Showing results by publisher "Orion" in Historical Fiction

Rome, 1938. As the world teeters on the brink of war, talented pianist Eva Valenti enters the house of widower Dante Cavallera to become his new wife. On the outside, the forces of Fascism are accelerating, but in her new home, Eva fears that something else is at work, whispering in the walls and leaving mysterious marks on Dante's young daughter. Soon she starts to wonder whether the house itself is trying to give up the secrets of its mysterious past - secrets that Dante seems so determined to keep hidden.

1918. Fleeing from her past, Cathy Carmichael is new to the Sixteen Streets. She has nothing to her name, no plan and nowhere to go. Cathy thinks she's struck gold when she runs into Mrs Sturrocks, an elderly lady who offers her a room at her boarding house. Her son, Noel, might be strange and sulky, but he gives her a job at the Robin Hood pub and before long, Cathy is thriving as the new barmaid. The Sixteen Streets was only meant to be a temporary stop for Cathy...but could it become home instead?

Like half of all the young women living in the Scottish town Clydebankin early 1911, Ellen works at the sewing machine factory. So does her big sister, Bridget, Bridget's fiancé Malcolm, and her new friend Sadie, who has come to work at the factory after the death of her father. For Sadie, the factory is a way to make ends meet, but Ellen has sewing in her veins. She is even making Bridget's wedding dress on her beloved sewing machine. But after the excitement of the wedding dies down, everything changes.

The war is far from over for soldier Raymond de Guise. His wife, Nancy, is overjoyed to be reunited with her husband, and to introduce him to their son. But their safety is threatened once more as Raymond returns to the ballroom at the Buckingham Hotel, ordered to discover the dark secrets held by the glittering high society

Popular playwright Philocles and his actors are hired to take his latest play to Corinth, to promote goodwill between the two cities. But on arrival, their guide and fixer Eumelos drops dead - a victim of poison.

After a drugs bust goes wrong, Deputy Sheriff Garrett Nelson is left with a limp and, unfit for active police service, accepts a job at a Florida penitentiary on an old Spanish mission. The prison's chapel, a working bell tower, is now an execution chamber. But after a terrible mistake leads to an escape and manhunt through the Everglades, Nelson must decide whether his first duty is to the law or to himself? And could doing the right thing mean taking an innocent man to the bell tower?

Bea Bell has lived in Grenada her whole life... until she meets handsome surveyor Patrick Anderson. The two are quickly swept up in a whirlwind romance that takes them across the crumbling Empire. But not everyone is as accepting of their interracial marriage. And soon they are faced with an impossible decision, one that threatens to tear them apart...

England, 1940s. Minnie has spent most of her life feeling like a plain Jane, watching things happen around her, waiting for something - just something - to once happen to her. When her old best friend, the beautiful and callous Junie, unexpectedly returns to Sixteen Streets, Minnie's not quite sure how to feel. Once inseparable, the two now find themselves at odds. And when Junie strikes up a romance with Minnie's brother Derek, Minnie can't help but feel lonelier than ever.

Keen to rehearse, the company heads to the Seagate Theatre under the tutelage of the company's owner, Ed Forsyth. This is Ed's last hoorah before retiring and he's keen to leave on a high. But his son, Cal, has absconded, leaving his twin sister, Evie, to help manage the company after their mother's death. Hoping to display her best trapeze performance ever, she's also desperate that the entire troupe should succeed. If only her father hadn't brought in another old-timer...

Stockport, 1944. Alice seems to have it all, but the truth is her marriage isn't as solid as it seems. Busy running her husband's family shop while he's at war, everything changes when she meets handsome Louis, fresh in from Guernsey with young evacuee twins Gabriela and Philip. Factory heir Sophie is thrilled to be getting married—if only her mother her mother didn't disapprove! She's marrying for love, but her mother is convinced Tony is marrying for money. Is there more to her concern than Sophie realises?

Her wedding day should have been the happiest day of Mavis Kendricks's life. Marrying handsome Sam, the youngest of the Farley boys, means joining the Farley clan, and there's nothing Mavis has ever wanted more than a family of her own. But the appearance of an unexpected guest ruins everything...and brings back painful memories Mavis would rather forget.

Mirepoix, France. Summer 1981. In a small village in southern France, a wilful English girl is falling in love. Frances Langley has fallen under Benoit's romantic spell, and their summer of love finds Frances willing to do almost anything for the handsome art collector, even hiding a precious Klinkosch box for him, stolen by the Nazis decades before. England. Summer 2022. Years later, Frances' son, Harry, finds himself packing up the clutter and chaos of his late mother's home.

It's 1959, and a new killer haunts the streets of London, having baffled Scotland Yard. The newspapers call him 'The Florist' because of the rose he brands on his victims. The police have turned yet again to the inquirers at Miss Brickett's for assistance, and second-year Marion Lane is assigned the case. But she's already dealing with a mystery of her own, having received an unsigned letter warning her that one of the three new recruits should not be trusted.

Will they find the courage to follow their dreams? St. Ives, 1916. Jess Morgan always hoped to become a celebrated silversmith, but when the men return from war, she's forced to return to her job as a seamstress. All she can cling to is the memory of that delicate, unique silver clasp she created for a society bride. Rachel Bellamy served as an ambulance driver on the front line during the Great War, but now it's up to her to save the family home and picturesque harbour from her wealthy brother-in-law, before it's too late.

Beryl was the first bride of the Farley clan, finding a home in the welcoming arms of eldest son Tony. His charming voice and kind eyes and the way he truly listened made Beryl feel valued in a world in which she had always been rejected. Yet even now, wrapped in Tony's embrace, Beryl has never quite been able to forget the past she decided to run from, nor the devastating secret about her family's past she tried to bury. With Tony away fighting the Jerries alongside his brothers, it's up to Beryl and her sisters-in-law to keep the family afloat.

Tumanbay: Once the most magnificent city on Earth - now the dark heart of an empire that lies in ruins. Occupied by the fanatical forces of the mysterious cult of Maya, corpses hang from the gallows, and citizens are flogged for next to nothing. Barakat, leader of the Inquisition, leads the purge. Gregor, former spymaster to the Sultan, lives in fear. Madu, heir to the throne, is opiated and installed as a puppet ruler. And Qulan, the great general, rots in prison. But the history of Tumanbay shows that those who can rise to power can just as easily fall.

Estelle is the headstrong daughter of Fleur, a Resistance legend who disappeared during the Great War, supposedly killed while helping Allied soldiers to escape. Christa, an only child, longs to break free from the constraints of London suburbia, and fantasises about the ethereal Belgian heroine who saved her father. When Estelle comes looking for the truth about the mother she believes deserted her, an intense friendship grows between the two young women. Estelle invites Christa to De Eikenhoeve, her family's idyllic country estate.

In a sleepy English village in 1944, Annabel and her son, Daniel, live in the shadow of war. With her husband away, Annabel withdraws ever deeper into long-ago memories of happier times. When mother and son befriend Hans, a German PoW consigned to a nearby farm, their lives are suddenly filled with thrilling secrets. But Hans has plans of his own and will soon set them into motion, with chilling consequences.

Billy Shaw lives in a palace. Potter's Pleasure Palace, the best entertainment venue in Yorkshire, complete with dancing and swing-boats and picnickers and a roller-skating rink. Jasper Harper lives in the big house above the valley, with his eccentric mother, Edie, and Uncle Charles, brother and sister authors who have come from London to write in the seclusion of the moors. When it is arranged for Billy to become Jasper's companion, Billy arrives to find a wild, peculiar boy in a curiously haphazard household.

Heathcote, England, 1984. A mysterious figure is sneaking into homes through backdoors and open windows. Known locally as 'the Fox', he knows everything about everyone, leaving curious objects in their homes or taking things from them. When beloved Anna disappears, everyone believes the Fox is responsible. For the villagers, finding Anna will be difficult - but stopping the Fox from exposing their darkest secrets might just be impossible.