Rod was a television reporter with the ultimate gimmick. Thanks to the marvels of microsurgery, TV cameras were implanted in his eyes. He could broadcast people''s actions without them even knowing it. But when he was forced to spy on a dying woman, he deliberately blinded himself by overloading his sensitive circuits.Rod thought that he could opt out of the tough choice that society was forcing him to make. He was wrong, of course. Dead wrong . . .

The time: 1979The place: a top-secret US Air Force base in the CotswoldsThe actors: carefully selected, healthy-living personnelThe missions: long-range reconnaissance flightsThe problem: is there any connection between these flights and the growing menace of a strange blood-cancer disease that is spreading through the world? Several of the more intelligent and intuitive realise that there is. There are those who retain their integrity, and doing so, lose their lives; and there are those who live silently in their knowledge, condemned to lives of emotional death.

On board an obsolete ship, nine weeks out from home, the latest batch of colonists arrive at their destination. A grim penal settlement in a wilderness worlds away from the homes they will never see again. TASMANIA? BOTANY BAY? No.For this is tomorrow, not yesterday. The dumping ground for social outcasts and political deportees is Mars, barren, unproductive, but invaluable as a convict settlement. What kind of welcome will the twenty-four deportees receive when the reception party from the Settlement reaches their stranded ship? And how will they survive in a primitive environment, an alien system?

Edward Cadence was a brilliant man, and a dedicated scientist. He had invented Sensitape, a means of recording the thoughts and emotions of great musicians, religious figures, etc. so that others could experience at first-hand just what it was like to play a magnificent concerto, or to slip peacefully toward an untroubled death with the sure expectation that Heaven lies waiting. And he had added Sexitape, whereby people whose sex lives weren''t completely satisfying could experience everything that the most compatible couple in the world felt together.For all this he was given the Nobel Prize, became enormously wealthy and famous.But finally he set to work on the ultimate application of his experiments: Synthajoy. And when the enormity of this dehumanising process became clear, he was murdered.

The palace was several hundred years old, a sort of haphazard medieval city containing church buildings, stables, army barracks - and the offices and homes of the ministers of the Revolutionary Government, in a Communist satellite country somewhere in Europe. The palace rose starkly and threateningly out of the marshes, its three great gilt domes reminding observers of the glittering monarchies that once resided there. But all was changed, all was forbidding."We stand too high to be human, Katarin", says the President of the country to his tempestuous, unloving wife. The revolution, which made him absolute ruler, has also taken him away from Katarin, dehumanizing him and his power-ridden ministers. Katarin, in defiance of the restrictions that bind her life, takes a lover, finding herself liberated even as she senses that the consequences are sure to be disastrous.

The Penheniot Experimental Research Village was a top-secret community with an elaborate defence system to keep away prying eyes. Inside the walls men rushed ahead with practical experiments to develop a means of time travel, while outside the everyday world fell victim to more and more plagues, strikes and rioting.The world was on the brink of chaos. Could the small band of scientists and chrononauts at Penheniot Village find a safe method of escape into the future before the violence and death outside destroyed them too?

In answer to an unanswerable future, science has created Bohn, the omnipotent computer whose flashing circuits and messianic pronouncements dictate what tomorrow will - or will not - be.But Matthew Oliver is flesh and blood and full of questions - not nearly as certain as the machine he''s appointed to serve.And the right hand of science seldom knows what the left hand is doing . . .

The spaceship landed on the planet Earth to bring it the message of a new religion and a new way of life that would fit the terrestrial barbarians to take their place in the great community of the Galaxy.Their motives were beyond reproach. Their objectives were honourable. It was not their fault that humanity distrusted their motives, repudiated their objectives - and did its best to drive the missionaries back into space . . .

It makes people positively ache with happiness. It puts the roses back in their cheeks and the itch back in their blood. "It" is the Scholes Virus - proper medical term for what used to be called, out of mawkish ignorance but with uncanny prescience, the "love bug".Professor Trevor Scholes has discovered, isolated and classified every variety of the infection that now bears his name. One variety, B79/K, is so rare that the odds are fifty thousand to one against two compatible carriers meeting.So of course Giles Cranston and Tamsin McGillivray meet . . .

Into a future where a depleted fuel supply had the world spiralling down into grinding poverty and constant war came . . . Moondrift. Mysterious white flakes of alien matter that was the perfect fuel - clean powerful, dependable.But the aliens - or whatever they were - who sent Moondrift seemed to demand a heavy ransom in return. After each Moondrift comes an eerie sound, as pure as a children''s choir, heard all over the world. It mesmerises all who hear it with it''s beauty - and when it is ended, certain people have simply disappeared without warning, never to be seen again.This is the story of one who disappeared . . .

Have a Happy Golden Straub Day!The message floated in the sky for all to read; citizens chanted it to each other, motorists tooted it on their car horns as they drove the uncongested freeways. Earth had become a paradise, courtesy of Cordwainer Hardware International; population dwindling, war a thing of the past, free, untrammelled sex the right of all. But is paradise everything . . .?In this vividly realised novel, S. G. Compton charts the growth of CHI and the bland, idyllic world they engineered. Too idyllic for some; for beneath the surface darker forces were at work. At their heart was Scudder Laznett; brilliant, irascible, uncompromising. Scudder had begun a little game of his own; what that game was, Pete Laznett only discovered by slow degrees. And what he discovered was horrifying.

The Attrition. It was a bloodless, bureaucratic word, chosen to hide the appalling reality of the plague that had changed the face of civilisation.Now Dr Harriet Ryder-Kahn, born four years into the Attrition, thinks she may have an answer. But in a world convulsed by trauma she finds there are those who do not want a solution. And they are prepared to go as far as it takes to silence her . . .

Alec Duncan, King of Swing, it says on the billboard outside Tony''s. a black man playing a white piano; just what you need to tart up a dodgy Liverpool nightspot. Forty quid a session, plus tips - about all a black Scots ex-copper with nimble fingers and a record of violence on the job can hope for.But now, with Trevor Bladon, his girlfriend''s killer, safely banged up for the rest of his natural, it''s time for Alex to put it all behind him. Get on with his life. But first he needs to go and sort out a couple of things with Trevor in his cell. He''s not sure exactly why, but he goes anyway. And it''s not a good idea - he ends up prime suspect in another murder . . .

THE NEW REVISED EBOOK EDITION RELEASED IN 2019 WITH THE AUTHOR''S PREFERRED TEXT!A few years in the future, medical science has advanced to the point where it is practically unheard of for people to die of any cause except old-age. The few exceptions provide the fodder for a new kind of television show for avid audiences who lap up the experience of watching someone else''s dying weeks. So when Katherine Mortenhoe is told that she has about four weeks to live she knows it''s not just her life she''s about to lose, but her privacy as well.

The day of ice and fire, that brings in its wake devastation to the world. Dr Robert Graham, noted nuclear physicist, has campaigned hard and long for disarmament. Now his patience is at an end. With an ill-assorted handful of desperate, like-minded ''terrorists'', he plans to hold the human race to ransom. His bargaining power is terrifying - nothing short of Ragnarok itself. The world governments must listen - or the countdown to nuclear winter has already begun . . .

D.G. Compton is best known for his prescient 1974 novel, THE CONTINUOUS KATHERINE MORTENHOE, which predicted the 21st century''s obsessions with media voyeurism and ''reality television''. It was filmed as DEATH WATCH in 1980 by Bertrand Tavernier. This omnibus collects three of his incisive SF novels, ASCENDANCIES, SYNTHAJOY and THE STEEL CROCODILE. ASCENDANCIES: Into a future where a depleted fuel supply had the world spiralling down into grinding poverty and constant war came ... Moondrift. Mysterious white flakes of alien matter that was the perfect fuel - clean, powerful, dependable. But the aliens - or whatever they were - who sent Moondrift seemed to demand a heavy ransom in return...SYNTHAJOY: Would you like to experience first-hand the emotions of a great artist, the sublime peace of a saint, the happiness of a child at Christmas? Try Sensitape. Or perhaps you had something more passionate in mind. Don''t be shy. Ask for Sexitape. And for the true connoisseur, we have the ultimate human experience: a distinguished blend of synthetic ecstasies. The world is not ready for it, but perhaps you are. We call it Synthajoy.THE STEEL CROCODILE: In answer to an unanswerable future, science has created Bohn, the omnipotent computer whose flashing circuits and messianic pronouncements dictate what tomorrow will - or will not - be. But Matthew Oliver is flesh and blood and full of questions - not nearly as certain as the machine he''s appointed to serve. And the right hand of science seldom knows what the left hand is doing...

Classic crime from the 1960s from a master of suspenseThe first novel in the acclaimed Ben Anderson series.''Compton has been one of Britain''s most original and consistent novelists since the late Sixties, but he has never received the attention he deserves...Compton''s prose is fine-tuned, his human insights sharp, and his narrative pace filled with the weird synchronicities and dissonances of how violent things usually happen'' INDEPENDENT

Even in the world of murder, things are not always as they seem...When Ben Anderson first came to stay at Buckleigh Combe in North Devon he found more than a few obstacles to overcome. He was there to research material for his new book, but ended up with far more than he bargained for. The ruined mansion had once been the home of an infamous medium until he had died there in sensational - and mysterious - circumstances: he fell from The Mad Tower.And before long, Ben finds himself chasing along dark country lanes in the company of a man he is not at all sure he can trust...

A deadly role becomes murder in the theatre...When writer Ben Anderson goes to Downshead Repertory Theatre company to see the rehearsals for his first play, he is not prepared for what follows.Sitting in the audience, he witnesses a horrific murder: a prop gun has been swapped with the real thing with deadly consequences. And when a second killing occurs, and the local CID officer is suspicious of Ben''s part in the mysterious events, things go from bad to much, much worse...

At sea, the danger can''t be escaped...Classic crime fiction from the 1960s set around a Thames mooring.''Compton has been one of Britain''s most original and consistent novelists since the late Sixties, but he has never received the attention he deserves...Compton''s prose is fine-tuned, his human insights sharp, and his narrative pace filled with the weird synchronicities and dissonances of how violent things usually happen'' INDEPENDENT

A school reunion goes horribly wrong...A superb classic crime novel from a master of the genre.''Compton has been one of Britain''s most original and consistent novelists since the late Sixties, but he has never received the attention he deserves...Compton''s prose is fine-tuned, his human insights sharp, and his narrative pace filled with the weird synchronicities and dissonances of how violent things usually happen'' INDEPENDENTHating his brother and bitter not having attended a private school, Boyce is planning to impersonate his brother at the school''s centenary celebration.Unfortunately, Boyce did not know his brother''s best friend, Ben Anderson, and mystery writer and would-be detective, is also going to the event. And after Anderson arrives for the celebration, two deaths occur at the school...

It''s murder in a sleepy French fishing village . . .Crime writer Ben Anderson was hoping for a peaceful honeymoon sailing in Europe. He''s solved four murders in the last three years, which is more than enough to suit him. He is, after all, a married man now. Things are going to be different.Alas, their trip to a quiet, out-of-the-way French village is disrupted when they rescue the passengers of a boat on fire, and find themselves swept up in a chain of events that involves smugglers, car chases and - yes - murder.''Compton has been one of Britain''s most original and consistent novelists since the late Sixties, but he has never received the attention he deserves...Compton''s prose is fine-tuned, his human insights sharp, and his narrative pace filled with the weird synchronicities and dissonances of how violent things usually happen'' INDEPENDENT

Intriguing, suspenseful historical romanceWhen Beth leaves home - and more importantly, her domineering aunt - to take a PR job at a stately home she thinks she has finally found a path to happiness. But the inhabitants of the house are far more mysterious than she expected, and she soon finds herself with rather more to manage than she could ever have imagined . . .

Will she ever escape her past?Romantic suspense for fans of Joan Aiken and BridgertonYoung Hester Malpass knew little of her past. Only that she was an orphan who was now working in a railway station restaurant for a tyrannical old woman. She dreamed of escape, of finding a brighter place for herself out in the world. Then one day, dashing Captain Deveraux, a famous balloonist, lured her away to become his partner in a new aerial adventure. Had Hester not fallen in love with the captain, she would never have dared. But dare she did. Life took a violent and frightening turn. Suddenly Hester was confronted with the strange ghosts of her past, and the deadly secret of the fine and handsome captain.

Mistaken identity, romance, suspense - perfect for fans of Bridgerton''I cannot marry him,'' said Caroline. ''I am not Kate. I am only her twin.'' All Caroline knew when she came to her senses was that when her twin sister''s desperate plea for help came, she had rushed to Italy to be with her. There was a coach accident - but she can remember nothing more . . .Now suddenly Kate had disappeared and Caroline found herself wearing Kate''s clothes and unable to convince anyone she was really Caroline. But she had to convince someone. And quickly. Because Kate was about to marry her Italian nobleman cousin, Leoni . . .

A new life - but will it bring happiness?Wonderfully compelling historical romance - perfect for fans of BRIDGERTONBridie Tantallon is setting out on a new life - one that she hopes will bring opportunities and, if she is lucky, happiness. It is the turn of the century, and she is setting out from London to Edinburgh to help her great aunt complete her memoirs.An orphan, Bridie''s life has not been easy, but could this be just what she needs? So she is not deterred by her aunt''s pretended dipsomania, the various half-hearted attempts made on her life, or even her growing love for Lady Otranta''s long-suffering heir, Andrew. Otranta''s memoirs, detailing her rise from a music hall magician''s assistant to a confidante of Queen Victoria, are interwoven with the more recent tale of Bridie''s adventures.

Rod was a television reporter with the ultimate gimmick. Thanks to the marvels of microsurgery, TV cameras were implanted in his eyes. He could broadcast people''s actions without them even knowing it. But when he was forced to spy on a dying woman, he deliberately blinded himself by overloading his sensitive circuits.Rod thought that he could opt out of the tough choice that society was forcing him to make. He was wrong, of course. Dead wrong . . .

The time: 1979The place: a top-secret US Air Force base in the CotswoldsThe actors: carefully selected, healthy-living personnelThe missions: long-range reconnaissance flightsThe problem: is there any connection between these flights and the growing menace of a strange blood-cancer disease that is spreading through the world? Several of the more intelligent and intuitive realise that there is. There are those who retain their integrity, and doing so, lose their lives; and there are those who live silently in their knowledge, condemned to lives of emotional death.

On board an obsolete ship, nine weeks out from home, the latest batch of colonists arrive at their destination. A grim penal settlement in a wilderness worlds away from the homes they will never see again. TASMANIA? BOTANY BAY? No.For this is tomorrow, not yesterday. The dumping ground for social outcasts and political deportees is Mars, barren, unproductive, but invaluable as a convict settlement. What kind of welcome will the twenty-four deportees receive when the reception party from the Settlement reaches their stranded ship? And how will they survive in a primitive environment, an alien system?

Edward Cadence was a brilliant man, and a dedicated scientist. He had invented Sensitape, a means of recording the thoughts and emotions of great musicians, religious figures, etc. so that others could experience at first-hand just what it was like to play a magnificent concerto, or to slip peacefully toward an untroubled death with the sure expectation that Heaven lies waiting. And he had added Sexitape, whereby people whose sex lives weren''t completely satisfying could experience everything that the most compatible couple in the world felt together.For all this he was given the Nobel Prize, became enormously wealthy and famous.But finally he set to work on the ultimate application of his experiments: Synthajoy. And when the enormity of this dehumanising process became clear, he was murdered.

The palace was several hundred years old, a sort of haphazard medieval city containing church buildings, stables, army barracks - and the offices and homes of the ministers of the Revolutionary Government, in a Communist satellite country somewhere in Europe. The palace rose starkly and threateningly out of the marshes, its three great gilt domes reminding observers of the glittering monarchies that once resided there. But all was changed, all was forbidding."We stand too high to be human, Katarin", says the President of the country to his tempestuous, unloving wife. The revolution, which made him absolute ruler, has also taken him away from Katarin, dehumanizing him and his power-ridden ministers. Katarin, in defiance of the restrictions that bind her life, takes a lover, finding herself liberated even as she senses that the consequences are sure to be disastrous.

The Penheniot Experimental Research Village was a top-secret community with an elaborate defence system to keep away prying eyes. Inside the walls men rushed ahead with practical experiments to develop a means of time travel, while outside the everyday world fell victim to more and more plagues, strikes and rioting.The world was on the brink of chaos. Could the small band of scientists and chrononauts at Penheniot Village find a safe method of escape into the future before the violence and death outside destroyed them too?

In answer to an unanswerable future, science has created Bohn, the omnipotent computer whose flashing circuits and messianic pronouncements dictate what tomorrow will - or will not - be.But Matthew Oliver is flesh and blood and full of questions - not nearly as certain as the machine he''s appointed to serve.And the right hand of science seldom knows what the left hand is doing . . .

The spaceship landed on the planet Earth to bring it the message of a new religion and a new way of life that would fit the terrestrial barbarians to take their place in the great community of the Galaxy.Their motives were beyond reproach. Their objectives were honourable. It was not their fault that humanity distrusted their motives, repudiated their objectives - and did its best to drive the missionaries back into space . . .

It makes people positively ache with happiness. It puts the roses back in their cheeks and the itch back in their blood. "It" is the Scholes Virus - proper medical term for what used to be called, out of mawkish ignorance but with uncanny prescience, the "love bug".Professor Trevor Scholes has discovered, isolated and classified every variety of the infection that now bears his name. One variety, B79/K, is so rare that the odds are fifty thousand to one against two compatible carriers meeting.So of course Giles Cranston and Tamsin McGillivray meet . . .

Into a future where a depleted fuel supply had the world spiralling down into grinding poverty and constant war came . . . Moondrift. Mysterious white flakes of alien matter that was the perfect fuel - clean powerful, dependable.But the aliens - or whatever they were - who sent Moondrift seemed to demand a heavy ransom in return. After each Moondrift comes an eerie sound, as pure as a children''s choir, heard all over the world. It mesmerises all who hear it with it''s beauty - and when it is ended, certain people have simply disappeared without warning, never to be seen again.This is the story of one who disappeared . . .

Have a Happy Golden Straub Day!The message floated in the sky for all to read; citizens chanted it to each other, motorists tooted it on their car horns as they drove the uncongested freeways. Earth had become a paradise, courtesy of Cordwainer Hardware International; population dwindling, war a thing of the past, free, untrammelled sex the right of all. But is paradise everything . . .?In this vividly realised novel, S. G. Compton charts the growth of CHI and the bland, idyllic world they engineered. Too idyllic for some; for beneath the surface darker forces were at work. At their heart was Scudder Laznett; brilliant, irascible, uncompromising. Scudder had begun a little game of his own; what that game was, Pete Laznett only discovered by slow degrees. And what he discovered was horrifying.

The Attrition. It was a bloodless, bureaucratic word, chosen to hide the appalling reality of the plague that had changed the face of civilisation.Now Dr Harriet Ryder-Kahn, born four years into the Attrition, thinks she may have an answer. But in a world convulsed by trauma she finds there are those who do not want a solution. And they are prepared to go as far as it takes to silence her . . .

Alec Duncan, King of Swing, it says on the billboard outside Tony''s. a black man playing a white piano; just what you need to tart up a dodgy Liverpool nightspot. Forty quid a session, plus tips - about all a black Scots ex-copper with nimble fingers and a record of violence on the job can hope for.But now, with Trevor Bladon, his girlfriend''s killer, safely banged up for the rest of his natural, it''s time for Alex to put it all behind him. Get on with his life. But first he needs to go and sort out a couple of things with Trevor in his cell. He''s not sure exactly why, but he goes anyway. And it''s not a good idea - he ends up prime suspect in another murder . . .

THE NEW REVISED EBOOK EDITION RELEASED IN 2019 WITH THE AUTHOR''S PREFERRED TEXT!A few years in the future, medical science has advanced to the point where it is practically unheard of for people to die of any cause except old-age. The few exceptions provide the fodder for a new kind of television show for avid audiences who lap up the experience of watching someone else''s dying weeks. So when Katherine Mortenhoe is told that she has about four weeks to live she knows it''s not just her life she''s about to lose, but her privacy as well.

The day of ice and fire, that brings in its wake devastation to the world. Dr Robert Graham, noted nuclear physicist, has campaigned hard and long for disarmament. Now his patience is at an end. With an ill-assorted handful of desperate, like-minded ''terrorists'', he plans to hold the human race to ransom. His bargaining power is terrifying - nothing short of Ragnarok itself. The world governments must listen - or the countdown to nuclear winter has already begun . . .

D.G. Compton is best known for his prescient 1974 novel, THE CONTINUOUS KATHERINE MORTENHOE, which predicted the 21st century''s obsessions with media voyeurism and ''reality television''. It was filmed as DEATH WATCH in 1980 by Bertrand Tavernier. This omnibus collects three of his incisive SF novels, ASCENDANCIES, SYNTHAJOY and THE STEEL CROCODILE. ASCENDANCIES: Into a future where a depleted fuel supply had the world spiralling down into grinding poverty and constant war came ... Moondrift. Mysterious white flakes of alien matter that was the perfect fuel - clean, powerful, dependable. But the aliens - or whatever they were - who sent Moondrift seemed to demand a heavy ransom in return...SYNTHAJOY: Would you like to experience first-hand the emotions of a great artist, the sublime peace of a saint, the happiness of a child at Christmas? Try Sensitape. Or perhaps you had something more passionate in mind. Don''t be shy. Ask for Sexitape. And for the true connoisseur, we have the ultimate human experience: a distinguished blend of synthetic ecstasies. The world is not ready for it, but perhaps you are. We call it Synthajoy.THE STEEL CROCODILE: In answer to an unanswerable future, science has created Bohn, the omnipotent computer whose flashing circuits and messianic pronouncements dictate what tomorrow will - or will not - be. But Matthew Oliver is flesh and blood and full of questions - not nearly as certain as the machine he''s appointed to serve. And the right hand of science seldom knows what the left hand is doing...

Classic crime from the 1960s from a master of suspenseThe first novel in the acclaimed Ben Anderson series.''Compton has been one of Britain''s most original and consistent novelists since the late Sixties, but he has never received the attention he deserves...Compton''s prose is fine-tuned, his human insights sharp, and his narrative pace filled with the weird synchronicities and dissonances of how violent things usually happen'' INDEPENDENT

Even in the world of murder, things are not always as they seem...When Ben Anderson first came to stay at Buckleigh Combe in North Devon he found more than a few obstacles to overcome. He was there to research material for his new book, but ended up with far more than he bargained for. The ruined mansion had once been the home of an infamous medium until he had died there in sensational - and mysterious - circumstances: he fell from The Mad Tower.And before long, Ben finds himself chasing along dark country lanes in the company of a man he is not at all sure he can trust...

A deadly role becomes murder in the theatre...When writer Ben Anderson goes to Downshead Repertory Theatre company to see the rehearsals for his first play, he is not prepared for what follows.Sitting in the audience, he witnesses a horrific murder: a prop gun has been swapped with the real thing with deadly consequences. And when a second killing occurs, and the local CID officer is suspicious of Ben''s part in the mysterious events, things go from bad to much, much worse...

At sea, the danger can''t be escaped...Classic crime fiction from the 1960s set around a Thames mooring.''Compton has been one of Britain''s most original and consistent novelists since the late Sixties, but he has never received the attention he deserves...Compton''s prose is fine-tuned, his human insights sharp, and his narrative pace filled with the weird synchronicities and dissonances of how violent things usually happen'' INDEPENDENT

A school reunion goes horribly wrong...A superb classic crime novel from a master of the genre.''Compton has been one of Britain''s most original and consistent novelists since the late Sixties, but he has never received the attention he deserves...Compton''s prose is fine-tuned, his human insights sharp, and his narrative pace filled with the weird synchronicities and dissonances of how violent things usually happen'' INDEPENDENTHating his brother and bitter not having attended a private school, Boyce is planning to impersonate his brother at the school''s centenary celebration.Unfortunately, Boyce did not know his brother''s best friend, Ben Anderson, and mystery writer and would-be detective, is also going to the event. And after Anderson arrives for the celebration, two deaths occur at the school...

It''s murder in a sleepy French fishing village . . .Crime writer Ben Anderson was hoping for a peaceful honeymoon sailing in Europe. He''s solved four murders in the last three years, which is more than enough to suit him. He is, after all, a married man now. Things are going to be different.Alas, their trip to a quiet, out-of-the-way French village is disrupted when they rescue the passengers of a boat on fire, and find themselves swept up in a chain of events that involves smugglers, car chases and - yes - murder.''Compton has been one of Britain''s most original and consistent novelists since the late Sixties, but he has never received the attention he deserves...Compton''s prose is fine-tuned, his human insights sharp, and his narrative pace filled with the weird synchronicities and dissonances of how violent things usually happen'' INDEPENDENT

Intriguing, suspenseful historical romanceWhen Beth leaves home - and more importantly, her domineering aunt - to take a PR job at a stately home she thinks she has finally found a path to happiness. But the inhabitants of the house are far more mysterious than she expected, and she soon finds herself with rather more to manage than she could ever have imagined . . .

Will she ever escape her past?Romantic suspense for fans of Joan Aiken and BridgertonYoung Hester Malpass knew little of her past. Only that she was an orphan who was now working in a railway station restaurant for a tyrannical old woman. She dreamed of escape, of finding a brighter place for herself out in the world. Then one day, dashing Captain Deveraux, a famous balloonist, lured her away to become his partner in a new aerial adventure. Had Hester not fallen in love with the captain, she would never have dared. But dare she did. Life took a violent and frightening turn. Suddenly Hester was confronted with the strange ghosts of her past, and the deadly secret of the fine and handsome captain.

Mistaken identity, romance, suspense - perfect for fans of Bridgerton''I cannot marry him,'' said Caroline. ''I am not Kate. I am only her twin.'' All Caroline knew when she came to her senses was that when her twin sister''s desperate plea for help came, she had rushed to Italy to be with her. There was a coach accident - but she can remember nothing more . . .Now suddenly Kate had disappeared and Caroline found herself wearing Kate''s clothes and unable to convince anyone she was really Caroline. But she had to convince someone. And quickly. Because Kate was about to marry her Italian nobleman cousin, Leoni . . .

A new life - but will it bring happiness?Wonderfully compelling historical romance - perfect for fans of BRIDGERTONBridie Tantallon is setting out on a new life - one that she hopes will bring opportunities and, if she is lucky, happiness. It is the turn of the century, and she is setting out from London to Edinburgh to help her great aunt complete her memoirs.An orphan, Bridie''s life has not been easy, but could this be just what she needs? So she is not deterred by her aunt''s pretended dipsomania, the various half-hearted attempts made on her life, or even her growing love for Lady Otranta''s long-suffering heir, Andrew. Otranta''s memoirs, detailing her rise from a music hall magician''s assistant to a confidante of Queen Victoria, are interwoven with the more recent tale of Bridie''s adventures.