Literature & Fiction

The military makes an offer, but it comes with a very significant risk. How far are Erik, Jia, and Emma willing to go? Will they accept a massive technology upgrade? Erik and Jia want the truth, but will the cost of tens of thousands of civilians caught in the middle be worth it? Two years ago, a small moon in a far-off system was set to be the location of the first intergalactic war between humans and an alien race. It didn't happen. However, something was found that many are willing to kill to keep secret.

For the last 28 summers, Alice and Tom have met to rekindle the passionate love affair they began all those years ago. Each married to someone else, with busy lives and happy families, they've managed to keep their secret and to keep their love alive. But nothing is forever. Tom's wife is in the national spotlight for her controversial and increasingly popular campaign for political office, and Alice has received a diagnosis that puts her future in doubt. Could their 28th summer together also be their last?

Renee may be thrilled to be planning her sister’s wedding, but after witnessing her mother’s two failed marriages, she has always vowed that she is better off on her own. But when Renee discovers that Luc Hardy has moved next door, her world is knocked off kilter. Luc was her whirlwind summer romance as a teen and, more importantly, her first love. Now he’s back in West Cove, looking more handsome than ever.

It all happens so quickly. One day you're living the dream, commuting to work by riverbus with your charismatic neighbour Kit in the seat beside you. The next, Kit hasn't turned up for the boat and his wife, Melia, has reported him missing. When you get off at your stop, the police are waiting. Another passenger saw you and Kit arguing on the boat home the night before, and the police say that you had a reason to want him dead. You protest. You and Kit are friends - ask Melia, she'll vouch for you.

Former special ops soldier Alex Reeve is Operative 66. One of the UK's deadliest weapons, he is part of the mysterious C6 - an elite and top-secret security service with a remit to neutralise the country's most dangerous enemies. But now Reeve is in the firing line. Framed as a traitor, Reeve is forced to flee as every operative is instructed to kill the 'rogue asset'. On the run from his own government, alone and under the radar, Reeve must survive off grid with fearsome assassins on his trail. He doesn't know why he's a target. Or who betrayed him.

This new volume in the Bodies from the Library series features the work of 16 prolific authors who, like Christie and Crofts, saw their popularity soar during the golden age. Aside from novels, they all wrote short fiction - stories, serials and plays - and although most of them have been collected in books over the last 100 years, here are the ones that got away.

The date is 4 Jaguar 1 Monkey 1 House November 25th 2012 by the old reckoning and the Aztec Empire rules the world. The Aztecs' reign is one of cruel and ruthless oppression, encompassing regular human sacrifice. In the jungle-infested city of London, one man defies them: the masked vigilante known as the Conquistador. Then the Conquistador is recruited to spearhead an uprising and discovers a terrible truth about the Aztecs and their gods.  

Verity is telling lies. And that's why she's about to be arrested for attempted murder. Serena has been lying for years. And that may have driven her daughter, Verity, to do something unthinkable. Poppy's lies have come back to haunt her. So will her quest for the truth hurt everyone she loves? Everyone lies. But whose lies are going to end in tragedy?

In the oldest part of Stockholm, Bell Everhurst is working as a nanny for an affluent family. Hanna and Max Von Greyerz are parents to seven year-old Linus and five-year old twins Ellinor and Tilde, and Bell has been with the family for more than two years. One early spring morning, as she’s rushing out to take the children to school, she answers the phone - and everything changes. A woman from a clinic she’s never heard of asks her to pass on the message that Hanna’s husband is awake.

Today is the Mondayest Monday ever. Hallie Winstone has been fired – and it wasn’t even her fault! Having lost her job and humiliated herself in front of a whole restaurant full of diners, this is absolutely, one hundred percent, the worst day of her life. That is until she receives an email announcing that she is the lucky winner of the Once Upon a Page Bookshop! Owning a bookshop has always been Hallie’s dream, and when she starts to find secret love letters on the first page of every book, she knows she's stumbled across something special. 

An unforgettable story about a family with a terrible secret. When a tragedy breaks a family apart, what can bring it back together? The Birds seem to be the perfect family: mother, father, four children, a picture-book cottage in the country. But one Easter weekend, something happens - something so unexpected, so devastating, that no-one can bring themselves to talk about it. The family shatters, seemingly for good. Until, years later, they are forced to return to the house they grew up in and to confront what really broke the family apart.

Escape from isolation and broaden your horizons with this audio collection of murder mysteries by Agatha Christie, read by David Suchet, television’s iconic Poirot for more than two decades. Train journeys through rolling countryside and cruises across the open ocean might sound exotic, but when murder strikes mid-journey, they’re anything but. Even on holiday, tensions can bubble beneath the surface, and when the end of the line leads to murder, everyone’s a suspect.

Spring 1699: illegitimate, destitute and strikingly beautiful, Marta has survived the brutal Russian winter in her remote Baltic village. Sold by her family into household labour at the age of 15, Marta survives by committing a crime that will force her to go on the run. A world away, Russia's young ruler, Tsar Peter I, passionate and iron-willed, has a vision for transforming the traditionalist Tsardom of Russia into a modern, Western empire. Countless lives will be lost in the process. 

What do you do when you can't run and you can't hide? Lauren's daughter, Zara, witnessed a terrible crime. But speaking up comes with a price, and when Zara's identity is revealed online, it puts a target on her back. The only choice is to disappear. To keep Zara safe, Lauren will give up everything and everyone she loves, even her husband. There will be no goodbyes. Their pasts will be rewritten. New names, new home, new lives. The rules are strict for a reason. They are being hunted. One mistake - a text, an Instagram like - could bring their old lives crashing into the new.

Ireland. AD 672. The body of a dead man has been found on a lonely mountain road and taken to the isolated abbey of Gleann Da Loch for a proper burial. The abbot quickly identifies him as Brehon Brocc, who had been travelling to the abbey on a secret mission with Princess Gelgeis and her steward. When news reaches Colgu, king of Muman, that his betrothed, Princess Gelgeis, has disappeared, Fidelma with her trusted companions, Eadulf and Enda, enter the hostile Kingdom of Laigin in search of the truth.

Actor Kelsey Grammer, best known for his roles in the TV sitcoms Cheers and Frasier, delivers Bitter Brew, a compelling mystery featuring Detective Bill Walsh, an upstate cop in the quiet, rural town of Beatriceville, 200 miles north of New York City....

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl....

When Cara stumbles across a stash of old postcards in the attic, their contents make her question everything she thought she knew. The story she pieces together is confusing and unsettling, and appears to have been patched over with lies. But who can tell her the truth? 

When The Sandman, also known as Lord Morpheus - the immortal king of dreams, stories and the imagination - is pulled from his realm and imprisoned on Earth by a nefarious cult, he languishes for decades before finally escaping....

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, Southern Black community and running away at age 16, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything....

Irene Steele's idyllic life - house, husband, family - is shattered when she is woken up by a late-night phone call. Her beloved husband has been found dead on St. John, a tropical island paradise far removed from their suburban life....

Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist....

Nina once bought into the idea that her fancy liberal arts degree would lead to a fulfilling career. When that dream crashed, she turned to stealing from rich kids in LA alongside her wily Irish boyfriend, Lachlan. Nina learned from the best: Her mother was the original con artist....

When Mallory Blessing's son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he's not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer....

If we were as tiny as ants to another being, what would they make of our philosophies? The great satirist Voltaire imagines alien visitors who have opinions. Bedtime stories are narrated by the world's most celebrated voices....

When the supernatural nations of the world meet up to negotiate an end to ongoing hostilities, Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, joins the White Council's security team to make sure the talks stay civil....

He thought it was the end, and his gun sat ready to make sure. But an oddball offer from his last friend comes at the literal last second. Curiosity gets the best of him, and he finds himself sucked into iNcarn8, a game claiming to be a whole new life....

An all-new official prequel novel to Shadowlands, the next expansion for Blizzard Entertainment's legendary online game World of Warcraft....

For over 60 years, readers of all ages have been enchanted by the magical realms, the epic battles between good and evil, and the unforgettable creatures of Narnia. This box set includes all seven titles in The Chronicles of Narnia....

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House....

The highly anticipated sequel to the beloved worldwide bestseller Ready Player One, the "ridiculously fun and large-hearted" (NPR) near-future adventure that inspired the blockbuster Steven Spielberg film....

A riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives....

Caitlyn Sullivan had come from a long line of Hollywood royalty. At nine, she was already a star - yet still an innocent child who loved to play hide-and-seek with her cousins at the family home in Big Sur. It was during one of those games that she disappeared....

Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law....

After the men in an Arctic Norwegian town are wiped out, the women must survive a sinister threat in this "perfectly told" 1600s parable of "a world gone mad" (Adriana Trigiani)....

After receiving a frantic letter from her newlywed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside....

Set on a desert planet, Dune is the story of Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious Maud'dib, avenge a plot against his family, and bring to fruition humankind's most ancient dream....

In this stunning spoken word performance, Lana Del Rey reads 14 poems from her debut book Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass accompanied by music from Grammy Award-winning musician Jack Antonoff....

From number-one New York Times best-selling author, legendary storyteller, and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary collection of four new and compelling novellas....

Inspired by The Hobbit, and begun in 1937, The Lord of the Rings is a trilogy that J.R.R. Tolkien created to provide "the necessary background of history for Elvish tongues"....

Fifteen-year-old Ellie Mack was the perfect daughter. She was beloved by her parents, friends, and teachers. She and her boyfriend made a teenage golden couple. And then she was gone....

April May and the Carls are back in the much-anticipated sequel to Hank Green's number-one New York Times best-selling debut novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing....

New York Times and number one Audible.com best-selling author Jeremy Robinson takes listeners on a journey that is not only action-packed, but full of scientific and philosophical intrigue....

Best-selling author Lisa Wingate brings to life startling stories from actual "Lost Friends" advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as newly freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold away....

Her sister has been dead for fifteen years when she sees her on the TV news... 

Hailed by The New York Times as "a marvel of storytelling", The Things They Carried’s portrayal of the boots-on-the-ground experience of soldiers in the Vietnam War is a landmark in war writing. Now, three-time Emmy Award winner-Bryan Cranston, star of the hit TV series Breaking Bad, delivers an electrifying performance that walks the book’s hallucinatory line between reality and fiction and highlights the emotional power of the spoken word.

Graham Greene’s evocative analysis of the love of self, the love of another, and the love of God is an English classic that has been translated for the stage, the screen, and even the opera house. Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man) turns in an authentic and stirring performance for this distinguished audio release.

After a violent coup in the United States overthrows the Constitution and ushers in a new government regime, the Republic of Gilead imposes subservient roles on all women. Offred, now a Handmaid tasked with the singular role of procreation in the childless household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife, can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost everything, even her own name.

Facing down an unprecedented malevolent enemy, the government responds with a nuclear attack. America as it was is gone forever, and now every citizen - from the President of the United States to the homeless on the streets of New York City - will fight for survival. In a wasteland born of rage and fear, populated by monstrous creatures and marauding armies, earth's last survivors have been drawn into the final battle between good and evil, that will decide the fate of humanity.

The modern audience hasn't had a chance to truly appreciate the unknowing dread that readers would have felt when reading Bram Stoker's original 1897 manuscript. Most modern productions employ campiness or sound effects to try to bring back that gothic tension, but we've tried something different. By returning to Stoker's original storytelling structure - a series of letters and journal entries voiced by Jonathan Harker, Dr. Van Helsing, and other characters - with an all-star cast of narrators, we've sought to recapture its originally intended horror and power.