Showing results by publisher "Orion" in All Categories

Suburban witches, defiant old ladies, ageing monsters, suicidal Lottery winners, wolf men, dolphin women and middle-aged manufacturers of erotic leatherwear. In this eclectic short story collection, international bestseller Joanne Harris pairs the mundane with the miraculous and shows us modern life through her unique and evocative lens.

Charley has a strange feeling when she sees the idyllic mill house with its cluster of outbuildings, the lake and the swirling mill stream - a powerful sense of recognition, as if she has been there before. Except she knows she hasn't. After Charley and her husband, Tom, move into Elmwood Mill, sinister memories of a previous existence start to haunt her. Despite both their attempts to dismiss everything with rational explanations, the feeling turns to certainty as the memories become increasingly vivid and terrifying.

Winnie Berry had been the landlady for the Battersea Tavern for over 25 years and loved every minute of it. Her husband Brian preferred the quiet of the upstairs, but Winnie liked to be in the thick of it: the atmosphere and the company. While her son has taken after his father in more ways than one, she can't help but love him - David might not be able to hold down a job, but she would do anything to keep him safe. After all, once upon a time she'd made a mistake - something she'd do anything to put right.

Ten years ago she persuaded them to vote not guilty. What if she was wrong? It was the most sensational case of the decade. Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar fortune, vanishes on her way home from school. Her teacher, Bobby Nock, is the prime suspect. It's an open and shut case for the prosecution, and a quick conviction seems all but guaranteed. Until Maya Seale, a young woman on the jury, persuades the rest of the jurors to vote not guilty: a controversial decision that will change all of their lives forever.

When Brighton tattoo artist Marni Mullins discovers a flayed body, newly-promoted DI Francis Sullivan needs her help. There's a serial killer at large, slicing tattoos from his victims' bodies while they're still alive. Marni knows the tattooing world like the back of her hand, but has her own reasons to distrust the police. So when she identifies the killer's next target, will she tell Sullivan or go after the Tattoo Thief alone?

Maggie is trapped. Dumped on her wedding day, rejected by her family and hounded by a man determined to make her suffer. Charlotte is desperate. Double-crossed by her only friend and facing total ruin, she will go to any lengths to save what matters. Two women, one night. A decision that will change everything.

Only nine criminals in the UK have been granted lifelong anonymity. Their crimes so heinous that their identities are permanently changed for their own safety. Upon release, they're given a second chance: new identities and new homes with new neighbours who have no idea. Because, by law, they cannot be named as who they are - or were... But what if someone started systematically exposing their true identities? Not to the press, or the public, but to the families of their victims. Who deserves justice? And who gets to decide?

Rome in the 1950s, there's nowhere quite like it. The narrow stone streets, the fountains and piazzas full of life in the heat of the day, the cafes and bars full of music and desire by night. This is where Serafina calls home. Having grown up with her sisters in a tiny apartment tucked in the top of a tumbledown building, she has watched her mother get by on next to nothing, and turn herself beautiful with a sweep of eyeliner and a hand-sewn dress.

The battlefields run with blood in this gripping finale to the best-selling Attila trilogy. The infamous leader of the Huns stills thirsts for blood and supremacy as he crosses the Danube and prepares to attack the Western Empire and face once more his boyhood friend-turned-foe: Aetius the Roman. For Attila is set on a plan that will take him right through the entire Italian peninsular and up to the gates of Rome. He must weigh up whether he should attack this, the greatest of cities, or whether the gamble is too high, even for the most battle-hardened of warlords.

Paris, 1940. As the city adjusts to life under Nazi occupation, Detective Eddie Giral struggles to reconcile his job as a policeman with his new role enforcing a regime he cannot believe in but must work under. He's sacrificed so much in order to survive in this new world, but the past is not so easily forgotten. When an old friend and an old flame reappear, begging for his help, Eddie must decide how far he will go to help those he loves.

Hannah and Si are in love and on the same track - that is, until their train divides on the way to a wedding. The next morning, Hannah wakes up in Paris and realises that her boyfriend (and her ticket) are 300 miles away in Amsterdam! But then Hannah meets Léo on the station platform, and he's everything Si isn't. Spending the day with him in Paris forces Hannah to question how well she really knows herself - and whether, sometimes, you need to go in the wrong direction to find everything you've been looking for....

September, 1356. Poitiers. The greatest knights of the age were ready to give battle. On the English side, Edward, the Black Prince, who'd earned his spurs at Crecy. On the French side, the King and his son, the Dauphin. With 12,000 knights. And then there is William Gold. A cook's boy - the lowest of the low - who had once been branded as a thief. William dreams of being a knight, but in this savage new world of intrigue, betrayal and greed, first he must learn to survive.

Three sisters find themselves lost in a storm at night and seek safety at Moirthwaite Manor, where their mother once worked. They are shocked to find the isolated mansion that loomed so large through their troubled childhoods has long been abandoned. Drawing straws to decide who should get help, one sister heads back into the darkness. With the siblings separated, the deadly secrets hidden in the house finally make themselves known and we learn the unspeakable secret that binds the family together.

The world is on the brink of war. Fisk and Shoe - mercenaries, not wanting to get caught in the middle of a political whirlwind - must deliver a very important message and find a very dangerous man. They have caught the eye of the powerful men of the world, and now the stakes are higher than they like. And the Emperor has decreed that Livia Cornelius, pregnant with Fisk's child, must travel to the far lands of the Autumn Lords on a diplomatic mission. It will mean crossing half the world and facing new dangers.

Catherine Sterling thinks she knows her mother. Ruth Sterling is quiet, hardworking, and lives for her daughter. All her life, it's been just the two of them. But now, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, move from home, and begin a new career. And Ruth Sterling will do anything to prevent that from happening. Ruth Sterling thinks she knows her daughter. Catherine would never rebel, would never question anything. But when Ruth's desperate quest to keep her daughter by her side begins to reveal cracks in Ruth's carefully constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception.

The dawn of the fifth century and the Roman Empire totters on the edge of the abyss. Already divided into two, the Imperium is looking dangerously vulnerable to her European rivals. The huge barbarian tribes of the Vandals and Visigoths sense that their time is upon them. But, unbeknown to all of these great players, a new power is rising in the East. A strange nation of primitive horse warriors has been striking terror upon border peoples for 50 years. But few realise what is about to happen. For these so called 'Huns' now have a new leader. His name is Attila - 'the Scourge of God'.

Candlelight is hygge; the smell of freshly brewed coffee is hygge; the feel of crisp, clean bed linen is hygge; dinner with friends is hygge. Hygge, pronounced 'hoo-ga', is a Danish philosophy that roughly translates to 'cosiness'. But it is so much more than that. It's a way of life that encourages us to be kinder to ourselves, to take pleasure in the modest, the mundane and the familiar. It is a celebration of the everyday, of sensual experiences rather than things.

Jamie and Victoria are expecting their first baby. With a few weeks to go, they head off for a final weekend break in a remote part of the North Pennines. The small and peaceful guesthouse is the ideal location to unwind together before becoming parents. Upon arrival, they are greeted by Barry and Fiona, the older couple who run the guesthouse. They cook them dinner and show them to their room before retreating to bed themselves. The next morning, Jamie and Victoria wake to find the house deserted. Barry and Fiona are nowhere to be seen. All the doors are locked.

When coffee shop worker, Cheryl, meets handsome stranger, Dale, it seems like Cheryl's nightmares might finally be at an end. Loan sharks have been banging at Cheryl's door for longer than she cares to remember. That is, until Dale sends them running for good with just a few words.

Agent Sydney Swift is going home for the holidays. She's just discovered that her younger sister, Calla, is engaged to Johnny Jones - the heir to the nation's most notorious crime dynasty - and she's determined to stop their perfect winter wedding at any cost. But gathering incriminating evidence on Johnny isn't as easy as she'd hoped, especially as her biggest obstacle is Nick, his infuriatingly handsome and charming bodyguard! As Sydney spends more time with Nick, lines begin to blur, and while seducing him to gather intel was bad enough, falling for him is even worse.