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When the clock strikes twelve, it's time to die… Prepare to lose sleep with this exhilarating thriller.When the clock strikes twelve, it's time to die…One by one, random victims are stalked and shot at close range. Only the killer knows their sins, and who will be the next to die at midnight…Since her fall from Hollywood, actress Lorie Hammonds has returned to her hometown of Alabama and built a new life for herself. When the first death threat arrives, she assumes it's a joke. But as the notes become more personal, Lorie is running scared.Sheriff Mike Birkett, Lorie's ex-lover has been avoiding her, but when investigators uncover Lorie's connection to a string of recent murders, he's drawn into a case that's becoming terrifyingly personal.With every murder, the killer edges closer. Soon Lorie's will be the last name left on his list. But is Lorie all that she seems? As she battles to unearth a deadly secret, will she be able to save herself before time runs out for good?

From the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Doris Lessing, a short story about a young boy’s coming of age.While on holiday with his mother, a young boy sees a group of older children jumping from a rock into deep sea. He feels compelled to challenge himself to match them, and in doing so will take his first steps away from childhood.An amazingly vivid short story, Through the Tunnel explores the difficulties of childhood and ageing, resonating with many of Doris Lessing’s acclaimed novels.This story also appears in the collection To Room Nineteen.

A brilliant story of swords, sand and sorcery from the endless imagination that brought you The Saga of Darren Shan and the Demonata. Excitement, action and terror…In a harsh, unforgiving world of slavery and glorified executions, one boy's humiliation leads him to embark on a perilous quest to the faraway lair of a mysterious god. It is a dark, brutal, nightmarish journey which few have ever survived. But to Jebel Rum, the risk is worth it…to retrieve his honour…to win the hand of the girl he loves…to wield unimaginable power…and to become…THE THIN EXECUTIONER

An exclusive short story for World Book Day from one of our bestselling authorsSometimes all we need is a relaxing holiday in the sun.For Anthony and Carole, a week in a lovely Greek hotel has helped them mend the cracks in their marriage. For widowed Jessica, it’s the longest she’s ever gone without visiting her beloved husband’s grave.However when the flight doesn’t go according to plan, they are each forced to face up to the very things they have been avoiding for so long.By the time they land, they have learnt important life lessons about themselves and each other which change them forever.

A stunning new thriller in the vein of Velocity and The Husband from one of the world’s bestselling authors.After a day's work hefting brick and stone, Tim Carrier slakes his thirst at The Lamplighter Tavern. Nothing heavy happens there. It's a friendly workingman's bar run by his good friend Rooney, who enjoys gathering eccentric customers. Working his deadpan humour on strangers is, for Tim, all part of the entertainment.But how could Tim have imagined that the stranger who sits down next to him one evening is about to unmake his world and enmesh him in a web of murder and deceit? The man has come there to meet someone and he thinks it's Tim. Tim's wayward sense of humour lets the misconception stand for a moment and that's all it takes: the stranger hands Tim a fat manila envelope, saying, 'Half of it's there; the rest when she's gone,' and then he's out the door.In the envelope Tim finds the photograph of a woman, her name and address written on the back; and several thick packets of hundred-dollar bills.When an intense-looking man sits down where the first stranger sat and glances at the manila envelope, Tim knows he's the one who was supposed to get it. Shaken, thinking fast, Tim says he's had a change of heart. He removes the picture of the woman and then hands the envelope to the stranger. 'Half what we agreed,' he says. 'For doing nothing. Call it a no-kill fee.'Tim is left holding a photo of a pretty woman, but his sense of fun has led him into a very dangerous world from which there is no way back. The company of strangers has cost him his peace of mind, and possibly his life.

One night Willa Longworth found a fortune…and a manWhat does a woman do when she finds cold hard cash at her feet? With a family against her, a son to nourish and a passion to extinguish, Willa did what any woman would do–she took the money and ran.But the past was at her heels in the form of dangerously handsome Luke McKade–a man who would follow her to the ends of the earth and make her pay for her sins. A man who had demons…and a fierce need for Willa's heart and soul.In a moment of danger and surprise, Luke discovered Willa's soft spot–him. But when all was resolved, would Willa find her real treasure? Would true love–and a million or two–be too wild a ride for Willa…or just wild enough?

“I promise that I will release you tomorrow – when the hour of the wedding is past. ” Nat Waterhouse must marry an heiress – and where better to find one than Fortune’s Folly, where unmarried ladies are subject to a medieval law which forces them to wed or surrender half their wealth? Lady Elizabeth Scarlet vows there is just one way to save her childhood friend from a loveless marriage: kidnap him! But Nathaniel is furious. So angry that he challenges her to take their assignation to its natural conclusion and seduce him.When her inexperienced attempt flares into intense passion, Lizzie is ruined…and hopelessly, unexpectedly in love! Now the wild and wilful Lizzie must convince Nat that they are a perfect match – in every way.

Charles O’Brien, bard and giant. The cynical are moved by his flights of romance; the craven stirred by his tales of epic deeds. But what of his own story as he is led from Ireland to seek his fortune beyond the seas in England?The Surprising Irish Giant may be the sensation of the season but only his compatriots seem to attend to his mythic powers of invention. A motley court surrounds him: slow witted Jankin; the thrusting Claffey brothers; sharp-tongued Bride Claskey, the procuress. None so low as Bitch Mary, and none so opportunistic as impressario Joe Vance, yet London shall make its mark on them all.Just bodies. But even dead, London shall have them. John Hunter, celebrated surgeon and anatomist, buys dead men from the gallows and babies’ corpses by the inch. Where is a man to hide his bones when he is yet alive?The Giant, O’ Brien is an unforgettable novel; lyrical, shocking and spliced with black comedy.

The Bad Book Affair features the magnificently hapless Israel Armstrong – the duffle-coat wearing, navel-gazing Jewish librarian who solves crimes, mysteries, and domestic problems whilst driving a mobile library around the north coast of Ireland.In The Bad Book Affair Israel finds himself on the verge of his thirtieth birthday and on the trail of a troubled missing teenager, the daughter of a local politician.Why has the young woman disappeared? Does it have something to do with Israel’s lending her A Clockwork Orange and Lady Chatterly’s Lover from the library’s special ‘Unshelved’ category? Will the young woman’s father run Israel out of town? How will Israel recover from his own break-up with his girlfriend, Gloria? And how exactly does a Jewish vegetarian celebrate his thirtieth birthday in Tumdrum? With a bacon scone?And will Israel and his irascible companion Ted ever agree about anything?

Emma Chambers has an way out of the poverty-stricken life she lives – but it might just destroy her to take it…The gritty new tale from the bestselling author of NOBODY’S GIRL.DESPERATE…Left to raise eight siblings after her mother's death, 17-year-old Emma Chambers faces a daily battle with hunger and her father's drunken rages.Until she is offered a way out. If she marries landlord Horace Bell – twenty years her senior – Emma can swap abject poverty for comfort.DEGRADED…But Horace soon reveals his true, sadistic colours. Emma is thankful when he eventually abandons her – until she realises she is again penniless and in peril.A chance meeting plants an idea in her mind. All her life, men have taken advantage of her. Now it's time to turn the tables.IN DANGER…Years later, and Emma has built up a successful business on South London's meanest streets. But then tragedy strikes – and it becomes clear that someone has been watching Emma, intent on revenge…

After surviving a triumph-turned-tragedy in New York City, Jasper is determined to secure a happier future with his gifted band of friends. So when the group’s mechanical genius Emily is abducted, he’ll plunge into England’s darkest places to rescue her….But his old flame Wildcat is turning London town upside down to find her missing sister, and Jasper finds the attraction between himself and the fierce beauty as tempting and dangerous as ever. Their trail leads deep into the city’s most unusual circus. Soon, Jasper will find his loyalties— and future—tested more than he could ever imagine….And don’t miss Jasper’s continuing exploits in The Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross available now

This is a book about journeys and paths through life – those we choose to take and those we don’t. And the difficulties of taking those steps. It is set mostly on trains.Part memoir, part imagined history, in The Lost Properties of Love, Sophie Ratcliffe reflects on the realities of motherhood and marriage, revisits the experience of childhood bereavement, and muses on the messiness of everyday life.An extended train journey frames the action – and the author turns not to self-help manuals but to the fictions that have shaped our emotional and romantic landscape. Readers will find themselves propelled into Anna Karenina’s world of steam, commuting down the Northern Line with The Railway Children, and checking out a New York L-train with Anthony Trollope’s forgotten muse, Kate Field.As scenes in her own life collide with the stories of real and imaginary heroines, The Lost Properties of Love asks how we might find new ways of thinking about love and intimacy in the twenty-first century. Frank and painfully funny, this contemporary take on Brief Encounter is a compelling look at the workings of the human heart.