Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Genre Fiction

Thea Tennant, eldest daughter of a wealthy family, yearns to do more with her life. When her beautiful but flighty sister, Dulcie, brings trouble to the family, both Thea and Dulcie are sent to relatives in Austria. But with the onset of war, their lives change beyond recognition. It isn't just the Tennants whose lives have changed: for their parlour maid, Primmy, the war brings opportunities she is determined to take.

They whisper her name in the ballroom’s shadows – the Marquis’s mistress! It will take all of Alice Sweetly’s acting skills to play this part: smile until it no longer hurts, until they believe your lies, until you believe. If the Marquis of Razeby thinks he can let his mistress go easily, he is so very wrong. Each night she appears before a rapturous Covent Garden audience, taunting him with her beauty.

In the first flush of love, Jonty promised to buy Lydie a ruby necklace when his art career took off. But the ruby never materialised and Lydie is left heartbroken when the relationship ends. Nearly 30 years later, Lydie still thinks of Jonty, stuck in a marriage to a man she never loved. And then he comes back into the picture, changing her life beyond anything she could have imagined.

Earth used to be Galaxy Entertainment's most lucrative show. The inhabitants of the Western Galaxy just couldn't get enough of the day-to-day details of the average Earthling's life. But Channel Blue's ratings are flagging and its producers are planning a spectacular finale; the TV show is set to go out with a bang. The trouble is, so will Earth. Only one man can save our planet and he's hardly a likely hero...

As darkness falls on the M25, the flow of traffic comes to a halt. Time passes. More time padded. Then more. Drivers switch off their engines, then get out of their cars. And so the story begins… In this bold, state-of-the-nation novel, Jake Wallis Simons brings together characters from all walks of life and explores what happens when lives collide on the M25.

Towards the end of the Second World War a British artist called Kenneth Brill is arrested for painting near the village of Heathrow. Under interrogation a picture emerges as Brill tells the story of his life. Vanishing sees the world through the eyes of one of the forgotten geniuses of British Art, a man whose artistic vision is so piercing he has trouble seeing what is right in front of him.

Perilously ill, Jasper Scriven spends his days roaming the wards of a derelict psychiatric hospital. Meanwhile his daughter Cleo is watched by Roland, a hulking, silent figure. These solitary characters are connected by an event that defies understanding, even as it continues to define them. In this brilliantly imagined and disturbing novel, James Scudamore explores the fallibility of memory and notions of madness.

Life hasn’t always been kind to Emma, but now finally her life appears to be looking up. She and her childhood sweetheart, Seth Jago, are to marry. However, when Emma is haunted by mysterious circumstances surrounding her family, and Seth is hounded by a jealous ex-lover set on revenge, Seth plans for their escape to Canada. But Emma finds herself uncertain of whether a move to Canada is really what she wants…

When a young girl is discovered dead on an isolated Irish country road, it seems to be a simple hit and run. Then the cops see the tattoo on her back - a pair of beautifully wrought angel wings. Forensic investigator Reilly Steel is soon on the scene and she suspects that there is more to this case than a straightforward murder. Then the angel tattoo is traced to other children - both dead and alive - who are all similarly marked.…

Ginnie Holmes has found something she never intended to find - an overwhelming passion for a man she should not be with. At an abandoned boathouse hidden on the riverbank of the Thames, Ginnie steps into a world that’s just a little bit brighter than her ordinary life. Then, in a single terrifying event, the lovers' secret becomes a deadly catastrophe, and Ginnie finds herself in the path of extraordinary danger.

As a teenager, Rachel lived through the death of a friend and discovered that even the most enchanted of lives can be shattered. When faced with tragedy in her adult life, Rachel ought to turn to her husband for support; but instead they end up further apart than ever. Lonely and resentful, Rachel is drawn into a destructive affair. But betrayal comes at a high price....

Once upon a time, Ellie had her 'happily ever after' moment when she married her beloved Nick, but fifteen years later her husband's tragic death leaves her alone with their son and facing with a mountain of debt. On the brink of bankruptcy, Ellie decides to rent out some rooms. And all too soon the indomitable Allegra, estranged Sabine on secondment from Berlin and lads' mag aficionado Matt enter her ordered but fragile existence - each with their own messy life in tow.

London, 1972: O'Connell, a charismatic anarchist, dies of an overdose, leaving his artist boyfriend, Pearson, and fellow activist Nina in shock. It also leaves a spare room in their squat, so Pearson moves in Sweet Thing, a streetwise yet vulnerable young boy he initially picks up but then tries to help. Pearson isn't the only one who's interested though: glam rock star Johnny Chrome is on the brink of a breakdown and is convinced that Sweet Thing is the only one who can bring him back.

Hester Fielding was once the leading ballerina of her day. Her life is the stuff of drama: a bleak Yorkshire childhood transformed by the discovery of her amazing gifts as a dancer; a dangerous love affair that can only lead to heartbreak; and a secret that would topple her from her pinnacle of fame if it ever came out. Now Hester has returned to Yorkshire, to Wychwood, where, each year at Christmas, a ballet is performed on Twelfth Night in the little theatre.

Jane James knows that she was born for better things than evenings spent eating Heinz tinned potato salad in her Aunt's house. She dreams of a glamorous life filled with beautiful things. When Jane finds a crocodile handbag left in a pub, it leads her to Suzy, a girl-about-town with the irresistible allure that Jane has been practising for so long. Could Jane's dreams be about to come true?

June, 1945: Ingrid Bergman has been sent to entertain the troops and when she bumps into the photographer Robert Capa, he is enchanted. He slips a mischievous invitation to dinner under her door and the two find themselves helplessly attracted. Ingrid, tired of her passionless marriage and her controlling film studio, longs for freedom and excitement. With everything at stake, both Capa and Ingrid are presented with terrible choices.…

Disaffected ex-Mossad agent, Uzi, works as a security guard and low-level drug dealer in London. Frustrated with his life and haunted by his past, everything changes for Uzi when he gets the chance to expose the ruthlessness of his former employers by feeding information to WikiLeaks. But once it's out there, Uzi will be a marked man...

When Felix Kendall vanishes, his wife Kate is left in turmoil. As she and their children adjust to a hand-to-mouth existence, she looks back on their marriage and Felix's orphaned upbringing in search of clues, confronting the possibility that she has badly misread him. And as Kate gradually discovers strengths she never knew she had, Felix is coming to terms with just what he has lost.

Hannah and Juliet Goodwin have been best friends since childhood, but when Juliet's boyfriend Luke is killed just as Hannah marries the affluent Michael, a wedge is driven between them. Juliet begins to neglect her job, her health and all those who love her the most. Then she finds herself drawn into a betrayal that threatens to destroy Hannah's happiness forever.

Laura Hamley has everything: a loving and successful husband, two children and an expensive home. But then she receives a phone call from the mother of a girl Laura bullied at school. As Laura is drawn into the past, she is forced to face the consequences of her cruelty. But, as her secrets are revealed, so too is an even more devastating truth....