Showing results by publisher "Soundings" in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Winter 1795. Lieutenant John Pearce, reckoning to have finally ditched his old enemy, Admiral Hotham, has found a new one in Henry Digby, previously a friend. Meanwhile, Pearce's pregnant and recently widowed lover is adamant they cannot be seen together for the sake of their unborn child as she seeks respectability in society. Aboard HMS Flirt as part of the squadron led by Horatio Nelson, Pearce and his Pelicans soon join them on a reconnaissance which results in the destruction of a key French battery.

Unbeknown to John Pearce, the private letter he is delivering on behalf of the prime minister carries the dismissal of the very man he is sailing to see. The need for a government majority to pursue the war with France means John Pearce must step down as Britain’s best sailor, regretfully relinquishing the position to the incompetent Admiral Hotham. Hotham is equally less than pleased about John Pearce, as he is the one person who knows the truth about his dishonest naval career.

John Pearce, having negotiated the highly questionable sale of the two French prizes taken in The Devil to Pay, has left HMS Flirt, as well as the crew and the wounded Henry Digby in Brindisi, and is headed for Naples to see his lover. In an uncomfortable journey, he seeks to work out a way to best both Admiral Sir William Hotham and Captain Ralph Barclay, men who are his sworn enemies. All his calculations are thrown into turmoil when he discovers that Emily is pregnant.

Justinian, the Byzantine emperor, is desperate to revive the empire's glory. Among his actions to this effect is the dispatch of his brave general, Belisaurius, to fight the Persians in the East. But Justinian fights paranoia and grows concerned that Belisaurius will become a threat to his power and person.

The Hundred Years’ War is over and newly-knighted Sir John Hawkwood is headed for France to make his fortune as a freebooter. Violence and extortion are rife, and the freebooters will stop at nothing to capture the Papal City of Avignon. This is only the beginning. Italy beckons, and with it, yet more battles against rival mercenaries, powerful cities and the Papal State.

Who can Flavius Belisarius call an enemy? The Goths he must fight to take Italy back for the Byzantium. Or is it the intrigues of the Empress Theodora, who fears his ambitions. There is his own wife, betraying him in more than one way and Justinian, the unreliable emperor he helped to the throne. Sixth-century Byzantium, a hotbed of intrigue; Italy and Persia where he must combat some of his fellow generals.

England, 1659: Captain Kit Faulkner's house is prospering; his eldest son recently returned from a profitable trip to Jamaica, and his daughter has made a suitable match with a young sailor. But the resignation of the Lord Protector, Richard Cromwell, throws England into uncertainty. Will the republic flourish, or will a King return to the throne? Kit is content to let matters take their natural course, but his younger son, Henry, is an idealist with political ambitions. It soon becomes clear that Henry is in much deeper than Kit first realised, and his actions may threaten everything that Kit holds dear.…

1935: Cal Jardine is a soldier of fortune. Forced to leave Hamburg, he is recruited by a secretive British committee to smuggle guns to Abyssinia. But first Jardine must procure the weapons from Romania. Taken to the Horn of Africa, the arms are then transported over a harsh landscape into the hands of the Ethiopian Army.

Pepper Minesse is a success: a wealthy, stylish businesswoman who commands respect. But she owes that success to a thirst for revenge. Twelve years have given her the ammunition to ruin the four men responsible for the event that destroyed her as a woman - their careers for her lost innocence. At a formal meeting, Pepper offers them an impossible choice between resignation and blackmail.

1787. Captain Edward Brazier is on a mission: recently paid off from his frigate and comfortably off with prize money, he is headed to Deal to propose marriage to the young and lovely widow Betsey Langridge. He must navigate the bustle of the town's narrow streets that are busy with legal, illicit and depraved business flowing from and around the ships at dock. But all does not go well; between Betsey's brother and guardian, Henry Tulkington, prohibiting the match and Brazier marked out for trouble by a local smuggling gang, his plans are in disarray.

1938: As Hitler sets his sights on the Sudetenland, not everyone in Britain is willing to appease him. Convinced that the fürher’s land hunger is insatiable, the head of the SIS recruits Cal Jardine to help him prove that Czechoslovakia is threatened with invasion. Before heading undercover to Prague, however, Jardine must first extricate himself from France, where his attempts to smuggle guns to Spain have been held up by a group of fanatical fascists. Finally arriving in Czechoslovakia, working undercover for the SIS proves no less dangerous.

September 1914. The First World War has broken out on the Western Front. Thousands of miles away on the Rhodesian border, Simon Fonthill is preparing for battle alongside his companion, 352 Jenkins and tracker Mzingeli. The trio come under constant fire from enemy forces. At the bequest of Admiral Herbert King-Hall, they undertake their most dangerous mission yet: sinking the Königsberg, a German cruiser ship hidden deep in the Rufiji Delta.

Detective Inspector Michael Angel and his team are desperately searching for a murderer dressed in a dog collar. Mystified, Angel is unable to determine whether the murderer is a crazed priest or a man in priest’s clothes. Tramps who call at vicarages begging for money are suspected, but nothing is what it seems. Angel is greatly tested, and the investigations become more dangerous, as he races to find the killer to prevent more blood being spilled.

Lord Curzon, the ambitious Viceroy of India, decides to invade Tibet and recruits Simon Fonthill, veteran of so many of 'Queen Victoria's Little Wars', to lead 2,000 men over the ice-bound Himalayan passes to Lhasa. Fonthill sets out on another expedition with his wife, Alice, reporting for the Morning Post, and his old comrade, '352' Jenkins. It is machine guns against muskets as the cruel, brave monks fight on their own terrain among the clouds, opposing the invasion.

Ex-Met officer John Cannon is entangled in trouble from the moment he vaults a stile on an early morning run and becomes ensnarled in a discarded fishing-line. The macabre discovery at the far end of this lines leads John into a search for a missing au pair, conflict with the local newspaper and international crime. He follows the trail of a ruthless Portuguese businessman who owns a local Health Spa, where much is concealed and a team of security guards with dogs patrol the grounds.

1212 and the forces of Christendom are on the march again. Twenty-five years ago, the Christian army lay slaughtered on the desolate plain of Hattin, slaughtered by Mighty Saladin, ruler of the Moslem world. The Holy Land seemed lost. The Pope has called for crusade. Many take the cross for pilgrimage and battle. Among them is Otto, a young noble in search of his vanished Hospitaller Knight Father. And tens of thousands of children, pledged to recapture Jerusalem. Nothing can prepare them for what they will face.

The year is 1832, and great change and reform are sweeping England, but 23-year-old Joshua Weyland is languishing in Key West, USA. He was third mate on the schooner Jessica, which ran aground in suspicious circumstances, and the skipper has been arrested on charges of deliberately wrecking his ship. Josh is eager to get back to England to marry his fiancée, so he ships as second mate on a brig bound for Bristol. But when the ship founders off the coast of Cornwall, it's clear it's been deliberately wrecked.

Born to Be Wild began with the death of Oz Blackstone, movie hero and idol of millions, and tells how it might not have happened. The Last Chickenpig carries on the yarn as 17-year-old Tom, Oz's son with his soul-mate Primavera Phillips, goes in search of the father he has mourned since his early childhood.

When a lifeboat marked 'Valparaiso I' is discovered, a strange mystery unfolds. The Valparaiso had been sunk by a Japanese submarine nearly a year earlier whilst carrying a million pounds of gold bullion. In the lifeboat is a man with a question mark tattooed on his left forearm; but he can shed no light on the situation because his memory has gone - or so he claims. Two other survivors from the Valparaiso, Rains and Jones, have doubts about the man's professed amnesia.

It was an oddly assorted company of passengers that boarded the S.S. Chetwynd in Hong Kong and Singapore to take passage to Freemantle. In this company, living in such close quarters, there was inevitably a certain amount of friction. But human passions would prove insignificant by comparison when the indescribable fury of the storm that hit.