Showing results for "Simon Hall" in Literature & Fiction

Winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, 2009.
Tudor England. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is charged with securing his divorce. Into this atmosphere of distrust comes Thomas Cromwell - a man as ruthlessly ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages.

A dying artist creates a series of ten paintings - The Death Pictures - which contain a mysterious riddle, leading the way to a unique and highly valuable prize. Thousands attempt to solve it. But before the answer can be revealed, the painter is murdered. A serial rapist is working through a series of attacks. He isn't shy to make clear his hatred of women, and taunting of the police. He leaves his calling card, a witch's hat at the houses he breaks into, each numbered from a pack of six. The detectives face baffling questions. Why kill the artist when he would die naturally in just a few weeks time?

A woman begins work on a novel about Mary Shelley while pregnant for the first time. Recently married, she has just moved from New York to Montana. As the woman writes, fragments of Shelley’s story begin to detach themselves from the page. Moving through her reproductive years, Shelley endured a catalogue of losses painful beyond comprehension. Still, she wrote, conceiving Frankenstein in 1818. The woman’s experiences of pregnancy, miscarriage and labour are traumatic and disorienting, especially in the context of political upheaval, climate crisis, and an ongoing pandemic.

They were the ones left behind. When the world ended, it didn’t come with fire or flood—it came with silence. The rich, the powerful, the useful—they vanished overnight, leaving behind the rest. Johnny, Beth, and a handful of others are the remainder. Not chosen. Not remembered. Just… still here. In the hollow carcass of civilization, they drift through the ruins of purpose, haunted by questions with no answers. Was it merit? Money? A mistake? Or were they simply never meant to matter?

Sophia Naziri is wanted for questioning in the murder of a US senator. She's worried the police will show up on her doorstep any moment, but when Detective Colby Black appears, it's to help her put out a kitchen fire, not take her in. Yet. His easy smile and persistence in getting to know her pushes all her troubles to the back of her mind, until a hit man tracks her down. Getting arrested becomes the least of her worries and the handsome detective could be her only way out - if she tells him the truth.

One touch. One moment. One night. That’s all it was meant to be. One crazy night in a masked sex club for my best friend’s birthday. I didn’t know what to expect. The last thing I saw happening was a sexy and mysterious Dom choosing me to be his Sub for the night. But once the mask was lifted, everything changed. It could never be just a casual one night stand. Mainly because the Dom I spent the night with wasn’t just anyone, he was my mother’s ex-husband…my ex-stepfather.