Showing results by publisher "Orion Publishing Group" in Genre Fiction

One seagull and four pieces of bread decide the course of one person's life. But is the rest just coincidence? A new novel from Costa Award shortlisted author J. W. Ironmonger. Have you ever experienced a coincidence that seems too strange to be true? And is there such a thing as fate? The Coincidence Authority is a novel about love in a random universe, about two lost souls each with a quest to understand the secret patterns of their lives.

Edith was born into a different world. But her rebellious nature brought her to the seedy glamour of the music hall, where she plays the piano by night. Oliver is an illusionist of moderate repute. But he is a man of ambition. He wants to tour the world, to pioneer groundbreaking illusions. History and fate have other ideas. When Edith and Oliver meet, they fall headlong in love. But their children arrive as the world begins to change, as cinemas crowd the high street and the draw of the music hall wanes.

It's been five years since Carter Blake parted ways with top-secret government operation Winterlong. They brokered a deal at the time: he'd keep quiet about what they were doing, and in return he'd be left alone. But news that one of Blake's old allies, a man who agreed to the same deal, is dead means only one thing - something has changed, and Winterlong is coming for him.

After discovering that her fiancé, Timmy, has been less than faithful, Evie is faced with a dilemma of the heart - she must try to mend their relationship or otherwise cut all ties and move on. Moving on from a first love is never easy, though, and it's further complicated by the fact that Timmy's mother is the headmistress at Evie's school and can't hear a bad word said against him.

It is no small matter, after all, to create something - to make it so only by setting down the words. We forget the magnitude, sometimes, of that miracle. Mr. Crowe was once the toast of the finest salons. A man of learning and means, he travelled the world, enthralling all who met him. Now Mr. Crowe devotes himself to earthly pleasures. He has retreated to his sprawling country estate, where he lives with Clara, his mysterious young ward, and Eustace, his faithful manservant.

A young family is driving home one night but is forced off the highway by a blizzard. They arrive in the former mining town of Good Night, Idaho, and take shelter in a grand, but dilapidated old hotel. When they become separated, they enter a nightmare in which they relive the same day over and over, each caught in their own separate time loop. But what are the mysterious images that haunt them, and can they change what is past?

In the aftermath of the Great War, the de Witt family are struggling to piece together the shattered fragments of their lives. Rudolf and his wife, Verena, are still reeling from the loss of their second son and don't know how to function in the postwar world. Stoneythorpe Hall has become an empty shell, with no servants to ensure its upkeep. Celia, the de Witts' youngest daughter, is still desperate to spread her wings and see more of the world.

At the outset of the Great War in 1914, New England Yankee James Stonebridge and Louisiana native Obadiah Nelson volunteer with the French Foreign Legion. They are among a handful of Americans who do so, young men lured by the chance of adventure and of upholding all-American values. Despite their very different backgrounds, James and Obadiah forge a friendship which helps them endure the squalor of the trenches and the brutal realities of war.

Eleven days in the life of a mother as she tries to navigate herself and her family through the aftershocks of a scandal. Six years ago, aged 15, Rosalind's daughter, Stephanie, ran away with teacher Nathan Temperley, triggering a media frenzy and resulting in Temperley's arrest and imprisonment. Although the family - Rosalind; her husband, Dan; Stephanie; and son Freddy - don't talk about what happened, their lives have been shaped by it and everything that came after.

From out of the whiteness, a dark figure comes.... December 1930, Ukraine. After the horrors of war, Luka wants a quiet life with his family. His village has, so far, remained hidden from the advancing Soviet brutality - but everything changes the day a stranger arrives, pulling a sled bearing a terrible cargo: the bodies of two children. When the villagers' fear turns deadly, they think they have saved themselves.

Imagine an island, a place separated from the mainland by choppy seas. A place of myths and faith, where a headless horseman is said to stalk the woods but where the kirk is always full. Imagine a community which held its own against Darwin but which can't hold on to its own. Prepare to meet a pioneering female travel writer, two fatherless boys, and a man who, quite simply, fell from the sky.

Jenny Pepper never expected to end up like this. Tired of her job and her lacklustre marriage, increasingly marginal in her teenage daughter's life, Jenny stumbles into a vigilante rescue one night; suddenly her world is exciting again - and she's a hero. In secret - in costume - she walks the streets of her small town, seeking to right wrongs. But secret identities are tricky to maintain, and Jenny's need for adventure is beginning to cost her dearly. Then, amidst the petty crime, a terrifying villain appears.

Certainly there are ghosts in these towers. For me they are the ghosts of two children. And even now - ten years later and seven hundred miles away - I still wake most nights with the muffled echo of their cries in my ears and the weight of their deaths on my conscience...'Three lives; three turning points. Craig was a teenage lifeguard on a beach in Germany when two children died on his watch. It should never have happened.

Gravy worked in the graveyard - hence the name. He was having a normal day until his friend Benjy turned up in a car Gravy didn't recognise. Benjy had a bullet hole in his chest, but lived just long enough to ask Gravy to hide him and look after his gun. Gravy had looked after things for Benjy before, but never a gun. When Gravy looked in the car he found blood, a balaclava, and a bag stuffed with money. Gravy's not too bright but he wants to help his friend. So Gravy finds himself caught up in the middle of a robbery gone wrong....

Your family are always there for you...aren't they? For Tara, Vee, Niall, and Damian, the children of the Shine family, their parents have seen them through thick and thin. In fact, Gus and Joan's lifetime of hard work has given their children a very comfortable start in life. But with the Irish economy in crisis - money is thin on the ground and perhaps it's time to for the younger generation to learn a few home truths. As the children are forced to live a life without the Bank of Mum and Dad.

February, 1926. The city of London is tense in the days leading up to The General Strike. Evelyn Gifford, (protagonist of The Crimson Rooms) has now qualified as a solicitor - and is one of the first women to do so - but her life remains full of conflict. Embroiled in two new cases, Evelyn finds herself encountering both sides of the strike.

The brightest mind meets the darkest killer...1887. When James Murray, a young Scottish doctor fascinated by the workings of the criminal mind, travels to the vibrant city of Turin, it is to study with Cesare Lombroso, the world-renowned criminologist. But just hours after his introduction to Lombroso, the discovery of a horrifically mutilated body in the nearby Piazza Statuto, and a note that appears to implicate the celebrated criminologist himself, changes everything.

In the not-so-distant future, the forecasted 'death of print' has become a reality. Bookstores, libraries, newspapers, and magazines are a thing of the past, as we spend our time glued to handheld devices called Memes that not only keep us in constant communication but have become so intuitive as to hail us taxis before we leave our offices, order takeout at the first growl of a hungry stomach, and even create and sell language itself in a marketplace called the Word Exchange.

Reminiscent of One Day meets Nicholas Sparks, That Part Was True is a bittersweet debut about falling in love and risking it all. When Eve Petworth writes to Jackson Cooper to praise a scene in one of his books, they discover a mutual love of cookery and food. As their letters criss-cross the ocean that lies between them, friendship and then romance blossom despite Jackson's colourful love life and Eve's tense relationship with her soon-to-be-married daughter.

Ghost Moth will transport you to two hot summers, 20 years apart. Northern Ireland, 1949. Katherine must choose between George Bedford - solid, reliable, devoted George - and Tom McKinley, who makes her feel alive. The reverberations of that summer - of the passions that were spilled, the lies that were told and the bargains that were made - still clamour to be heard in 1969. Northern Ireland has become a tinderbox but tragedy also lurks closer to home.