living god are destroyed, he is not safe...
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12,000 miles away, in the heart of the Australian outback, a man disappears. His English wife flies out to investigate - the first step in a journey through a nightmare of deception, rape and murder, with a terrifying chase across the savage and remorseless Australian outback.
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In the Welsh mountain village of Gwytherin lies the grave of Saint Winifred. Now, in 1137, the head of Shrewsbury Abbey has decided to acquire the remains for his Benedictine Order. Brother Cadfael is sent on the expedition to translate and finds the villagers of Gwytherin divided by the Benedictine's offer for the saint's relics. Canny and all too worldly, he isn't surprised when this taste for bones leads to bloody murder. The leading opponent to moving the grave has been shot dead with a mysterious arrow and some say Winifred herself held the bow. Brother Cadfael knows this is a carnal killing but he doesn't know his plan to unearth a murderer might dig up a case of love and justice - where the wages of sin may be scandal or Cadfael's ruin.
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Three near death escapes in three days - is it accident or design? And then a fourth mysterious event occurs, leaving no doubt that some sinister hand is striking at Miss Buckley, the charming young owner of End House. Unfortunately for the murderer, Hercule Poirot is at hand to unravel the mystery. Cover art by Tom Adams. -
Lindsay Boxer, San Francisco's only woman homicide detective, is ready to reconvene the Women's Murder Club when a little girl is shot outside a church. They start to track a mystifying killer - one who quickly turns his pursuers into victims. Further murders lead them to suspect the killer is an ex-cop, but nothing will prepare them for the demented logic behind the killer's choice of victims. -
When notorious investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn booked into Mr. Chandler-Powell's private clinic in Dorset for removal of a disfiguring and long-standing scar, she had every prospect of a successful operation by a distinguished surgeon, a week's peaceful convalescence in a beautiful Dorset manor house and the beginning of a new life. She would not leave Cheverell Manor alive. Dalgliesh and his team, called in to investigate the murder and later a second death are confronted with problems even more complicated that the question of guilt or innocence.
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The lady calling had the voice of an angel. She looked like one too, but she was on the road to a private hell. When ex-lawyer and star athlete Eddie Priest receives a cry for help from the victim of a scare campaign, he doesn't take it seriously - but after her suspicious death, Eddie can't back away. A man is missing in the sugarcane fields of Florida and someone's trying to eliminate all traces - till an inquisitive woman stirs up a hornet's nest of greed and corruption. Now there's a violent 'enforcer' on the loose, clearing up and settling scores. And by the time he completes his nightmare agenda, the cane fields will be watered with blood.
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A year ago Jamie Kincaid learnt that her beloved cousin Nate had been murdered, beaten to death in what police suspect was a drug deal gone wrong. He was found by his childhood friend Dillon - who's always been the baddest of the bad boys, leading Nate astray. Jamie believes he has the answers to her questions about Nate's death. She shows up unannounced on his doorstep, and Dillon is as dangerous and seductive as ever. Then things start disappearing. Strange accidents happen. Dillon knows more than he's saying...
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Dana Saunders, host of Back Talk, is breaking new ground on the airwaves. But even as her guest, a 'reformed' child rapist takes his place in the hot seat, another child is being viciously assaulted. When rookie firefight Lennie Finn finds the terrified victim, memories of her own past come crashing down around her. And with a serial rapist on the loose, she's not the only one feeling scared. As the danger stalks closer to home, Lennie and Dana must nail the killer before history repeats itself. Before it's too late.
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Red Dragon: Sexual hunger; demonic violence; sinister logic - the lethal components driving a psychopath i n the grip of an unimaginable delusion; a boastful killer who sends the police tormenting notes; a tortured, torturing monster who finds ultimate pleasure in viciously murdering happy families. He calls himself - The Red Dragon. Silence of the Lambs: There's a killer on the loose who knows that beauty is only skin deep, and a trainee investigator who's trying to save her own hide. The only man who can help is locked up in an asylum. He's willing to put a brave face on - if it'll help him escape...
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Inspector Montalbano is considering retirement. Everything seems to be going to the dogs and even his favourite restaurant has closed. But when he bumps into a dead body during a bracing swim, his detective instincts are awakened again - particularly when the most likely identity of the corpse is a man already long buried... -
A Caribbean Mystery: Dozing in the West Indian sun, an old soldier talks of safaris and scandals. After hinting that he has knowledge of a murder and showing a photograph, he is found dead - providing a most exotic case for Miss Marple. Sleeping Murder: Soon after Gwenda moves into her new home, odd things start to happen. Despite her best efforts to modernise the house, she only succeeds in dredging up its past. And she feels an irrational sense of terror every time she climbs the stairs. Gwenda turns to Miss Marple to exorcise her ghosts. Have they dredged up a “perfect” crime committed many years before? 4.50 From Paddington: For an instant the two trains ran together, going in the same direction side by side. In that moment, Elspeth, riding in the one train, witnessed a murder in the other. Helplessly, she stared out her carriage window as a man remorselessly tightened his grip around a woman’s throat. The body crumpled....then the other train drew away. But who, apart from Miss Marple, would take her story seriously? After all, there were no suspects, no other witnesses... and no corpse! At Bertram's Hotel: An old-fashioned London Hotel is not quite as reputable as it seems… When Miss Marple comes to London for a holiday, she finds what she’s looking for at Bertram’s Hotel: traditional decor, impeccable service... and an unmistakable atmosphere of danger behind the highly polished veneer. Yet not even Miss Marple can foresee the violent chain of events set in motion when an eccentric guest makes his way to the airport on the wrong day… -
John Calvin had reached the end of the road: it had ended at a luxurious villa in Mallorca, and was strewn with currency regulations he had broken or evaded and other men's wives he had taken and discarded. With the law catching up with him, no-one was really surprised when a note is found in his typewriter, and his body in one of the island's remoter beauty spots. Shot through the head. Suicide, obviously. But was it? Inspector Alvarez has found plenty of motives for murder among the English and Spanish residents. Had someone settled a score? But every time Alvarez fits the pieces of the puzzle together, there's one or two pieces left over. And when the puzzle is finally completed, it's a much different picture to what he or anyone else had thought.
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Who can forget Hammett's classic story? Who wouldn't believe the sweet and innocent Miss Wonderly as she tells the tale of her sister's disappearance? Certainly not Sam Spade, the hard-case detective she hires to help her. Spade soon notices that people close to the little lady end up dead: like Spade's partner...and Floyd Thursby, the man he was hired to tail. Is there a connection between the murders and the mysterious black figure of a bird? From the author of The Thin Man.
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Who killed Marius Steen, the theatre tycoon with a fortune to leave his young mistress Jacqui? And who killed Bill Sweet, the shady blackmailer with a collection of compromising photographs? Charles Paris, the middle-aged actor who keeps going on booze and women, takes to detection by assuming a variety of roles - among them that of McWhirter of the Yard! In that role he precipitates the crime; as one of the blackmailer's victims he finds himself in bed with the blackmailer's wife and he also has a small part in a horror film - The Zombie Walks - in which the murderer tries to shoot him. He eventually arrives at the solution via the petrol crisis and an abortive attack of German measles! -
London, 1871. The rich man in his Bayswater villa, the poor man at his gate casing the place. For many, crime was the only way to get a start in life and ostentatious wealth was a temptation. In a time of an emergent police force and no telephones, a wave of burglaries terrorises the well-to-do. It was enough to put ideas into Val Leary's head. An Irish labourer, he lacked the tools, the expertise and the capital but the Soho underworld would provide those. What he needed was an inside contact. That's where Janey came in: a kitchenmaid, the lowest of the servants, in an age when dismissal without references was tantamount to certain death. Will she risk it?
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Antony Gillingham chooses Woodham for a holiday, because he likes the look of the station. Nearby is the Red House, the home of Mark Ablett, where his friend Bill Beverley is a guest at a house party. When Antony calls to see Bill, he finds the dead body of Mark's brother Robert, shot between the eyes. It looks like murder; and the host is nowhere to be found. Having served briefly as a valet, newspaper reporter, shop assistant and waiter, Antony's ready for a new profession: sleuthing. Every Sherlock Holmes must have a Dr. Watson - or in this case, his friend Bill. There's a suspect ready to hand and they set out to trap the possible killer.
