A meticulously researched historical novel of the ancient world. 21BC. After the turbulence of civil war, Augustus Caesar now rules Rome. Yet his authority is fragile, holding only so long as the people believe Rome's gods support him, particularly the beloved goddess of home and hearth, Vesta. Pomponia, now chief Vestal Virgin, continues to devote her life to the goddess. She has risen to a position of esteem in Rome and is a valued member of Caesar's inner circle, but when a contagion starts to ravage the city, tensions rise among the city's inhabitants. Meanwhile, a malevolent nobleman called Soren starts plotting against her, threatening not just her friendship with Caesar but everything she loves. With four illustrations at the end including an ancient terracotta votive offering as used in the book, coins and statuettes and an engraving showing a Vestal Virgin being condemned for bringing the plague, Pomponia's recurring nightmare. Useful glossary, 340pp in paperback.

East Prussia, 1943. 'We entered one at a time. We had waited for hours outside, lined up in the hallway. The room was large, its walls white. In the centre of it, a long wooden table already laid out. They gestured for us to sit. I sat with my hands clasped on my belly. In front of me, a white ceramic plate. I was hungry. The other women had taken their places without a sound. There were ten of us. Some sat up straight and poised, their hair pulled into buns... For years we had lived with this hunger, this fear, and when the smell of cooked food was under our noses, our heartbeats throbbed in our temples, our mouths watered... As though we're not being forced to eat it all, as though we could refuse this food, this meal isn't intended for us... My mother used to say eating was a way of battling death. She said it even before Hitler... When the meal was over, two SS guards stepped forward... 'In an hour's time you'll all be free to go.' 'Or dead' remarked his comrade.' Hitler is hiding away in the Wolfsschanze, his hidden headquarters. The tide is turning in the war and his enemies circle ever closer. Ten women are chosen to taste his food and protect him from being poisoned. 26 year old Rosa has lost everything to this war - her parents are dead, her husband is fighting on the front line. Alone and scared she faces the SS with nothing but the knowledge that every bite might be her last. How far is Rosa willing to go to survive? A disturbing and beautifully written novel based on shockingly real events, this is an international bestseller. 341pp.

From the million copy best-selling author of The Letter, and inspired by true events, here is an unforgettable, moving and timeless story of love and war which will stay with the reader for ever. Jenny Tanner opens the box she has cherished for decades. Contained within are her most precious mementoes, amongst them a pebble, a carving, and a newspaper cutting she can hardly bear to read. But she knows the time is finally here. After the war, in a mountainside village in Italy, Jenny left behind a piece of her heart. However painful she must return to Cinque Alberi, and lay the past to rest. After a troubled upbringing, Candice Barnes dreams of a future with the love of her life, but is he the man she believes him to be? When she is given the opportunity to travel to Italy with Jenny, Candice is unaware the trip will open her eyes to the truth she's been too afraid to face. Could a place of goodbyes help her make a brave new beginning? With wonderful characters, be prepared to lose your heart in this page turner. 417pp, paperback.

There's a murder on the streets of London, a plot that threatens the country and a dinner party to arrange. Only one man can help and unfortunately he's got a terrible hangover. Set in 1936, it is the story of Max and Martha Dalton, a young couple who seem to live a carefree life of luxury and dinner parties, far removed from the increasingly brutal world. When an old army friend is murdered, Max finds himself drawn into the crime and back into his own past. As the police suspect Max guilty of the murder, he believes there must be a connection with a tragic crime committed in the muddy hell of the Western Front. Police suspicions grow along with a body count featuring one too many of Max's former comrades. With Martha, he sets out to unravel a knotted series of events, motivations and lies, while being pursued by a police force convinced that he's the murderer and with unknown assassins hot on his trail. With the slightly dubious help of Martha, their maid Flora, Flora's sweetheart Eric, and a very confused solicitor, Max manages to uncover a plot that threatens the safety of the whole country. An action-packed caper, cleverly plotted with engaging characters. 329pp, paperback.

The blockbuster from 1983 which has become the UK's second longest ever running stage play by the undoubted mistress of the modern ghost story. Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House. He travels to the remote village to put the affairs of his client in order and as he works alone in her isolated house, he begins to uncover disturbing secrets. His unease grows when he glimpses a mysterious woman dressed in black. The locals are strangely unwilling to talk about the unsettling occurrence, and Kipps is forced to uncover the true identity of the Woman in Black on his own, leading to a desperate race against time when he discovers her true identity, and her terrible purpose. 200 page paperback.

Winner of the 1973 Booker Prize, Hilary Mantell said of this novel 'Original and endlessly entertaining, it repays repeated readings.' Krishnapur 1857 - India is on the brink of a violent and bloody mutiny. In this remote town on the vast North Indian plain, life for the British is orderly and genteel, but when the sepoys at the nearest military cantonment rise in revolt, the British community retreats with shock into the Residency. They prepare to fight for their lives with what weapons they can muster. As food and ammunition grow short when the British find themselves under actual siege, the true character of their domination - at once brutal, blundering and wistful - is soon revealed. A superb portrayal of the physical horrors and psychological fallout, the novel is wonderfully funny and written with a devastating wit and rambunctious humanity. Inspired, funny it is ultimately a tragic look at colonialism in India. Paperback, 375pp with Afterword.

1581. Young St Andrews academic Hew Cullan is unhappy with his life and disillusioned with the law. After his father's death, he is invited by the advocate Richard Cunningham to complete his legal education in Edinburgh as Richard's pupil at the bar. Among his father's things, Hew finds a manuscript entitled 'In Defence of the Law', directed to the Edinburgh printer, Christian Hall. At first, he resists its influence, but when a young girl is found dead on the beach at St Andrews, Hew is left unsettled and confused and resolves to take the book to press and agrees to Richard's offer. Embarking on his new life in the capital, he falls in love. His relationships are fraught with lies and secrets and lead to brutal murder on the borough muir. Hew suspects a link with the dead girl on the beach and as he begins his desperate search to find the killer, he finds that the truth lies closer to home. There are hints of a long-hidden mystery which draw him into a deadly game against an unrepentant foe. A superb historical thriller, 306pp in paperback.

A haunting historical novel which weaves betrayal and sacrifice amid echoes of the Orpheus myth and swirls of magic. It brilliantly explores the fault lines between heroism and complicity, guilt and trauma, love and betrayal and is a book for the grievers and those wishing to remedy past mistakes. A decade after fleeing for his life, a man is pulled back to Argentina by an undying love. In 1976, Tomás Orilla is a medical student in Buenos Aires where he has moved in the hopes of reuniting with Isabel, a childhood crush. But the reckless passion that has long drawn him is leading Isabel ever deeper into the ranks of the insurgency fighting an increasingly oppressive regime. Tomás has always been willing to follow her anywhere, to prove himself, yet what exactly is he proving, and at what cost to both of them? It will be years before a summons back arrives, and now he is living as Thomas Shore in New York. It isn't a homecoming that awaits him so much as an odyssey into the past where ghosts lurk there and a reckoning with a fatal gap between who he has become, and who he once aspired to be. A technically challenging and morally complex novel. 294pp.

Mathematic student G is trying to resurrect his studies which is proving difficult as he finds himself drawn into investigating a series of mysterious crimes. When Kristen, a researcher hired by the Lewis Carroll Brotherhood, makes a startling new discovery concerning pages torn from Carroll's diary, she hesitates to reveal to her employers a hitherto unknown chapter in his life. Oxford would be rocked to the core if the truth about Lewis Carroll's relationship with Alice Liddell, the real Alice, were brought to light. After Kristen is involved in a surreal accident, and members of the Brotherhood are anonymously sent salacious photographs of Alice, G joins forces with Kristen as they begin to realise that dark powers are at work. More pictures are received and it becomes clear that a murderer is stalking anyone who shows too much interest in Carroll's life. G must stretch his mathematical mind to its limits to solve the mystery and understand the cryptic workings of the Brotherhood. Until then nobody, not even G, is safe. 'To make the DEAD LIVE' which was buried among the Wonderland creator's history of participating in spiritualist gatherings, claiming he had been able to photograph ghosts. Explore G's watering holes across Oxford, from a meeting with an inspector at The Eagle and Child or greeting a professor at the Little Clarendon pub who is holding court with an eager student over a pint of beer. Inspired by true strange stories, this is a novel to make you curiouser and curiouser. 278pp, large softback with fairly large print.

The unforgettable historical novel of family, politics and the price of love in Civil War. London, 1657. The youngest daughter of Oliver Cromwell, 18 year old Frances, is finding her place at England's new centre of power. Following the turmoil of Civil War, a fragile sense of stability has returned to the country. Her father has risen to the unprecedented position of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, and Frances has found herself transported from her humble childhood home to the sumptuous palaces of Hampton Court and Whitehall, where she dreams of a love match that must surely be found at court. But after an assassination attempt on the Cromwell family, she realises the precarious danger of her position, and when her father is officially offered the crown, her fate suddenly assumes diplomatic and dynastic importance. Trapped in the web of court intrigue, will she allow herself to become a political pawn, or use her new status to take control and further her own ambitions? Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory. 434pp in large format softback with fairly large print and Cromwell family tree.