Introducing Elizabethan cutpurse and adventurer Jack Blackjack in the first of a brand-new historical mystery series January, 1554. Light-fingered Jack Blackjack knows he's not going to have a good day when he wakes with a sore head next to a dead body in a tavern's yard. That would be bad enough – but when he discovers what's in the dead man's purse, the one he'd stolen, his day is set to get much worse. The purse explains why the mysterious man with the broad-brimmed hat wants to catch him. But so does the Lord Chancellor, as does the enigmatic Henry. In fact, almost everyone seems to be after Jack Blackjack. If it weren't for the rebel army marching on London determined to remove Queen Mary from her throne and install Lady Jane Grey in her place, Jack could leave the city – but with the bridge blocked and every gate manned, there's no escape. Instead he must try to work out who killed the man in the yard, and why....

From Roald Dahl, the master of the sting in the tail, a newly collected book of his darkest stories.'There is a pleasure sure in being mad, which none but madmen know' Our greatest fear is of losing control - of our lives, but, most of all, of ourselves. In these ten unsettling tales of unexpected madness master storyteller Roald Dahl explores what happens when we let go our sanity.Among other stories, you'll meet the husband with a jealous fixation on the family cat, the landlady who wants her guests to stay forever, the man whose taste for pork leads him astray and the wife with a pathological fear of being late.Dahl understood our deepest secrets, desires and fears and Madness is one of four books - the rest being Lust, Cruelty and Deception - that explore our hidden selves.

Ava's been trying to help her past and her future co-exist, but when it all goes wrong, she's barely able to take a breath when the next drama begins, and she begins to wonder about her string of bad luck.Tensions are already running high when evidence of slavery appears on Ava's doorstep, quickly followed by an unwelcome blast from the past with news that forces her to rethink where her trust lies.The only thing Ava knows for sure is that it's time to finish cleaning up the mess that started with Fionnuala because bad luck is catching, and everyone she cares about is affected.

An enthralling novelette by Boris Pasternak, the author of Dr. Zhivago, The Adolescence of Zhenya Luvers explores how a thirteen-year-old girl ceases to be a child and becomes a woman in Russia just before the Communist Revolution. The story examines the world through the reminiscences of a young girl and explores such themes as nature and how we are able to shape the world around us by how we perceive it. The novelette gives readers a prime example of Pasternak's signature style and use of poetics, imagery, and lyricism in prose. The Adolescence of Zhenya Luvers is one of Pasternak's very first stories, and it originally appeared in a collection by the same name, published in 1925.

“This is no chicken soup for the soul. It is a wicked broth that will take you to the dark corners of the human soul. “… left my head spinning. I read it in one sitting and couldn’t let the book leave my hands… I had to make my roommate read it so I had someone to talk to about it.”

Twelve barktastic dog stories for children! Featuring stories from bestselling Australian children's authors this collection will make dog-lovers of any age smile. Funny, touching, cute, fantastical, weird, disgusting - there's a dog story in here for everyone!

Sent from the Well-Built City to a barren mining town, physiognomist Cley is directed to find the thief who has stolen a supernatural and legendary white fruit that grew in the Earthly Paradise.

The captivating story of the world's favorite saint is now retold for a modern audience by one of the great novelists of our time.Perhaps more than any other figure in Christian history since Jesus Christ, Saint Francis of Assisi has captured our imagination, for his is a story of extreme self-sacrifice, of love to God and man. How could this wealthy, handsome youth cast away all the advantages that were his by birth and choose instead a career of poverty and humility? How could he attract members of all strata of society to his mission? And how, when his order became established throughout Europe, could he renounce great personal power and humbly continue his life's work?Here is Francis, from his twelfth-century boyhood to his life as a missionary roaming the very boundaries of the known world. Here too are the men and women who followed him—Bernard de Quintavalle, the rich businessman; Peter Cathanii, the lawyer; Brother Giles, the farmer's...

A searing new collection from the inimitable Amelia Gray. A woman creeps through the ductwork of a quiet home. A medical procedure reveals an object of worship. A carnivorous reptile divides and cauterizes a town. Amelia Gray's curio cabinet expands in Gutshot, where isolation and coupling are pushed to their dark and outrageous edges. These singular stories live and breathe on their own, pulsating with energy and humanness and a glorious sense of humor. Hers are stories that you will read and reread--raw gems that burrow into your brain, reminders of just how strange and beautiful our world is. These collected stories come to us like a vivisected body, the whole that is all the more elegant and breathtaking for exploring its most grotesque and intimate lightless viscera.**