Showing results by publisher "Hodder & Stoughton" in Historical Fiction

"You're out of luck, brother," are the first words Gerry says when they meet in the crush of men competing for the few women at a dance in a seaside hotel, but when Gerry betrays his lover Moira, Adam's fortunes seem to have changed. For the next four years, Adam's life and Gerry's are intertwined like good luck and bad, love and loss, life and death, their paths crossing at various points on Adam's perilous journey from the ruins of Poland to the rolling English countryside, from Egypt to Occupied France.

Prepare to discover a fascinating country; a land buffeted for centuries by power-struggles and revolts, lorded over by Turks, carved up by its neighbours, and subsumed into the Soviet Union. Yet also a land of proud and resilient people, of crawfish hunters and bagpipe makers, shepherds and gypsies, in which daily life goes on.

Jane has given up on love. She might have uncovered the news scandal of the year, but she's also been dumped by boyfriend Simon...and has spent the last month avoiding him at the office. With Christmas fast-approaching, Jane's heart is no closer to mending. But Jane's boss has other plans for her. She needs someone to go on a luxurious press trip to Norway to cover the story of the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree, and she's selected Jane to go.

1915. Patrolling is the last thing on the minds of Women's Police Service recruits Annie, Maggie and Poppy right now, because Annie and her fiancé Richard are about to get married. She's been waiting for this day her whole life, but when it finally comes it brings only heartache and Annie doesn't know if she can go on. The influx of soldiers to the capital means that the WPS's work is more important than ever, though, and Annie's country needs her. She and the girls are posted to the bustling heart of the city and she hopes the new job will distract her from her sorrow.

July 1942. Never has the outcome of the war been more uncertain. Britain might have ruled out any risk of invasion, but Stalin's Russia is bowing under the blows of Hitler's armies. The Nazis unleash an occult war in an attempt to tip the scales: whoever reunites the four sacred Swastikas will win. Double Agent Tristan Marcas sets out in search of the Romanov treasure, which is said to harbour the final relic. He's got no time to lose: the battle is about to come to a head.

1912. Released from the Secret Service, Wiggins sets out for New York and his lost lover, Bela. But after an altercation on board, he finds himself among the low-life of Britain's poorest city, Dublin. Wiggins falls in with gangster Patrick O'Connell and is soon driving the boss' girlfriend around town. Molly wants O'Connell to support her Irish nationalist cause and then they go to find them in America. Finally, Wiggins can solve the mystery of Bela - and meet his old mentor, Sherlock Holmes, in a story of escalating intrigue, danger and violence.

1361. Plague has returned to England - 13 years after the devastation of the Black Death. As destruction advances towards his estate in Kent, Oswald de Lacy leads his family to the safety of a remote castle in the marshes - where his friend Godfrey is preparing a fortress to survive the coming disaster. The rules are clear: once the de Lacys and other guests are inside the castle the portcullis will be lowered and no-one permitted to enter or leave until the Pestilence has passed. And then a murderer strikes.

After the death of his mother, young Alwin of Whittaker leaves the only home he has ever known to seek answers about his unknown father through a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. On the journey, Alwin falls in with a band of violent and marauding soldiers and is witness to their terrible crimes. When Alwin later joins up with a group of pilgrims, he must hide his identity...but he is not the only one with secrets to keep. Rosamund, a young woman travelling the same path, has much to conceal too.

December, 1914: After the death of her aunt, Alma Timperley is surprised when she suddenly finds herself the heiress to the Timperley Spiritualist Hotel in a pretty coastal town in Cornwall. But not everything is as it seems... the hotel offers guests a very special service: the chance to communicate with the dead.

It's the 1930s, and a mysterious illness is spreading over Scotland. But the noble and ancient family of Inverkillen, residents of Loch Down Abbey, are much more concerned with dwindling toilet roll supplies and who will look after the children now that Nanny has regretfully (and most inconveniently) departed this life. Then Lord Inverkillen, earl and head of the family, is found dead in mysterious circumstances. The inspector declares it an accident but Mrs MacBain, the head housekeeper, isn't so convinced.

Celebrated writer and historian Maria Graham must make the treacherous voyage from Brazil to London to deliver her latest book to her publisher. Having come to terms with the loss of her beloved husband, Maria is now determined to live her life as she pleases, free from the smothering constraints of Georgian society. For a woman travelling alone it's a journey fraught with danger, and as civil war rages around her, the only ship prepared to take Maria belongs to roguish smuggler Captain James Henderson.

London, 1940: Farmer John Cook would rather avoid the city at the best of times. But as he watches Nazi bombers passing overhead in the moonlight, he knows he is exactly where he needs to be. A young woman has disappeared during an air raid and Cook links her to a network of spies. As his search continues, he realises more is at stake than he could have imagined. Occupied France: Lady Margaret is playing a dangerous game. To the German high-command she is a valuable prize. To the British, she has become the enemy, unless she can do the impossible...

In the genteel squares and stuccoed villas of late-Victorian Brighton, Ellen and Reynold Harper - twins, companions, colleagues, - ply their trade as portrait photographers. But at the golden hour, the girls arrive to pose for the lucrative - and dangerous - illicit photographs that really keep the Harpers' business afloat. This is the other, shadowy world of the city: a world of erotic tableaux, boundary-crossing music hall artistes, and the sinister figure of the local gangster, the Croc.

Poland, 1942. After witnessing the destruction of her hometown in Warsaw, Anna Kowalski joins the Polish Resistance. She is tasked with smuggling as many children as possible out of the Warsaw Ghetto through the sewers and relocating them to safety. Through her work, Anna meets Johnnie Nowak, an RAF pilot who had managed to escape from a prisoner of war camp. He's not safe in Warsaw, so Anna leads him out of the city to protect him...

1944, New Mexico: Alice Katz is a young Jewish physicist, one of the only female doctoral students at her university, studying with the famous Dr Oppenheimer. Her well-to-do family wants her to marry and settle down. Instead, Alice answers her country's call to go deep into the desert and lend her skills to a secret project at the heart of the fight against Germany. At Los Alamos, Alice meets Caleb, who has been assigned to the explosives division. Around them are other young scientists and engineers who have left their ordinary lives behind.