Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in All Categories

As the streets of Paris are overrun with revolutionary fervour, England prepares for the inevitable war with France. Lieutenant Charles Hayden is a man of undeniable ability. The son of an Englishman, his allegiance to the English Crown is beyond dispute. But, with a French mother, and without any influence in the Admiralty, he is seemingly overlooked for his first commission as Master and Commander. Instead, he is posted to an ageing frigate, the Themis.

At first glance, the murder of Peggy Frampton looks like a burglary gone wrong. But DS George Cross, with his meticulous methods, thinks otherwise. The victim, a former mayor of Bristol, is now an online influencer whose forthright opinions attract the kind of attention that most people would like to avoid. There's no shortage of suspects. Cross's investigation will lead him from Peggy's unfaithful husband to her gambling-addicted son, to a scorned former lover with a grudge. But she also has political enemies in her past.

Jilly Cooper has kept a diary about life on Putney Common. Noting the effects of the changing seasons and writing about her encounters with dogs and humans, Cooper creates an affectionate and enthralling portrait of her everyday life. Cooper writes lyrically about the natural world, tellingly about the sorrows and joys of caring for dogs and children and outrageously about the gossip, illicit romances and jealousies of small community life.

Jane Peters is an adrift 20-something by day, and a world-weary agony aunt by night. But when an office party goes too far, Jane dissolves into the high-stakes world of being the Other Woman: a role she has the right advice for, but not the smarts to follow through on. What starts out as a drunken mistake quickly unravels as Jane discovers that sex and power go hand in hand and that it's hard to keep your head when you've become someone else's dirty little secret. And soon, her friendships, her sanity and even her life are put into jeopardy.

Finally given the heave-ho by Pandora, Adrian Mole finds himself in the situation of living with the love of his life as she goes about shacking up with other men. Worse, as he slides down the employment ladder, from deskbound civil servant in Oxford to part-time washer-upper in Soho, he finds that critical reception for his epic novel, Lo! The Flat Hills of My Homeland, is not quite as he might have hoped.

There's a storm raging in Eerie-on-Sea. Has the mighty Gargantis come back from the deep? When an ancient bottle is found washed up on the beach after a ferocious electrical storm, all the residents of Eerie-on-Sea seem to want it...but should they in fact fear it? Legend has it that the bottle contains an extraordinary secret that spells doom for the whole of Eerie-on-Sea. Could it be true that the vast sea creature Gargantis has awoken from her slumbers and is causing the large cracks that are appearing all across the town?

Keith has entered the Junior Mega Brain quiz, and he's determined to win. The problem is - he's not really a genius. Even worse, his sister, Minerva, actually is, and Keith will have to go head to head against her. Keith needs to get super smart and fast! Could he just steal Min's brain? Or will some awesome inventions, sneezing rabbits and fearsome flapjacks be the genius way to victory?

When elegant Anouk, a dealer in American antiques, dies unexpectedly, she leaves the Metropolitan museum an uncatalogued, multimillion-dollar painting by Titian. Her son, Mischa, had no idea she had even owned it and becomes determined to discover the story behind the painting. This mystery sends him on the trail of his own history, back to the French village of his childhood. There he hopes to uncover the origins of the Gypsy Madonna; he never expects to find himself.

From the plains of ancient Mesopotamia to the rolling hills of medieval England to the vast sheep farms of modern-day Australia, sheep have been central to the human story. Starting with our Neolithic ancestors' first forays into sheep-rearing nearly 10,000 years ago, these remarkable animals have fed us, clothed us, changed our diet and languages, helped us to win wars, decorated our homes and financed the conquest of large swathes of the earth.

Florence, 1429. Giovanni de Medici, the family patriarch, has been poisoned. In their quest for political power, the Medici have made bitter enemies in every corner of the republic. And now Giovanni's sons, Cosimo and Lorenzo, have become the hereditary dukes of a city where loyalty can always be bought. While Lorenzo hunts for their father's killer, Cosimo petitions their remaining allies as Italy heads towards civil war. But the Medici will need more than alliances to survive, otherwise their beloved Florence – and their dynasty – will drown in blood....

Sherman McCoy is a WASP, bond trader and self-appointed 'Master of the Universe'. He has a fashionable wife, a Park Avenue apartment and a Southern mistress. His spectacular fall begins the moment he is involved in a hit-and-run accident in the Bronx. Prosecutors, newspaper hacks, politicians and clergy close in on him, determined to bring him down. Exuberant, scandalous and exceptionally discerning, The Bonfire of the Vanities was Tom Wolfe's first venture into fiction and cemented his reputation as the foremost chronicler of his age.

Bristol detective DS George Cross, champion of the outsider, the voiceless and the dispossessed. DS George Cross can be rude, difficult and awkward with people. But his unfailing logic and dogged pursuit of the truth means his conviction rate is the best on the force. An outsider himself, having been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, DS Cross is especially drawn to cases concerning the voiceless and the dispossessed. Now, Cross is untangling the truth about a young woman who died three days ago.

On a freezing winter morning, fishermen pull a body from the sea. It is quickly discovered that the dead man was the prime suspect in a decade-old investigation, when a prominent civil servant disappeared without trace. DCI Karen Pirie was the last detective to review the file and is drawn into a sinister world of betrayal and dark secrets. But Karen is already grappling with another case, one with even more questions and fewer answers. A skeleton has been discovered in an abandoned camper van and all clues point to a killer who never faced justice - a killer who is still out there.

You know Johnny Hawke. Hard-bitten LAPD homicide detective. Always in trouble with his captain, always losing partners, but always battling for the truth, whatever it takes. You know Penny Coyne. The little old lady who has solved multiple murders in her otherwise sleepy village, despite bumbling local police. A razor-sharp mind in a Sunday best hat. Against all the odds, against the usual story, their worlds are about to collide. It starts with a dead writer and a mysterious wedding invitation.

When Sam gets the chance to go to Space Camp with his friends this summer, he has never been more excited. He is desperate for everyone to love it as much as he does - and together win the Space Camp Challenge trophy! But not everybody at Space Camp is ready to be a team player, and for Sam it's starting to look like winning the trophy might be as difficult as landing on the moon! A wonderfully funny and reassuring listen for every child staying away from home for the very first time.

When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr Byrne, her best friend James helps her devise a plan to seduce him. But what begins as a harmless crush soon pushes their friendship to its limits. Over the course of a year they will find their lives ever more entwined with the Byrnes' and be faced with impossible choices and a lie that can't be taken back...

DS George Cross has always wondered why his mother left him when he was a child. Now she is back in his life, he suddenly has answers. But this unexpected reunion is not anything he's used to dealing with. When a disturbing case lands on his desk, he is almost thankful for the return to normality. The body of a monk is found savagely beaten to death in a woodland near Bristol. Nothing is known about Brother Dominic's past, which makes investigating difficult. How can Cross unpick a crime when they don't know anything about the victim? And why would someone want to harm a monk?

Suzy is surprised to find a grumpy troll building a railway through her house - especially when a gigantic steam train crashes into her hallway! This is the Impossible Postal Express, the trusty delivery service of the Union of Impossible Places, and Suzy becomes its newest recruit. And with her cursed first package, an Impossible adventure begins. Welcome to the Impossible Places.... Where there's fuzzics, not physics; where adventure meets magic; and where the journey will never, ever take you where you expect it to.

Gracie Burton is a grandmother living quietly in Devon. She has rarely left the village over the past 40 years. Her daughter, Carina, is immensely high-powered, with her own fast-paced business in London. She has very little time for her 17-year-old daughter, Anastasia, away at boarding school, and even less time for her ageing mother. In many ways, the three of them barely know each other.

Dan and Sally Oliver and their friend Chloe Hennessey are lucky to be alive. Three years on, after surviving one of the world's biggest natural disasters - the Boxing Day tsunami - their lives have changed dramatically. Dan and Sally are now parents. Dan is enjoying being a stay-at-home father taking care of their young son, and Sally is the bread winner and loves her job as a partner in a Manchester law firm.