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The Gate of the Burnt One
Based on an intriguing alternative history hypothesis, this novel imagines a world where the Moors never left Southern Spain after their 800-year reign but instead expanded their empire across Europe. This fascinating premise is explored through the chaotic lens of a bumbling film crew in the Sahara desert. The director, lost in a haze of Moroccan kif, has embraced the local culture a little too enthusiastically. With the scriptwriters gone and the leading actor in a perpetual sulk inside his Airstream, the production is at a standstill.
Enter Tinctorio Indigolin, a bitcoin billionaire on the run from a Shakespeare-quoting Irish assassin. In a bid to leverage a tax loss, Indigolin acquires the film rights, injecting a new lease of life into the project. Mysteriously, a captivating screenplay begins to appear on set, page by page, night after night. Penned by an enigmatic writer, the script proposes a world where the Moors didn’t just resist expulsion in 1492 but went on to dominate Spain, France, and Italy, creating an Islamic State of Europe.
As the screenplay unfolds, it transforms the lives of everyone involved in the film.
The narrative weaves through a labyrinth of twists, assassinations, and narrow escapes, employing the most unexpected methods, only to culminate in the most uplifting conclusion you’ll encounter this year.
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Inheritor
Inheritances can become bloodbaths when truth gets concealed or ignored in blended families. But when is the right time to discuss inheritance, particularly with children involved? How does one maintain balance across complex dynamics driven by fear or faulty assumptions?
At the heart lie charged questions. Do spousal age gaps correlate with calculations about money and motives? Did personal beliefs factor in, or notions of fairness? Puzzle through the mystery confronting Magnolia as trusted allies challenge her own counsel.
Could oversight stem from looming paydays or promotions? Perhaps a bid to regain lost stature or give belated thanks? Magnolia thought her grasp accurate… except those relied upon to safeguard her interests.
Navigating the financial fallout from loss while managing expectations across generations emerges a delicate dance. With so much at stake, can integrity and understanding fill gaps where trust falls short? For Magnolia’s clan, a legacy hangs in the balance.
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Far from Home
“With Far from Home Miranda has come up with a gripping page turner of an adventure” – Bear Grylls
“An assured and pacy debut” – Philip Blackwell, Ultimate Library
Far from Home is a story about identity, motherlessness and loss. Three young friends, Joe, Alex and Emma, facing the challenge of their early 20s with changing relationships and unsolved mysteries from the past. A struggle to find the truth whatever it takes. When a boy crashes a bike on a mountain road in Nepal and a girl in London starts investigating what really happened to her mother all those years ago the truth starts to reveal itself in a dangerous adventure that takes us from Devon to London, across Central Asia, India and Nepal. Can their friendship survive? Can THEY survive? Where does the truth actually lie?
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Jack the Ripper and the Whitechapel Murders
Between April and November of 1888, a shadow descended upon the streets of London’s East End. Night workers – predominantly prostitutes – were targeted in a brutal series of murders. Of the dozen reported killings, six bore the chilling signature of a single murderer, who would later become infamously known as Jack the Ripper. This enigmatic killer left a macabre calling card: surgically excising organs from his victims.
Despite numerous theories and alleged familial ties proposed over the decades, the true identity of Jack the Ripper remains elusive. Modern forensics and passionate amateur sleuths have pursued the mystery, but the waters are muddied with myths and hearsay. Can we ever claim to be related to someone whose identity is unknown?
The Ripper’s reign of terror may have been brief, yet its impact lingers on. Copycat killers have emerged over the years, attempting to emulate Jack’s nefarious deeds, but none have matched the intrigue surrounding the original Ripper. Whether this phantom killer was a transient or a local, their identity – and whether they fled England or met their end within its borders – remains one of history’s most compelling enigmas.
Delve into this book and decide for yourself: after journeying through its pages, do you think you’ve come closer to uncovering the truth about Jack the Ripper?
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Nature vs Nurture
A serial killer is someone that has killed more than three people in a repeated fashion and their characteristics are typically anti-social behaviour, psychopathic, narcissistic, paranoid and often very good at hiding these qualities from others.
Most famous UK killer, Jack the Ripper, 1880s, real name unknown.
Most famous USA Killer, Ted Bundy, 1970s.
Most prolific UK Killer, Harold Shipman, estimated 250 deaths.
Most prolific USA Killer, Charles Cullen, estimated 400 deaths.
It is believed that there may be 50 serial killers at large at any one time.
Rhona Smith wanted to set a record and not be caught. Her goal was 500 victims.
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The Lady in the Lamplight
Who is the woman watching from the dim glow of the lamplight outside? Why did she disappear that tragic night, as if a figment of imagination?
Having left a problematic relationship behind in Manhattan, architect Dani moves upstate with her new husband to renovate an old modernist house. The shock of discovering him dead in the hall and Dani’s subsequent grieving are quickly punctuated by disturbing discoveries. Why did the previous owners suffer a suspicious downfall? Perhaps several break-in attempts at the house are related. Someone also appears to be stalking Dani. Could it be the jogger she sees at night? Is she the lady in the lamplight? Dani fears these unsettling individuals are connected to her husband’s murder. But how?
When her husband’s wealthy, but shady, brother, Paul offers to move in to help, Dani wonders about an ulterior motive. Suppressing buried desires, she is drawn to the similarities between Paul and her husband. Visits from her old partner only add to her problems, particularly the irritating memory block surrounding their past. Befriending her stylish female neighbour, Dani finds security footage of the murder, drawing her into an intriguing mystery – seemingly centred on the house and perhaps its secret contents. Dani is shocked to discover the reason behind the whole affair could be close to home – as, too, might be the disturbing revelation routed in her past. The mystery cries out to be solved… before it slides to a fatal conclusion.
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Sweet Dreams... Or Not So Sweet?
Ric Hartland is more or less a paper pusher for the secret service in London. When a promotion comes his way – one he doesn’t really want – Ric agrees to give it a try. It can’t be too difficult, can it? His new assignment seems easy: visit Moscow, gather info and get out quick!
Yet nothing proves as simple as it first appears. Drawn deeper into a web of murder and deceit, Ric soon finds himself out of his depth. This is beyond the realm of deskwork and paperwork. Still, with the Russian secret service watching his every move, Ric has no choice but to soldier on and complete the task at hand.
Over his head it may be, but Ric Hartland will try his best to rise to the assignment… or die trying. What first seemed a mundane promotion becomes a dangerous game of shadows, one step away from disaster. Ric never asked for this, but the secret service waits for no man.
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The Gentlemen’s Club
An evil family – a husband, his three sons, and their naive wife – are involved in drugs, prostitution, and child abuse. The policeman seeking to take them down partners with a vigilante sniper who employs various ruthless tactics to eliminate the family members and their equally corrupt female cousin.
Meanwhile, a well-intentioned midwife hatches a misguided scheme to swap newborns between wealthy and disadvantaged mothers in an effort to provide the babies better lives. As the plot unfolds, a romantic relationship develops between the policewoman and the sniper, complicating her response to his extra-legal actions.
Central to these connected stories is the stately gentleman’s club built with council approval in the small city’s sleepy industrial quarter. With shops on the ground floor and residences above, the building’s fourth level remains strictly off limits, guarded to ensure no one discovers the dark secrets hidden within.
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Detective Jayne Baker
Follow Detective Jayne Baker’s career from her first big case: a marital murder-suicide that her keen skills expose as something far more sinister. Witness Jayne gradually shed the stricter tenets of her Catholic upbringing, redirecting those core values toward the pursuit of justice instead. See her determination in action as she clambers halfway out a window for a clear shot at criminals.As the years pass and the gruesomeness mounts, Jayne embraces harsher means to take down heinous villains. Yet despite this moral slide, justice remains her North Star. When the country is upended by her final case, Jayne risks all to serve the greater good.Through every twist and turn Runs a common thread: Jayne’s strong moral compass layered with complexity. Across these stories emerges a deeper understanding of this dedicated detective’s intriguing character. Good or bad, she is driven by her principles.
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Dark Water Secrets
In the mid-fifties, a frantic Angelle abandons her young daughter, Evangeline, leaving her in a decaying shack with an alcoholic and abusive father. The broken-hearted and neglected girl becomes resourceful, learning to survive on her own in the perilous swamps and bayous of Southwest Louisiana.
School provides a refuge where Evangeline displays a keen sense for learning. It is also the place where she meets Jean-Baptiste, the boy she dreams of marrying. He assures Evangeline that upon graduation he has a plan to finance their marriage and escape to the French Quarter. Although his previous attempts have proven futile, that does not discourage Jean-Baptiste. He promises to risk everything for the beautiful girl he loves.
On the night of Evangeline’s high-school graduation, the young couple have plans for a secret rendezvous to celebrate. Unfortunately, their plans go awry, but what happens that night sets in motion a chain of events that alters the course of their lives forever. Jean-Baptiste is rescued from an untimely death by a swamp witch who shares information that could unravel an age-old secret. Evangeline assiduously safeguards her own dark secret that could destroy her.
Dark Water Secrets offers the reader a view into the love of two young people destined to escape their challenging life’s. Steeped in murder and betrayal, this book is a supernatural thriller with unpredictable plot twists amid intriguing stories of pirates and lost treasure
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Doves
My lifelong captivation with doves, emblems of peace and purity, inspires this tale. Like the sky, which can shift from serene to stormy without warning, we often overlook moments of tranquillity, failing to savour them. In the same way, a pristine white sheet is destined to be sullied, a dove’s life is finite, as is the peace it represents.
In a world where time crumbles and facades are the norm, Joshua Jones is thrust into a web of deception that has been spun over generations. A legacy coursing through his veins propels him into an abyss of ignorance, compelling him to seek the truth.
As Joshua grapples with the enigma before him, his faith in what he knows starts to fracture. Faced with a jigsaw of trust and betrayal, the question lingers: does he truly understand anything? Amidst this uncertainty, Melinoe emerges. Will she be his salvation from the chasms of the unknown, or will she be the one to tip him into the void?
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No Quarter Given
Ben Hawke lives a double life. One as a big, tough, private investigator, the other one as The Seventeenth Earl of Somerton, heading a vast estate in Lancashire.
Ben sets up his detective agency after a brain injury forces him to retire from being a Commander in the Royal Navy, where he led a Special Operations Unit.
He and his colleagues at his private investigator firm based in Morecambe, on the Lancashire Coast, take on cases ranging from tackling a strange gang of Nigerian kidnappers to taking on an evil cult of drug-crazy villains who murder a student from Manchester University.
There are many exciting adventures for Ben, his sidekick Ian, and the gorgeous Pat, who is the third member of the team. Ben also falls in love with the daughter of a famous rockstar – at Aintree Racecourse where his horse is the bookies’ favourite to win the fabulous Grand National steeplechase!
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