David Rintoul

Patrick Dillon and Nicola Thorold were together for twenty-eight years. Patrick was an award-winning architect and writer and Nicola a leading figure in theatre, awarded an OBE for her contribution to the arts at London's Roundhouse. Their two children were almost grown-up. Life was good.

And then, in May 2015, Nicola was diagnosed with leukaemia. After several rounds of treatment, a bone marrow transplant and many waves of recovery and decline, she died thirteen months after her diagnosis. Six months later, at Christmas, Patrick started to write.

A Moment of Grace is the searing, tender account of Patrick's life with Nicola and her illness, and his life after her loss. But it is more than a story of illness and unbearable grief: it is a book of memory, of home, of family. It is a tale of the transfiguring power of love.

Charmer, fabulist and tailor to Panama's rich and powerful, Harry Pendel loves to tell stories. But when the British spy Andrew Osnard - a man of large appetites, for women, information and above all money - walks into his shop, Harry's fantastical inventions take on a life of their own. Soon he finds himself out of his depth in an international game he can never hope to win.

Le Carré's savage satire on the espionage trade is set in a corrupt universe without heroes or honour, where the innocent are collateral damage and treachery plays out as tragic farce.

Victory is close. Vengeance is closer. Rudi Graf used to dream of sending a rocket to the moon. Instead, he has helped to create the world's most sophisticated weapon: the V2 ballistic missile, capable of delivering a one-ton warhead at three times the speed of sound. In a desperate gamble to avoid defeat in the winter of 1944, Hitler orders ten thousand to be built. Graf is tasked with firing these lethal 'vengeance weapons' at London.

Kay Caton-Walsh is an officer in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force who joins a unit of WAAFs on a mission to newly liberated Belgium. Armed with little more than a slide rule and a few equations, Kay and her colleagues will attempt to locate and destroy the launch sites. As the death toll soars, Graf and Kay fight their grim, invisible war - until one final explosion of violence causes their destinies to collide...

When making routine enquiries into a possible bribery case that could embarrass the mayor, Commissario Brunetti receives a call from his wife, Paola, who is evidently very upset.

The middle-aged deaf mute with the mental age of a child who helped out at the Brunetti's dry cleaners has been found dead - an 'accidental' overdose of his mother's sleeping pills.

It is a surprise to Brunetti just how little was known about this man-child - there are no official records to show he even existed. The man's mother is angry and contradictory when questioned about his death, and Brunetti senses that there much more to the story than she is willing to tell.

With the help of Inspector Vianello and the ever-resourceful Signorina Elettra, perhaps Brunetti can get to the truth and find some measure of solace.

When several valuable antiquarian books go missing from a prestigious library in the heart of Venice, Commissario Brunetti is immediately called to the scene. The staff suspect an American researcher has stolen them, but for Brunetti something doesn't quite add up.

Taking on the case, the Commissario begins to seek information about some of the library's regulars, such as the ex-priest Franchini, a passionate reader of ancient Christian literature, and Contessa Morosini-Albani, the library's chief donor, and comes to the conclusion that the thief could not have acted alone.

However, when Franchini is found murdered in his home, the case takes a more sinister turn and soon Brunetti finds himself submerged in the dark secrets of the black market of antiquarian books.

In the first novel in the Commissario Brunetti series, readers were introduced to one of Italy's finest living sopranos, Flavia Petrelli - then a suspect in the poisoning of a renowned German conductor. Now, many years after Brunetti cleared her name, Flavia has returned to sing the lead in Tosca.

As an opera superstar, Flavia is well acquainted with attention from adoring fans. But when one anonymous admirer inundates her with bouquets of yellow roses, it becomes clear that this fan has become a potentially dangerous stalker.

Distraught, Flavia turns to an old friend for help. Familiar with Flavia's melodramatic temperament, Commissario Brunetti is at first unperturbed by her story, but when another young opera singer is attacked he begins to think Flavia's fears may be justified.

Brunetti is investigating a cold case by request of the grand Contessa Lando-Continui, a friend of Brunetti's mother-in-law. Fifteen years ago the Contessa's teenage granddaughter, Manuela, was found drowning in a canal. She was rescued from the canal at the last moment, but in many ways it was too late; she suffered severe brain damage and her life was never the same again.

The Contessa, unconvinced that this was an accident, implores Brunetti to find the culprit she believes was responsible for ruining Manuela's life. Out of a mixture of curiosity, pity and a willingness to fulfil the wishes of a loving grandmother, Brunetti reopens the case. But once he starts to investigate, Brunetti finds a murky past and a dark story at its heart.

During the interrogation of an entitled, arrogant man suspected of giving drugs to a young girl who then died, Commissario Guido Brunetti acts rashly, doing something he will quickly come to regret.

Granted leave from the Questura, Brunetti is shipped off by his wife, Paola, to a villa owned by a wealthy relative on Sant'Erasmo, one of the largest islands in the Venetian laguna.

The recuperative stay goes according to plan and Brunetti is finally able to relax, until Davide Casati, the caretaker of the house, goes missing following a sudden storm. Nobody can find him - not his daughter, not his friends, and not the woman he'd been secretly visiting. Now, Brunetti feels compelled to investigate, to set aside his holiday and discover what happened to the man who had recently become his friend.

There was a time when Cicero held Caesar’s life in the palm of his hand. But now Caesar is the dominant figure and Cicero’s life is in ruins. His comeback requires wit, skill and courage – and for a brief and glorious period, the legendary orator is once more the supreme senator in Rome. But politics is never static and no statesman, however cunning, can safeguard against the ambition and corruption of others. Book 3 of series.

Alex Prévost may be no ordinary victim, but her time is running out. Commandant Camille Verhoeven and his detectives have nothing to go on: all they know is that a girl was snatched off the streets of Paris and bundled into a white van. And before long, saving her life will be the least of his worries. X rated, contains offensive language and graphic violence.

Ten year-old Erin is missing; taken in broad daylight during a friend's birthday party. With no witnesses and no leads, DI Lukas Mahler races against time to find her. But is it already too late for Erin - and will her abductor stop at one stolen child?

And the discovery of human remains on a construction site near Inverness confronts Mahler's team with a cold case from the 1940s. Was Aeneas Grant's murder linked to a nearby POW camp, or is there an even darker story to be uncovered?

With his team stretched to the limit, Mahler's hunt for Erin's abductor takes him from Inverness to the Lake District. And decades-old family secrets link both cases in a shocking final twist.

Book 2 in the DI Lukas Mahler series.

AD 9, German frontier: Close to the Rhine, a Roman centurion, Lucius Tullus, prepares to take his soldiers on patrol. On the opposite side of the river, German tribes are resentful of the harsh taxes about to be imposed upon them. Suspicious that there might be unrest, Tullus knows that his men's survival will be determined not just by their training and discipline, but by his leadership.

What neither Tullus nor his commander, Governor Varus, realise is that ranged against them is the charismatic chieftain and trusted ally of Rome, Arminius, who has long been plotting to drive the Romans from the tribal lands east of the Rhine.

As Varus' legions prepare to leave their summer encampment, thousands of warriors - directed by Arminius - are massing nearby. Eager to throw off the Roman yoke, the tribesmen prepare a deadly ambush. Only the gods can save the Romans now...

Book 1 in the Eagles at War series.

AD 14: Five long years have passed since the annihilation of three legions in the wilds of Germania. Although the bones of 15,000 soldiers now moulder in the Teutoburg Forest, not all the Romans were slain in the bloody ambush.

Demoted, battle-scarred and hell-bent on revenge, Centurion Tullus and his legionaries begin their fightback. Ranged against them is the charismatic chieftan Arminius, who is gathering thousands of hostile tribesmen, and determined to crush the Romans for a second time.

The eagle belonging to Tullus' old legion is still in enemy hands, but as the Romans' reprisals take their army deep into German tribal lands, he remains convinced that it is within reach. But Arminius and his warriors are perilously close. As battle begins, Tullus and his comrades know they must fight as never before - just to stay alive...

Book 2 in the Eagles of Rome series.

AD 15. The German chieftain Arminius has been defeated, one of the lost Roman eagles recovered, and thousands of German tribesmen slain.

Yet these successes aren't nearly enough for senior centurion Lucius Tullus. Not until Arminius is dead, his old legion's eagle found and the enemy tribes completely vanquished will he rest.

But Arminius - devious, fearless - is burning for revenge of his own.

Charismatic as ever, he raises another large tribal army, which will harry the Romans the length and breadth of the land. Soon Tullus finds himself in a cauldron of bloodshed, treachery and danger. His mission to retrieve his legion's eagle will be his most perilous yet…

Book 3 in the Eagles of Rome series.

The destruction of a Russian hideout at SHAPE headquarters near Paris; the planned assassination of a Cuban thug in America; the tracking of a heroin ring from Rome to Venice and beyond. For Bond it is just routine. For anyone else - certain death!

Hong Kong in 1941, and the war in Europe seems remote. Hopwever Lieutenant-Commander Brooke of HMS Serpent recognises that an attack by Japan is inevitable. When it comes, Brooke and his company refuse to accept defeat.

The Jackal is an anonymous Englishman, hired by Colonel Marc Rodin, to assassinate General de Gaulle in 1963.

Richard Pearson, jobless advertising executive, is driving out to Brooklands, a motorway town on the M25. A few weeks earlier his father was fatally wounded at a vast shopping mall there, when a deranged mental patient opened fire on a crowd of shoppers.

Donald MacDonald of Ben Nevis rules the roost at Glenbogle Castle. When a hapless bunch of Sassenach hikers invades the glens, camping on Ben Nevis's beloved land, they are in for a shock as the MacDonald clan prepare to do battle.

Former naval officer Philip Vivian sets out with his own motor yacht on a profitable, if legally dubious, adventure proposed to him by an old comrade-in-arms. However he soon finds himself trapped in a treacherous web of violence and crime.

Led by charismatic doctor David Markham, a group of individuals form a violent protest movement to tear down the consumer society and replace it with a more meaningful existence. As middle England comes under attack, a sense of panic grips the capital.

In the early 1930s, an ambitious young Scotsman sets out on the long sea voyage to Penang, eager to take up his post running a maternity hospital in the colony. 70 years later, engineer Edward Mackay, while recuperating on Orkney, begins to unravel the story of a man he thought he knew - his father.

The Second World War is raging and John Devane is sent by the British government as commander of a small flotilla of motor torpedo boats to assist the Russians in the Black Sea. Against the background of the Eastern Front Devane learns that war can still be a conflict between two individuals.

The waiting room stands on a crumbling railway platform at the edge of a retired rock star's vast estate. Isolated by a moat of thorny wilderness, it used to be a playground for his children. Until strange music and the terrifying spectre of a leering soldier frightened them away.

13 years ago surgeon Edward Hammond performed a life saving operation on a Serbian gangster, Dragan Gazi. Gazi is now standing trial for war crimes in the international court in The Hague. Now Gazi's family want more from Edward - in exchange for keeping his secret.

It is 1943. For Britain and the Allies, there can be no retreat. At last the war will be taken into enemy territory, and spearheading the advance is the Royal Navy's Special Force in North Africa.

HMS 'Terrapin' took a vital part in the Battle of the Atlantic. Now, 25 years later, she is working out her last commission in the Gulf of Thailand. Under the stubborn leadership of her new captain, she and her crew find a long-forgotten unity of purpose.

When things start to go badly wrong for James Greer in London, Brodmaw Bay seems to be calling him and his family. There's a perfect house, excellent schools - and welcoming neighbours who assure the Greers that they'd be delighted to have some new blood in the Bay. But perhaps the village isn't so much welcoming them as luring them.

It only takes a couple of visits to convince Dr Elizabeth Bancroft that Adam Hunter is not just having bad dreams. He's a child possessed. His father leaves the Scottish Highlands to beg help from a mysterious woman, leaving his son in the care of Elizabeth - who is about to discover there are equally dark secrets on their own doorstep.

The Caleighs move in to Crickley Hall, a grim and somewhat foreboding place in North Devon, searching for respite, and perhaps to come to terms with what’s happened to them as a family. But this house is the last place they should have come to, for the terror that unfolds is beyond belief. Soon they will discover the secret horror of Crickley Hall . . .

Paris, January 1895. Georges Picquart is put in command of shadowy intelligence unit, the Statistical Section. But gradually Picquart comes to believe there is something rotten at the heart of the section. When he discovers another German spy operating on French soil, he finds his superiors are oddly reluctant to pursue it...

Paris, 1939: Nazi soldiers are marching along the Champs Elysees. A young writer, recently arrived from Ireland, smokes one last cigarette with his lover before the city they know is torn apart. Soon he will put his own life and the lives of his loved ones in mortal danger by joining the Resistance....

September 1938, Hitler is determined to start a war, Chamberlain is desperate to preserve the peace. Hugh Legat, Chamberlain’s private secretary and Paul Hartmann, a German diplomat were great friends at Oxford. They last saw one another in Munich six years earlier. Now, as the future of Europe hangs in the balance, their paths are destined to cross again.

Most weapons do what you tell them. Most weapons you can control. But what if the most dangerous weapon in the world is a 17-year-old boy with a brilliant mind, who can run rings around the most sophisticated security services across the globe, who can manipulate that weaponry and turn it against the superpowers themselves? Whatever happens he must not fall into the wrong hands. Because what follows after that is unthinkable…

London, 1941.A group of British citizens is gathering secret information to aid Hitler’s war machine. Jack Hoste has become entangled in this treachery, but he also has a particular mission: to locate the most dangerous Nazi agent in the country. Hoste soon receives a promising lead. Amy Strallen was once close to this elusive figure, and when Hoste pays a visit to Amy’s office, everything changes in a heartbeat.

Edward Waverley, a naïve, sensitive young man, is posted to Scotland with his regiment, and becomes caught between the clans of the Jacobite Rising and the forces of the Hanoverian regime. He must decide whether he will follow the civilization he has always known, or be drawn into an older world of honour and loyalty - and must also choose between the quiet, constant Rose, and the passionate, principled Flora.