WENDY SOLIMAN: BITTERSWEET PROPOSAL ~ When Marcus Rothwell, Earl of Broadstairs, is forced to spend the night alone with Harriet Aston he willingly does the honourable thing. Harriet, not content with a marriage of convenience, determines to engage Marc's affections but before she can put her plan into action she is brutally attacked.Suspicion falls upon the dowager countess, who does not approve of Marc's choice of bride, but there is also the village beadle's unaccountable behaviour to be considered. And what about Marc's Machiavellian steward?Determined to protect Harriet, Marc delves deeper into the mystery surrounding her attack. Now he must examine his feelings for the woman he married on a whim. But he too is in mortal danger...

SANDRA HEATH: LORD KANE'S KEEPSAKE ~ Gerald Kane made Miss Emma Rutherford an offer unthinkable to refuse. The handsome lord had both title and wealth to support his suit, plus Emma's father's emphatic approval. He had even given Emma the fabulous Kane diamonds to seal their troth.How then could Emma let Lord Kane's affair with the most stunning beauty in London interfere with her engagement? How could she listen to the seductive suggestions of Lord Kane's archrival, the irresistible if infamous Lord Avenley? And how could she possibly hold out for the one thing that Lord Kane neglected to pledge?His love.

 

J A O'BRIEN: OLD BONES ~ When the skeletal remains of a female are found in Thatcher's Lot by a man using a metal detector, it falls to Loston CID and specifically to DI Sally Speckle and her team to investigate. The remains have been in the ground for about five years and the immediate task is to check on women who went missing around that time.There were several, which is disturbing. The missing women come from widely divergent social backgrounds, but the skull has evidence of expensive dental care, and it is with dental records that Sally Speckle is hoping to identify the remains. Two of the missing women fall within the social category who could afford excellent dental care, and it is with these women that Speckle opens her investigation.However, as the investigation progresses and due to DC Helen Rochester's astuteness, the other women come into focus and unlikely suspects emerge. Now it becomes a murder investigation within a murder investigation and the murder team is tested to the limit.

JUNE GADSBY: VOICES OF THE MORNING ~ The last thing Patrick Corregan wants is another mouth to feed so he does his best to ensure that Billy does not survive. But survive he does, with the help of a warm-hearted prostitute and Laura Caldwell, the daughter of a wealthy local family.Patrick deserts his family and Billy struggles to eke out a meagre living, all the while looking after his alcoholic mother. As he matures, so does his obsession with Laura. One day, he dreams, he will win her heart, but Laura has other ideas, and it is with Bridget, the prostitute's daughter, that Billy joins the Jarrow crusaders marching to London to demonstrate against unemployment.Neither of them, however, is prepared for the reappearance of the evil Patrick Corregan...

MARGARET FRAZER: THE TRAITOR'S WIFE ~ Rebellious factions, determined to unseat King Henry from the throne, have been staging uprisings throughout England. In the midst of this unrest, Dame Frevisse of St. Frideswide's nunnery has come to her cousin's side. Lady Alice, the widowed duchess of Suffolk, needs Frevisse's support in burying her unlamented husband, and when men in Suffolk's employ start disappearing, Frevisse fears for her cousin's safety.Wandering player Simon Joliffe has also come to London, filling the role of courier for the exiled duke of York and bringing vital information - a list bearing the names of the English noblemen who purportedly betrayed their King by conspiring with the French.Now Frevisse starts to wonder whether or not the list is real or part of an even greater conspiracy against the crown.

JEANNE WHITMEE: YOU'LL NEVER KNOW... ~ Hazel, Lillian and Ruby might never have become friends if it hadn't been for the war. Hazel is a young teacher with a guilty secret; Lillian, sole carer to her domineering invalid mother and Ruby, an evacuee waif from the east End of London, abandoned by her feckless mother and left to the mercies of an uncaring and resentful foster family. The three find pleasure and support in one another's friendship. For the three girls the final years of the war bring new, undreamed of experiences, friendship and, for Hazel and Lillian, true love.For each girl life changes direction. Will it lead to a happier future?

CHRISTINA GREEN: RIVER'S REACH ~ In 1887 Rose Victoria Adams resolves to find a better life. Her home beside the river is comfortless, her father unloving and dictatorial. As a certified teacher in the village school, she tries to stop the children fighting, suggesting new ideas about education. But problems mount when she meets an artist, Lawrence Vane, with a mysterious past who asks her to model for him, and the new schoolmaster, Thomas Devlin, who takes exception to her ideas of reform. Rose becomes companion to the artist's sister, Elizabeth and finds life in the Big House even more complicated.Then, when tragedy comes and the answer to an old mystery is made clear, she must make a fateful decision.

PAMELA FIDGE: A BLESSING IN DISGUISE ~ When Alex Siddons suddenly discovers she is pregnant after twenty-five years of a childless marriage, her comfortable life is turned upside down and her relationship with her husband, Phil, hangs in the balance.A child at their time of life is the last thing either of them want or need and yet, despite pressure from Phil, Alex cannot bring herself to terminate the pregnancy, even if it is the only thing that will save her marriage.Facing up to the prospect of life as a single mother, Alex finds unexpected support from within the Siddons' family.Now she finally learns the true meaning of family and love.

NARA LAKE: REMITTANCE MAN ~ Gripped by a land boom as frantic as the 1850s gold rush fever, the entrepreneurs of Melbourne in 1885 are making fortunes. Amongst them is Walker J. Handford but his wife, downtrodden Maude, is deeply unhappy and in love with another man.Meanwhile, disgraced journalist Adam Bailey is exiled to distant East Gippsland to investigate conditions in the region's goldfields. Before he leaves, a detective acquaintance jokes that whenever Mr Bailey pokes his nose into things, he stirs up trouble.True or not, Adam Bailey is soon covering a sensational murder case, and for Maude, bravely determined to end her sham marriage, life is destined to change in a sudden and horrifying fashion.

VICKIE BRITTON & LORETTA JACKSON: STONE OF VENGEANCE ~ This is a Kate Jepp Mystery.Wealthy cattle baron Charles Kingsley is fatally shot in his home, a flat granite stone placed beneath his head. On the wall above his body among Western memorabilia, Kate Jepp notices an original invitation to Tom Horn's hanging. This notorious gunslinger, who tracked and shot cattle rustlers in the late 1800's, also left behind a stone as a symbol of vengeance.Alerted by this link to Wyoming's bloody past, Kate looks for would-be seekers of revenge. Kingsley's new bride has displaced his niece, Mary Ellen, as his heir, and he has been engaged in a fierce battle with Sam Swen, whose foreman, Ty Garrison, may be a modern-day hired gun.Each step Kate takes places her in the path of deadly vengeance.

WENDY PERRIAM: LITTLE MARVEL AND OTHER STORIES ~ A girl with a crippling pea-phobia, a woman driven to murderous rage in an Anger Management Workshop, a wife torn between her dashing artist-lover and her uptight accountant-husband - these are some of the characters in Wendy Perriam's fifth short-story collection. Whatever the scenario, Perriam is alive to the raw emotion and underlying drama in even the most limited of lives, combining the daily dilemmas of personal relationships with a deeper exploration of psychological complexities.Many of the stories focus on some triumph or trauma of the human heart. Thirteen-year-old Kirsty is heartbroken on account of her father leaving home; Lynn eats her heart out over the mysterious Indonesians she has invited in off the street; stolid, suburban Ian undergoes a heart-transplant that not only saves his life, but changes his whole life and personality. And not forgetting Brian, the freckled, sandy-haired credit controller who, on his first-ever trip abroad, loses his heart to sultry Fiorella in Sorrento.Haunting and humorous by turns, this new collection depicts that a world of happiness and heartache lie perilously close.

DAVID MURRAY: BUILD YOUR DREAM HOUSE IN FRANCE ~ There are currently 100,000 Britons living in France, and several factors make it the preferred location for them, such as its geographical proximity to the UK, the availability of health, education and transport services, a lower population density than the UK, and climatic and cultural factors.When looking to purchase a property, often only two options are considered: buying a finished property or one which needs renovating. There is, however, a third option which is extremely popular in France, namely to select one of the fully insured house builders who will take full responsibility for building a property to your design on a piece of land in the location that you have chosen. This system gives maximum choice as regards location and design, avoids the risks and stress involved with a renovation, and can be substantially cheaper than purchasing an existing dwelling." Build Your Dream House in France" explains the processes, from purchasing a plot of land, finding a builder, negotiating the contract with the builder, obtaining services from utility companies, the various stages of the build (illustrated with 14 colour photographs), handover of the finished house, and any after-sales issues. The book is full of tips on how to minimize the purchase price, and ensure that the builder reaches the expected standards of quality. A set of special conditions is included for the reader as well as many examples of model letters that the reader may require in correspondence between himself and the builder, or the builder's insurance company. All of these examples are in French with an English translation. There is also a list of useful websites.