Showing titles in Historical

Prague, 1588 The Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, wants to expand the boundaries of human knowledge and his court is a haven for scientists, astrologers and alchemists. His abiding passion is the elusive hunt for the philosopher’s stone and thus immortality. The Catholic Church fears he has pushed too far – into the forbidden realm of heresy – while the greatest powers in Christendom are concerned about the imperial line of succession. 

Bristol in 1787 is booming, from its stinking docks to its elegant new houses. Josiah Cole, a small dockside trader, is prepared to gamble everything to join the big players of the city. But he needs ready cash and a well-connected wife. An arranged marriage to Frances Scott is a mutually convenient solution. Trading her social contacts for Josiah’s protection, Frances enters the world of the Bristol merchants and finds her life and fortune dependent on the respectable trade of sugar, rum and slaves.  

'Truth is the Daughter of Time' is an old proverb. And The Daughter of Time is Josephine Tey's search for the truth about the murder of the Princes in the Tower. Was the hunchback, Richard III, the monster that Shakespeare and the history books have made him out to be?

They gave Sean Dillon a choice: life in prison or a suicide mission. In the inky depths beneath Thunder Point a diver discovers a priceless treasure: a German U-boat sunk in American waters three weeks after the end of the Second World War. Inside is final proof that Martin Bormann escaped...

I saw it in a memory. I know how crazy that sounds. There were ten kingdoms of Atlantis, as Plato taught us, each ruled by one of the sons of the legendary Poseidon. I know where they all are. We are not the first advanced civilization. We aren't even the second. Others existed, and they left behind clues to help their descendants. To help us. I found those clues, including a device used by the ancients that allows me to relive their memories.

Munich in the 1930s is a magnet for rich, aristocratic young Brits. They come to learn German, but also to go wild. They ski in the Alps, swim in the lakes, drink in the beer cellars and fall for the charms of dashing SS officers. What they don't see - or choose to ignore - is the cold, brutal underbelly of the Nazi movement which considers Munich its spiritual home. But not every German is a Nazi. Murder squad detective Sebastian Wolff is one of those walking a tight line between doing his job and falling foul of the political party he abhors.

In The Mauritius Command, Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half-pay without a command until his friend, occasional intelligence agent Stephen Maturin, arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a Commodore's pennant. But the difficulties of carrying out his orders are compounded by two of his own captains: one a pleasure-seeking dilettante, the other liable to provoke the crew to mutiny.

Brought to you by Penguin. September 1943: German forces occupy Rome. SS officer Paul Hauptmann rules with terror. The war's outcome is far from certain. An Irish priest, Hugh O'Flaherty, dedicates himself to helping those escaping from the Nazis. His home is Vatican City, the world's smallest...

High school best friends Rose and Dax each have a secret—they like the other in a way they shouldn't in 1920s Prohibition Era California. After sharing a first kiss, they're forced apart—each sent to a different city to account for their sin. Rose lands in the coastal tourist city of Half Moon Bay in virtual servitude, working for a distant cousin for pennies. Dax has an idyllic existence in San Francisco, living with her married sister. Then the fates change

Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited first work of fiction - at once hilarious, delicious and brutal - is the always surprising, sometimes shocking new novel based on his Academy Award-winning film.

In 2008, Father Jonathan Rose uncovers a secret that’s been buried for over eight hundred years. When his sister, FBI agent Courtney Rose is brutally murdered and the investigation is quietly shut down, Jonathan is forced to confront a truth far darker than faith alone can explain. Driven across continents by grief and unanswered questions, Rose discovers he is not the only one searching for justice. An ancient order thought long extinct is fighting for survival, and a powerful enemy will stop at nothing to ensure the truth remains hidden.

In the last years of the ninth century, King Alfred of Wessex is in failing health, and his heir is an untested youth. The Danes, who have failed so many times to conquer Wessex, smell opportunity.... First comes Harald Bloodhair, a savage warrior leading a Viking horde, who is encouraged to cruelty by his woman, Skade. But Alfred still has the services of Uhtred, his unwilling warlord, who leads Harald into a trap and, at Farnham in Surrey, inflicts one of the greatest defeats the Vikings were ever to suffer.

From 1501 to 1505, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti both lived and worked in Florence. Leonardo was a charming, handsome 50-year-old at the peak of his career. Michelangelo was a temperamental sculptor in his mid-20s, desperate to make a name for himself. Michelangelo is a virtual unknown when he returns to Florence and wins the commission to carve what will become one of the most famous sculptures of all time: David.

England is deep in the coldest winter anyone can remember. It snows every day, temperatures do not rise above freezing for seven weeks, coal cannot get from the pitheads to the power stations, food and fuel are in desperately short supply. More than that, the country's secret services have been penetrated, which means Britain is more vulnerable than ever. And Stalin knows it. He decides it is time to send his master of 'Special Tasks' to create a little extra chaos.

A novel of Ancient Egypt from the bestselling author of River God. Wilbur Smith is a master at the helm of one of the greatest stories of all time. On the banks of the Nile, a hero will rise. Across the lush plains of Egypt, Taita, a freed eunuch slave, wears his authority lightly. Not only is...

Brought to you by Penguin. A master forger transforms a young woman’s life – but what will it cost her? In post-war Flanders, Adelais de Wolf's family is slowly, inexplicably, falling apart: her mother evermore lost to religious devotion, her father to alcohol. But with the death of a...

The Viking raiders' devastation has been halted once more by the shields of Mercia as opposed to Wessex. But their whereabouts are unknown. King Wiglaf of Mercia is keen to ensure the Viking raiders are swept from his shared border with Wessex but these Viking ships are quick and difficult to track and Icel is once more deployed with Ealdorman Ælfstan warriors to do his King's bidding. However, Icel's quest is beset with many more obstacles and it's not all about the seax and shield. Worrying news from home overshadows Icel's every deadly encounter.

London, 1921: Ex-Secret Service spy Jack McColl is in prison serving time for assaulting a cop. McColl has been embittered by the Great War. He can't stomach spying for the British Empire anymore. He's also heartbroken. The love of his life, radical journalist Caitlin Hanley, parted ways with him three years earlier so she could offer her services to the Communist revolution in Moscow. Then his former Secret Service boss offers McColl the chance to escape his jail sentence if he takes a dangerous and unofficial assignment in Russia, where McColl is already a wanted man.

'An instant classic' – Daily Mail The ship was doomed before it ever left port. His fate was sealed before he ever stepped on board. From R. L. Graham, Death on the Lusitania is an immersive WW1 historical novel set aboard the ill-fated ocean liner. Welcome on board the Lusitania’s final...

Winter 1925. Eleanor and Hugh are decking the halls for their first married Christmas together when butler Clifford arrives with a mysterious telegram. A lucrative case awaits their new detective agency… but in the most remote county in England. The note insists they must be there by midnight to accept the job. After a snowy journey, they arrive at the tiny hamlet of Yorelow to find their client, Osmund Unwin, dead in the churchyard as midnight mass ends.