Showing results by publisher "Hodder & Stoughton" in Fantasy

1782. Nancy Lockaby is trying to salvage her reputation as an astronomer - left in tatters after a discredited discovery - when she receives a mysterious letter, inviting her to join Shakespeare scholar Caelan Malles at his crumbling house in Inverness. But at Blackthistle House, Nancy notices that Caelan is spending more and more time locked away in his study with his books. As his behaviour becomes ever stranger, more questions gnaw at Nancy. Why does Caelan believe there is a link between Shakespeare and the stars? Why does he refuse to discuss Charlotte, his now-deceased wife?

A local woman is found in a children's playground, tied up and burned to death. Her clothes are neatly folded and laid at the base of a nearby tree. Her body, charred and still smoking, is on display for all to see. One town over, another victim is discovered in the scorched remains of a brutal fire, her clothes having been laid out just beyond the reach of the vicious flames.

Meet Theo. Handsome, sexy, funny. kind. And he can cook. He's literally the man of Esme's dreams. But Esme's sensible enough to know that you can't just manifest your perfect boyfriend then have him turn up on your doorstep. Or can you?

Phoebe, an eight-year-old girl, lies comatose following a car accident. She is a body without a spirit, a stolen child. Ceres, her mother, can only sit by her bedside and read aloud to Phoebe the fairy stories she loves in the hope they might summon her back to this world. But it is hard to keep faith, so very hard. Now an old house on the hospital grounds, a property connected to a book written by a vanished author, is calling to Ceres. Something wants her to enter, and to journey - to a land coloured by the memories of Ceres's childhood, and the folklore beloved of her father.

On Whidbey Island, secrets never stay buried. A mysterious girl who won't speak; a coal-black seal named Nera that returns to the same place every year; a bitter feud of unknown origin - strange things are happening on Whidbey Island and Becca King is drawn into the maelstrom of events. But Becca, first met in The Edge of Nowhere, has her own secrets to hide. Still on the run from her criminal stepfather, Becca is living in a secret location.

A modern-day Sleeping Beauty story of love and hope, for fans of Jojo Moyes. Elsa has been in a coma for five months. With all hope of reviving her gone, her family and doctors are having to face the devastating fact that it might be time to turn off her life support.... They don't realise that in the past few weeks, Elsa has regained partial consciousness; she knows where she is and can hear everyone talking around her bed, but she has no way of telling them she's there.

A Stephen King original short story featuring an excerpt from 11.22.63, his latest full-length novel. With the heart of Stand by Me and the genius horror of Christine, Mile 81 is Stephen King unleashing his imagination as he drives past one of those road signs.... At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded-up rest stop, a place where high-school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high-school kids have always gotten into....

Childhood sweethearts Neve and Jamie are inseparable from the moment they meet. Everyone knows they'll be together forever - that is, until tragedy strikes, and Jamie is torn from Neve's life. One street away, Ash is hit by lightning. As he recovers, family members notice a drastic change in Ash, almost as though he is a different person. Years later, chance brings Neve and Ash together- and she is struck by his familiarity. He shares so many traits with Jamie, as if their souls are entwined. Neve must ask herself whether she can love for a second time in the face of her grief.

International number-one best-selling author Stephen King presents a brand-new, never-before-published, audio-only story. In this new tour de force from Stephen King - unavailable in print or any other format until November 2015 - a salt-of-the-earth Maine native recounts how a friendly annual summer fireworks show rivalry with his neighbour across the lake gradually spirals out of control...with explosive results.

Esta has known nothing but Eden's Isle her whole life. Raised by her grandmother, after a fire claimed her parents and scarred her face, she's instructed to piety, to deference and acquiescence by a religious society that will not suffer anything else. Cut off from the moral iniquity of the mainland, the island believes it can stay free of the Seawomen—creatures from the water that came upon land to corrupt God's creation and Man.

Named after a star, war correspondent Maia knows how to find the brightest stories—the tales of survival and strength—hidden amongst the dark realities of combat. Now, travelling to Malta to visit her estranged father, with one more chance to build a relationship with her last remaining relative, she's here to find her own story: never having found somewhere—or someone—she can call home, she's desperate for answers that might show her where she truly belongs.

Joel is afraid of the future. Since he was a child he's been haunted by dreams about the people he loves. Visions of what's going to happen - the good and the bad. And the only way to prevent them is to never let anyone close to him again. Callie can't let go of the past. Since her best friend died, Callie's been lost. She knows she needs to be more spontaneous and live a bigger life. She just doesn't know how to find a way back to the person who used to have those dreams. Joel and Callie both need a reason to start living for today....

In the second instalment of Tara Sim's Dark Gods trilogy each heir walks a dangerous path, attempting to undo the damage the gods have wrought across the four realms. But they live on borrowed time. The divine will have their war - and not all of them will survive it.

It's 1953. Britain and her empire are diminished. Nazi Germany controls Europe and a vast African territory. There has been no Holocaust. Instead the Jews have been exiled to Madagaskar, a tropical ghetto ruled by the SS. Returning home after a disastrous mission to Africa, ex-mercenary Burton Cole finds his lover has disappeared. Desperate to discover her, he is drawn into a conspiracy that will lead him back to the Dark Continent.

Four complete and unabridged selections from the electrifying best seller read by a stellar group of narrators. The Raft is the unforgettable tale of an idyllic autumn swim suddenly transformed into an ordeal of unbridled horror. Read by Stephen King. Mrs. Todd's Shortcut is a story in which a middle-aged woman in a Mercedes roadster finds a terrifying pathway to paradise. Read by Dana Ivey. The Monkey - is it merely a child's wind-up toy, or an incarnation of the purest evil? Read by Matthew Broderick.

When Finley arrives in Crescombe for the summer, he suspects he's not alone in his attic bedroom. Before long, he is uncovering secrets the remote seaside town has kept for almost two centuries: about ghosts and curses, about a ruthless old smuggling family, and about the young women whose bodies have washed up along the town's rocky shoreline, just below his porthole window. Yet the more Finley learns, the further he's bonded to those who have gone before him - and the closer he comes to meeting the same watery end.

2025: Lee can't remember exactly where he hid the body, but he can remember the blood. Hiding out at his father's centuries-old home in Japan, Lee knows something is wrong with him, and he knows it has something to do with his mother's disappearance almost a decade ago. 1877: A female samurai, Sen, stalks the borders of her home to protect her family from slaughter after the abolition of the samurai class. She's not sure how they'll ever survive, not without her father, who has returned from war with a different soul behind his eyes.

The island of Stenland is cursed: women, chosen at random, awaken with three black slashes on their forehead. The first person they meet eyes with turns to stone. This is how Tess Eriksson's mother killed Soren Fell's parents. It was an accident, but that has never made it any easier to forgive. Since then, all Tess has wanted is to leave Stenland. All Soren has wanted is to stay. The only thing they want more . . . is each other.

Josie is at rock bottom. Burned out, heartbroken and recovering from an abusive relationship, she lives a haunted existence after returning to her isolated hometown on the edge of the Forest of Dean. Josie's hopes of a fresh start are horribly derailed when she stumbles across a dead woman's decaying, ant-infested body in the woods. The grim discovery sends her into a downward spiral, forcing her to face uncomfortable truths about the victim and her own past - all whilst battling the swarming black ants that seem to have burrowed into her mind . . . and her flesh.

From the first night they met, Rachel and Josh knew they were meant to be. When Josh makes an extraordinary decision, the future that Rachel felt so sure about seems impossible. Walking away from the love of her life is unimaginable. But with everything that's happened - and all that is to come - how can Rachel possibly stay?