Paul Moriarty

Princess Alice, mother of Prince Phillip, was something of a mystery figure even within her own family. Profoundly deaf, she was born at Windsor Castle in the presence of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, and brought up in England, Darmstadt, and Malta.

In 1903 she married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, and from then on her life was overshadowed by wars, revolutions, enforced periods of exile. Further crisis hit when, at the age of forty-five, she was removed from her family and placed in a sanatorium in Switzerland, where she was pronounced a paranoid schizophrenic. As her stay in the clinic became prolonged, there was a time where it seemed she might never walk free again.

Yet she recovered.

Illuminating and enthralling, eminent biographer Hugo Vickers's account of her life is as tumultuous and extraordinary as the times she lived through.

Central Africa, 1914; Rose Sayer, a thirty-three year-old English woman, is left alone when her missionary brother dies. She becomes allies with Charles Allnutt, disreputable skipper of the steam-powered launch 'African Queen'. Marooned in German Central Africa during World War I, they fight their way downriver 'to strike a blow for England'.

Ancient as they are, the Greek myths still resonate at the core of our literature and culture, and may well reveal more about human nature and the world we have created than we like to believe.

From the garden of his house in the Peloponnese overlooking the gulf of Argos, award-winning playwright and novelist John Spurling draws on a lifetime's engagement with the classics and with Greek culture to reanimate the characters of Apollo, Herakles, Theseus, Perseus and Agamemnon, along with the gods, demi-gods, monsters and mortals who shaped their destinies. Gripping, spirited and sometimes grisly, Spurling's fresh interpretations of these timeless tales bring both their heroes and their context vividly to life.

In his long life, Taita has gone from slave to warlock, and now his wisdom and abilities are known throughout the kingdom. But even his immense skills cannot protect those close to him from the evil Lord Naja, self-proclaimed Regent until the Prince comes of age. Taita must summon all of his formidable gifts to protect the true ruler, the young prince Nefer. As enemy forces join together to bring destruction to the whole land, it is no longer a matter of simple magic. To defeat the false Pharaohs, the gods and armies must share their powers with a mortal warlock . . .  Book 3 of series.

When a noted womaniser dies in mysterious circumstances in a sleazy motel and the whole of his murky past comes to light, DI Bill Slider begins to question more than whether the game is worth the candle. Right is right, and indivisible. As soon as he's solved the motel mystery, and found out what the Neary boys and Gorgeous George are up to, Slider's going to have to start putting his own house in orders ... Book 2 of series

Detective Inspector Bill Slider has always been keen on architecture, and The Old Rectory is the kind of house he would give anything to won. But the dead body of Jennifer Andrews in her shallow grave rather spoils the view. The case looks straightforward enough: a provocative woman murdered by her violent and jealous husband. But as the investigation proceeds, new suspects and motives keep crawling out of the woodwork. It seems there is something rotten at the heart of the community surrounding the lovely old house. When Slider finally gets a confession, it's from a wholly incredible source. It seems in life there is always more going on than meets the eye...  Book 7 of series.

Lucas Smothers, nineteen and from the wrong end of town, has been arrested for the rape and murder of a local girl. His lawyer, former Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland, is convinced of Lucas's innocence, but proving it means unearthing the truth from the seething mass of deceit and corruption that spreads like wildfire in a gossipy small town where everybody knows everybody else's business. Billy Bob's relationship with Lucas's family is not an easy one. Years back he was a close friend of Mrs. Smother, too close, according to her husband. But when Lucas overhears gruesome tales of serial murder from a neighboring cell in the local lock-up, he himself looks like a candidate for an untimely death, and Billy Bob incurs enemies far more dangerous than any he faced as a Ranger.

In the gentle Shrewsbury spring of 1140 the midnight matins at the Benedictine abbey suddenly reverberates with an unholy sound - a hunt in full cry. Pursued by a drunken mob, the quarry is running for its life. When the frantic creature bursts into the nave to claim sanctuary, Brother Cadfael finds himself fighting off armed townsmen to save a terrified young man. Accused of robbery and murder is Liliwin, a wandering minstrel who performed at the wedding of the local goldsmith's son. But his supposed victim, the miserly craftsman, is still alive, although a strongbox lies empty. Brother Cadfael believes that Liliwin is innocent, but finding the truth and the treasure before Liliwin's respite in sanctuary runs out may uncover a deadlier sin than thievery - a desperate love that nothing, not even the threat of hanging, can stop.

London, 1956. Spymaster Henry Bone is convinced that 'Butterfly' is the Holy Grail of Cold War Intelligence. However, Butterfly is an aristocratic pervert whose political tastes are as ugly as his sexual preferences. Worst of all, he has the ability to identify traitors - and every serving British spy who helped them.

1896. Newly promoted to Head of Special Branch, Thomas Pitt is forced to face the danger his new position brings when he uncovers the work of a traitor in his department. Not knowing who to trust, he must unmask the conspirator, whist simultaneously protecting a suspected target, Austrian state visitor Duke Alois.

A small village in the Peak District, Withens is troubled by theft and vandalism, mostly generated by local family-from-hell, the Oxleys. Now it is the focus of a murder investigation – a man's body has been found on the bleak moors nearby, and the man is an Oxley. To crack the case, DC Ben Cooper must break open the delinquent clan. Book 4 of the series.

Rikard Olsen, a successful violin maker from Norway, is found dead in the canal in Cremona – and it wasn’t an accident. A mysterious, exquisitely-decorated Hardanger fiddle that he brought with him to Italy has disappeared. Rikard was a former pupil of Gianni Castiglione, and Gianni and his detective friend, Antonio Guastafeste, travel to Norway to investigate the murder – a journey that takes them to Grieg’s home at Troldhaugen; to Lysøen, the tranquil island retreat of Norway’s Paganini, Ole Bull, and high into the remote mountains where memories are long and secrets easy to conceal. The missing Hardanger fiddle had a carving of a hauntingly-beautiful young woman on the scroll. Gianni and Guastafeste believe that the woman may hold the key to the whole puzzle. But who was she and what made her so special that Rikard Olsen had to die? Book three in the series.

1195. When county coroner Sir John de Wolfe is summoned to the bleak Devonshire moors to investigate the murder of a tin miner, he has little idea how difficult the investigation will prove. A decapitated body, a missing tinner, a disgruntled band of miners – how can Crowner John sort all this out? Only Gwyn, John’s indispensable right-hand man, seems to be of any help at all – until Gwyn himself is arrested and tried for murder . . .

When eight-year-old Daisy Mason disappeared from a family party, no one in the quiet suburban street saw anything - or at least that's what they're saying. DI Adam Fawley is trying to keep an open mind. But he knows that someone is lying...And that Daisy's time is running out.

London, 1654. John Winter, hero of Cromwell's all-powerful army, is murdered and the lawyer, Elias Ellingworth, found standing over the bleeding body, clutching a knife. Despite the damning evidence, Damian Seeker, agent of the Lord Protector is not convinced of Ellingworth's guilt. He will stop at nothing to bring the killer to justice: and Seeker knows better than any man where to search.

Freshly promoted to the elite Major Crimes Team, DI Joe Faraday is thrown into the deep end with the investigation into the murder of prison officer Paul Coughlin. Was the violent Coughlin killed by a recently released con he brutalised in prison? Or is his death a legacy of a wider, more savage violence from twenty years before? X rated, contains offensive language and graphic violence.

For years Bazza Mackenzie has made millions selling cocaine and heroin into the streets of Portsmouth. The police set up a year long undercover operation to trap Mackenzie, but when one of the investigation's leading lights is put in hospital, Joe Faraday is drafted in to wrap things up. It should be a dream job but Bazza seems to be one step ahead of the investigation at every turn ..

The discovery of a headless corpse on the Isle of Wight is the beginning of a journey for DI Joe Faraday, which takes him to the heart of the grim trade in human cargo from the crippled societies of the Balkans. From cheap labour to prostitution, Portsmouth, like every other city in the UK, is home to a black economy built on illegal immigration. Joe Faraday is determined to find the real criminals that lie behind the tabloid hysteria.

An elderly sex-pest is at large in DI Purbright’s home town.
Leaping out from behind bushes at unsuspecting females, making lewd suggestions and, when challenged, scuttling away with odd off-balance leaps, he soon earns the nickname of the ‘Flaxborough crab’. No one can identify him, and it turns out that quite a few older gentlemen have begun exhibiting over-familiar behavior around the opposite sex.
Suave Dr Meadow knows more than he is letting on, yet how can Purbright, aided once again by the fragrant but dodgy Miss Lucy Teatime, get him to talk? Events take a darker turn before the ill-assorted pair succeed in catching their crab.

In Flaxborough’s posh neighbouring village, Mumblesbury, the local solicitor, Richard Daspard Loughbury, has suddenly died.

Natural causes it appears, but DI Purbright and the ever-helpful Miss Lucy Teatime are taken aback by the quality of Loughbury’s art collection – including a Paul Klee, a Corot, and even a fragment of the “True Cross”.

All seem to have been acquired locally and the question of blackmail hangs in the air. Loughbury’s decidedly un-posh widow, Zoe, is less than grief-stricken, as are a cast of colourful characters from randy farmers to gin-soaked county types. Then, the recent suicide of a local farmer’s wife also begins to look questionable.

Inspector Faro is invited to dinner at the house of the city's foremost police surgeon. Then the police surgeon's wife is reported missing, and a woman's torn and bloodstained cloak is found, but neither body nor real proof is present. As revelations regarding the woman's home life become more sinister and bizarre, Faro is convinced she is dead, and who has better opportunity for disposing the corpse of an unwanted wife than a police surgeon..

During a visit to the island where his mother still lives, Inspector Faro learns that a family friend has died of arsenic poisoning, and his investigation leads him to suspect both his teenage sweetheart and members of his family

A suicide from the unfinished Tay Bridge throws up a trail of sinister events in one of the most baffling and personal dilemmas of Inspector Faro's career involving the future of his doctor stepson Vince Laurie, the poet William McGonagall and a series of crimes which had tragic and far reaching repercussions several years later when the Tay Bridge fell in 1879.

Following an inexplicable ramming and gun attack on a Citroen DS in the middle of open countryside, and a bar brawl involving a group of drunken Englishmen, Inspector Lucas Rocco finds himself drawn into what has all the hallmarks of a plot to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle - one of many made on the French leader's life.

The death of Sylvia Kaye figured dramatically in Thursday afternoon's edition of the Oxford Mail. By Friday evening Inspector Morse had informed the nation that the police were looking for a dangerous man - but as the obvious leads fade, Morse becomes more and more convinced that passion holds the key.  Book 1 of series.

Yeah, yeah, the usual. A crime. A corpse. A killer. Heard it. Except this stiff happens to be a Ponsonby, scion of a venerable Edinburgh medical clan, and the manner of his death speaks of unspeakable things. Why is the body displayed like a slice of beef? How come his hands are digitally challenged? And if it's not the corpse, what is that awful smell? This is the first book in the Jack Parlabane series.

It is 1982 and Jack Sheffield returns to Ragley village school for his sixth year as headteacher. It’s the time of ET and Greenham Common, Prince William’s birth and the introduction of the new 20p piece. Meanwhile for Jack the biggest surprise of his life awaits!

Late one night, Jim Qwilleran is disturbed by the shrill ringing of the telephone. His erstwhile landlady, Iris Cobb, now resident manager of the Goodwinter Farm Museum, is distraught. Knowing her frail state of health Qwill is concerned and becomes even more so when a piercing scream severs their connection.

Arriving at the museum he finds Iris slumped on the kitchen floor. But what at first looks like a natural demise from heart disease proves to be much more sinister. Once more the detective talents of Koko and Yum Yum, Qwill's sleuthing Siamese companions, are in demand in Pickax City.

What begins as a straightforward holiday weekend for Sir Edward Leithen in the Cotswolds soon turns into something altogether different when one of Lady Flambard's other guests, the enigmatic Professor Moe, enlists the help of Leithen and his companions in a bizarre experiment to glimpse the future. For those who take part, the consequences are dramatic and Leithen's formidable powers of reasoning are brought to the fore.

'Merlin Trilogy' book 2, sequel to 'The Crystal Cave' (5494). This continues the story of young Arthur from his birth to his accession to the throne of Britain. And behind him is the strong, yet vulnerable figure of Merlin who knows so much but is powerless to prevent the strife and violence of his turbulent times.

The young woman was shot dead in cold blood, outside the stadium. Once her tennis career had skyrocketed. Now, the headlines were being made by another young player from the wrong side of the tracks. When Myron Bolitar investigates, he uncovers a connection between the two players and a six-year-old murder at an exclusive club. And with a dirty US senator, a jealous mother and the mob all drawn into the case, he finds himself playing the most dangerous game of all... Book 2 of series.

Rickie Elliot, a sensitive and intelligent young man with an intense imagination and a certain amount of literary talent, sets out from Cambridge full of hopes to become a writer. But when his stories are not successful he decides instead to marry the beautiful but shallow Agnes, agreeing to abandon his writing and become a schoolmaster at a second-rate public school. Giving up his hopes and values for those of the conventional world, he sinks into a world of petty conformity and bitter disappointments.

Porterhouse College is renowned for its gastronomic excellence, the arrogance of its Fellows and its academic mediocrity. Sir Godber Evans, ex-Cabinet Minister and the new Master, is determined to change all this, but provokes the wrath of the Dean and, most intransigent of all, Skullion the Head Porter - with hilarious and catastrophic results. X rated, contains offensive language.

Little Gloria Summers' body has been found, hidden inside two plastic bin bags in a disused warehouse. Somewhere in the city, a child killer is on the loose, free to strike again. Then Emily Morrison vanishes on a sunny Sunday afternoon. A week later there are still no clues.  Inspector Charlie Resnick is as appalled as the media. But years of patient police work have taught him a thing or two - including his conviction that those who jump to easy conclusions are often the last ones to solve a crime.

Notting Hill 1956: Fifteen-year-old Rina is scavenging and stealing to support her siblings and her alcoholic mother. When a local gangster attacks her younger sister, Rina wreaks violent revenge and murders him. Innocence betrayed, Rina faces the brutality of the post-war London underworld - a world that teaches her the skills she needs to kill... X rated, contains offensive language and explicit sex.

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is feeling the pressure from his superiors; his previous case is still giving him sleepless nights and an old adversary is back. But worse than all of this, he believes a Black Widow is operating in his city. One with a venomous mind...and venomous skills. Soon Grace comes to the frightening realization that he may have underestimated just how dangerous this lady is... Book 12 of series.