Orion Publishing strana 20 z 65

The village is bedevilled by talk, and all is not as it seems in the village of Turnham Malpas... Does pushy newcomer Venetia have her eye on Peter, the handsome rector? Is Jeremy, her husband, really making a success of the new health club? And why does Willie's new love set a vicious tongue wagging? In the Royal Oak, the usual banter has turned to bitter wrangling as the rector's wife Caroline makes a challenge over an ancient country tradition and splits the village her husband had so recently united. As the people of the village use the power of words to reconcile or divide, Peter finds that it is what isn't talked about that threatens to cause madness, confusion and tragedy.

There's trouble afoot in Barleybridge. The vets' practice, which normally runs so smoothly, is disrupted by the new locum, Dan, who seems to be annoying just about everyone with his abrupt manner and unreasonable demands. And when he succeeds in losing an important client through his arrogant attitude, the wives connected to the practice are determined that something has to be done. But Kate, who works at the practice, finds she rather likes Dan's no-nonsense approach, despite what everyone thinks of him. Then, when she is suddenly confronted by a devastating tragedy at home, it is Dan, with a sad secret of his own, who helps her come to terms with her new situation...

What does a trophy wife do when, out of the blue, she is told that her services are no longer required? Thirty-one-year-old Wyn loves her husband David very much - but he no longer wants her. With her marriage in ruins, Wyn leaves behind her old life but has no idea what she is going to do now. So she finds somewhere to live, gets a job baking bread on the night shift, and then she waits ...But what begins as simply going through the motions - clocking on, working all night, and sleeping the day away - soon becomes something very different. Wyn's new life offers more than she ever expected, as her future echoes a past she had all but forgotten ...

It is 1962 and Daisy Lane, whose husband Kenny is in jail for robbery, runs and lives over the family's cafe in Gosport with Kenny's older brother Eddie. Daisy looks out for pretty, vulnerable, 16-year-old Suze, who works in the cafe and, along with prostitute Vera, who also shares the house, the women form a strong and lasting bond. The Lane brothers suffered a violent childhood, but Eddie took the brunt of the beatings. He has grown into a handsome, resourceful villain with a streak of viciousness that leads him to commit acts of terrifying violence to get his way - and Daisy prefers not to know the details of Eddie's 'business' dealings. But hard man Eddie has an Achilles heel - Daisy. She resists him, but when her visits to Kenny in jail become more and more difficult, it is Eddie she turns to for support. Then Eddie pulls a racket too far, venturing on the patch of a villain who is even harder and more territorial than he is. And Daisy discovers the hard way to trust nobody - especially not the man you love...

She was a vision. She was a siren. She was a nightmare. She was dead. Now he needed her to disappear. And he knew just how to make it happen. The Palm Beach elite go to great lengths to protect their ownand their own no longer includes Elena Estes. Once a child of wealth and privilege, Elena turned her back on that life. Betrayed and disillusioned by those closest to her, she chose the life of an undercover cop, the hunt for justice her own personal passion. Then a tragic, haunting mistake ended her career. Now Elena exists on the fringes of her old life. But a shocking event is about to draw her back into the painful vortex she's fought so hard to leave behind. First she finds the bodya young woman used, murdered, and dumped in a canal. Not just a victim, but a friend. As Elena delves into her dead friend's secret life, she discovers ties not only to the Russian mob but also to a group of powerful and wealthy Palm Beach bad boys known for giving each other alibis to cover a multitude of sins. A group that includes a man Elena once knew very well her former fiance, Bennett Walker, a man she knows has already escaped justice at least once in his life. Finding her friend's killer will put Elena at odds with her old life, with her new lover, and with herself. But she is determined to reveal the trutha truth that will shock Palm Beach society to its core, and could very well get her killed.

Arson and murder reveal an insidious plot to steal a Bible that once belonged to Charles Darwin. As Commander Gray Pierce investigates, he is soon caught up in a mystery that dates back to Nazi Germany - and to horrific experiments performed in a now abandoned laboratory buried in a hollowed-out mountain in Poland. A continent away, madness ravages a remote monastery high in Nepal. As Lisa Cummings, a young American doctor, begins to investigate reported atrocities at the monastery, she is suddenly the target of an assassin. Her only ally is Painter Crowe, director of SIGMA Force, now undercover - and already showing signs of the baffling malady destroying the minds of the monks. Now it is up to Gray Pierce to save both Painter and Lisa - and a world in jeopardy...

Like An Evening Gone

A superb new Joe Pike/Elvis Cole novel from Sunday Times bestselling author, Robert Crais...

It is 1943 and the quiet of Harrowbeer, in Devon, is disrupted by increased activity at the nearly airfield, built at the beginning of the War. Amongst the squadrons moving in are pilots from Britain, Canada and Poland. The airfield, with its noise and its population, has a massive impact on the peaceful villages nearby - an impact that will affect some inhabitants for the rest of their lives. Alison, married to a pilot and newly pregnant, soon makes friends with the locals, particularly with May, who finds herself caught up in the life of the RAF, watching and waiting as the pilots and crew carry out their dangerous missions. Then, on the night when Alison's baby is born, her husband is reported missing and Alison and May find themselves facing a dilemma all too familiar to the wives and sweethearts of those who flew the Spitfires, Hurricanes and other aircraft to protect their country during this time of war.

The War is over at last and in Plymouth and Portsmouth, two of Britain's greatest seaports, the task of rebuilding must begin. But it is not only streets, businesses and homes that have been laid waste. Lives, too, have been devastated. Marriages have been disrupted, family life shattered, and now the inhabitants must find their own way back to normality - if they can remember what that is. Lucy Pengelly is just one woman whose life has been torn apart by the War. What will happen when her husband returns from the POW camp in the Far East? And what of the growing friendship between Lucy and her friend David, who played such an important part in their lives during the Blitz?

When Thursday Tilford returns to Haslar Hospital after two years serving as a VAD in Egypt, she finds many changes. With the town packed with troops waiting to leave for the Normandy beaches, and Haslar on standby for the wounded, Thursday's thoughts go to the two men who are vying for her heart - Connor Kirkpatrick, the naval doctor she met at Haslar in 1940, and army doctor Mark Sangster who travelled on the troopship to Egypt with her. Although she longs to keep her promise to Connor, Thursday's feelings for Mark force her to consider the nature of promises and even, in the end, the nature of love itself. It is only as the war ends and she is presented with an ultimatum that she understands the truth about love, about promises - and about herself. Lilian Harry's new novel will delight her fans with the warmth and authenticity that she brings when describing the courage and sacrifice of wartime.

Hilary Napier is upset and angry when her father, Colonel Napier, brings in a new manager for the family estate which she has been running for the past year. Even though she cannot help liking Travis Kellaway, she resents his presence. But when her defences are broken down by the illness of her brother's much-loved horse, Major, she realizes Travis's strength and compassion. It isn't long before their relationship moves to a new footing. Meanwhile, life in the Devon village of Burracombe is enlivened by the new Drama Club, formed by energetic young curate Felix Copley. Almost the entire village becomes involved in the pantomime he decides to organise, with sometimes hilarious results. The leading lights in the production are bossy Joyce Warren, young schoolteacher Stella Simmons and Shirley Culliford, the little girl from the poorest cottage in Burracombe. But tragedy strikes when Travis catches Shirley and her father, Arthur Culliford, poaching in the estate woods. Shirley is injured in the ensuing skirmish and it seems that not only the pantomime, but her very life is threatened.

During just nine days in the early summer of 1940, nearly 800 "little ships," from lifeboats and passenger steamers to small private yachts and dinghies, set off across the English Channel to rescue almost half a million men trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. As each boat ferries exhausted men from the beaches to the waiting ships, under incessant fire from enemy aircraft and in a sea awash with debris and bodies, the men are unknowingly united by a powerful driving force--the urgent need to find one man, brother or son, who matters more to them than anyone else. Each of these missing men has a family, a wife or a sweetheart at home who is anxiously waiting for news--and one sweetheart in particular is determined to play her own part in the rescue.

This chilling novel finds Daisy Lane returning to her hometown of Gosport after a spell abroad. She's been getting over the bad times, having lost both her husband Kenny and her lover Eddie to violent deaths. But in the months away from home Daisy has not been idle, either--she's given birth to a baby boy, and she's been plotting her revenge on Roy Kemp, the man who killed her lover. "But is it possible for a vulnerable woman to take on a man like Roy Kemp and not be badly hurt? Roy's dealings are not confined to London; his reach extends south, right down to the coast. Could he be the man behind the recent slaying of prostitutes? And is the killer of these women also responsible for the two badly abused bodies of young boys that have been found on waste ground in Gosport?"

When cousins Jo and Phyl decide to become Lyons Corner House waitresses, or 'Nippies', as they are known for their speedy service, they have no idea how their lives are about to change. They are whisked from family life in Woolwich to digs in London; they are transported from a factory and a grocer's shop to the wonderful dining rooms of Lyons, Marble Arch, and they swap their old overalls for the smart uniforms of the Corner House girls.Jo and Phyl settle in and make friends with both waitresses and customers. There are boyfriends, lovers and fiancés, friendship and romance, but as the Second World War becomes increasingly imminent, the future of these men and women seems more and more uncertain.

When Stella Simmons comes to the Devonshire village of Burracombe to start her teaching career, she is alone in the world. Orphaned as child and brought up in a children's home, she was separated from her sister Muriel and has never been able to trace her.Stella is soon caught up in the life of the village, and especially in the plans for celebrating the Festival of Britain. As headmistress Miss Kemp and vicar Basil Harvey try to keep the peace between villagers, who all have their own ideas for the proposed pageant and fair, Stella tries, with the help of artist Luke Ferris, to find her sister. But Luke has his own troubles...THE BELLS OF BURRACOMBE begins the story of life in a Devonshire village in the 1950s and shows us a picture of Britain coming to terms with the aftermath of the Second World War and entering a new decade.