Clare Corbett

From the very first book publication in 1920 to the upcoming film release of Death on the Nile, this investigation into Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot celebrates a century of probably the world’s favourite fictional detective. This book tells his story decade-by-decade, exploring his appearances not only in the original novels, short stories and plays but also across stage, screen and radio productions. Poirot has had near-permanent presence in the public eye ever since the 1920 publication of The Mysterious Affair at Styles. From character development, publication history and private discussion concerning the original stories themselves, to early forays on to the stage and screen, the story of Poirot is as fascinating as it is enduring. Based on the author’s original research, review excerpts and original Agatha Christie correspondence, Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World is a lively and accessible history of the character, offering new information and helpful pieces of context, that will delight all Agatha Christie fans, from a new generation of readers to those already highly familiar with the canon.

Scarlett's aunt lived - and was brutally murdered - in the apartment upstairs. But Scarlett is determined that life return to some kind of normal, even if that means living with just a ceiling between her and the scene of this devastating crime. After all, this is her home. She's safe here. Isn't she?

Dee is busy balancing her job as a funeral director with organising an event to mark the disappearance of her best friend, ten years ago. So she's got enough on her plate without worrying about the threatening messages that are appearing on her company's Facebook page.

When Scarlett approaches Dee about planning her aunt's funeral, there emerges an unexpected link between them. Together, the two women could uncover secrets that have long been buried. Even while someone wants to stop them digging . . .

One ordinary morning, Norah walked out of her house and never looked back. Six years later, she returns only to find another woman in her place. Fay held Norah’s family together after she disappeared. Now that Norah has returned, everyone has questions. Why did she leave? And why is she back? What happens to the mother who stayed when the mother who left comes back?

When fourteen-year-old Sophie Monroe vanishes, it looks at first as though she's run away from home. However, as the police investigation unfolds, a wealth of secrets from the community start coming to light. For Detective Andrea Lawrence, the case is a painful reminder of the tragedy that tore her family apart over twenty years ago. She is convinced there is more to Sophie's disappearance than teenage rebellion.

Psychologist Evi has taken on a new patient: a grieving mother who lost her daughter in a fire two years ago - but who is convinced her little girl is still alive.

Meanwhile, the new vicar in town is not feeling welcome. Disturbing events seem designed to scare him away.

And all the while, a young boy keeps seeing a solitary girl playing among the graves in the churchyard.

But who is she, and what is she trying to tell him?

Bonnie has spent the summer rehearsing with a band to play at a wedding. But what was meant to be fun turns deadly as lovers betray one another, passions turn murderous and friendship itself becomes a crime. Everyone tells lies. But who is prepared to tell the truth to uncover a murderer?

Hannah Davidson has a dementia-stricken father, an estranged TV star brother, and a mother whose death opened up hidden fault lines beneath the surface of their ordinary family life.

Now the same age that Jen Davidson was when she was killed, Hannah realises she bears an uncanny resemblance to her glamorous mother, and when her father begins to confuse them she is seriously unnerved.

Determined to uncover exactly what happened to her mum, Hannah begins to exploit her arresting likeness, but soon the boundaries between Hannah and her mother become fatally blurred.

Demelza Carne, the impoverished miner's daughter Ross Poldark rescued from a fairground rabble, is now his wife. But the events of these turbulent years test their marriage and their love. Demelza's efforts to adapt to the ways of the gentry - and her husband - bring her confusion and heartache, despite her joy in the birth of their first child. Ross begins a bitter struggle for the rights of the mining communities - and sows the seed of an enduring enmity with powerful George Warleggan.  Book 2 of series.

Ruth Galloway’s latest case will push her to the edge…her old friend Dan thinks he has made a discovery that will change archaeology forever; but he is killed in a fire. DCI Nelson discovers mysterious circumstances surrounding Dan's death. Ruth is drawn into the mystery, but this time, it's not just Ruth's life at risk. Book 5 of series.

Four-year-old Sami is deeply traumatised, and it's up to psychologist Dr Jessie Flynn to unlock his terrifying memories. Meanwhile, Jessie's former patient, Captain Ben Callan, is investigating the suspicious death of an officer in Afghanistan. When a dead body washes up on a Sussex beach, Jessie and Ben's cases converge, and it soon becomes clear that a desperate killer will do anything to keep the truth buried....

In Norfolk a construction crew unearths a buried WWII plane with the pilot still inside. He is identified as a local aristocrat who had been reported dead at sea. Events are further complicated by a TV company that wants to make a film about Norfolk's deserted air force bases, the so-called Ghost Fields, which have been partially converted into a pig farm. Then human bones are found on the pig farm. Book 7 of series.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century and for the first few years of the twentieth, a strange invasion took place in Britain. The citadel of power, privilege and breeding in which the titled, land-owning governing class had barricaded itself for so long was breached.

From 1874 to 1905, dozens of young American heiresses married into the British peerage, bringing with them all the fabulous wealth, glamour and sophistication of the Gilded Age.

Anne de Courcy sets the stories of these young women and their families in the context of their times. Based on extensive first-hand research, drawing on diaries, memoirs and letters, this richly entertaining group biography reveals what they thought of their new lives in England - and what England thought of them.

If you could test your son for a gene that predicts violence, would you do it? Antonia and Bea are sisters, and doting mothers to their sons. But that is where their similarities end. Antonia had her son tested to make sure he didn't possess the "violent" M gene. Bea refuses to let her son take the test. His life should not be determined by a positive or negative result. These women will go to any length to protect their sons. But one of them is hiding a monster. And there will be fatal consequences for everybody....

Ten-year-old Bertie Fletcher is desperate for a pet but her dad won’t allow it. Bertie comes up with what she thinks is the perfect solution: she sets up a pet-sitting service.

Rosemary has lived in Brixton all her life, but everything she knows is changing. Only the local lido, where she swims every day, remains a constant reminder of the past and her beloved husband George.

Kate has just moved and feels adrift in a city that is too big for her. She's on the bottom rung of her career as a local journalist, and is determined to make something of it.

So when the lido is threatened with closure, Kate knows this story could be her chance to shine. But for Rosemary, it could be the end of everything. Together they are determined to make a stand, and to prove that the pool is more than just a place to swim - it is the heart of the community.

Fran Hall and her husband Nathan live in a farmhouse on the edge of the Fens. One night, when Fran is woken by her baby, she finds the bed empty beside her and Nathan gone. As Fran finds herself under police scrutiny, the questions begin to mount. Is there something that she is hiding from them – something she has kept hidden from everyone, including her husband?

When fifteen-year-old Billy Wilkinson goes missing in the middle of the night his mother, Claire, blames herself. But she is sure of two things – that Billy is still alive and that her friends and family had nothing to do with his disappearance. A mother's instinct is never wrong. Or is it? Sometimes those closest to us are the ones with the most to hide…

Emma and Abby have a history but since they stopped being friends Emma has tried to change into a different person. She has a secret liking for fantasy games and is afraid her new friends will not understand her. When Abby disappears Emma is forced to make contact with her old life and makes some discoveries about herself.

Singer Kandhi has a daughter, Holly Bliss Winterman. Kandhi takes Holly out of boarding school to live with her. Holly misses school and her friends and doesn’t want to become a mini version of her mum.

Alisha Barba's dreams of being a detective were shattered when a murder suspect broke her back across a brick wall. Now on her feet again, with her police career in limbo, she receives a message from an old school friend, Cate Beaumont, who is eight months pregnant and in trouble.

On the night they arrange to meet, Cate is mown down by a car that kills her husband instantly. As paramedics fight to save her life they discover there is no baby. Her pregnancy is an elaborate lie, a cruel deception.

Why? What happened? As Alisha sets out to answer these questions she is drawn deeper and deeper into a dangerous quest that will take her from the East End of London to Amsterdam's red light district and into a murky underworld of sex trafficking, slavery and exploitation.

The Spanish House is a mixture of designs, Georgian, Gothic and Moorish, as if whoever started it had simply got bored. For Isabel, recently widowed, the house is a potential lifeline. But for neighbour Matt McCarthy, the house is revenge - on the family who ruined his father. As desires clash and intertwine, lives and loves are demolished - and the Spanish House becomes a true folly indeed...

Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway has excavated a body from the grounds of Norwich Castle; it’s believed to be that of infamous Victorian, Jemima Green, who murdered five children in her care. DCI Harry Nelson is immersed in the case of three infants found dead in their King's Lynn home. But then a child goes missing. Could the abduction be linked to the long-dead Mother Hook? Book 6 of series.

Scarlett used to be obsessed about how she looked and what people thought of her. She would go all gooey over Sun God Matt. Why didn't she listen to Hattie and pay more attention to Simon?

Nobody speaks to strangers on the train. But what would happen if they did?

Every day at 8:05, Iona Iverson boards the train to go to work. Every day, she sees the same people and makes assumptions about them, even giving them nicknames. But they never speak. Obviously.

Then, one morning, Smart-but-Sexist-Surbiton chokes on a grape right in front of Iona. Suspiciously-Nice-New Malden steps up to help and saves his life, and this one event sparks a chain reaction.

With nothing in common but their commute, an eclectic group of people learn that their assumptions about each other don't match reality. But when Iona's life begins to fall apart, will her new friends be there when she needs them most?

Eighteen-year-old Emma has loving parents and a promising future ahead of her.

So why, one morning, does she leave home without a trace?

Her parents, Cath and Jim, are devastated. They have no idea why Emma left, where she is - or even whether she is still alive.

A year later, Cath and Jim are still tormented by the unanswered questions Emma left behind, and clinging desperately to the hope of finding her.

Meanwhile, tantalisingly close to home, Emma is also struggling with her new existence - and with the trauma that shattered her life.

For all of them, reconciliation seems an impossible dream. Does the way forward lie in facing up to the secrets of the past - secrets that have been hidden for years?

Secrets that have the power to heal them, or to destroy their family forever ...

All Anna wants is to be able to sleep. But memories of that terrible night are making it impossible. To escape her past, Anna takes a job at a hotel on the remote Scottish island of Rum, but what started as a retreat from the world turns into a deadly nightmare. There's a murderer staying in the Bay View hotel. And they've set their sights on Anna. Seven strangers. Seven secrets. One deadly lie. Someone’s going to sleep and never wake up…

When little Kay is enticed away from his home by the Snow Queen who traps him in her palace in the cold far north, his loyal friend Gerda goes on a long and dangerous journey to rescue him. With this classic children's story are four more tales from the imagination of Hans Christian - the story of a cunning frog, an old house and a snowman who is unaware of the effects of the coming spring.

Ursula, Gareth and Alice have never met before. Ursula thinks she killed the love of her life. Gareth’s been receiving strange postcards. And Alice is being stalked. None of them are used to relying on others – but when the three strangers’ lives unexpectedly collide, there’s only one thing for it: they have to stick together. Otherwise, one of them will die. Three strangers, two secrets, one terrifying evening.

Poor Jude lives with her embarrassing grandparents. She doesn’t tell anyone about her family, even her closest friends. Her mum is an alcoholic and her dad is an Elvis impersonator. Her dad’s girlfriend, Victoria, is the only person remotely normal in her family.

1912. In the shadows of a Sussex churchyard, a woman lies dead. As flood waters rise, Connie Gifford is marooned in a decaying house with her increasingly tormented father. An accident has robbed her of her most significant childhood memories. Until the disturbance at the church awakens fragments of those vanished years . . .