Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London's West End on 30th July 2016. It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children. While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

The falling snow brings a hush to Three Pines - until a scream pierces the air. A spectator at the annual Boxing Day curling match has been fatally electrocuted. Heading the investigation, Chief Inspector, Armand Gamache unravels the dead woman's past and discovers a history of secrets and enemies. But Gamache has enemies of his own.

Murder

Jack Reacher walks alone. Once a go-to hard man in the US military police, now heâe(tm)s a drifter of no fixed abode. But the army tracks him down. Because someone has taken a long-range shot at the French president. Only one man could have done it. And Reacher is the one man who can find him. This new heartstopping, nailbiting book in Lee Childâe(tm)s number-one bestselling series takes Reacher across the Atlantic to Paris âe" and then to London. The stakes have never been higher - because this time, itâe(tm)s personal.

"The dead rarely leave matters tidy, widow Clare Hills knows that all too well. In search of a new start, Clare reconnects with university friend Dr David Barbrook and is pleased when he asks for her help sifting through the effects of recently deceased archaeologist Gerald Hart. Together they stumble on the lost finds from Gerald's most glittering dig. Hidden from view for decades, and supposedly destroyed in an arson attack, the discovery of the Hungerbourne Barrows archive is every archaeologist's dream. However, the dream soon turns to a nightmare which puts Clare at the centre of a murder inquiry." -- Provided by publisher.

Angelina and her cousin Henry show true Christmas spirit when they visit old Mr Bell, the retired postman who lives all alone. Their generosity is rewarded when they discover that there is a real Santa Claus living right in their own village! 'Angelina is a magical character who fulfils every little girl's dreams.' Darcey Bussell, OBE

The unputdownable, spine-chilling thriller from the queen of crime, Val McDermid. 'There are lots of things that ran in families, but murder wasn't one of them . . .' When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up in a coma, a routine DNA test could be the key to unlocking the mystery of a twenty-year-old murder inquiry. Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie is an expert at solving the unsolvable. With each cold case closed, justice is served. So, finding the answer should be straightforward, but it's as twisted as the DNA helix itself. Meanwhile Karen finds herself irresistibly drawn to another case, one that she has no business investigating. And as she pieces together decades-old evidence, Karen discovers the most dangerous kinds of secrets. Secrets that someone is willing to kill for . . . Number one bestseller, Val McDermid returns with her most atmospheric, gripping novel to date. 'The queen of crime is still at the top of her game' Independent 'It grabs the reader by the throat and never lets go' Daily Mail 'Incredibly suspenseful' Sunday Mirror ***The new Karen Pirie thriller from number one bestseller Val McDermid, Broken Ground, is out now***

Children's Fiction

The First Hints of Purple is a wide-ranging collection of stories whose meticulous, elegant prose encompasses everyday experience alongside shrewd and often comic insights into human nature. Many of the tales are familiar in form whilst others comprise what Hill refers to as ‘indeterminate literary entities’. These probe beneath the surface of ordinary events in pursuit of those indefinable aspects of reality about which no convincing explanation exists. Although such matters are by nature ‘profound’, they are also part of daily life - thereby justifying a hint of schadenfreude when a passenger train to Heathrow is delayed. Alternatively, we can only watch in silence as the Fireweed, displaying its ‘first hints of purple’, bursts into flower, regardless of ‘nature red in tooth and claw’ in the nearby undergrowth. By contrast, in ‘The Rathbone-Baker Prize’, we can breeze lightheartedly along to the Quantum Gallery where a visitor fails to realise that a pile of newspapers is not just a pile of newspapers but a bona fide exhibit! The First Hints of Purple is a collection of tales in which subject matter, mood, length and style vary greatly. Featured at intervals, there’s a further, distinctive side to Hill’s work in which his characters meditate on the enigma of ‘time’. Indeed, mentioned repeatedly throughout the diverse and always riveting ups-and-downs of Hill’s stories, ‘time’ is a recurrent question. And it’s a question to which he wisely gives no answer! Underpinned throughout by humour, this book will appeal to established short story lovers as well as to a broader readership.

Child's book