Showing titles in Contemporary Fiction

Most of the big money belongs to Torquil Paterson Frisby, the dyspeptic American millionaire – but that doesn’t stop him wanting more out of it. His niece, the beautiful Ann Moon, is engaged to ‘Biscuit’, Lord Biskerton, who doesn’t have very much of the stuff and so he has to escape to Valley Fields to hide from his creditors. Meanwhile, his old schoolfriend Berry Conway, who is working for Frisby, himself falls for Ann – just as Biscuit falls for her friend Kitchie Valentine.

Another summer is in full swing on the island of Roone, and preparations are underway for a big birthday party at the local hotel. But beneath the air of celebration, many of the islanders have their own struggles to contend with. Imelda, isolated by her recent heartbreak, has no memory of accepting a month-long bed and breakfast booking, but when a stranger turns up on her doorstep looking forward to his stay, she has little choice but to take him in.

The valley is nestled between rugged peaks, divided by a magnificent river. Within its peaceful green contours are held the secrets of generations of tribes, families and loners who have come under its spell.

A new, exclusive straight-to-digital Temperance Brennan short story from Kathy Reichs, world leading forensic anthropologist and number-one best-selling author of Deja Dead, Bones Are Forever and Bones of the Lost. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan has just arrived in Florida's Everglades for a much-needed break when she is unwittingly thrown into the middle of a deadly case with its roots in the darkest depths of the swamp.

Nicole is starting again. She’s left her old life behind and has just arrived in the sleepy Australian town of Rosella Cove, renting the old cottage by the water. At first Nicole is determined to avoid making personal ties, but when she discovers a hidden box of letters she soon realises that she’s not the first person with secrets to have lived there. As Nicole begins to let her guard down, she starts to find connections with the close-knit community - especially with handsome Danny, who has been helping her restore the cottage.

Cam and Holly have a picture-perfect marriage and life: a beautiful house in the suburbs and two adorable little boys. Cam has sold his successful marketing agency to look after the boys while Holly goes full throttle on her career post-maternity leave, and everything’s peachy. ‘Til Cam discovers Holly has been having an affair with a colleague. Heartbroken but pragmatic, Cam sees the situation as an opportunity to confess his own infidelity with his 21-year-old assistant.

Lucy, staying in a beautiful home overlooking Venice Beach, can find no peace from her misery - not in therapy, not in Tinder hookups, not in her sister's dog's unquestioning devotion, not in ruminating on the ancient Greeks. Yet everything changes when Lucy becomes entranced by an eerily attractive swimmer one night while sitting alone on the beach rocks....

The power to control the driving force of the universe has finally come to light. At the university on Maladaan, Taren has studied everything from genetics and cell communication to Quantum Physics, Astrophysics and ESP. She believes there is an ocean of microscopic vibrations connecting everything in the universe to every other universe - an inter-dimensional field theory.Unbeknownst to Taren, her research and hidden psychic talents are the reason she is called on by the prestigious AMIE space project to investigate an ocean planet and its strange light phenomena.

For more than three decades Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City has blazed its own trail through popular culture...from a groundbreaking newspaper serial, to a classic novel, to a television event that entranced millions around the world. The first of six novels about the denizens of the mythic apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane, Tales of the City is both a sparkling comedy of manners and an indelible portrait of an era that changed forever the way we live.

Isabel Dalhousie thinks often of friends, sometimes of lovers, and on occasion of chocolate. As an Edinburgh philosopher, she is certain of where she stands. She can review a book called In Praise of Sin with panache and conviction, but real life is...well, perhaps a bit more challenging....

Shortlisted for the 2014 Folio Prize. Old Filth and The Man in the Wooden Hat told with bristling tenderness and black humour the stories of that titan of the Hong Kong law courts, Old Filth QC, and his clever, misunderstood wife, Betty. Last Friends, the final volume of this trilogy, picks up with Terence Veneering, Filth's great rival in work and - though it was never spoken of - in love.

Shadow Moon has been away from America for nearly two years. His nights are broken with dangerous dreams. Sometimes he almost believes he doesn't care if he ever returns home. In the Highlands of Scotland, where the sky is pale white and it feels as remote as any place can possibly be, the beautiful and the wealthy gather at a grand old house in the glen. And when the strange local doctor offers him work at the party, Shadow is intrigued.

Jessie Sullivan has been married half her life, and has become accustomed to her role. But when she returns to the isolated island where she grew up to establish why her mother has been behaving oddly, she is to find a lot more than she came looking for. A loving, exuberant character, who believes herself to be happy, she has forgotten a hidden part of her spirit - the part represented by the beautiful, vibrant and legendary mermaid carved on a chair in the island's monastery.

Nestled in the heart of the Cotswolds, Thrush Green is normally a peaceful place. But as autumn turns to winter, feelings are running high in the village. Miss Fogerty, a respected teacher at the village school for over thirty years, is troubled by the methods of the new young teacher. Dotty Harmer takes up driving, much to the concern of others, and it isn’t long before she is involved in an accident and a threatening court case.

These two women's lives have been shaped by the decisions they made back in 1968 – when they were young, idealistic and naïve. In a world that was a whirl of politics and protest, consciousness raising and sexual liberation, Zoë and Julia were looking for love, truth and their own happy endings. They soon discover that life is rarely that simple, as their bad behaviour leads them down paths that they can never turn back from.

Allie has lived a careful, focused existence. But now she has unexpectedly taken leave from her job as an academic research scientist to fly to a place she only recently heard about in a letter. Her father, Joe, doesn’t know the reason for her trip, and Allie can’t bring herself to tell him that she’s flying to Italy to unpick the truth about what her mother did all those years ago.

Now a major film starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro.Pat Peoples knows that life doesn’t always go according to plan, but he’s determined to get his back on track. After a stint in a psychiatric hospital, Pat is staying with his parents and trying to live according to his new philosophy: get fit, be nice and always look for the silver lining. Most importantly, Pat is determined to be reconciled with his wife Nikki. Pat’s parents just want to protect him

Rumour has it that notorious pirate Anne Bonny hid her treasure somewhere in Charleston in 1720. No-one knows where, but Tory Brennan - great-niece of famous forensic anthropologist Dr Tempe Brennan - is certain that the Virals can work out Bonny's cryptic clues. A deadly pathIt isn't long before the Virals are on the right track. But they aren't the only ones searching for the treasure. Someone is following them, and will stop at nothing to get their hands on it.

Birgit ist zu Kaspar in den Westen geflohen, für die Liebe und die Freiheit. Erst nach ihrem Tod entdeckt er, welchen Preis sie dafür bezahlt hat. Er spürt ihrem Geheimnis nach, begegnet im Osten den Menschen, die für sie zählten, erlebt ihre Bedrückung und ihren Eigensinn. Seine Suche führt ihn zu einer völkischen Gemeinschaft auf dem Land - und zu einem jungen Mädchen, das in ihm den Großvater und in dem er die Enkelin sieht. Ihre Welten könnten nicht fremder sein. Er ringt um sie.

Von der Autorin des Bestsellers Die sieben Männer der Evelyn Hugo und Daisy Jones & The Six kommt ein epischer neuer Roman über die außergewöhnlichen Anstrengungen, die wir unternehmen, um über unsere Grenzen hinaus zu leben und zu lieben. Joan Goodwin sieht zu den Sternen auf, seit sie denken kann. Als Professorin für Astrophysik hat sie ihre Leidenschaft zum Beruf gemacht, und sie ist glücklich, wenn sie ihrer Nichte abends unter freiem Himmel die Sternbilder erklären kann.