Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Historical

It's 1938, and Maisie Dobbs is back in England. The German government has agreed to release a British subject from prison, but only if he is handed over to a family member. Because the man's wife is bedridden and his daughter has been killed in an accident, the Secret Service wants Maisie - who bears a striking resemblance to the daughter - to retrieve him. However, the man she holds responsible for her husband's death has learned of her journey and is also desperate for her help....

To solve this case, only an outsider will do...Ingo Finch faces his biggest challenge yet. New York, 1904 - over a thousand are dead after the sinking of the General Slocum, a pleasure steamer full of German immigrants out for a day on the East River. The community is devastated, broken, in uproar. With a populist senator preying on their grievances, a new political force is unleashed, pushing America to ally with Germany in any coming war. Nine months later, Ingo Finch arrives in Manhattan, now an official British agent.

Oakham, near Bruton, is a tiny village by a big river without a bridge. When a man is swept away by the river an explanation has to be found. The story is relayed by the village priest, John Reve, who, in his role as confessor, is privy to a lot of information that others are not. But will he be able to explain what happened to the victim? And what will happen if he can’t?

Carolyn Kirby's stunning debut takes the listener on a heart-breaking journey through Victorian Birmingham and questions where we first learn violence: from our scars or from our hearts. Birmingham, 1885. Born in a gaol and raised in a workhouse, Cora Burns has always struggled to control the violence inside her. Haunted by memories of a terrible crime, she seeks a new life working as a servant in the house of scientist Thomas Jerwood. Here, Cora befriends a young girl, Violet, who seems to be the subject of a living experiment. But is Jerwood also secretly studying Cora?

Rosalind Thorne's quick wits and discretion have proved invaluable to London's haut ton. Success has at last brought her financial stability and a new home, which she shares with her best friend, Alice Littlefield. But now trouble has infiltrated Rosalind's sanctuary, and the reputations in danger include her own.

Venice, 1954. Rosy Gilchrist thinks luck may be on her side. Her boss at the British Museum has chosen her to travel to Venice to track down a rare edition of Horace's Odes for their collection. Things soon take a drastic downward spiral. A wealthy recluse offers a million-pound reward for anyone who can find the treasure. Soon Rosy finds herself in a race against time as her rivals will do anything for money. Even murder.

Karin Müller, sidelined from the murder squad in Berlin, jumps at the chance to be sent south to Halle-Neustadt, where a pair of infant twins have gone missing. But Müller soon finds her problems have followed her to Halle-Neustadt. She and her team are forbidden by the Stasi from publicising the disappearances, lest they tarnish the town's image. Meanwhile, in the eerily nameless streets and tower blocks, a child snatcher lurks, and the clock is ticking to rescue the twins alive....

Despite being the granddaughter of an earl, Julia Renshaw is under pressure to marry for money - and has settled for the wealthy, and older, Gilbert Townsend. It’s clear to her sister Phoebe and lady’s maid Eva that this is not a love match. At the reception aboard the groom’s yacht, there is tension between Gil and several guests: his best man, his spinster sister and his younger cousin and current heir. Moreover, the bride has discovered that Gil’s pretty secretary, among others, will be joining them for the honeymoon.

Istanbul, 1926: After her archeologist father makes a clandestine journey abroad, Jane and the dapper Mr. Redvers trace his footsteps while signs of danger loom back home in the United States. They're greeted at their destination by Aunt Millie and unsettling news: Professor Wunderly was on a mission to locate the lost heart of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent—a legendary relic from the Ottoman Empire said to possess potent mystical powers—then vanished completely, leaving behind his unpacked luggage, a perplexing riddle, and an eerie mystery Jane must solve to keep her loved ones safe.

On a chilly early morning walk in Berlin, Emil Grimm finds the body of his neighbor, a fellow Stasi officer named Lothar, with a gunshot wound to the temple and a pistol in his right hand. Despite appearances, Emil suspects murder, and now, as East Germany disintegrates, being a Stasi colonel is more of a liability than an asset. More troubling still is that Emil and Lothar were involved in a final clandestine mission, one that has clearly turned deadly. Now Emil must finish the job alone, on uncertain ground where old alliances seem to be shifting by the day.

Spring, 1940: With Britons facing what has become known as the Bore War - nothing much seems to have happened yet - Maisie Dobbs is asked to investigate the disappearance of a local lad, a young apprentice craftsman working on a 'hush-hush' government contract. As Maisie's inquiry reveals a possible link to the London underworld, so the country is bracing for a possible enemy invasion amid news of the British expeditionary force stranded along the French coast. And another mother is worried about a missing son - but this time the boy in question is one beloved by Maisie.

Isle of Iona, 1927 Cast away on a remote locale, Jane's latest assignment depends on concealing her identity and blending in at an occult gathering. Not even her fiancé, Redvers, can be too close as she uncovers the truth about Robert Nightingale, enigmatic leader of the Order of the Golden Dawn--a group made up of supernatural ceremonies, influential people, and an undefinable darkness

When Milo Ames receives a troubling letter from his childhood nanny, Madame Nanette, he and Amory travel to Paris, where they are soon embroiled in a mystery surrounding the death of a famous parfumier. The more Amory and Milo look into the motives of industry rivals and heirs who are vying for control of his perfume empire, the more they are convinced that Nanette may be right.

1236. Beautiful Ailenor of Provence, cultured and intelligent, is only 13 when she marries Henry III. Aware of the desperate importance of providing heirs to secure the throne from those who would snatch it away, she is ruthless in her dealings with Henry's barons. As conflict escalates between them, Ailenor's shrewd and clever Savoyard uncles come to support her, but her growing political power is threatened when Henry's half-siblings also arrive at court. Henry and Ailenor become embroiled in an unpopular war to protect Gascony, the last English territory on the continent.

Vienna, 1904. The body of a man is discovered in an abandoned piano factory on the outskirts of the city. Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt calls on his good friend Doctor Max Lieberman to assist in an investigation that draws them both into the unconventional world of fringe political activism. An appalling act of terror has been planned, and Rheinhardt must hope that Liebermann, with his profound knowledge of psychology and science, will be able to prevent the coming catastrophe.

Dresden, East Germany, 1980. A man's body is found buried in concrete at a building site in the new town district. When People's Police Homicide Captain Karin Müller arrives at the scene, she discovers that all of the body's identifiable features have been removed - including its fingertips. The deeper Müller digs, the more the Stasi begin to hamper her investigations. She soon realises that this crime is just one part of a clandestine battle between two secret services - the Stasi of East Germany and Britain's MI6.

Jack Parker knows all too well how treacherous life can be. His parents did not survive a smallpox epidemic. His grandfather was murdered. Now his sister Lula has been kidnapped by a bank robber. Alongside bounty hunter Shorty, an eloquent dwarf with a chip on his shoulder, and Eustace, the grave-digging son of an ex-slave, Jack sets off to rescue Lula. In turn-of-the-century Texas, that quest is likely to turn dangerous.

When Edmund Ibbs, a young lawyer, defends a woman accused of shooting her husband dead, he finds himself drawn into a web of conspiracy and murder. Soon, Ibbs himself is accused of complicity in a killing, when a corpse unexpectedly appears as part of a magic act in a crowded theatre. Also present is Joseph Spector, former illusionist turned highly respected amateur sleuth. Spector begins to investigate the mystery, but when a second body is discovered later the same night, all the evidence points to Ibbs being guilty.

The American West in the early 1960s appears to be a pastoral paradise: golden wheat fields, mist-filled canyons, frolicking animals. Aspiring novelist Aaron Holland Broussard has observed it from the open door of a boxcar, riding the rails for both inspiration and odd jobs. Jumping off in Denver, he finds work on a farm and meets Joanne McDuffy, an articulate and fierce college student and gifted painter. Their soul connection is immediate, but their romance is complicated by Joanne's involvement with a shady professor who is mixed up with a drug-addled cult.

1828: Matthew Hervey of the Sixth Light Dragoons has been urgently recalled to South Africa. The stability of the Cape Colony has been threatened by Xhosa tribesmen who have been making incursions across the borders. When Hervey is told by his old friend, Sir Eyre Somervile, that the Zulu warrior king, Shaka, is about to make war on neighbouring tribes, he knows that matters are perilous indeed.