Showing titles in Historical

Summer, 1545. England is at war. Henry VIII’s invasion of France has gone badly wrong, and a massive French fleet is preparing to sail across the Channel. As the English fleet gathers at Portsmouth, the country raises the largest militia army it has ever seen. The King has debased the currency to pay for the war, and England is in the grip of soaring inflation and economic crisis.Meanwhile Matthew Shardlake is given an intriguing legal case by an old servant of Queen Catherine Parr.

Gordon Cloade is killed in a London air raid, and his vast fortune passes to his young wife Rosaleen. Five of his relatives are desperate to get their hands on Cloade's money, and Rosaleen begins to fear for her life. The prospects for the Cloades improve when they discover that Rosaleen had a previous husband who perished mysteriously in Africa. Then a mysterious stranger appears in the village, saying that he has something to communicate to her, but the following morning he is found dead.

When MI6 sends Evelyn Ainsworth back to Oslo, no one expects any complications, least of all Evelyn. With her identity locked down and her section classified, both her location and her mission are secure. Or so they thought. After months of inactivity and scattered warnings across Europe, Hitler finally moves, but not in the direction everyone expects. With tensions between England and Norway rising, the Führer seizes the opportunity to send an invasion force north—straight into Norway.

The pope is dead. Cardinals are beginning to arrive at the Vatican to select his replacement, but one has fled for Malta in search of a document that dates back to the fourth century and Constantine the Great. Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone is in Italy, on the trail of legendary letters between Winston Churchill and Benito Mussolini that could rewrite history. But someone else is after the same letters, and when Malone obtains and then loses them, he's plunged into a hunt that draws the attention of the legendary Knights of Malta.

Inspector Rudge does not encounter many cases of murder in the sleepy seaside town of Whynmouth. But when an old sailor lands a rowing boat containing a fresh corpse with a stab wound to the chest, the Inspector's investigation immediately comes up against several obstacles. The vicar, whose boat the body was found in, is clearly withholding information, and the victim's niece has disappeared. There is clearly more to this case than meets the eye - even the identity of the victim is called into doubt.

France, May 1940. Seated in the cockpit of his Hurricane, Sergeant George Yeoman - young, eager, and innocent in the ways of war - is on his way to join his first operational squadron. Meanwhile, the German Panzers advance unchecked through the Ardennes, and as the Allied bombers plead to strike at them, the Luftwaffe is already set to launch a decisive blow. Disaster beckons, and Yeoman and No. 505 Squadron soon find themselves courting death in a series of increasingly desperate sorties as the Allied army begins its retreat towards Dunkirk.

Summer, 1551, and Francis Crawford of Lymond is in Malta to assist the Knights of St John defend the island from an invading Turkish fleet. But under a weak leader there is dissension in the ranks of the Knights - and the chances of repelling invasion look slim. Here Lymond meets Knight Grand Cross Graham Reid Malett - known as Gabriel - a fellow Scot famed for his virtues. It is soon clear that Gabriel's wiles in war and intrigue rival Lymond's own as he attempts to bring his new comrade in arms into the bosom of his scheming.

Spring, 1941. France has fallen but the Free French naval forces are in no mood to surrender. Royal Navy Sub-Lieutenant Harry Gilmour is also ready for action, despite the horrors of his first taste of submarine warfare. When he is appointed as British Navy Liaison Officer aboard the Free French submarine Radegonde, he finds it anarchic, disorientating - and very French. Within its claustrophobic confines, suspicion and misunderstanding are rife.

At The Mercury Theatre in London's West End, rumours are circulating of a curse. It is said that the lead actress Lilith has made a pact with Melpomene, the tragic muse of Greek mythology, to become the greatest actress to ever grace the stage. Suspicious of Lilith, the jealous wife of the theatre owner sends dresser Jenny to spy on her, and desperate for the money to help her family, Jenny agrees.

Winter, 1952: Leningrad's icy streets are haunted by a murderer. The name is whispered everywhere – Koshchei has returned, the people say, Koshchei the Immortal. Koshchei, named after a sinister figure from Slavic folklore, is an invisible killer who cuts out the tongue of his victims and replaces it with a scroll of paper containing a few lines of what seems to be Italian verse.

In 1920s Toronto, best friends Lily di Marco and Mae Thebault used to be inseparable. They lived under the same roof and cared for each other's children—in a world where men held all the power, they looked out for one another. But then the Great Depression hits, changing their relationship forever, as both women are forced to make impossible decisions to save themselves—and their families—from ruin.

Edinburgh, 1849. Hordes of patients are dying all across the city, with doctors finding their remedies powerless. And a whispering campaign seeks to paint Dr. James Simpson, pioneer of medical chloroform, as a murderer. Determined to clear Simpson’s name, his protégé Will Raven and former housemaid Sarah Fisher must plunge into Edinburgh’s deadliest streets and find out who or what is behind the deaths. Soon they discover that the cause of the deaths has evaded detection purely because it is so unthinkable.

1965. The British Establishment is reeling after a series of defections and acts of treachery by high- ranking intelligence officers. When Francis Hollander, an American academic, accuses Sir James Digby QC, a baronet and leader of the Bar, of being a Soviet spy, Digby retains Ben Schroeder and his head of Chambers to represent him. At first, it seems to be a simple case of libel, but as evidence starts to emerge of Digby's association with the Cambridge spies, and as MI6 becomes involved, Ben can no longer be sure that he can save Digby from prosecution and ruin.

A house with history. That's how the estate agent described the old toll house on the edge of the town. For Kelda, it's the perfect rural home for her young son Dylan after a difficult few years. But when Kelda finds a death mask concealed behind one of the walls, everything changes. Inexplicable things happen in the house, Kelda cannot shake the feeling of being watched and Dylan is plagued by nightmares, convinced he can see figures in his room. As Dylan's behaviour becomes increasingly challenging, Kelda seeks answers in the house's mysterious past. But she's running out of time.

The emperor: Nero, emperor of Rome and feared by his subjects for his temper and cruelty, is in possession of an ancient document predicting that Rome will burn. The spy: Sebastos Pantera, assassin and spy for the Roman Legions, is ordered to stop the impending cataclysm. He knows that if he doesn't, his life - and that of thousands of others - is in terrible danger. The chariot boy: Math, a young charioteer, subject to the wiles and schemes of the emperor and the spy.

In AD 533, the last King of the Vandals still rules in northern Africa - but a prophecy reveals that his reign is doomed. Years before, sacred scrolls had been stolen from a high priestess, who cast a curse on the kingdom unless they were returned. The Vandal kingdom falls before the scrolls are ever found - leaving their location a mystery - and their discovery is the perfect challenge for Sam and Remi Fargo. However, before they can hunt for the scrolls, the Fargos must tend to problems within their charitable foundation.

From the national best-selling author of The Serpent and the Pearl comes the continuing saga of the ruthless family that holds all of Rome in its grasp, and the three outsiders thrust into their twisted web of blood and deceit.…

As the cherished concubine of the Borgia Pope Alexander VI, Giulia Farnese has Rome at her feet. But after narrowly escaping a sinister captor, she realizes that the danger she faces is far from over - and now, it threatens from within. The Holy City of Rome is still under Alexander's thrall, but enemies of the Borgias are starting to circle.

As Germany goes to war, the Nazis tighten their terrifying grip. Paranoia in the capital is intensified by a rigidly enforced blackout that plunges the city into oppressive darkness every night, as the bleak winter sun sets. When a young woman is found brutally murdered, Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is under immense pressure to solve the case, swiftly. Treated with suspicion by his superiors for his failure to join the Nazi Party, Schenke walks a perilous line—for disloyalty is a death sentence.

Alex Cross is one of the nation's foremost detectives. But solving crime runs in the family - and it's time for Cross to tell his own children about their ancestors. He tells them the story of Ben Corbett, lawyer to the poor and downtrodden in 1900s Washington, DC - a disappointment to a family who wanted him to serve the powerful. Out of the blue, President Theodore Roosevelt invites Ben to the White House, charging him with investigating a resurgent Ku Klux Klan in Ben's own home town. The man who'll help him? Abraham Cross, great-uncle of Alex Cross.

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.