HarperCollins – serie

The horror story your students have been asking you for! The only children’s story by the master of horror.

A delightful novella from the internationally bestselling author of A Woman of Substance Jake and Maggie, each fleeing a failed marriage, meet and fall in love, but their pasts throw up obstacles. Jake Cantrell is suave, charming and a brilliant electrical engineer saddened by the failure of his marriage to Amy. Maggie Sorrell is a bright and elegant interior designer. She, too, has suffered a broken marriage.Jake and Maggie meet – but despite a blossoming relationship, some of the obstacles seem insurmountable: the fifteen-year difference in their ages, Amy’s sudden illness, her reluctance to divorce Jake, and Maggie’s own inner turmoil.But together they overcome the odds and find the ultimate: love in another town.

The story of a remarkable woman who discovers that her success, prestige and wealth cannot help when tragedy strikes. At forty-seven, Stephanie Jardine is at the apex of her career and her life, running the American branch of Jardine’s, the prestigious Crown Jewellers of London. Having fully come to terms with her long widowhood, Stevie now draws emotional strength and contentment from her work and her family. Then, one day, an unexpected act of violence committed by a stranger on the other side of the world plunges Stevie into turmoil and despair.In order to save her injured daughter’s life and ensure her future, Stevie must go back to her own past and confront a relationship which has only ever brought her heartbreak. As she battles to save her daughter, Stevie comes to understand how fragile life really is, and how it can be ineluctably changed by others when we least expect it.

A contemporary novel from the author of A Woman of Substance about a young woman finding herself and her place in life, in love and in the world. Valentine Denning is a courageous photojournalist on the frontline in Kosovo. Her colleagues – Tony Hampton and American Jake Newberg – are her comrades-in-arms, men whom she loves and trusts. One is her best friend; one her lover. In a nightmarish ambush, all three are shot, Tony fatally, and for Val an even worse nightmare begins.For there are memories and lies – lies which force Val to find herself again by leaving her past life of heart-breaking war-danger for what seems like the gentler world of celebrity-shoots: but this too brings danger – a famous artist whose reputation as a playboy does not steel against a powerful attraction. Valentine’s sense of searching for something leads her to retrace paths which she thought she had left behind.

Delicious combination of confused identities, personal dramas and moral dilemmas in a contemporary chiller from one of our most outstanding novelists.For years, Isobel Latimer has composed serious novels for serious people, but to dwindling acclaim and ever-more dwindling gain. Now her husband is ill and she must carry their financial burden alone, and in secret.But if the public don’t want careful moral fables any longer, why not provide an outrageous tale of sex and satanism, and an author to match? The incomparable, uncontrollable Zelda de Vere is born.What began with the best of intentions snowballs into a disorienting blur of passion, gender-bending, loss of innocence, to betrayal and beyond. Isobel Latimer might feel she’s on the brink of losing everything, but what would Zelda do?

A remarkable debut novel, ‘Four Days in June’ is an imaginative but accurate reconstruction of five men – all real figures – five points of view, and four days of one of the world's most famous battles.Four days in June, 1815. Five men, three armies, on the fields of Waterloo. A battle for honour, glory, civilisation. And two great leaders, Napoleon and Wellington, in direct confrontation for the first time, to take their nations to victory.General De Lancey, Wellington's new Quartermaster-General, recently married and yearning for his beautiful wife. Colonel MacDonnell, a Scot who must hold his post to the last man. General Ziethen of the Prussian army, distrustful of the British but vital to their cause. Marshall Ney, mistrusted by Napoleon but revered by the French soldiers. And Napoleon, who must prove his worth as a great warrior for the glory of France.As the battle develops over the four days, it is seen through the very different positions and characters of the front men. From the eve of the battle to its bloody conclusion, there is defiance, desperation and great courage on both sides. Iain Gale, in his first novel, draws the scene, the devastation, the stench of war, with such vitality that, though the outcome is known, the tension of war comes vividly to life.

A memorable saga from one of the best-loved writers of the genre. Sheelagh Kelly gives us the pain and determination of the people of York during the Second World War.Nell is just eighteen when war breaks out, and she’s keen to do her bit – which means leaving her safe office job and starting to train as an auxiliary nurse. This will bring her into contact with women of all ages and from very different parts of society – and it will also bring her face to face with the grim realities of war. But she has a secret to comfort her – a soldier she’s met and fallen in love with, who’s promised to return to marry her.The unthinkable happens: bombs fall on York. And for Nell, this coincides with a dreadful tragedy that she can share with nobody, and which brings life-changing consequences.Shhelagh Kelly writes with deep feeling, evoking all the warmth and hardship of a city under siege – the city in which she was born and which she knows so well. This will thrill her numrous fans and win her many more.

A delicious romantic comedy from the bestselling author of Elegance‘Unique situation available for attractive, well mannered, reasonably educated young man.Hours irregular. Pay generous. Discretion a must.’In a small office in Half Moon Street, Hughie Venables-Smythe discovers the world of the professional flirt. A timeless art, it can save a marriage or lift a heart faster than any therapy.Letitia Vane runs a bespoke lingerie shop in Belgravia and understands just how to make women feel beautiful. But she cannot let her guard down and fall in love, least of all with Hughie.Olivia Bourgault de Coudray is in an unhappy marriage to a very wealthy man. When a series of beautiful notecards begins to appear, with intriguing clues handwritten on each, her interest is piqued. But the same clues are being delivered to Letitia.Who is flirting with whom? And is flirtation as innocent as it seems – or can it lead to far more dangerous territories of the heart?

Classic adventure from the undisputed master of action and adrenalin-pumping suspense.When a plane crashes in the icy Greenland desert with no passengers on board, and no means of identification, Joe Martin is hired to fly to the scene of the crash by the insurance company involved and the beautiful widow of the dead pilot. But the routine mission spirals into hair-raising suspense when a priceless batch of emeralds are added to the mystery, and suddenly Joe finds himself in mortal danger.

This is the story of Richard Temple – prisoner of war, sometime adventurer, lover and artist – told with insight, empathy and drama by one of the world's master storytellers.Captive in a brutal German prison towards the end of World War II, Richard Temple has been stripped of everything that once defined him: pride, courage, his very identity have all been surrendered in a desperate bid to protect his secrets from the Nazis.But with the real Richard Temple suppressed to the point of near-extinction, a sudden respite in his torture allows him a moment of rare release, when he can lower his guard and remember who he is. Huddled in his cell, too badly beaten to move, the action of the novel takes place in the Richard’s mind as he retraces a convoluted course from an unhappy childhood, through a vague and uncertain adolescence to a complex, compromised adulthood, shot through with artistic sensibility and the myriad impulses that make a man.Patrick O'Brian's signature combination of narrative flair, intuitive sympathy and psychological insight make this a fascinating exploration of how passive resistance can be a form of courage and what it truly means to be a hero.

A moving and gritty saga of loss, separation and finally hope, set in wartime BirminghamAgnes Sullivan is fifteen when her young brother Tom finds her drunk and crying in the lane near their farm. Her dancing teacher has raped her and abandoned her. Aggie is forced to leave home when she discovers she’s pregnant and Tom, barely a teenager himself, decides the teacher must pay for his actions.Aggie flees to Birmingham, but the safe haven she’s been promised turns out to be too dangerous to stay in. She’s left with few options until someone she would never have spoken to in her former life gives her the help she so desperately needs. But will World War One ruin her precarious hopes of a future?Anne Bennett’s sagas of Birmingham during the wars have won her many fans, as they are packed full of emotion, determination and authenticity. Regional sagas don’t come any better than this.

This is the story of how we grow old – how we give up the dreams of youth for something better – and how many chances we have to get it right.George Bailey has been given the gift we all dream of – the chance to live his life again.After suffering a heart attack at the age of 42, George is given the heart of a 19-year-old – and suddenly everything changes…He is a friend to his teenage son and daughter – and not a stern Home Secretary, monitoring their every move.He makes love to his wife all night long – instead of from midnight until about five past. And suddenly he wants to change the world, just as soon as he shakes off his hangover.But George Bailey discovers that being young again is not all it is cracked up to be – and what he actually wants more than anything in the universe is to have his old life back.

The most audacious heist in history is about to commence, and Tom Kirk is right in the middle of it…Whilst investigating the theft of a stolen Da Vinci, reformed art thief Tom Kirk is confronted with the horrifying sight of a cat nailed to the wall where the painting once stood. He instantly recognises the sign as a greeting from his old enemy Milo. Then Tom finds out that a long time friend in Seville has been murdered and whilst visiting his friend's daughter Eva, she is kidnapped by Milo. Suddenly Tom finds himself in a frantic race against time to save her life.Meanwhile, in New York, FBI agent Jennifer Browne has been asked to investigate a possible art fraud. The trail leads to an Iranian art dealer who denies all knowledge, but when a lawyer who he had dealings with is murdered, Jennifer knows she has stumbled across something very sinister.Are the reappearance of Milo, Eva's kidnapping and the theft of the Da Vinci connected? Are Tom and Jennifer's paths destined to cross again as they descend into a maelstrom of betrayal and murder?

Classic adventure from the million copy bestseller Jack HigginsA rogue U–boat is patrolling the Atlantic coast, its fanatical crew ready to slaughter for a self–proclaimed dream of France. In the long dark years of the Cold War, not every battle merited centre stage. Many threats to Europe were imagined, but this one is very real.L’Alouette has to be stopped, eliminated before all out war prevails once again. Only one man can stop the threat, and the prospect of peace in Europe rests in his hands. They call him ‘the Butcher of Perak…’

Reissue of the timeless Higgins classic…Martin Fallon was one of the legendary heroes of the Organisation. A fighter in his teens, and a leader north of the border in his twenties. By the age of forty he’d spent nine years in prison, turned to the bottle and almost turned his back on the gun.The trouble is, the war isn’t over. And everyone wants Fallon back…The Ulster Constabulary, who still have a king’s ransom on his head. His own colleagues, who use the dirtiest trick in the book to return their top operator to the front line. And a beautiful woman named Anne Murray: the only confessor to the demons that a terrorist like Fallon will carry to the grave…

Reissue of the timeless Higgins classic…Captain Hugh Lomax's last view of Kyros had been as a German prisoner of war. The picturesque beauty of the Greek Islands hiding their blood-drenched history and the terrifying carnage that took place years earlier.But there are questions still unanswered. Lomax knows he was innocent, and as he returns to Kyros he begins to remember things he had long since buried in the back of his mind; the deadly mission he undertook, as well as a horrific massacre that still remains without reason. Now, the time has come for answers.Lomax is set to unlock the secrets of his past; someone betrayed the islanders at the height of the Nazi occupation, and they want their secret kept, whatever it takes, whoever has to suffer.

From the author of THE DISCOVERY OF CHOCOLATE – a romantic historical quest set in Renaissance Florence and China surrounding the search for ultramarine.THE COLOUR OF HEAVEN is a fictional account of a young man who travelled to what are now Afghanistan and China to discover lapis lazuli, the precious stone that when turned into ultramarine changed the history of painting – allowing artists to abandon gold as a background and open up depth, landscape and perspective with the most beautiful shade of blue.Along the way, Paolo suffers the torments of unfulfilled love before he returns to his anxious family in Venice, where he also plays a part in the early development of lenses and spectacles!

Duelling, derring-do, and dastardly deeds are all in a day’s work for Liberty Lane: the plucky heroine for fans of Georgette Heyer and Sarah Waters’s Victorian novels.London. Summer 1839. And the temperature is rising as Liberty Lane takes on her strangest case yet.Deranged aristocrat Lord Brinkburn is nearing death and his elder son, Stephen, is expecting to inherit the title. But Lady Brinkburn's sudden announcement that Stephen is illegitimate throws the family into turmoil. Tensions reach boiling point between the two brothers, one of whom stands to gain everything, and they come to blows in public – much to the amusement of London Society.Liberty is engaged privately to get to the truth of the matter, but a macabre murder raises the stakes considerably…added to which she finds her own judgement being undermined by the beguiling Lady Brinkburn. She is only too aware that time is running out – one of the brothers may be next, but which will it be…?

A loving family, a child on the way, and a secret concealed generations ago that will tear their lives apart… ‘The Family Tree’ is issue-led women’s fiction perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult.Dana Clarke has it all – a husband, Hugh, who she adores, a beautiful home in a wealthy area, and a baby on the way. But, when her daughter, Lizzie, is born, what should be the happiest day of her life turns out to be the moment that her world falls apart.Lizzie is beautiful, healthy, and black… Born from two white parents, there are only two possibilities: that a distant relative was of African descent, or that Dana has had an affair.As the Clarke family reel from the shock, accusations are thrown and soon the trust that Dana and Hugh had prided themselves on is slipping away. So begins a poignant journey to uncover the truth about their past, to discover what legacy their ancestors left them. And, as the stability of the Clarke family is torn apart, the reader is forced to ask how much any one of us really knows about our own identity.

Jack Steel, first introduced in Man of Honour, is a splendid hero on a new and dangerous mission. Perfect for all fans of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe.MEET JACK STEEL – GENTLEMAN, SOLDIER, HERO.In the early eighteenth century, the British army led by John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, were the leaders of a wide-ranging and very successful alliance. Jack Steel, maverick gentleman, superb soldier, was in the middle of any fight.Ramilles 1706. One of the great victories of the British army, a signal battle honour for the regiments who were there. But for Captain Steel, standing at the head of his Grenadiers, sinking into the swampy ground, at odds with his Allied partners and receiving contradictory orders, it was hard to see the General, Lord Marlborough's grand stratagem.Even after victory, Steel finds himself mired in further difficulties. The Allies had thought that they were liberating the Low Countries but some preferred their previous masters, the French, who at least were Catholic, and some wanted independence from all powers, while others of his fellow officers wanted out of the war altogether.Far from the battle lines he enjoys, Jack Steel is sent undercover to discover and deal with the traitors. He needs to identify the loyal locals who would help a few British advance troops into the besieged city – a dangerous mission made deadly by his identification by an old enemy of his and the brilliant malevolence of the renegade French pirate who is in charge of Ostende.

Charismatic hero Jack Steel returns, in a new and perilous adventure.1708. War rages across the lowlands of Flanders. British soldiers fight ferociously to protect their last remaining fortress in Oudenarde. Their mission is to stop their enemies France and Spain forming a powerful union that could relegate Britain to the sidelines in Europe.Newly married and promoted to the rank of captain, life for Jack Steel has never been better. But now he must go back to where he is needed – on the battlefield. Having already fought some daring campaigns under the Duke of Marlborough, Steel has every reason to be confident. But after a long day of fighting, one of France's finest cavalry regiments ambushes his battered and exhausted Grenadier troops. Taken by surprise, Steel will need a miracle to save them all from annihilation.Brothers in Arms is the third book in the superb Jack Steel series.

A novel of intrigue, violence and conflicted loyalties from the author of The Street Philosopher.What price to take hold of the devil’s right hand?Spring, 1853. After a triumphant display at the Great Exhibition in London, the legendary American entrepreneur and inventor Colonel Samuel Colt expands his gun-making business into England. He acquires a riverside warehouse in Pimlico and sets about converting it into a pistol works capable of mass producing his patented revolvers on an unprecedented scale – aware that the prospect of war with Russia means huge profits.The young, ambitious Edward Lowry is hired by Colt to act as his London secretary. Although initially impressed by the Colonel’s dynamic approach to his trade, Edward comes to suspect that the American’s intentions in the Metropolis are not all they appear.Meanwhile, the secretary becomes romantically involved with Caroline Knox, a headstrong woman from the machine floor – who he discovers is caught up in a plot to steal revolvers from the factory’s stores. Among the workforce Colt has gathered from the seething mass of London’s poor are a gang of desperate Irish immigrants, embittered refugees from the potato famine, who intend to use these stolen six-shooters for a political assassination in the name of revenge. As pistols start to go missing, divided loyalties and hidden agendas make the gun-maker’s factory the setting for a tense story of intrigue, betrayal and murder.

Martin Shane was tortured, starved and broken. But a memory has surfaced… A memory of the man who did this to him. And he must pay.His memory has shut down, closed itself off to protect him from the violence in his past.But fragments are coming back… Suggestions of names, places, faces. Then… the memory of a terrible betrayal.In order to find peace, Martin Shane must first find the man who delivered him and his comrades to their enemies.And when Shane finds him, he will pay.

A contemporary love story told with Katy's inimitable laugh-out-loud humour, poignancy and heart.TO DO LISTMake something with QuinoaPluck eyebrowsDo something 'cultural' every weekDump married boyfriendCaroline's life was meant to be sorted when she made the decision to end her engagement, 3 months before the big day. With her to-do list tasks getting crossed off and her career going great guns, Caroline is sure she's now a fully functioning adult. So when her 17 year old half-sister Lexi, arrives unexpectedly at her door, it doesn't quite fit with her image that she's drunk and wearing her wedding dress!Lexi has come to stay for the summer but their relationship is strained, as Lexi is the result of their father's infidelity. An affair that led to the divorce that destroyed Caroline's mother and ruined her own childhood. Needless to say, Caroline is in no hurry to confess her relationship with her married lover Toby.As the summer wears on, Caroline has decisions to make, and a life to reconsider, but surely a 17 year old can't teach her anything about how to live well?

There are no real enemies, no real fear – only those of our own creation. Another brilliant and thrilling adventure from the co-host of BBC’s Newsnight.The Anglo-American ‘Special Relationship’ is in deep trouble. The ambitious vice-president, Bobby Black, who wields greater influence over foreign affairs than his titular boss, has fallen out with the British PM. The young British Ambassador to Washington knows he must step in. He is in a delicate position however–with the expectations of the British Government on him,as well as those of his father-in-law, the PM.In a bid to orchastrate some good PR, Black is invited to England, accompanied by a plane load of assistants and CIA security. Guided by his aristocratic host, he goes out to the moors – and disappears. He is not seen again until humiliating photographs begin to appear, and then again, silence.The Americans are outraged that their VP has gone missing on British soil and the relationship between the two countries seem irrevocably damaged. But what can be done? Missing but not confirmed dead is a constitutional grey area, and should Black reappear, can he ever be trusted again?

Superb war novelist, Iain Gale, moves into the twentieth century and World War Two, telling the story of the eleven days that would change the course of history.There are some battles that change the course of history: Alamein is one of those.In October 1942, Britain and its allies were in trouble. Germany and its Axis partners were winning ground in Europe, in Russia, in the Atlantic and they were poised to take the Suez Canal. But it was in this North Africa battle that the stand was made, that the tide of World War Two began to turn.It was a battle of strong characters: Rommel and Montgomery lead their men through an extraordinary eleven day battle, in unforgiving terrain, amid the swirling sandstorms and the desert winds.Iain Gale, author of the outstanding historical novel Four Days in June, tells this dramatic story through seven dynamic characters, many of whom are based on real people. Drawn from both sides of the conflict, they include a major from a Scottish brigade, a young lieutenant in the thick of the tank battle, an Australian sergeant and a charismatic Italian commander of a parachute battalion. Through their eyes we see the battle unfold; the strategy, the individual actions and skirmishes, the fear, the determination and the extraordinary courage on both sides.

The story of a great queen, a woman of enormous courage who made her own rules, and a true survivor. This is the first in a series of late medieval novels by Vanora Bennett, the author of Portrait of an Unknown Woman.1420, and a young princess is offered in marriage to her country's enemy, her nation's conqueror. She is Catherine of Valois, he is Henry V. She is a princess of the French blood royal, he is the son of the usurper of the English throne. Fresh from battle he claims his bride and the right to the throne of France.Now Catherine must live as queen to a man more comfortable with war than anything else and as the wife of a man determined to destroy her people. Alone and friendless, she finds the only man who can understand what she feels: a young Welshman, Owain Tudor, who is as much adrift among the English as she is. It's a matching of souls but this friendship will turn out to be as dangerous as it is irresistible…