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The beguiling story of a man, a woman and a nasty crime, from ‘the hottest thriller writer in the US’ [Time].

“But the whole deal, staying and going along with her idea, both, depended really on how much nerve he had. Which she would have to find out…”

Nancy Hayes has plenty of feminine charm – and the instincts of a shark.
Jack Ryan is handy with his fists, and has all the cunning of an ex-con.
Now, in a Michigan resort town, a rich man wants Jack gone and Nancy for himself.

For Jack, the choice is clear: Nancy’s promises of pleasure, her crazy, thrill-seeking schemes of breaking into homes, shooting guns and maybe stealing a whole lot of money is driving him mad.

But there is one thing Jack doesn’t know yet. Nancy is planning the deadliest thrill of all…

The New York Times bestselling author of BE COOL and GET SHORTY.

War in Cuba isn’t Ben Tyler’s concern. Still, sailing mares and guns into Havana harbor in 1898 – right past the submerged wreckage of the U.S. battleship Maine – may not be the smartest thing the recently prison-sprung horse wrangler ever did. Neither is shooting one of the local Guardia, though the pompous peacock deserved it.

Now Tyler’s sitting tight in a vermin-infested Cuban stockade waiting to face a firing squad. But he’s not dying until he gets the money he’s owed from a two-timing American sugar baron. And there’s one smart, pistol-hot lady at the rich man’s side who could help Ben get everything he’s got rightfully coming…even when the whole damn island’s going straight to hell.

OUT OF SIGHT was made into the highly-acclaimed movie starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez.

Jack Foley was busting out of Florida’s Glades Prison when he ran head-on into Karen Sisco with a shotgun. Suddenly the world-class gentleman felon was sharing a cramped car trunk with a disarmed federal marshal – whose Chanel suit cost more than the take from Foley’s last bank job – and the chemistry was working overtime. Here’s a lady Jack could fall for in a big way, if she weren’t a dedicated representative of the law that he breaks for a living. And as soon as she escapes, he’s already missing her.

But there are some seriously bad men and a major score waiting for Jack in Motown. And there’s a good chance that when his path crosses Karen’s again, she’s going to be there for business, not pleasure.

Palm Beach playboy Chip Ganz needs money – fast. He has spiralling debts, and his mother’s gravy-train has just derailed.

So he has a plan: he’s going to find somebody rich, and take them hostage. With the help of an ex-con, a psycho gardener and the beautiful psychic Reverend Dawn, he chooses bookmaker Harry Arno as the lucky victim.

The trouble is, Harry can scam with the best of them. And that’s not the only problem. US Marshal Raylan Givens is sleeping with Harry’s ex girlfriend, Joyce, and she wants Harry found.

And when everyone’s got a gun, someone is going to get hurt …

A tale of taut suspense from ‘the best writer in crime fiction today’ [USA Today]

Harry Arno runs a South Miami Beach gambling operation. To protect his position, he was forced to cut a deal with the local muscle, Jimmy Capotorto (Jumbo Jimmy Cap), an even fifty-fifty split. For years Harry had been padding his own stake by skimming off the top. Now a couple of local detectives – wise to sticky fingers – try to bag Jimmy by putting the squeeze on Harry.

U.S. Marshalls deliver Harry to court to testify at Jimmy’s trial. Even though he’s a step slower than he used to be, Harry’s no fool – he slips out of the country pronto. With Jimmy Cap’s men following and the Feds close behind, the three sides end up in Italy, watching their own backs while keeping abreast of Harry’s. But it’s not until the chase leads back to Miami that the real winners and losers are revealed …

The New York Times bestselling author of Be Cool and Get Shorty

When someone delivers an alligator to Judge Bob Gibbs’ porch, there’s no shortage of suspects – hard-sentencing, womanising redneck ‘Maximum Bob’ is pretty much the most unpopular man in Florida.

Throw into the mix the Crowe clan – about as primitive and aggressive as any alligator – a doped-up doctor on early release with a tag, quick-witted probation officer Kathy Baker, a mermaid and a long-dead slave girl called Wanda, and things get a tad complicated. And inevitably, they don’t work out the way you might expect…

A gripping mob thriller from the NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of BE COOL and GET SHORTY.

Gorgeous widow Karen DiCilia just found out what it really means to be married to the mob. Her Mafia husband Frank left her millions and a Florida Gold Coast mansion.

He also left orders that she’d lose everything the day she slept with another man. With his boys as enforcers, Karen was soon a lonely lady. Then she met Detroit’s Cal Maguire, a sexy, street-smart ex-con with a scam to get Karen her money and her freedom – or get them both killed.

Ex-cons, armed robberies and scams in Miami – another classic crime thriller from the masterful Elmore Leonard.

After serving time for armed robbery, Ernest ‘Stick’ Stickley is back on the outside and trying to stay legit. But it’s tough staying straight in a crooked town – and Miami is a pirate’s paradise, where investment fat cats and lowlife drug dealers hold hands and dance.

And when a crazed player chooses Stick at random to die for another man’s sins, the struggling ex-con is left with no choice but to dive right back into the game. Besides, Stick knows a good thing when he sees it – and a golden opportunity to run a very profitable sweet-revenge scam seems much too tasty to pass up

The New York Times bestselling author of Be Cool and Get Shorty

Killer man Vincent Majestyk had his belly-full of killing in Asia. It was his job and he was one of the best, but when he stripped off his uniform he never wanted to go back to it.

Now he works under the open skies of the American Southwest, growing melons on his farm, where nobody knows about his past. And that was why a cheap crook named Kopas, a hard-nosed cop named McAllen, and a big-time, high-priced hit man named Renda all figured Majestyk was another local yokel to be pushed around.

Majestyk was about to go to war again…

‘A captivating biography … This rollicking story is packed with anecdotes’ The Times

Francis I was inconstant, amorous, hot-headed and flawed. Yet he was also arguably the most significant king that France ever had. This is his story.

A contemporary of Henry VIII of England, Francis saw himself as the first Renaissance king, a man who was the exemplar of courtly and civilised behaviour throughout Europe. A courageous and heroic warrior, he was also a keen aesthete, an accomplished diplomat and an energetic ruler who turned his country into a force to be reckoned with.

Yet he was also capricious, vain and arrogant, taking hugely unnecessary risks, at least one of which nearly resulted in the end of his kingdom. His great feud with his nemesis Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, defined European diplomacy and sovereignty, but his notorious alliance with the great Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent threatened to destroy everything.

With access to never-before-seen private archives, Leonie Frieda’s comprehensive and sympathetic account explores the life of the most human of all Renaissance monarchs – and the most enigmatic.

The women who wielded the real power behind the throne in Renaissance Italy, from a bestselling historian.

This book is one of drama on a grand scale, a Renaissance epic, as Christendom emerged from the shadows of the calamitous 14th century. The sweeping tale involves inspired and corrupt monarchs, the finest thinkers, the most brilliant artists and the greatest beauties in Christendom.

Here are the stories of its most remarkable women, who are all joined by birth, marriage and friendship and who ruled for a time in place of their men-folk: Lucrezia Turnabuoni (Queen Mother of Florence, the power behind the Medici throne), Clarice Orsini (Roman princess, feudal wife), Beatrice d’Este (Golden Girl of the Renaissance), Caterina Sforza (Lioness of the Romagna), Isabella d’Este (the Acquisitive Marchesa), Giulia Farnese (‘la bella’, the family asset), Isabella d’Aragona (the Weeping Duchess) and Lucrezia Borgia (the Virtuous Fury). The men play a secondary role in this grand saga; whenever possible the action is seen through the eyes of our heroines.

These eight women experienced great riches, power and the warm smile of fortune, but they also knew banishment, poverty, the death of a husband or the loss of one or more of their children. As each of the chosen heroines comes to the fore in her turn, she is handed the baton by her ‘sister’, and Leonie Frieda recounts the role each woman played in the hundred-year drama that is THE DEADLY SISTERHOOD.

The women who wielded the real power behind the throne in Renaissance Italy, from a bestselling historian.

This book is one of drama on a grand scale, a Renaissance epic, as Christendom emerged from the shadows of the calamitous 14th century. The sweeping tale involves inspired and corrupt monarchs, the finest thinkers, the most brilliant artists and the greatest beauties in Christendom.

Here are the stories of its most remarkable women, who are all joined by birth, marriage and friendship and who ruled for a time in place of their men-folk: Lucrezia Turnabuoni (Queen Mother of Florence, the power behind the Medici throne), Clarice Orsini (Roman princess, feudal wife), Beatrice d’Este (Golden Girl of the Renaissance), Caterina Sforza (Lioness of the Romagna), Isabella d’Este (the Acquisitive Marchesa), Giulia Farnese (‘la bella’, the family asset), Isabella d’Aragona (the Weeping Duchess) and Lucrezia Borgia (the Virtuous Fury). The men play a secondary role in this grand saga; whenever possible the action is seen through the eyes of our heroines.

These eight women experienced great riches, power and the warm smile of fortune, but they also knew banishment, poverty, the death of a husband or the loss of one or more of their children. As each of the chosen heroines comes to the fore in her turn, she is handed the baton by her ‘sister’, and Leonie Frieda recounts the role each woman played in the hundred-year drama that is THE DEADLY SISTERHOOD.

‘Try this tequila oil, Hugito. Just as the alcohol hits your stomach, the chilli will as well and blow it back into your brain. It will take your head off.’ Explorer Hugh Thomson takes on Mexico.

It’s 1979, Hugh Thomson is eighteen, far from home, with time to kill – and on his way to Mexico. When a stranger tells him there’s money to be made by driving a car over the US border to sell on the black market in Central America, Hugh decides to give it a go.

Throwing himself on the mercy of Mexicans he meets or crashes into, Hugh and his Oldsmobile 98 journey through the region, meeting their fate in the slums of Belize City.

Thirty years on, Hugh returns – older but not necessarily wiser – to complete his journey.

‘Try this tequila oil, Hugito. Just as the alcohol hits your stomach, the chilli will as well and blow it back into your brain. It will take your head off.’ Explorer Hugh Thomson takes on Mexico.

It’s 1979, Hugh Thomson is eighteen, far from home, with time to kill – and on his way to Mexico. When a stranger tells him there’s money to be made by driving a car over the US border to sell on the black market in Central America, Hugh decides to give it a go.

Throwing himself on the mercy of Mexicans he meets or crashes into, Hugh and his Oldsmobile 98 journey through the region, meeting their fate in the slums of Belize City.

Thirty years on, Hugh returns – older but not necessarily wiser – to complete his journey.

A masterly biography of a great Conservative Prime Minister (and publisher) – Harold Macmillan (1894-1986).

Harold Macmillan was a figure of paradox. Outwardly, it was Edwardian elegance and civilised urbanity. Inwardly, it was emotional damage from his wife’s open adultery and his progressive perplexity at the onward march of time.

The First World War showed the courageous soldier. From then on, it was politics, rather than the family business of publishing, which was to be his future. Nevertheless, although he supported Churchill in the 1930s he was deemed boring – and certainly not ministerial material.

All changed with the Second World War. Appointed Minister in Residence in North Africa, Macmillan’s career flowered. After the War he became indispensable to Conservative Cabinets and as Churchill’s Minister of Housing in the early 1950s he achieved the target, against all expectations, of 300,000 houses annually. Thereafter, he was Eden’s Foreign Secretary and Chancellor but by then Macmillan had become openly ambitious. Over the Suez affair in 1956 he played a difficult – and somewhat devious – hand. Eden’s resignation left him as the clear choice of his Cabinet colleagues to become Prime Minister.

From 1957 to 1962, Macmillan was a good – some would say a great – Prime Minister. By 1962, however, his government was looking tired. The Profumo affair in 1963 was particularly damaging, and in the autumn of 1963 his health forced him to retire.

A masterly biography of a great Conservative Prime Minister (and publisher) – Harold Macmillan (1894-1986).

Harold Macmillan was a figure of paradox. Outwardly, it was Edwardian elegance and civilised urbanity. Inwardly, it was emotional damage from his wife’s open adultery and his progressive perplexity at the onward march of time.

The First World War showed the courageous soldier. From then on, it was politics, rather than the family business of publishing, which was to be his future. Nevertheless, although he supported Churchill in the 1930s he was deemed boring – and certainly not ministerial material.

All changed with the Second World War. Appointed Minister in Residence in North Africa, Macmillan’s career flowered. After the War he became indispensable to Conservative Cabinets and as Churchill’s Minister of Housing in the early 1950s he achieved the target, against all expectations, of 300,000 houses annually. Thereafter, he was Eden’s Foreign Secretary and Chancellor but by then Macmillan had become openly ambitious. Over the Suez affair in 1956 he played a difficult – and somewhat devious – hand. Eden’s resignation left him as the clear choice of his Cabinet colleagues to become Prime Minister.

From 1957 to 1962, Macmillan was a good – some would say a great – Prime Minister. By 1962, however, his government was looking tired. The Profumo affair in 1963 was particularly damaging, and in the autumn of 1963 his health forced him to retire.

The first collection of food writing by Britain’s funniest and most feared critic

A.A. Gill knows food, and loves food. A meal is never just a meal. It has a past, a history, connotations. It is a metaphor for life. A.A. Gill delights in decoding what lies behind the food on our plates: famously, his reviews are as much ruminations on society at large as they are about the restaurants themselves. So alongside the concepts, customers and cuisines, ten years of writing about restaurants has yielded insights on everything from yaks to cowboys, picnics to politics.

TABLE TALK is an idiosyncratic selection of A.A. Gill’s writing about food, taken from his Sunday Times and Tatler columns. Sometimes inspired by the traditions of a whole country, sometimes by a single ingredient, it is a celebration of what great eating can be, an excoriation of those who get it wrong, and an education about our own appetites. Because it spans a decade, the book focuses on A.A. Gill’s general dining experiences rather than individual restaurants – food fads, tipping, chefs, ingredients, eating in town and country and abroad, and the best and worst dining experiences. Fizzing with wit, it is a treat for gourmands, gourmets and anyone who relishes good writing.

How the early Christians rewrote history, turning a Jewish teacher and messiah into a ‘Christian’ man-deity, bringing eternal life to all who believe

We often forget the undeniable fact that Jesus was Jewish. He lived and died a Jew, teaching the religion of his forbears and living by the Torah. After his death there was a ‘Jesus movement’ led by Jesus’ brother James in Jerusalem and a ‘Christ movement’ led by Paul (who never met Jesus) in the Diaspora. The Christ movement deliberately sought to replace and destroy the Jesus movement.

The battles of the Jewish community against the Romans, and the chaos after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, helped Paul and his party to seduce Jesus’ followers away from the strictures of Judaism. Having killed off the historical Jesus, the new Christians turned the religion away from a traditional emphasis on behaviour into the most successful personality cult in recorded history.

Long before King Arthur is born to rule England, the enchanter Merlin is caught up in a tangled web of magic and mayhem, treachery, truth and heady enchantment

Seven centuries have passed since Merlin journeyed with Jason and his Argonauts to find the Golden Fleece. Merlin is immortal, but when he uses the charm that is knit deep in his bones, his body ages – and he has no wish to be old, so rather than squander his magic, he prefers to rely on his own intelligence and cunning.

Now the mage finds himself in Alba, the Island of Mists, beset by enemies both dead and Otherworldly, seeking both the children of the warlord Urtha, who have been kidnapped and taken to Ghostland, and Jason’s younger son, Kinos (Little Dreamer), hidden by his enchantress mother, Medea in the Otherworld.

And now Merlin must use not just his own cunning and centuries of knowledge, but also the magic that permeates his body if he is to save his friends from fates truly worse than death itself.

Merlin is almost young, and immortal, one of those born to walk the paths of the world, a man with charm carved into his bones, and enchantment running through his body thicker than blood . . .

And this is a time of heroes, centuries before King Arthur is born, men and women who, though not gods themselves, are something more than mere mortals. For decades, Jason has been immured in his ship Argo in a lake in the far north, alive, but not, still traumatised by the murder of his sons by his enchantress wife Medea . . . until Merlin sees through the veil of enchantment and realises the boys were never killed; it was all a trick.

Through the mists-shrouded isle of Alba to Greek Land, Merlin leads Jason and his Argonauts, some old, some new, on a quest to find the boys, journey filled with heroism and heartbreak, truth and treachery.

Simon Bradley, a highly imaginative child, brain-damaged after a bizarre attack, vanishes one day from his home. Months later a body is found on the edge of Ryhope Wood. The wood shields a heart of primeval forest wherein live phantoms and strange creatures – mythagos – those shades generated over time by our dreams and nightmares.

Alex has in fact been absorbed by the wood, drawn into its green heart – through a ‘hollowing’. There his dreams will continue to populate the wood with its mythagos. But like Alex, they too are damaged: the great heroes he conjures are warped, incomplete and dangerous. Savage and lost, they are compelled to seek their creator. The havoc they wreak threatens those who search for Alex, including his father, Richard.

In the end, it will threaten the very existence of the wood itself and of its natural mythagos. Richard must quest repeatedly through Ryhope’s hollowings in an attempt to bring his son to safety and quiet the monsters Alex has created.

There his dreams continue to populate the wood with “mythagos”, warped, dangerous hero figures, threatening all those who come in search of the boy.

Deep within the wildwood lies a place of myth and mystery, from which few return, and of those few, none remain unchanged.

Ryhope Wood may look like a three-mile-square fenced-in wood in rural Herefordshire on the outside, but inside, it is a primeval, intricate labyrinth of trees, impossibly huge, unforgettable … and stronger than time itself.

Stephen Huxley has already lost his father to the mysteries of Ryhope Wood. On his return from the Second World War, he finds his brother, Christopher, is also in thrall to the mysterious wood, wherein lies a realm where mythic archetypes grow flesh and blood, where love and beauty haunt your dreams, and in promises of freedom lies the sanctuary of insanity …

Readers love Mythago Wood:

‘6.0 stars. This book is a MASTERPIECE and will likely be on my list of “All Time Favourite” novels before too long’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

‘Blimey, what a book! Genuine classic of mythological fiction.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

‘An imaginative masterpiece has broken the boundaries of fantasy genre. In Mythagowood Myths manifest from characters’s unfathomable desires. The mysterious forest which the protagonists are obsessed with is an original concept of legends, it rooted in subconscious mind arouses overwhelming power of human minds’. Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

‘To attempt to write a straightforward synopsis of Mythago Wood itself is almost to lose the very essence of the novel, to break away from the ethereal feeling which transcends the book.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

‘I’ve seldomly read a book that is so rich and enthralling in its descriptions and really draws me into the mythical woods, where time flows differently, where your subconscious can conjure up archetypes and these can infringe upon your very real life outside of the forest.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

‘Be warned. This book has no literary merit whatsoever. It is a lurid piece of nonsense, convoluted, implausible, peopled by unconvincing characters, written in drearily pedestrian prose, frequently ridiculous and wilfully bizarre. Needless to say, I doubt you’ll believe a word of it.’

So starts the extraordinary tale of Edward Moon, detective, his silent sidekick the Somnambulist and a devilish plot to recreate the apocalyptic prophecies of William Blake and bring the British Empire crashing down.

With a gallery of vividly grotesque characters, a richly evoked setting and a playful highly literate style this is an amazingly readable literary fantasy and a brilliant debut.

A great TV, movie and stage actress in her own words and pictures.

Helen Mirren has been an internationally acclaimed actress and the recipient of many awards, transferring without obvious effort from stage, cinema and television for over 40 years. Known in her youth for a forthright style, a liberated attitude and a bohemian outlook, she has never ceased to be out of the public eye, with legions of admiring fans all over the world. This illustrated memoir is an account of an extraordinary talent, and a life well lived.

Helen’s aristocratic Russian grandfather was sent to London by the Tsar and found himself stranded and penniless by the Bolshevik revolution, cut off from the family estate. He brought with him a trunk of papers and photographs. This delightful memoir starts with contents of the trunk, with evocative pictures of Helen’s Russian antecedents. She has kept a rich seam of photographs and memorabilia from her life, and her parents, family life, childhood, teenage and early years as an actress living in insalubrious flats are vividly documented.

Helen’s many distinguished roles in theatre, cinema and television and the illustrious men and women she has encountered are commemorated, as well as her forays into Hollywood and her subsequent life in the US with her husband, film director Taylor Hackford. Golden Globe and Oscar ceremonies make their appearance, as do many stunning images of Helen by the world’s leading photographers.

IN THE FRAME is a book to savour, created and written by one of the great personalities of our age.