Charnwood library series

Anita Brookner has been called "one of the finest novelists of her generation" by The New York Times and "a latter-day Jane Austen" by Publishers Weekly. Now, in Dolly, Brookner continues to explore in her masterful way the changing truths of identity and relationships in the lives of women, with this brilliant portrait of a family. Mild and self-effacing, Jane Manning is ill prepared for the eruption into her life of her glamorous aunt, Dolly. Married to Jane's uncle, Dolly swirls into the Manning home, and, with her perfumed mink and bored laugh, makes it clear that her ways are not their ways, are not in fact anybody else's ways. Dolly becomes an object of both fascination and dread, and as Jane studies her aunt, she realizes that she and Dolly have absolutely nothing in common - nothing, except the fact that they are members of the same family. Jane begins to suspect that Dolly is not the woman she appears to be, that her elegant life is not as charming as she wants people to think. Then Dolly's husband dies, and Jane finds that she and her aunt are fated to be yoked together in uneasy social and financial harness. Brilliantly written, acutely observed, Dolly is Anita Brookner at her best, an elegant and illuminating exploration of how realities change, how power and perceptions alter over the course of a family's life.

Sydney McBride is writing a profile on a plastic surgery spa in Rio that caters to celebrities, and she's going under the knife herself--all to revive her sagging career. But then she gets wind of an even bigger story. Among the nips and tucks she discovers a mysterious and devastatingly attractive man claiming he's come to Rio to foil a plot that has the potential to unleash worldwide horror. Lucas Fox is Sydney's ticket to a comeback--one that could relaunch her into the limelight. All she has to do is gain his trust.But Lucas Fox trusts no one. He's a drop-dead gorgeous T-FLAC operative whose paranormal powers are flickering--but whose powers in bed rocket Sydney to a place she didn't know existed. Now, with the astounding secrets that she and Lucas have uncovered at the spa, Sydney is willing to take on her most risky career move of all. She'll work side by side with a world-hopping wizard--stopping only for the most forbidden pleasures along the way.The night sizzles to new heights in these novels of romantic suspenseFrom the Paperback edition.

For all her success and renown, however, Agatha Christie was a very private person. Over the years, many have attempted to capture her personality, her motivations, and the reasons for her enduring popularity, with little notable success. Now Charles Osborne, a lifelong student of Agatha Christie, has undertaken an examination of Christie and her accomplishments through her own work. The result is a comprehensive, illustrated guide to the world of Agatha Christie, featuring authoritative information on each book's provenance and on it's contemporary critical reception set against the background of the major events in the author's life.Illustrated with rarely seen photos and updated to include details of the publications, films and TV adaptations of her writings, this book provides fascinating reading for any Christie aficionado. AUTHORBIO: Charles Osborne is an internationally known expert on opera and theater who has written several books on the topics as well as novels, literary studies, and poetry.He is the author of three bestselling novelizations of Agatha Christie plays-Black Coffee (SMP, 1998), The Unexpected Guest (Minotaur, 1999), and Spider's Web (Minotaur, 2000). Osborne was born in Australia and lives in London.

To the accompaniment of flamenco guitars, a drama of espionage begins in a cafe courtyard in Malaga. For Ian Ferrier, on a vacation visit to his old friend Jeff Reid, it means the startling discovery that Reid is more than just a wine exporter...he is in fact a CIA agent who smuggles Cuban refugees into Spain. When a more important refugee--a high-ranking, defecting KGB agent--arrives, the drama intensifies. Ferrier finds himself alone and responsible for the defector's safety.

This is one of Hammond Innes's weakest books . It is overlong, wordy, with unbelievable characters and an even more unbelievable plot , which is not even satisfactorily resolved at the end. Sadly, it is a reflection of the author's failing powers as he grew older

In the scorching Australian desert, a wild, beautiful woman rescues a man from death. And discovers a stunning new life. He is a handsome English aristocrat, sprawled in the dunes, dying of thirst. She was a white-skinned savage, fleeing the aborigine tribe that found her and raised her but still shunned the fiery-haired outcast. Suddenly Meg is able to escape her primitive life as Luke introduces her to the strange ways of Victorian England. In a search filled with adventure and excitement that spans three continents, Meg uncovers the clues to her true identity—and realizes someone is trying to kill her. But the mysteries and secrets of the aborigines still pulse through the Victorian young lady, enabling Meg to triumph in the final desperate battle for survival and claim the only man she will ever love. Madeleine Brent fans will revel in this intriguing novel with its unusual setting, a masterly blend of mystery romance and cliff-hanging suspense.

In 1695, a notorious English pirate buried his bounty in a maze of booby-trapped tunnels on an island off the coast of Maine. In three hundred years, no one has breached this cursed and rocky fortress. Now a treasure hunter and his high-tech, million-dollar recovery team embark on the perfect operation to unlock the labyrinth's mysteries. First the computers fail. The then crewmen begin to die. The island has guarded its secrets for centuries, and it isn't letting them go--without a fight.

Dépendances cachées, politiques perfides et dangers mortels se cachent derrière les portes verrouillées de l'industrie pharmaceutique. À l'horizon se profile un nouveau médicament miracle conçu pour traiter une maladie mortelle, mais qui pourrait bien se transformer en cauchemar. Des milliards sont en jeu et des hommes, des femmes et des entreprises sont prêts à mentir, à tricher, voire à tuer pour obtenir leur part du gâteau.

Chief Inspector Morse, the irascible, brilliant detective of the Thames Valley Police, returns in six tales of detection, accompanied by five self-contained mysteries ranging in setting from a prison cell to a hotel lounge in the American Midwest.

Lizzie and Frances, identical twins nearing forty, have hardly marked a parallel progress together through life. Lizzie is confident and effusive, married, the mother of a large, vibrant brood, a successful gallery owner, and a consummate homemaker. Frances, on the other hand, is as elusive as Lizzie is accessible: She lives alone, operates a modestly successful travel agency, and has never had a serious attachment to a man. It seems, to her loving family, as if Frances is destined to move through life anchorless. But all that changes one Christmas when Frances makes an impulsive trip to Spain. There she falls in love—and not with just any man but with a wealthy, handsome, and married Spaniard named Luis, who, because he is Catholic, will never leave his wife. As Frances blossoms with newfound independence and relishes her engrossing affair, Lizzie becomes detached from her home life, which ultimately threatens her marriage. Though Lizzie’s was once the enviable life, now Frances has come into her own, and the twins must reexamine their roles—in their individual lives and in the special, shared world of sisterhood.

In the inky depths beneath Thunder Point a diver discovers a priceless treasure: a German U-boat sunk in American waters three weeks after the end of the Second World War. Inside is final proof that Martin Bormann escaped Hitler's bunker, and that he took with him the most explosive secrets of the Reich. St John, the Virgin Islands, 1992. For once, the lone diver's treasure was priceless: a German U-boat, sunk in American waters three weeks after the end of the war. Inside: final proof that Reichsleiter Martin Bormann escaped from Hitler's bunker -- with the Third Reich's hideous secrets intact. Among them: the names of British Nazi sympathisers -- some of them pillars of the establishment -- and the devastating document known as the Windsor Protocol. For the sake of national security, the U-boat must be destroyed. And no questions asked. Even if it means persuading Britain's most wanted IRA terrorist to take on the job!

El mundo alrededor de Oliver Watson parece disolverse cuando Sarah, su esposa durante dieciocho an os, regresa a Harvard para graduarse. Oliver es abandonado a su suerte, con tres hijos y una libertad que jama s deseo . Cuando la madre de Oliver muere, su padre tambie n ha cambiado: ma s osado que su hijo y con menos tiempo por vivir, George Watson pronto reencontrara el amor y un nuevo matrimonio. Ben, el hijo mayor de Oliver, rechaza a su padre. Melissa, la hija mediana, culpa a Oliver por la partida de su madre. Y Sam, el benjami n, se encuentra demasiado afectado como para soportarlo. A partir de ahora, sera papa quien deba lidiar con nuevas responsabilidades, nuevas mujeres, nuevas experiencias. Nada es como antes, nada es como ellos creyeron alguna vez que seri a.--Desde la descripcio n de la editorial.

All families are complicated, but some are more complicated than others. And Christmas can only make matters worse. After Ciara's estranged father is nearly killed by his second wife in a car accident - or was it an accident? - Ciara begins, gingerly, to re-enter his life. As her troubled family gather for the holidays, is it too much to hope that they begin to find peace at last? Of course it is. With cross-dressing twins, new loves and an unpredictably monstrous matriarch, Christmas was never going to be easy. But it proves both more disastrous and happier than any of them could have guessed.

The moving conclusion to the acclaimed Gollantz family saga. When young Charles Gollantz arrives at the sale rooms with a surprising claim, the family must adapt to a new reality. And the scene is set for another generation of intense sibling rivalry. Like many of the Gollantz men before him, Charles's love life is less than straightforward. Can he win the hand of beautiful Maria against her disapproving father's wishes? A touching last opportunity for readers to share in the lives and loves of Emmanuel, Viva, Simeon, Bill and their family and friends.

The three met in the aftermath of San Francisco's devastating 1906 earthquake--the Mandarin Lai Tsin, a runaway American heiress, and a young Englishwoman. Against all odds they made their dreams come true, building one of the world's largest trading companies and most luxurious hotels... They had only each other--and bloody secrets to bury even as they rose to dizzying heights, wary of love yet vulnerable to passion in its most dangerous forms... The Mandarin would pass his multi-billion-dollar empire only to the women in the Lai Tsin dynasty--along with one last devastating truth....Sweeping from the turn of the century through the 1960's, from the Orient to San Francisco and New York, Elizabeth Adler has written a magnificent novel of new wealth and old privilege, family passions and secret shame, of women surviving, triumphant, in the riveting saga of romantic intrigue.From the Paperback edition.

Een jonge vrouw die door het vergaan van de Titanic in 1912 ouders en verloofde verliest, neemt de zorg voor haar broertjes en zusjes op zich.

aftermath of civil war

Bettina Daniels lived a fairytale existence of glamour, endless parties, and luxury among America's top celebrities -- simply because she was the beautiful daughter of famous American author Justin Daniels. Then, in one moment of tragedy, her father was dead, and Bettina discovered the truth -- he had spent every dime he'd ever earned and run up millions in debt. At eighteen, penniless and alone, she had lost everything except her father's dearest friend, Ivo Stewart. A wealthy, handsome publisher of sixty-two, he offered Bettina a way out: marriage. But only for a time. What lay ahead for Bettina was a life filled with shocks and surprises -- and eventually a chance to become a playwright, and a writer like her father. Having learned her lessons dearly, Bettina blossoms into her own person at last. — From the Paperback edition.

When the game begins in New Orleans this Super Bowl Sunday . . . 80,000 people had better get ready to die. The Super Bowl--where thousands have gathered for an all-American tradition. Suddenly it's the most terrifying place on earth . . . Michael Lander is the most dangerous man in America. He pilots a television blimp over packed football stadiums every weekend. He is fascinated with explosives. And he happens to be very, very crazy. That's why a beautiful PLO operative has seduced him. That's why--on Super Bowl Sunday--the world will witness the bloody assassination of the U. S. president and the worst mass murder in history. Unless someone discovers what Michael Lander plans . . . and can kill him first. From the Paperback edition.

The Chamber (1994) is a legal thriller written by American author John Grisham. It is Grisham's fifth novel.

In the Irish town of Schancarrig, the young people carve their initials--and those of their loves-into the copper beech tree in front of the schoolhouse. But not even Father Gunn, the parish priest, who knows most of what goes on behind Shancarrig's closed doors, or Dr. Jims, the village doctor, who knows all the rest, realizes that not everything in the placid village is what it seems.From the Hardcover edition.

When Karen Cornell, a beautiful journalist on assignment in Czechoslovakia, agrees to help a would-be defector by carrying top-secret documents to Washington, she is pulled into an astonishing web of terrorism, political assassination, blackmail, espionage, and treason in the highest levels of both superpowers. One false move could cost Karen her life -- and throw the world into violent war

Includes material on Shirley Temple Black's service as the United States delegate to the United Nations and as ambassador to Ghana.

Ben Harcourt was only a lad when his unemployed father went off on the Jarrow march for jobs. And while the glamour and excitement of the send-off thrilled him, the politics of socialism failed to penetrate his bright young mind. When the Second World War forced his parents to send young Ben to safety in the country with his Aunt Ethel he was quick to see the advantages of wealth as he witnessed with envy and contempt the lifestyle of his soldier uncle's employers, the Pemberleys of Berringer Hall. For his spirited cousin Josie, the desperate struggle of decent working class people for a living while the Pemberleys indifferently squandered their fortune could not be ignored. Her feelings for her adored cousin Ben suggested an alternative course, but her one ambition was firmly established from the first: to become a Member of Parliament for the triumphant post-war Labour Party. Nicola Pemberley lived in a different world from the rough, attractive playmates who burst into her privileged existence just as her handsome father set off for war, never to return. As she grew into a beautiful but extravagant woman, her love for Ben blinded her to his faults as he amassed a growing fortune in the property world — a fortune that would never reconcile Nicola's snobbish mother to a marriage between her daughter and a boy of such lowly origins. And as Ben courted the woman who would gain him entry to a world he secretly despised, his determination to ignore his growing attraction for Josie, who knew him best, and his business partner's increasingly shady dealings sowed the seeds of great trouble ahead . . .

There's a place in every heart for forgiving.... SARAH She came to Deadwood, a rough and tumble western town, with an ambitious dream of starting a newspaper. But her journey had another purpose--to find her sister and mend the family tie that was severed years ago, when Addie left home with a hardened heart--and without an explanation. NOAH The thought of this headstrong woman turning his town upside down riled Marshal Campbell to no end. But there was something about Sarah that the lawman found irresistible. Inside, he longed to treat her like a lady. But outside, he'd keep up his ornery image--and give her a rocky welcome to town... Two strong-willed souls, Sarah and Noah would discover the timeless beauty of love--when the heart learns to take back the past and start again...

The bestselling novel from the master storyteller of the sea.1899, China. The Mandarins are becoming troublesome again and there are rumors that attacks will soon begin on British trade missions and legations. Captain David Blackwoodof the Royal Marines, received a VC in the bloody battle for Benin, Africa but is now being packed off to this apparent backwater.But there are plenty of troubles in store for Blackwood in the shape of an errant nephew and a beautiful German Countess who insists he personally escort her up river on a small steamer into the heart of the country.China is a sleeping tiger that will soon awake when the Boxer Rebellion erupts into bloody war in 1900. True to their motto, the Royal marines are the first to land – and the last to leave.This is the second novel in the Blackwood saga, spanning 150 years in the history of a great seafaring family and the tradition in which they served.

Set in the world of international business, it moves from the boardrooms of Europe to the high-tech companies of Japan, as a mysterious group of businessmen pursue a mission to save the world's remaining resources.

In Home Song, one of her most acclaimed novels, bestselling author LaVyrle Spencer explores the fragile bonds that exist between family members, the strength it takes to hold them together, and the true meaning of unconditional love. When high school principal Tom Gardner recognizes a new transfer student as the son he never knew -- the result of a one-night stand on the eve of his wedding years before -- the entire Gardner family is forced to deal with issues they've long denied, and a crisis they never expected. As the revelation takes its emotional toll, everyone involved must find their own way to rebuild their lives, their loves, and their ability to forgive.

Flashman is in America fleeing a murder charge, traveling with a brothel on wheels toward California, tricking the noble redman while seducing their women, and reaching his moment of supreme ingloriousness and fear--under fire at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

A story about a poor young, orphaned girl who arrives in New York to an unknown future. She was not prepared for the rough and tumble life as a hotel maid! Love, hate, great poverty and great wealth along with Mafia underworld.

A story of the life and death struggles in a large hospital, it focuses on Joe Pearson, the chief pathologist who must make the final diagnosis on every patient, and eventually on himself.

Contains primary source material.

Ellis, the American. Jean-Pierre, the Frenchman. They were two men on opposite sides of the cold war, with a woman torn between them. Together, they formed a triangle of passion and deception, racing from terrorist bombs in Paris to the violence and intrigue of Afghanistan - to the moment of truth and deadly decision for all of them... The intrigue surrounding Russian efforts to assassinate Masud, the leader of the Afghan guerrilla forces battling the Russians, sweeps a young Englishwoman, a French physician, and a roving American into its maelstrom

História de uma jovem correspondente de guerra, inteligente e determinada, que bem cedo conhece a dor e o sofrimento daqueles que direta ou indiretamente foram atingidos pela guerra do Vietnã.

British Captain Nick Everard's destroyer is crippled by Nazi gunfire in the German invasion of Norway. Desperately attempting to repair his ship hidden in a remote fjord, Everard is unaware that his son is part of an Allied naval flotilla converging on Norway, and the two are fated to join forces in a deadly arctic battle.

Wings is the story of a young woman who fights all the odds to fulfil her dreams. From her family's dusty farmland airstrip near Chicago, Cassie O'Malley would look at the planes shimmering in the moonlight and feel the pull of taking to the skies. Her First World War veteran father Pat wanted his son to be a pilot, not his reckless red-haired daughter. But her father's partner Nick, fellow air ace and airborne daredevil, was willing to break all the rules and teach her to fly.When Cassie is invited to California to become a test pilot, her record-breaking flights soon make her a media darling. Risking her life, pushing herself to her limits, in a world preparing for the Second World War, she decides to chart her own course and pursue her own destiny, whatever it might cost her.

Annalice Mallory is consumed with curiousity when she discovers the neglected grave of an ancestress with a name similar to her own. But it is her brother Philip who acts on the discovery of the long-dead Ann Alice's map and journals, and who sails in search of the legendary Paradise Island.

María Casilda Montero was born on a vast bull ranch in Southern Spain. Half English, half Spanish, was the adored favourite of her wealthy aristocratic father, she was wilful, adorable, selfish and enchanting. In 1909, the eight-year-olds Cassie was sent from her family hacienda to an English convent school. The beautiful and hot-blooded Cassy befriends Joscelin Howard, a shy and serious English girl from a humbler background. As a child, Joss falls in love with Alan Costain, Cassy's English cousin. Both girls find themselves and the two men who came to love them, were to be swept up in the dramatic events unfolding in Europe, and their enduring friendship is the only constant reference point in their lives. Set against the looming tragedy of the Spanish Civil War and the rising menace of Fascism in Europe, complex passions draw each girl into the drama and grandeur of aristocratic Europe. From the carefree glamour of London high society to the devastation of the battlefields in Spain, the two women and their families are tragically linked by passion and bloodshed.

This collection of eight stories feature characters such as Christie's most famous detective, Hercule Poirot, Mr Parker Pyne and the mysterious Harley Quin.

From postwar Japan's darkest corners to present-day New York City's most exotic private places, one man runs from his own past and from the cult of remorseless assassins, The Ninja, which embodies the more sinister side of the Samurai tradition.

A young woman is innocently caught up in a terrorist organization that is under surveillance by an army major she once loved at age fifteen.

When fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold accompanies his individualistic grandmother on an expedition to find a humanoid Beast in the Amazon, he experiences ancient wonders and a supernatural world as he tries to avert disaster for the Indians. "Alexander Cold, un joven de quinces años, está a punto de embarcarse con su temeraria abuela, en el viaje de su vida."

"Lorsqu'elle fait la connaissance du beau, riche et irrésistible Erich Krueger, Jenny, divorcée, a le coup de foudre. Après une cour hâtive, Erich l'épouse et l'emmène avec ses filles chez, lui au Minnesota, dans une maison de rêve. Mais le bonheur de Jenny ne dure pas longtemps. Bientôt survient une succession d'incidents étranges et terrifiants ; le conte de fées tourne à l'éprouvante ...

Red cedars, beautiful to behold, vital to the ecology, were protected by a curse. Now the face a danger more lethal.