Gervase Frant, Lord St. Erth, heir to broad acres and an ancient and variegated pile known as Stanyon, returns from the Napoleonic Wars to find he is something less than welcome in the ancestral bosom. His widowed stepmother would greatly have preferred his glorious death in battle on the Continent. She has no desire to relinquish her position, and she has hoped that her own son Martin would inherit.The Earl, in his quiet way, quickly makes a conquest of two eligible young ladies on the scene, but it becomes almost immediately apparent that someone at Stanyon would prefer to have him die by a means more sudden than old age.Georgette Heyer's comical genius never fails to deliver delight.
"An outstanding historical mystery. Well-researched, well-plotted, well-paced and above all well written." – Mike RipleyAriana Franklin combines the best of modern forensic thrillers with the drama of historical fiction in the enthralling second novel in the Mistress of the Art of Death series, featuring medieval heroine Adelia Aguilar.Rosamund Clifford, the mistress of King Henry II, has died an agonizing death by poison-and the king's estranged queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, is the prime suspect. Henry suspects that Rosamund's murder is probably the first move in Eleanor's long-simmering plot to overthrow him. If Eleanor is guilty, the result ...
Recently voted the greatest fantasy of all time after and , Gene Wolfe’s is an extraordinary epic, set a million years in the future, on an Earth transformed in mysterious and wonderful ways. Severian is a torturer, exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his victims, and now journeying to the distant city of Thrax, armed with his ancient executioner’s sword, Terminus Est.Won BSFA Award and World Fantasy Award in 1981.Nominated for Nebula and John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1981.
On the first day of the Somme enlisted railwayman Jim Stringer lies trapped in a shell hole, smoking cigarette after cigarette under the bullets and the blazing sun. He calculates his chances of survival – even before they departed for France, a member of Jim's unit had been found dead. During the stand-off that follows, Jim and his comrades must operate by night the vitally important trains carrying munitions to the Front, through a ghostly landscape of shattered trees where high explosive and shrapnel shells rain down. Close co-operation and trust are vital. Yet proof piles up of an enemy within, and as a ferocious military policeman pursues his investigation into the original killing, the finger of accusation begins to point towards Jim himself…
