Allison: 698 books

Saffron Lane was once a row of abandoned houses but is now bursting with new life, thanks to the efforts of owners Nell and Angus. Their plan to develop an artists’ colony is fast becoming a reality, as is their idea to transform the secret wartime messaging room in one of the houses into a museum. Emil...

An envoy to China meets an English scholar in Oxford in the mid-thirteenth century to share a deadly secret. They vow that the knowledge of gunpowder must die with them as the consequences otherwise are too terrible to contemplate. But the secret is rediscovered, one man becomes obsessed with...

Forced to flee Rome from the barbaric rampages of the Ostrogoths, merchant Nicander meets an unlikely ally in the form of Marius, a fierce Roman legionary. Escaping to a new life in Constantinople, the two land upon its shores lonely and penniless. Needing to make money fast, they plot and plan a...

With barbarians at the gate and enemies within, two men must fight for the soul of the Republic and the greatest empire in the world. A cave hacked out by rock, lit by flickering torches…two young boys appeal to the famed Roman oracle for a glimpse into their future. The Sybil draws a blood-red...

Soldier of fortune Cal Jardine travels to Barcelona to help with the athletic games rivalling the Berlin Olympics. But as the first shots of civil war ring out, friendship, love and political conviction converge to persuade Jardine to once again embroil himself in a foreign war. Discovering that...

One play, two murders and a grievous miscarriage of justice After a calamitous performance and the death of one of their own, Lord Westfield’s Men are more than despondent. So when the mysterious Simon Chaloner follows Nicholas Bracewell home with an offer of a new play, anonymously penned,...

AN INTRIGUING MYSTERY SURROUNDS THE KING’S MISTRESS London 1667. Acclaimed beauty and singer Harriet Gow is the star performer at the famous Theatre Royal on Drury Lane, as well as the favourite mistress of King Charles II. After seeing her perform, Christopher Redmayne is likewise captivated...

He had the power to assume a pleasing shape, but would he take to the stage? The audience was merry indeed when a third devilish imp bounded onstage to join the two that had been written into the script. But backstage all was uproar. The third demon seemed too much like the real thing. Even...

A PERILOUS INVESTIGATION IN THE HEART OF LONDON RAVAGED BY THE GREAT FIRE September 1666. Meeting in the ashes of a devastated London, Christopher Redmayne, an architect with Cavalier instincts, and Jonathan Bale, a Puritan constable, are hardly kindred spirits. Redmayne dedicates himself to...

Who could enact such a deadly design, lurking behind the scenes? As book holder and stage manager of theatrical company Lord Westfield's Men, Nicholas Bracewell is accustomed to solving problems. So when he discovers the naked corpse of a man while crossing the Thames by boat one night, he...

A beautiful woman. An unrequited love. An excuse for murder. Araminta Jewell is one of the beauties of her day. Even her marriage to the staid and ugly Sir Martin Culthorpe has not discouraged her hordes of admirers. It is during her first sitting for a portrait painted by the fashionable French...

A beautiful and enchanting story of wartime love, loss and hope June, 1944. Since her father’s stroke, Jean has been running her parents’ small farm almost single-handedly and is in desperate need of help. Karl, a German prisoner of war, turns out to be just what she needs. He is polite,...

‘Edward Marston has tapped into a rich vein of inspiration. His Home Front Detective series promises a long run’ Daily Mail Pentonville Prison, 1917. Wally Hubbard was meant to be serving a long sentence for arson, but when he makes an audacious escape, Inspector Marmion, who arrested him,...

1861, East Anglia. Alone in a first-class carriage, the Swarbricks are robbed at gunpoint, but when the universally-admired Swarbrick fights back, the train robber takes more than money and jewellery, killing the man working to unify East Anglia’s tangle of railway networks. Inspector Colbeck...