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Stay and Die
Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory in 1879, when the railroad arrives, is a boomtown for men and women of dubious virtue from all over the West. Gamblers, gunmen, crooks, shady ladies, they all drift in, and the result is explosive.In this febrile and dangerous environment, real historical characters interact with fictional ones to create an atmosphere of tension which will climax in violence and passion.John Joshua Webb is one of those who arrive in town looking for action. Josh will run into old friends from Dodge like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, and will cross paths with the likes of Jesse James and Billy the Kid.But most of all he will have to deal with the sinister éminence grise of the wide-open town, Hoodoo Brown, who first hires Josh, but then needs him gone.Josh will find love and lose it, and he will have to decide whether to leave, and live, or stay and die…
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Spoils of War
On his 21st birthday, Glenn spies his rogue of a grandad making his way through the throng of the party to where he stood at the bar. Victor is a war veteran and a hero from Dublin, but these days, fifty years later, he is seen usually outside of a pub. Loved by all the men and despised by the women, what secrets does he hide?
He tells Glenn a fantastic story of hidden war treasure and challenges his grandsons to go to North Africa and find it. The story is laughed off until Victor’s untimely death leaves the full-written story and a pot of money. The grandsons feel they have to follow Victor’s footsteps, and so begins across continents an adventure of murder, treasure hunting and love…
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Sons of the Earth
In 1897, following the death of their parents, the three Pearson brothers have reached a crossroads in their lives. Having grown up on the family farm it was always assumed they would continue with the tradition, but two of the brothers have ambitions of their own. The youngest, John, had always yearned to be a soldier, and the oldest, Paul, saw his future and fortune in the newly discovered gold fields of South Africa. With farming in his blood, Matthew feels betrayed by his brothers and is determined to hold onto the farm at any price. As they go their separate ways Matthew’s bitterness intensifies, harming everyone who gets in the way of his ambitions. With the outbreak of the Second Boer War both John and Paul face their own tragedies and betrayals with circumstances that are set to affect all three brothers. Events come to a head as all three brothers are reunited back in England.
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SOE Agent Code Name LILLY
Mary Dumont is a third officer in the Women’s Royal Naval Service working at the Admiralty Communications Centre in London in 1942 where she is recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to become a wireless operator-saboteur. Parachuted into France, Mary joins a small band of resistance fighters where she leads a double life, a schoolteacher by day, a wireless operator by night; all goes horribly wrong, Mary is captured and tortured by an SS major who is determined to obtain both her codes and the names of her companions. Mary makes a daring escape during an air raid, unknown to her, German Intelligence has infiltrated SOE, a double agent known to Mary has also been parachuted into France to capture a Dutch scientist who is escaping to England with plans for the German V1 flying bomb. Evading capture, Mary’s resistance cell must get the scientist to England before he can be handed over to the Gestapo, but first Mary must eliminate the German double agent. Just when she thinks it is safe on returning to England, Mary and her companions discover the identity of the traitor within SOE, they must try to eliminate him before he can return the scientist to the Germans.
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See You In Ezra Street
See You in Ezra Street captures the dramatic uncertainty of a young woman striking up new roots, dealing with her love affair, while absorbing the dramatic lessons from her grandfather’s life in colonial India.
Born and raised in Sweden, the introverted life of Tanushree Roy Choudhury, a young music scholar with Indian roots, takes a dramatic turn when she suddenly gets strong hallucinations about her family’s past and starts searching for answers. Answers which her parents had always left unknown. Her research takes her from Berlin to London, where she again meets Joshua Salisbury, a shy and secretive physicist she had not only met once before, but whose eyes she was never able to forget. When by chance the two of them find out that their grandfathers – despite their different religious and cultural backgrounds – had been close friends and classmates in Calcutta in the early 1900s, they continue Tanushree’s search together. The revealing and candid diary entries, photographs and correspondence that Joshua’s family has kept teaches them about differences in values embracing religion, nationality, obedience to elders and romantic rivals in the lives of their grandfathers Isiah Cohen and Debendranath Roy Choudhury. They soon see themselves confronted with not only a hidden and to them unknown love affair, but also with the heavy impacts of war-split India on their close ancestors’ lives – deaths in the family and losing one’s home – startling events which even after seven decades have an impact on the present.
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Sanjog A Novel
1946, Dehra Dun, India. The Radcliffe line is drawn and the largest mass migration in history is taking place. 1960, Nairobi, Kenya. A young man is starting a new life as an immigrant Indian with his young family. 2017, Halifax, Canada. A society wedding is bringing family, friends and foreigners together who have not seen each other for years. Three countries, two rivals, two female abductions. Set against a backdrop of post-partition India and Pakistan, 1960s' Kenya and modern-day Atlantic Canada, this tale follows the story of two families, united by heritage, torn apart by hatred. It retells the tragedies of partition violence and the fight to restore human dignity when all is lost. The story of families ripped apart and long-lost buried secrets finally culminate in an outpouring of pent-up grief and injustice that must be avenged. The plight of two women, bound together by history, yet torn apart by time. Sareeta desperately trying to reunite her family against the tides of bygone generations and migration. Gori trying to claw her way out of a poverty, inflicted on her by circumstance and revenge. Women so similar and yet so wildly apart that the idea of any reconciliation seems to be beyond reason. Accented with family recipes handed down through three generations, Sanjog - A Novel will take you back in time to one of the most turbulent events in human history and bring you through a story of love, malice and redemption.
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Rogue Malory
London, 1469. Rogue Malory sets out to show how, ‘comfortably imprisoned’ in Newgate Jail, Sir Thomas Malory works on his magnum opus, Le Morte D’Arthur, with the help of his scribe, Montmorency Pickle, his servant, John Appleby, and his stationer, Jack Worms. The story is an imagined account of the preparation of the famous manuscript, the true revelations of Sir Tom’s disreputable past and the factual events covering the final two years of the ongoing tussle for the crown between the Earl of Warwick and King Edward IV. A combination of real and imaginary events brings to life this arresting period of history.
Reluctantly, Monty and Jack become embroiled in Malory’s political machinations whilst also contending with his dissolute yet magnetic character. Whores, pimps, spies and officials pass in and out of Sir Tom’s cell, where he sits at its centre like a hilarious old spider weaving mischief.
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Rise of the Maquis
With Europe in turmoil due to the tyrannical reign of Germany, a small group of brave resistance soldiers fight from the inside to save France from being taken over completely. Together, this ragtag group of individuals, including an English SOE, band together to form an alliance; this band of brothers is a family thrown together through necessity. Hiding in plain sight, they form a bond that no one, not even Hitler, can break. They even have the support of Pablo Picasso, but will it be enough to get through the war unscathed? With their black-market supplies and procured weapons at the ready, these men and women will fight for their country, for their freedom and for their lives.
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Ripples of War
When the heavy stone of a world war drops into the tranquillity of peace, its ripples reach far and wide, disturbing the lives of all they touch. This is the story of two young people whose entire teen years coincide with a war that changes their lives profoundly.
In 1939, when World War Two begins, they live in opposite sides of the world, then as the Japanese enter the war and the conflict drags on, they both reach maturity and enter the services.
When the widening ripples finally allow them to meet in the fifth year of the war, then tear them apart, they are deeply in love and face almost insurmountable hurdles to live a life together.
All the war facts in Ripples of War are authentic, including the rescue at sea.
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Rhinoceros or the Beast's Biographer
Rhinoceros or the Beast’s Biographer is an alternative history set during the 16th century. The African Kikuyo tribe train the rhinoceros as a beast of war and invade ‘Yurop’.
Ode, the son of the Chief Elder, is trained as a Griot, a traditional ‘Afrik’ storyteller. His role is to witness and celebrate the actions of the rhino mounted warriors led by his father.
As the teller of stories, Ode is attracted to the drama of war. But he begins to wonder if history is anything more than the transcription of murder? And does his celebration and re-telling of violent events encourage their bloody quest and even support the tacit suggestion that killing is a natural and inevitable human endeavour.
Running counter to the violence is the love story between Ode, and Anna, a white Southern Yuropan. Anna, highly intelligent, and confrontational has spent her life trying to be heard in a culture that belittles intelligent women. Through their shared knowledge of the Latin tongue, and their profound loneliness, Ode and Anna, become friends and lovers.
The Beast’s Biographer is a story of love, duty, fraternity and bloody conquest.
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Return Into the Unknown
Join Ornella Moon on a life-changing journey in Return Into the Unknown. When her life is turned upside down, she follows her instincts and sets out to rediscover herself.
Venturing into unknown territory, Ornella encounters both beauty and danger. She bravely embarks on a path without plans or itinerary, discovering her strength and resilience as she meets love in all its different forms and undergoes a powerful process of soul and mind healing.
As Ornella navigates the unknown, she confronts her fears and faces her past, inspiring readers to question their own lives and consider the possibility of finding their lost selves.
With captivating prose and rich imagery, Return Into the Unknown is a tale of self-discovery, resilience, and the transformative power of love.
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Outwitting the Enemy
Andrew was recruited into the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in 1939 for his linguistic talents and other qualities suitable for working in the Service.
By early July 1940, he had already been sent on four missions including the sabotaging of a train carrying tank engines inside Germany, assisting in the evacuation of BEF soldiers from Dunkirk on one of the ‘small ships’ and surviving a number of life-threatening incidents when bringing King Haakon and the Norwegian cabinet from northern Norway to exile in London.
In November 1940, he is persuaded to help at Camp 020 with the interrogation of German spies captured in England; a few weeks later, he completed his naval officer training in Scotland and southern England.
With the Atlantic convoys being attacked by U-boats operating out of the German-occupied ports of Lorient and St Nazaire with heavy losses, he is sent at the end of March 1941 to spy on the building of the submarine pens for a possible raid by the RAF later in the year. He narrowly avoids being captured by the Wehrmacht and returns to London with vital information.
He undergoes parachute training in May 1941 before being dropped in NE France where he is escorted by a French Resistance group to Koblenz. His mission is to deal with a member of the SIS that had become a senior officer in the German intelligence service (the Abwehr). By some good fortune, he manages to escape by Lysander back to England.
The story is a most compelling, absorbing and attractive read with strong classical elements. It has a clean plot for the time period covered which develops and unfolds through a captivating storyline; the relatable cast of characters will keep the reader enraptured up to the very last page.
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