1714 Books
Sunshine, rock gods and Hollywood hearthrobs! Jessie Jefferson is back in the next instalment from bestselling author Paige Toon. Perfect for fans of Geek Girl, Jessica Cole and Girl Online. Life as the undercover daughter of a rock god isn't going to be easy. How will Jessie adjust to her old boring life again after spending her summer living it up with her dad in LA? With tough decisions ahead (and not just choosing between two hot boys), can she cope juggling her two very different lives? Summer may be over, but Jessie's story is just beginning… 'Lots of fun' Heat magazine (four-star review) 'Fun and flirty, Jessie Jefferson is a top notch series YA fans should grab ASAP' Maximum Pop! 'A page-turner perfect for holidays' Closer 'A fabulous continuation of Jessie Jefferson's story...I loved every single second' Rachel's Random Reads blog Everyone loves Jessie! 'I didn't put The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson down until I'd got to the very last page.' The Bookbag 'Addictive' Books for Company 'Packed with wit, charm, Californian sunshine and celebrities' Handwritten Girl Praise for Paige Toon 'If you want escapism, Paige Toon is perfect' Cosmopolitan 'Brilliant' Heat 'Witty and sexy - perfect holiday reading material' Closer
*Kazuo Ishiguro's new novel Klara and the Sun is now available to preorder* One of the most acclaimed novels of the 21st Century, from the Nobel Prize-winning author Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewed version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now thirty-one, Never Let Me Go dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship and memory, Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life. 'Exquisite.' Guardian 'A feat of imaginative sympathy.' New York Times What readers are saying: 'A book I will return to again and again, and one that keeps me thinking even after finishing it. 5/5 stars' 'I loved it, every single word of it.' 'It took me wholly by surprise.' 'Utterly beautiful.' 'Essentially perfect.'
Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant are assigned to investigate the discovery of a disembodied head during the Derby Day at Epson Downs, and soon find themselves snarled up in a web of skullduggery.
January 1910. A journalist has been killed in a suspicious blaze. Everything points to a group of suffragettes, but the apparent culprit insists she is innocent. When Lady Hardcastle receives a letter from a suffragette requesting her urgent help, the retired spy turned sleuth knows only she stands between an accused young woman and the gallows. Evidence at the scene makes Lizzie Worrel's innocence difficult to believe, and with the police treating it as an open-and-shut case of arson, Lady Hardcastle faces a barrage of resistance as she tries to dig out the truth. With her trusted maid and confidante, the formidable Flo, Lady Hardcastle sets off in pursuit of the truth as time runs out for the accused suffragette. Was she set up? And if so, is the real culprit a traitor to the cause--or part of a darker conspiracy?
August 1911. Emily Hardcastle and her inimitable lady's maid Florence Armstrong are enjoying a fine summer until Harry, Lady H's brother, turns up out of the blue with a mystery for them to solve. A routine parachute test at a local aeroplane factory has gone horribly wrong--with pilot Dickie Dupree plummeting to his death. Harry is certain there is more to this 'tragic accident' than meets the eye, having discovered that someone at the airfield is leaking top secret intelligence to foreign rivals. In between strolls to the Dog & Duck and planning for the annual village show, the daring duo dust off the Crime Board and go undercover at Bristol Aviation. With international powers investing heavily in aeronautics, the stakes are high--sky high--and the suspects soon mount up. Can Lady Hardcastle find the culprit before someone else falls down dead?
July 1910. Lady Hardcastle and her tireless sidekick Flo have finally embarked on a long-overdue seaside break. But just as they're wavering between ice creams and donkey rides, their fellow guests start to go missing--and the duo find themselves with a hysterical hotel manager and a case to solve. The first to disappear is Dr Goddard, a scientist doing something terribly top-secret for the government. Gone too are his strongbox and its mysterious contents. By the time Lady Hardcastle has questioned the horde of international guests, her number-one suspect has been dispatched in grisly circumstances--and then the others start vanishing too. As the case begins to look like a matter of national security, Lady Hardcastle takes advice from her brother in the secret service. But could there be an even more personal connection at play? To solve the case, Lady Hardcastle may face a shocking discovery of her own.
Late October 1909, and the season of ghouls and things that go bump in the night has descended on the village of Littleton Cotterell. Lady Hardcastle and her trusted lady's maid, Florence, find themselves hosting a colourful cast of actors whose spooky moving picture, The Witch's Downfall, is being shown to mark Halloween. But things take a macabre turn when the first night's screening ends with a mysterious murder, and the second night with another...One by one the actors turn up dead in ways that eerily echo their film. With the police left scratching their heads, Lady Hardcastle calls upon her amateur sleuthing skills to launch an investigation, with Flo's able assistance. Surrounded by suspects both human and supernatural, Lady Hardcastle must use a little trickery of her own to unmask the murderer.
When Lady Hardcastle and her maid, Florence, are invited to Lord Riddlethorpe’s country estate for a week of motor racing and parties, they both agree it sounds like a perfectly charming holiday. But when one of the drivers dies in a crash during the very first race, they discover that what seemed like an uncharacteristic error in judgement may have a more sinister explanation . . . Closer investigation reveals that the driver’s car was sabotaged – and the driver murdered. The local constabulary are quick to dismiss the case, but Flo and Lady Hardcastle are determined to find out just who has committed this dastardly act, and why. As the pair begin to make enquiries of Lord Riddlethorpe’s servants and guests, it seems that, below stairs and above, there is more to this case than meets the eye. And, even in the quiet of the countryside, death is always just around the bend.
Spring, 1909, and Lady Hardcastle, amateur sleuth and all-round eccentric, is enjoying a well-deserved rest. But a week after a trip to the cattle market, Spencer Caradine, a local farmer, turns up dead in the pub, face-down in his beef and mushroom pie. Once again, it is up to Lady Hardcastle and her maid, Florence, to solve the case. Armed with wit and whimsy, not to mention Florence's mean right hook, the pair set out to discover what really happened and why. Was it poison or just ill luck? As they delve further into their investigation, they encounter a theft where nothing is stolen, a s�ance with a troubled ghost and an ever-increasing number of Spencer's family and friends who might just have motive for murder. One thing's for sure: Lady Hardcastle has a mystery on her hands.