Malta at the heart of the Mediterranean war in 1941 is under siege by German and Italian bombers. Rumours that a British soldier murdered a Maltese teenager cannot go unchallenged without damaging loyalty to Britain. Now Britain will cooperate with Ireland to find the killer and Detective Inspector Stefan Gillespie is sent to Malta. He had been ferrying documents between Dublin and war-torn London when Ireland's greatest actor was arrested in Soho, after the brutal murder of a gay man. But Stefan is looking at a series of murders stretching across Britain and Ireland. The Soho victim was a police informant, spying on nationalist friends, and the killer is probably a British soldier, but the identical murder in Malta makes investigation essential. The British believe the killer is an Irishman and that's the result they want. They would like Stefan to give it to them, but in the dark streets of Valletta there are threats deadlier than German bombs. 320pp, paperback.

2022 paperback from the bestseller charts first time discounted. In the 1930s, Stalin's activists marched across the Soviet Union in the first step in creating a man-made famine that, in Ukraine, stole almost four million lives. Inspired by the history the world forgot, author Erin Litteken reimagines their story. In 1929 Katya is 16 years old, surrounded by family and in love with the boy next door. When Stalin's men arrive in her village it's just a few, a little pressure to join the collective, but soon neighbours disappear and those who speak out are never seen again. Resistance has a price and survival seems more a dream than a possibility, but even in the darkest times, love beckons. 70 years later, a young widow finds her grandmother's journal, one that will reveal the long-buried secrets of her family's haunted past. This is a novel that shines an unflinching light on historical atrocities while at the same time celebrating the resilience of the human spirit. 338pp,

A lone figure stands silhouetted atop the Mausoleum of Hadrian. Behind him the sun is setting over the centre of the known world. Far below, the river is in full flood. The City of Rome lies spread out before him on the far bank. Footsteps pound up the stairs. He's been set up. An enemy is closing in and he is cornered. He jumps. Bruised and battered he crawls out of the raging river, alone and unarmed without money or friends, trapped in a deadly conspiracy at the heart of the Empire. The City Watch has orders to take him alive. Other more sinister forces want him dead. As the day dies, he realises he only has 24 hours to expose the conspirators and save the leader of the world. If the Emperor dies, chaos and violence will ensue. If the Emperor dies, every single person he loves will die. He must run, bluff, hide and fight his way across the Seven Hills. He must reach the Colosseum, and the Emperor. He must make it to The Last Hour. Brutal, brilliant and relentless, this is 'Jack Reacher in Ancient Rome' - Ben Kane. The epic tale starts with a chilling assassination and is a tale of ruthless ambition and revenge by one of our favourite writers of historical military fiction solidly based on a profound understanding of what it meant to be alive in a particular time and place. 366pp, paperback.

ITV drama TV tie-in paperback edition by the Booker Prize winner. The action is set in Singapore in 1939 where Walter Blackett, ruthless rubber merchant, is head of British Singapore's oldest and most powerful firm. He and his family inhabit a world of luxury, cocktails and dress parties and Walter's only problem seems to be who to leave his business to when he retires. His son Monty is a failure in his eyes, so that leaves only his two daughters Kate and Joan. Kate is too young, and Joan is an intelligent young woman who if she can be persuaded to marry the right kind of man things could work out well. Walter thinks the right man may just have arrived; his business partner Mr Webb having recently passed away, his son Matthew has come to Singapore to take over his father's interest in the business. Meanwhile slowly the Japanese army is fighting its way towards Singapore. It is the eve of the Fall of Singapore. A story of love and war, a tragicomic tale of a city under siege and a dying way of life, filled with succulent vignettes of colonial life and English eccentricity and a vast looming war in south-east Asia in the background. 681pp in chunky paperback.

The undervalued American novelist inspired many Broadway productions and Hollywood films including Showboat and this novel Saratoga Trunk, which became a classic film starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman. It is set around the 1869 Railroad Wars that took place in Upstate New York concerning the necessary developments for reliable railway lines, and the brutality and lawlessness that were accepted in late 19th, early 20th century Texas and New York. The two main characters are Clio Dulaine, an ambitious Creole beauty who more than meets her match in Clint Maroon, a handsome Texan with a head for business and an eye for beautiful women. At the start of the book they are the celebrated glamour couple now in their seventies, with Clint wishing to tell the truth about how rich men got rich by evil means and to burst the bubble on their fame and tell the truth. The devoted journalists only want the glamour and not the dirt. Clio is from Paris and New Orleans and the interplay between the couple is delicious in this lively tale of ambition and love that celebrates the triumph of outsiders against the powerful and corrupt. Together they do battle with Southern gentry and Eastern society, but in their obsession to acquire all they ever wanted, they fail to realise they already have all they'll ever need - each other. An enthralling saga of love, greed and power set in New Orleans and Saratoga. 286pp, paperback.

A frothy Regency period novel which captures the etiquette of its time with a well written and adventurous plot. The Poor Relation hotel is the toast of London and its owners are preparing to sell up and retire. Driven into hiding at the hotel by a tyrannous father and a rich but wizened suitor, Lady Jane Fremney tries to take her own life. The owners start feeling sorry for her as she is miserable and rarely smiles and decide to take her under their wing and launch her on society with the help of Harriet, their first protégée and now Duchess of Rowcester. After bringing her out for the Season, all the young bucks call on Jane, among them the handsome but racy Comte de Mornay, an exile from Napoleon's France who has broken many a heart and so far eluded matrimony. Jane is quite adamant he is unsuitable for her, but when his life is threatened by an assassin's pistol, it is up to her to help him escape from danger and into l'amour. A real treat, 184pp paperback.

After 16 years of bloody war, Hannibal Barca is on the verge of defeat. On the plains of Zama, Felix stands in the formidable Roman legions, ready to deliver the decisive blow. Victory will establish Rome as the pre-eminent power in the ancient world. Meanwhile young senator Flaminius is set on becoming one of the Republic's greatest military commanders with his eyes on as-yet-unconquered Macedon and Greece. But in the north of Greece, Philip V of Macedon has his own agenda and is determined to restore his kingdom to its former glory but needs a strong army to help him do it. Young Demetrios dreams of fighting in the Phalanx but is just a poor oarsman. Thirsty, hungry, burnt by the unforgiving Mediterranean sun, dreams are his only sustenance until a chance encounter changes everything. A thrilling novel by the bestselling writer about the Roman invasion of Greece and the heroes of history for fans of Simon Scarrow. 430pp in large softback with useful glossary.

Donaldson returns to the word of his Great God's War fantasy epic as two kingdoms, with their alliance failing, prepare to be challenged by a merciless enemy. It has been 20 years since Prince Bifalt of Belleger discovered the Last Repository and the sorcerous knowledge hidden there and brought peace to the kingdoms of Belleger and Amika. Founded upon the uneasy marriage between Bifalt and Estie, the crown princess of Amika, they now fear a new war is soon to begin. An ancient enemy has discovered the location of the Last Repository. Dark forces are massing and making their way to the library to seize the magical knowledge it guards. That horde will slaughter every man, woman and child in its path to get what it desires and destroy both Belleger and Amika along the way. They must beat the odds and unite their people and fight back against this terrible foe despite the alliance undermined by lingering hostility and old feuds and conspiracies threatening. Parallels will be found in this wonderful style of Donaldson's writing with his Covenant novels. Military scifi at its best, 564pp in huge softback.

An enthralling tale of bravery and naval warfare this is book two of a series featuring Jack Stannard for all fans of Hornblower but may be read alone. Captain Jack Stannard showed his worth in the Battle of the Solent. Little did he know how his actions there would change his life forever. He is drawn to Elizabeth I's spymaster Francis Walsingham who sets Stannard on an extraordinary mission to Africa and the Caribbean in company with two unscrupulous sea captains, John Hawkins and Francis Drake. Stannard may be a man of the sea at heart, but for the former Dunwich lad, this adventure is on a new and unprecedented scale, from the force of a hurricane to the might of the Spanish fleet. 303pp, paperback.

A fey unsettling vision of Norfolk and London with hints of the brooding Gothic of the novel Rebecca, it is an intriguing and unsettling tale of séances, strange lights, disappearing children and a coacher who swears he has seen the devil in the marshes. Womack brings a great sense of the uncanny to the Fens as she offers a door to another world in a compelling mystery with hidden facets. 1901, and after the death of Queen Victoria, England heaves with the uncanny. Séances are held and the dead are called upon from darker realms. Helena Walton-Cisneros, known for her ability to find the lost and the displaced, is hired by the elusive Lady Matthews to solve a 20 year old mystery - the disappearance of her three stepdaughters who vanished without a trace on the Norfolk Fens. But the Fens are an age-old land where folk tales and dark magic still linger. The locals speak of devilmen and catatonic children found on the Broads, and here Helena finds what she was sent for, as the Fenland always gives up its secrets in the end. 234pp, paperback.