David Thorpe

1721, and Adam Hanaway arrives in wealthy, cosmopolitan Lisbon seeking to restore his father’s lost fortune. But Adam is expelled from his uncle’s firm and must clear his name.

Dawn Prentice was already known to the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit. The previous summer she had logged a number of calls detailing the harassment she and her severely disabled teenage daughter were undergoing. Now she is dead. Was DS Ferreira, only recently back at work after being severely injured, negligent in not taking Dawn's accusations more seriously?

Book 3 in the Zigic and Ferreira series.

Theatre troupe Westfield's Men take on a new actor, Francis Quilter, after reaching new heights of success. But with the new member, brings new trouble. Quilter's father, Gerard, is on trial for the murder of an enemy, but he denies the charge and Nicholas Bracewell sets about proving his innocence. However, Bracewell's loyalty to Francis drives a wedge between the players. Who will clear the Quilter family name? On their quest for the truth, they stumble across an unlikely ally, who may just hold the answers they're looking for.

For 145 years, Test cricket was played mainly in one way: batters laid a foundation before daring to attack - and, even then, only if circumstances were favourable. Bowlers tried to bowl maidens, calculating that they would eventually force an error. But the old ways weren't working.

Then came 'Bazball', driven by new head coach in Brendon ('Baz') McCullum and captain Ben Stokes. What followed was one of the most thrilling revolutions in any sport, as a rudderless and ridiculed England Test team became cricket's most talked-about phenomenon.

They embarked on a brand of Test cricket that breathed life into an ailing format, breaking records as they went on to win 11 out 13 Tests before taking on world champions Australia in a dramatic Ashes contest that ended 2-2.

As the country bakes under the relentless summer sun, a young doctor is found brutally murdered at his home in a picturesque Cambridgeshire village. Is his death connected to his private life - or his professional one? Dr Joshua Ainsworth worked at an all-female detention centre, one still recovering from a major scandal a few years before. Was he the whistle-blower - or an instigator?

As Detective Sergeant Ferreira and Detective Inspector Zigic begin to painstakingly reconstruct Dr Ainsworth's last days, they uncover yet more secrets and more suspects. But this isn't the only case that's demanding their attention - a violent criminal has been released on a technicality and the police force know he will strike again: the only question is who will be his first victim…

Book 5 in the Zigic and Ferreira series.

It is London, 1759, and young Jack Absolute’s life changes for ever after a night of carousing. Instead of Cambridge and a career he experiences duels, battles, frantic escapes and a brutal Canadian winter before learning the truth of his father’s words.

While Len and Violet glide across the dance floor, Violet's husband George dwells on the war of almost 10 years ago. Back at Len's home his wife and young son are fighting for their lives in the flood that almost engulfed Canvey island in 1953.

Looking after French captives in 1806, Lieutenant Martin Jerrold is having quite an easy war. But when a prisoner is missing Jerrold's world collapses. He must find the Frenchman at all costs - but why?

When two young boys, Neil and Sam, follow a trail of maggots they discover the body of Sally Palmer. Dr David Hunter is called in to assist the police investigation and finds that he has to revisit his troubled past.

On Midsummer's Day 1348, a day of ill omen, plague makes its entrance in England. Panic and suspicion flood the land and a small band of travellers comes together to outrun the breakdown in law and order. But they soon realise there is something more sinister than plague in their midst.

Chris Teiger thinks he has landed himself a dream job in corporate PR – until his new boss commits suicide. Then his former lover finds that another unusual death is linked to highly damaging evidence about Chris’ new firm. Soon he begins to suspect that there is a multinational cover-up.

Roman society at the time of Pompey, Crassus and Caesar, - civilisation and violence are equals, murder is the easy option and poison is the weapon of choice. Catullus' relationship with Clodia is one of the most passionate, tormented and candid in history. Their story exposes the beauty and terrors of Roman life in the late Republic.

Why does England rely on private schools for their batters - but not their bowlers? How did demographics shape India's rise? Why have women often been the game's great innovators? Why does South Africa struggle to produce Black Test batters? And how does the weather impact who wins?

Crickonomics explores all of this and much more - including how Jayasuriya and Gilchrist transformed Test batting but T20 didn't; English cricket's great missed opportunity to have a league structure like football; why batters are paid more than bowlers; how Afghanistan is transforming German cricket; what the rest of the world can learn from New Zealand and even the Barmy Army's importance to Test cricket. This incisive book will entertain and surprise all cricket lovers. It might even change how you watch the game.

The fourth chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew continues the adventures of the 14th-century Cambridge physician when he is called to attend to two deaths from some poisoned wine. The opening of a new and very well-endowed college has created petty infighting amongst the academics as new appointments are made. The winter and spring have been appallingly wet, there is a fever outbreak amongst the poorer townspeople and the country is not yet fully recovered from the aftermath of the plague. The increasing reputation and wealth of the Cambridge colleges are causing dangerous tensions between the town, church and university, and then the poisoned wine kills the first victim - a student. The second victim is Dittone, the deputy master of the new college, but there seems no connection between him and the student. Matthew must establish the facts before relations between town and gown spiral out of control.  Book 4 of series.

Winter, Witchcraft and Devilish Deceit. Faced with the austerities of a bitterly cold English winter, the theatre is deserted and Westfield's Men find themselves out of work. Fortuitously, the company is invited to perform at a country home in Essex; welcome news to the disgruntled players. The company decide it's the perfect opportunity to trial their new play, The Witch of Colchester. However, when the group's leading actor begins to fall mysteriously ill, the company fear witchcraft might be involved. Then on the performance night, an audience member inexplicably collapses and dies, paving the way for Nicholas Bracewell to uncover the cause of the strange events taking place in Silvermere.

Sicily, 1943 - to fight the Nazi rearguard, old foes like the Mafia must become new friends for Jack Tanner and his crew. Tanner and his trusted sidekick, Sykes, find themselves embroiled in a fight that has become deeply personal, where they have to use all their resolve, skill and experience if they are to have any chance of survival.

Britannia, AD 43. Bleak, rainy and full of vicious savages, Britannia is a land that Cato, solider of the Second Legion, wishes Rome didn't want to conquer.

And as right-hand man to Centurion Macro, Cato sees the very worst of his native Britons, battling alongside his commander in bloodier combat than he could ever have imagined.

But the Britons are fighting back with Roman weapons - which means someone in their own ranks is supplying arms to the enemy. Cato and Macro are about to discover even deadlier adversaries than the British barbarians.

A Greek gangster arrives in Stockholm, only to be murdered in a macabre fashion at Skansen zoo, his body consumed by animals. The Intercrime Unit - a team dedicated to solving international violent crime – start an investigation that will take them across Europe as they desperately search for answers, and the identity of the killer.

The goblins who live in the great towers of Clovenstone spend all their time fighting and looting. Only clever young Skarper understands that dark magic created by a vanquished sorcerer is rising again. From the lands of men come fortune-seekers - and soon trolls, giants, cloud-maidens, swamp monsters, humans and bloodthirsty goblins alike are swept into a fabulous magical conflict!

Jelly and her family live in Chompton-on-de-Lyte, where everyone loves a Chocablocka bar or two. So when the end of chocolate is announced, she can't believe it. Determined to investigate, Jelly and her gran follow a trail of clues to a posh chocolate shop and its owner, the pompous Garibaldi Chocolati. Gari's suspiciously smug, despite his failing business and yucky chocolate. Is it really the chocopocalypse, or is there a chocoplot afoot?

In a split second, Jenna Gray's world descends into a nightmare. Her only hope of moving on is to start afresh. Desperate to escape, Jenna moves to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast, but she is haunted by her fears, her grief and her memories of a cruel November night that changed her life forever.

From legends of the desert to horrors of the forest, these stories blend the fantastic with the everyday, the surreal with the all-too-real. Taking cues from Kafka, the prose shines a dazzling light into the dark absurdities of Iraq's recent past and the torments of its countless refugees. X rated, contains graphic violence and explicit sex.

When the castle walls of Max and Finlay’s den start crumbling away, little do the boys know that everything is about to change. Trapped inside the wall is the ancient god Hercules and he needs the boys’ help!

It's not easy fitting in at a new school. It's even harder to be yourself.

A warm and funny story about making new friends and being yourself. Perfect for young fans of WONDER and Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

Jack knows LOTS about starting a new school. Since Dad left, he and his mum have moved house five times. He also knows all about fitting in. The trick is to act exactly like everyone else and make sure no one ever notices him. But it's hard work trying to be something he isn't and Jack doesn't have any good friends. That is, until Tyler comes along. Tyler is funny and different and might be the key to getting Jack to realise that although he is brilliant at pretending to be other people, the very best thing he can be is . . . JUST JACK.

When Nicholas Bracewell finds himself in the parlour of his lost love, Anne Hendrik, he is not expecting her entreaties to embroil him in the murder of a beloved choir master. Between tales of cruelty, forgotten maps of London and a butcher determined to rescue his son, it is yet another mystery for the book holder to untangle. But will his quest endanger Lord Westfield's Men? As the troupe's latest play threatens to break them apart beneath the playwright's own belligerent ribaldry, the shadow of the hangman stalks ever closer. And with every step his laughter rings with the power to turn even the hallowed stage into a gallows.

Orphaned Sam has to leave behind his affluent life in the city to live with his aunt in a village in rural Malawi. He must sleep on the floor in a one-roomed hut sharing with his aunt and cousins. How can he adjust? Where does he belong?

A man is burnt alive in a suburban garden shed. DI Zigic and DS Ferreira are called in from the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit to investigate the murder. Their victim is quickly identified as a migrant worker and when another migrant worker is attacked, tensions rapidly begin to rise as Zigic and Ferreira search for their killer.

Book 1 in the Zigic and Ferreira series.

Tom Bryce picks up a CD which has been left behind on a train seat, but when he attempts to track down the owner, he finds himself the only witness to a savage killing. Reporting the crime to the police has disastrous consequences for Bryce, and when DS Roy Grace becomes involved, he finds himself up against a malign group of very well organised criminals... Book 2 of series.

Michaelhouse is in uproar: Kenyngham the saintly but ageing Master has announced his retirement and with unseemly haste Runham arranges his own election as his successor. Within days he has dismissed several members of staff, including the redoubtable laundress Agatha, and is making life so unpleasant for the scholars that even Matthew Bartholomew believes his future as physician and teacher at the college is untenable. But Matthew has many patients to divert his attention and Brother Michael, Proctor of the fledgling university, has some suspicious deaths to investigate. Then Runham himself is murdered and, although mourned by none, Matthew and Michael know they have to solve the mystery before any more damage is done to their beloved Michaelhouse.

A unique and intimate account of an English meadow’s life from January to December, recording the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay-cutting of summer and grazing in autumn, and includes the biographies of the animals that inhabit the grass and the soil beneath.

Few sporting records capture the imagination quite like that of the highest individual score in Test cricket. It is the blue riband record of batting achievement, the ultimate statement of stamina and skill. From Charles Bannerman, who scored 165 for Australia against England in the inaugural Test match in 1877, to Brian Lara, who made 400 not out for West Indies against England in 2004, the record has changed hands ten times.

Chris Waters' The Men Who Raised the Bar charts the growth of the record through nearly one hundred and fifty years of Test cricket. Drawing on the reflections of the record-holders, Waters profiles the men who raised the bar and their historic performances.

Jodie Martindale's disappearance remains a mystery, unsolved to this day.

David Kelman covered the story. But he made a huge mistake, which cost someone their life.

Now, he has evidence he shouldn't have. It's a message from Jodie - who has been missing for six years - but sent just two weeks ago...

When a young man washes up on the sands of St Piran in Cornwall, he is quickly rescued by the villagers. What they don't know is that Joe Haak is a city analyst who has fled London, fearing he may - inadvertently - have caused a global financial collapse. Is the end of the world really nigh, and what of the whale that lurks in the bay?

When Wisden Cricketers' Almanack was first published in 1864, it included no comments or opinions at all. As the editors explained, they "carefully avoided making any remarks upon the play or players, as the purport of this little work is to record the scores of the matches". But by the turn of the century, things had changed, and since the first set of "Notes By The Editor" appeared in Wisden in 1901, the editor's opinions have become a feature of the Almanack, the first pages that readers turn to, to see what bees are in the editorial bonnet this year. In this collection, Notes by the Editors reproduces many of the most memorable editor opinions expressed over the 120 years since they first appeared. Wisden's views on all the great topics (and some of the smaller ones) are included - throwing, bodyline, Packer, the d'Oliveira Affair, not to mention ball tampering and the development of The Hundred. And the weather, always the weather.

Jordan Radley was an aspiring journalist: hard working, well-liked, dedicated. His first major story - looking at the fallout following the closure of a major local factory - had run recently and looked to be the first step in his longed-for career.

Even after the story ran, Jordan continued to stay in contact with those he interviewed: he was on his way back from their social club the night he was murdered. But as the detectives quickly discover, not only was Jordan killed, but those responsible also broke into his house, taking his laptop and notes.

What was he researching that might have led to his death? And can this really be linked to another case in the same area? Or are the police being forced to prioritise those with the best connections rather than the ones that most need their help?

Book 6 in the Zigic and Ferreira series.

Believers in the theory of nominalism have set some Cambridge colleges at the throats of those who believe them to be heretics, and Michael, the senior proctor, has his work cut out to keep the peace. When a nominalist is murdered during a riot, Michael is certain he will easily find the killer amongst the Dominicans, but before he can get any sense out of them his junior proctor, Walcote, is found hanged, and he discovers that his trusted ally had arranged secret meetings at the St Ragelund Convent between men who would not normally be seen together - and the nuns of St Ragelund are renowned for behaviour entirely inappropriate to their calling. Meanwhile Matthew Bartholomew learns that Michael, his lifelong friend, is in all probability the thief who relieved one of the antinominalist colleges of some of their most precious papers. If that charge were proved, it would put paid to Michael's long-term plans to become master of Michaelhouse - but would he kill to protect himself? Unable to believe his colleague would be capable of such acts, Bartholomew knows the only way he can quiet his own conscience is to solve the murders himself.  Book 7 of series.