Showing results by publisher "Zaffre" in All Categories

After Q (aka Major Boothroyd) is unexpectedly ousted from his role with British Intelligence developing technologies for MI6's OO agents, he finds himself back in his sleepy hometown of Wickstone-on-Water. His childhood friend, renowned quantum computer scientist Peter Napier, has died in mysterious circumstances, leaving behind a cryptic note. The police seem disinterested, but Q feels compelled to investigate and soon discovers that Napier's ground-breaking work may have attracted sinister forces . . .

Hannah knows the cage intimately. Small, the size of a shopping mall parking space. A bed, a basin, a table and chair. A hatch and metal drawer through which to exchange food and other items. Then there's him. Always there on the edges of her vision, no matter how hard she tries to block him out. Every day, the same thoughts run through Hannah's mind. What if he speaks to me? What if he hurts me? What if he gets out?

The beach is quiet at night. The moon shines, the tide falls back, and a woman stands, waiting, watching for those who come to the shore only to walk into the sea. Nancy has lived on the coast for more years than she can remember. A famous actress in her younger days, she has since retreated from the world. Now her only aim is to persuade those who come to her beach to end their lives to go back to dry land, and try, once more, to live. But each time gets harder, and Nancy begins to fear she is no longer strong enough to save the lives of the desperate and hopeless.

For psychological profiler Hanne Lagerlind-Schön, life is good. She and her partner, investigator Peter Lindgren, have just returned from a dream holiday in Greenland, and the symptoms of her early onset dementia seem to be under control. Then they are asked to go to the small, sleepy industrial town of Ormberg to investigate a cold case: 10 years earlier a five-year-old girl's remains were found in a cairn near the town. With her dementia creeping back again, Hanne starts to keep a diary noting down everything she is likely to forget.

Georgia Sage has a gift: she can see evil in people. As a courtroom artist she uses her skills to help condemn those who commit terrible crimes. After all, her own brutal past means she knows innocence is even rarer than justice. But when she is drawn back into the trial that defined her career, a case of twisted family betrayal, she realises her own reckless pursuit of justice may have helped the guilty go free.

A young woman is assaulted and left for dead while walking the Yorkshire moors. A local man is found murdered on the edge of a landfill site. But what do these seemingly unconnected crimes have something in common? Forensic profiler Jo McCready is brought in by DCI Callum Ferguson to find out. Were the victims led to their deaths by the mysterious lights flickering above the bogs? But Jo has a secret. Local gangster and prison inmate, Chris McGarry, knows the dead man and wants revenge.

Assistant professor Clara Fernsby is nothing if not driven. She's wanted to teach history since she was fourteen, and she hasn't let anything stand in her way-not even the love of her life. When Theodore Harrison is brought into her department as a visiting scholar, it's an unexpected blast from Clara's past. She hasn't spoken to Teddy since rejecting him over a phone call ten years ago. Now that he's here, she's reminded of everything her teenager self loved about him.

Daphne, a young Jewish Greek artist, finds her life under threat during the Nazi occupation of Athens. In love with her Austrian art teacher, together they must risk it all to escape his dangerous brother, an SS officer. Pursued across Greece, their journey ends on the island of Corfu. In 2023 Liverpool, fine art restorer Flora is planning her Granny Daphne's 100th birthday. Nearing the end of her life, Daphne tells Flora of a valuable piece of art from her youth. A masterpiece which bought her freedom but cost her everything she held dear.

Flora is a new mum enamored of her baby girl, Iris, even if she arrived a few weeks early. With her husband on deployment, Flora navigates the newborn stage alone. But as the sleepless nights pass in the loneliness of their half-empty home, the edges of her reality begin to blur. Just as Flora becomes convinced she is losing her mind, a surprising guest shows up to help: Flora's own mother, to whom she hasn't spoken in years. Can they mend their fraught relationship? Or is there more Flora's mother isn't telling her about the events that led to their estrangement?

It's Christmas Eve at the Emporium, a bespoke gift shop hidden in the depths of London's winding streets, where a select few shoppers are browsing its handcrafted delights. But when they go to leave, they find the doors are locked and it isn't long before they realise this is no innocent mix-up. The shoppers have been trapped here by someone who knows their darkest secrets, who will stop at nothing until they have all been unwrapped - and there is a gruesome gift waiting in Santa's grotto.

When a boarding school master at an exclusive boys' school is shot dead, it is deemed accidental. A lazy and usually drunk detective is sent to write up the report. Cardilini unexpectedly does not cooperate, as he becomes riled by the privileged arrogance of those at the school. He used to have instincts. Perhaps he should follow them now...With no real evidence he declares the shooting a murder and puts himself on a collision course with the powerful and elite of Perth. As he peels back layers, the school's dark secrets begin to emerge.

When criminal justice lawyer Joanna Chylka is tasked with defending the son of Zelasny & McVay's biggest client, she is stumped for the first time. Assisted by average law graduate and the firm's newest mentee, Kordian Orynski, they find himself in a maze of tangled evidence. Piotr Langer Junior has been charged with Article 148: murder with exceptional brutality. He is alleged to have sat in his apartment for ten days with two rotting corpses, before calmly opening the door to the police dressed in a light blue dressing gown, as though nothing had ever happened.

Alice has made the most of her maternity leave, becoming simultaneously a proud mum (well, a mum, at least) and accidental amateur sleuth. With her son, Jack, fast approaching his first birthday, she is keen to continue to keep him alive and maybe finally catch up on some sleep...if she's lucky. When an opportunity presents itself in the unexpected form of a sit-in protest, Alice and her friends willingly chain themselves to trees and settle in for some overdue rest. But the next morning one of their fellow protestors is found strangled.

Margaret Smith is at the beach. It is a summer day unlike any other Margaret has ever known. The Smith family have left the town where they live and work and go to school and come to a place where the sky is blue, the sand is white, and the sound of the sea surrounds them. An ordinary family discovering the joy of getting away for the first time. Over the course of the coming decades, they will be transformed through their holiday experiences, each new destination a backdrop as the family grows and changes, love stories begin and end -- and secrets are revealed.

Jesse is 15. She loves her friends, her little brother and her parents - even when they're arguing, which feels like constantly these days. But most of all, she loves playing video games. Even from her hospital bed. Alex is 29. He doesn't love a lot of things. To be honest, he's not really sure he knows how to. His desk at work, as VR games designer is empty, much like his life feels sometimes. Then Jesse makes a wish. A simple one: a video experience made of her life, something to be there, just in case she isn't.

When an anonymous request for an unknown flower lands at the door of Felicity 'Fliss' Farrow, a magical florist cursed to tell the truth, she is intrigued—an expert in local flora, how is it possible she has not heard of this species before? Determined to unravel the mystery, she leaves the safety of the duchy to fulfil the request. On her quest, she encounters Willoh Vane, a handsome sorcerer outcast from the duchy for his part in a disaster five years previous.

Lightning-Hunter, Ash, chases living lightning over the dark rooftops. This energy the jet- black city depends upon, is all that stands between him and starvation. When a monstrous nightmare attacks his gang, death is all but certain - until Ash manages to dream a shadow creature to protect him. But this new power comes with a price and will see him either sent to the harrowing Academy to weaponise his gift or under the thumb of an Archdreamer patron who will use him to their own ends.

Scrooge feels he is doing Christmas right. He is decorating his house, buying gifts, entertaining his neighbours and planning a Benevolent Feast for the Poor. So when a lucrative business opportunity comes his way he jumps at the chance to make some quick money... to give to the poor, obviously. But maybe just keep some - OK, most - of it for himself. But then Scrooge sees her. Another ghost, silent and terrifying. And in order to be free of this haunting he must solve her murder.

Ingrid Dahl is a cheerful, twenty-nine-year-old librarian living in the cosy mountain town of Ridgetop. She and her boyfriend since college, Cory, have never discussed marriage; they're perfectly happy with the way things are. But when Ingrid's sister announces her engagement to a woman she's only been dating for two years, Ingrid and Cory suddenly feel pressured to start thinking about the inevitable: marriage and kids. The thing is, neither of them has ever been with anyone else. Shouldn't they sow their oats before settling down?

Who have you spoken to about me? What do you know about Operation Wahasha? What have you told Detective Sara Nowak? These are the last words priest Jürgen Stiller hears before he is executed by a former terrorist known only by the codename 'Faust'. Then the killer begins the hunt for Detective Sara Nowak.