Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Historical Fiction

This collection of recordings about Brother Cadfael—a Benedictine monk and amateur sleuth in the 12th century—are performed here by the ideal actor. Sir Derek Jacobi, who portrayed Cadfael in several television adaptations, captivates listeners with his renderings of Monk's Hood, Saint Peter's Fair, The Heretic's Apprentice, The Potter's Field, The Summer of the Danes, and Brother Cadfael's Penance.

The Company tells the thrilling story of agents imprisoned in double lives, fighting an enemy that is amoral, elusive, and formidable. It also lays bare a warfare within the company itself, adding another dimension to the spy vs. spy game. The Company tells the thrilling story of agents imprisoned in double lives, fighting an enemy that is amoral, elusive, and formidable. It also lays bare a warfare within the company itself, adding another dimension to the spy vs. spy game.

In the wake of a humbling incident aboard a canal boat in the Cotswolds, young Captain Horatio Hornblower arrives in London to take command of the Atropos, a 22-gun sloop barely large enough to require a captain. Her first assignment under Hornblower's command is as flagship for the funeral procession of Lord Nelson.

It is the Summer and Autumn of the Year of Our Lord 1143 in which the gentle monk, Brother Cadfael, is forced to leave the tranquility of his herb garden to find the whole truth behind the murder of a young women whose body was unexpectedly discovered in a newly tilled field recently acquired by the Shrewsbury Abbey in a land exchange.

Here are the excruciatingly funny adventures of Suzanne Vale — a young film star and drug addict — who survives a rehab clinic only to rejoin the equally harrowing world of Hollywood. Out there on the edge, despair flips into hilarity, and we're left laughing as Suzanne struggles to come to terms with her various fantasylands.

It is June in the Year of Our Lord 1143 when Elave, young clerk to William of Lythwood, returns from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with his elderly master's body. His mission is twofold, to bury William in his home abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, and to deliver a dowry to William's adopted daughter Fortunata. But Elave, suspected of harboring views inimical to church doctrine, is held for ecclesiastical trial. And when Aldwin, the Lythwood family clerk hired in Elave's absence, is stabbed to death, Elave is incarcerated not only for heresy, but for murder. Fortunata's dowry, an intricately carved box with mysterious contents, holds the key to the mysteries that spring up around Elave and the Lythwood family. Shrewd and patient, Brother Cadfael is at his best here. Performed by Tony Award-winning actor Derek Jacobi, this sixteenth chronicle of Brother Cadfael is sure to delight old friends and new fans.

Enter the world of the rich, charismatic Lytton family and their powerful publishing empire in this passionate family saga that spans from the Edwardian era to World War I and the excesses of the glamorous 1920s. Enter the world of Celia Lytton, a woman who is used to getting her way. Celia makes difficult and often dangerous decisions that affect not only herself, her husband Oliver, and their children, but others.

In the summer of 1143, William of Lythwood arrives at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, but it is not a joyous occasion—he's come back from his pilgrimage in a coffin. William's body is accompanied by his young attendant Elave, whose mission is to secure a burial place for his master on the abbey grounds. An already difficult task is complicated when Elave drunkenly expresses his heretical opinions, and capital charges are filed. When a violent death follows, Sheriff Hugh Beringar taps his friend Brother Cadfael for help.

In the summer of 1139, there is a pause in the civil war racking the country. St. Peter's Fair attracts merchants from across England and beyond, promising to bring some much-needed gaiety to Shrewsbury—that is, until the dead body of a wealthy merchant is found in the river Severn. Brother Cadfael offers to help the merchant's lovely niece uncover the murderer, but as he searches for the killer, the merchant's wares are ransacked and two more men are murdered.

Ray Smith is a young man seeking a life of simplicity and truth. Another young man, Japhy Rhyder, becomes instrumental in leading Ray to Buddhism as they embark upon a spiritual quest. Their journey takes them from the Bohemian parties of San Francisco to the natural beauty of the High Sierra mountains. Through such books as Doctor Sax and The Subterraneans, Jack Kerouac was an inspiration to the beat culture, hippies, and dharma seekers of the 1950s and 60s.

First published in the 1930s, The Berlin Stories contains two novels, The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin. Classics of modern fiction, these novellas capture 1931 Berlin—charming, grotesque, and dangerous, as Hitler was ascending to power. The Berlin Stories is inhabited by a wealth of characters, in particular the nightclub performer Sally Bowles, whose misadventures were popularized on stage and screen in I Am a Camera and Cabaret.

In 1930's China, the all-male Peking opera was luxurious entertainment for the privileged class—but only children from the poorest families were sent to opera schools to train as actors. Abandoned by his mother—a prostitute who can no longer care for him—Xiao Douzi is brought to an opera school. With seeds of bitterness in his soul, the nine-year-old boy endures hardships and misery to learn and perfect his craft.

In summer of 1144, a strange calm has settled over England. The armies of King Stephen and Empress Maudhave temporarily exhausted each other. Brother Cadfael, herbalist-sleuth of Shrewsbury's Benedictine Abbey, agrees to accompany wise young Brother Mark on Church business in Wales. But the brothers soon find themselves caught up in yet another feud. A Welsh prince has banished his brother, accusing him of the treacherous murder of an ally, and the country teeters on the brink of civil war. Cadfael has to survive the brotherly quarrel that could plunge an entire kingdom into chaos.

It is nearing the end of the Year of Our Lord 1145. A monk vows to abandon all earthly ties, but how can Brother Cadfael obey when his son is captured in battle? Olivier de Bretagne is one of many young knights taken prisoner in the current power dispute in Britain, but he is also Cadfael's son, and the monk cannot be objective. A council is planned at Coventry to try to appease the warring factions, and Brother Cadfael asks leave to attend, knowing he must do all in his power to find and deliver his son.

It is December in the Year of our Lord 1138 when Gervase Bonel dies after eating sauce laced with poison served which had been served with a partridge. The active ingredient found in the sauce was monkshood, poison if ingested and otherwise known as Wolfsbane. Brother Cadfael made the oil. Who used it as poison? Cadfael assesses the motives of Bonel’s Welsh natural son and his stepson, and deals with Bonel’s widow, who at one time long ago was Cadfae's sweetheart. Drawing upon his knowledge of both herbs and the human heart, Cadfael ultimately uncovers a deadly recipe for murder.

Life has always been a banquet for Sappho, one to be savored to the fullest. Following a magnificent destiny, her strange and sensual odyssey has carried her to the far corners of the ancient world, from Delphi to Egypt, to the Land of the Amazons, and the realm of Hades. For Sappho, it was always about love—love that seduced her into a plot to depose a dictator, and love that made her trade an unwanted marriage bed of a despised and drunken husband for a seemingly endless series of lovers, both male and female.

Rich with unforgettable characters and history, intricately plotted and utterly absorbing, City of Dreams is a stirring saga of early Manhattan and the beginnings of medical science told by a master storyteller.

The Hollow Hills recreates the suspense and excitement of an ancient legend—how Merlin the Enchanter, prophet, visionary, and adviser to kings—keeps Arthur, the future king of Britain, safe. Merlin keeps watch over Arthur in remote secrecy, safe from the warring kings and Saxons who plot against his father, King Uther. Haunted by dreams of the magical sword Caliburn, which has been hidden for centuries, Arthur must claim the fabled sword to become the true High King of Britain. When Uther Pendragon is killed in battle, the time of destiny is at hand.

On February 14, 1944, Caroline Thomas said goodbye to her beloved husband, a Navy pilot sent to the Pacific. For half a century, she waited for him to return— until a miracle happened and she received his "Last Valentine." Their son, Neil Thomas, Jr., wants to share the powerful message of his parents' tragic, yet triumphant, 50-year love story with the world. When Neil meets Susan Allison— a skeptical reporter who is looking for the perfect story about true love— neither of them expects that the story of Neil's parents will bring them together in a love as powerful as her dreams.

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge is the saga of a clean-cut, "upper-class" couple who increasingly find their post-WWII world and traditional belief systems challenged by a changing society. For Walter Bridge, an ambitious lawyer, and his wife, whose focus is her household, affluence and material comforts create a cocoon of community respectability that cloaks the void within.