Troubador Publishing strana 9 z 16

In this darkly funny and deliciously twisted collection of modern cautionary tales, children who lie, cheat, and misbehave meet the most dreadful of ends. Meet the girl whose lies lead to a most unfortunate encounter with the dreaded Propeller Man, the boy whose own filthy bedroom turns against him, and the child who watches so much TV he becomes the very chair in which he sits. Inspired by the wicked works of Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann and Hilaire Belloc, these rhyming tales warn of the terrible consequences awaiting those who refuse to mend their ways. Perfect for older children with a taste for the macabre (and adults who never outgrew their love for Roald Dahl and Edward Gorey), this collection is a gleefully sinister reminder that reckless behaviour never goes unpunished… Read at your peril!

In the near future, with the energy crisis solved and the world powered by artificial and quantum intelligence, a mysterious disease is spreading across the globe. The cause is a mystery, and a cure remains stubbornly elusive. At Fermilab 5, west of Chicago, a team of physicists experiences a shocking result when an experiment appears to go rogue, defying all logic. Yet in trying to solve the conundrum, the team edges ever closer to uncovering the fundamental secrets of the universe. For the Church, the former is its salvation, the latter an existential threat. Meanwhile, to complicate matters further, the Church appears to have incontrovertible evidence that the Messiah has returned. And He is not what anyone expected. Grappling with the human condition, the timeless themes of love and sacrifice, and the tensions that arise between science and faith, The Son of Man is a near-future mystery thriller building toward a shocking revelation.

At the age of 30, James Hayne – with a little help from his Uncle George – leaves his job as an insolvency practitioner to buy a run-down coach company in the Northwest of England. It’s a roller coaster of a ride in the first couple of years, with the major local companies doing their best to stop Avanti Travel’s relentless expansion. But James has inherited and acquired some good people in Avanti, and between them they confront the challenges and turn a struggling business into one that thrives. The 1970’s are considered a golden era for running coaches, as were the coaches themselves! James and the crew try to make the most of every opportunity that comes their way, making mistakes and sometimes even learning from them! If only his private life was as successful as the business…

After 400 years of occupation the Romans have withdrawn from Britain. Old insular tribal influences once again begin to reemerge within the disorder that follows. More importantly outsiders looking on, sense an opportunity and begin to slowly converge on the islands. From the east come the Germanic tribes; Angles, Jutes, Saxons, seeking land and plunder. From the west come the Scotti, sensing the opportunity for pillage. For the first time in almost four centuries, Britain must stand alone.This is the story of different groups of native Britons at this moment in our history. Parentless children coping in a perilous land, tribal leaders attempting to achieve unity and bands of warriors fighting to push back the invader while at the same time attempting to quell internal rivalries.The novel also encompasses a different slant on the legend of Arthur and features other, associated characters of the time. There are elements of magic at work within this society, both good and evil, as well as being found in the ancient landscape. The characters must travel throughout southern and western Britain as they seek a mystical element forged before time; something that legend has it will unite the diverse tribes and establish a new nation.

When Kitty O’Brien moves into Tinsel Street with her two daughters just before Christmas, she throws a drinks party and invites her neighbours. But while Kitty is bringing the community together, her own life is falling apart. When her partner Pat goes missing, the evidence doesn’t add up. Questioning their relationship, Kitty admits for the first time that maybe Pat is having an affair, just as she finds herself knee deep in organising the Tinsel Street Christmas party. Meanwhile, neighbour Alison is baking like crazy for the party, but is having her own crisis, while others are doing their bit not only for the party, but for Joe, the squatter at number sixteen. This is a story of friendship, love and humour, of people pulling together to help their neighbours, forging friendships that will last when Christmas is over. But as Tinsel Street parties, Pat arrives. Can Kitty possibly bring her family together and resolve her own problems?

Since the end of the Second World War, the audacious Operation Jaywick has remained little known amongst the public or military in the United Kingdom. It was an incredible endeavour executed by British and Australian service personnel. The deepest surface waterborne penetration behind enemy occupied lines undertaken by special forces of WW2. This hand- picked band of men would achieve what some thought to be impossible, a major strike at the very heart of the Japanese in their newly acquired Empire in South East Asia. This story ranks and deserves the same acknowledgement as exploits such as the Dambusters or the Cockleshell Heroes.In the words of British Generals and US Admirals and Commanders it achieved what everyone thought was impossible, without loss and with the minimum expenditure of resources. A terrible twist in the tale is that by not using the success of the mission as a propaganda victory, as had been intended by Jaywick’s commanders, a terrible price was paid by local Singaporeans who were scapegoated by the Japanese Secret Police. This is perhaps the reason that Operation Jaywick was never hailed with the success it truly deserved. The highly effective delivery of Operation Jaywick gave a green light to an even more ambitious endeavour from which no British or Australian personnel would survive, many being executed, beheaded by their Japanese captors. The Tiger’s Revenge is the story told by the son of a special forces crew member who was the only post WW2 British survivor of Operation Jaywick.

An exciting journey through aerial dog fights and naval battles of W.W.1, Washington high society and diamond mining in South Africa.Three brothers are growing up, after the unexpected death of their father, just before America enters the First World War. The youngest brother, Eddy, after finishing school, joins the R.F.C., sees action in northern France, is then seconded to the R.N.A.S. and send to East Africa to tackle the German cruiser, Königsberg. Gerald, the middle brother and an opportunist, marries the heiress of a social climbing neighbour in Washington DC to solve his financial problems when he no longer has his father´s support. Chadwick, the oldest, after the funeral in Scotland, takes his mother to their estate in South Africa. There he gets involved in diamond mining and meets Adelaide, the daughter of a neighbour, whom he marries, with tragic results. His mother returns to Washington and he then joins the Cape Squadron of the Royal Navy and is posted to Mafia Island, where he is reunited with Eddy.Fiction based on fact, the story develops with the three brothers playing a pivotal role in each others lives and the war in its separate parts.

1587. England is at war with Spain. The people of Devon wait in terror for King Philip of Spain’s mighty armada to unleash untold devastation on their land. Roberda, daughter of a French Huguenot leader, has been managing the Dartington estate in her estranged husband Gawen’s absence. She has gained the respect of the staff and tenants who now look to her to lead them through these dark times.Gawen’s unexpected return from Ireland, where he has been serving Queen Elizabeth, throws her world into turmoil. He joins the men of the west country, including his cousin, Sir Walter Raleigh, and his friend Sir Francis Drake, as they prepare to repel a Spanish invasion. Amidst musters and alarms, determined and resourceful Roberda rallies the women of Dartington. But, after their earlier differences, can she trust Gawen? Or should she heed the advice of her faithful French maid, Clotilde?Later Roberda will have to fight if she is to remain Mistress of Dartington Hall, and secure her children’s inheritance. Can she ever truly find fulfilment for herself?

Tessa is enjoying life as a librarian, but when she is made redundant, her partner Mark, encourages her to come and work in the City for a company which he is a director of. The move is a dramatic change for Tessa, who is soon immersed in a life of extravagance and socialising. The highlight of her career comes when she is made a director of the company. Out of the blue the company collapses, and Tessa and Mark face the possibility of corruption charges against them. The situation becomes even worse for Tessa when she discovers that an innocent act of compassion has caught up with her and she finds herself at the mercy of the law, with the threat of a prison sentence. Abandoned by friends, colleagues and the man she loves, Tessa wonders whether she will ever know happiness again. Intrigue and romance are blended together in this engaging story that will keep the readers guessing until the last page.

A leading surgeon is haunted by an event that occurred at a university party twenty years ago. Can she summon enough inner strength to finally move on?What will happen when guilt, trauma, friendship, and perseverance intersect in the present day? This is a story of how someone must rebuild their self-esteem while others around them seek redemption. Can the flame of first love be reignited many years later? Fractured Healer deals with love, regrets, and the loneliness of a 40-something life. The continuous thread of self-empowerment prompts the reader to wrestle with the moral and ethical impacts of crime on both the victim and the offender.

Under the leadership of the charismatic Dr Al Eschler, a backlash is being spearheaded against advancing third wave Feminism, in the heart of millennial London. Patrick, a computer systems analyst with his own store of relationship troubles, falls under the influence, and joins the Institute, aka the Bastard Club. Despite Patrick’s intellectual gifts, even his native scepticism gets worked loose under the glare of Bastard Theory and the mind-warping rigours of the training. His class at the Institute presents an eclectic mix of men’s issues and neuroses, as they battle through strategies, complex and subtle systems of manipulation, Zen arts of chatting up and reporting in. The American, the ‘Boss’, has the mission and the method. Except Patrick has met and is in pursuit of Lillian, a bright and utterly desirable broadsheet journalist, on whom he must practise and develop his Bastard skills. As his interest in her becomes more compelling, straying even into the ‘heresy’ of love, it becomes increasingly unlikely that this affair, and all that’s riding on it, can work out well…

On the run, A&E medic Dr Nathan Carter is the prime suspect in the abduction and murder of a dozen young women. But how can he plead his innocence when blackouts leave him unable to account for his actions and flashbacks leave him with memories of the crimes? Unknowingly caught up in an experiment to manipulate Reality, by corrupt quantum scientists seeking the Unholy Grail of controlling Matter across Space and Time, Carter must prove his innocence - or guilt - before his arrest by the same tenacious veteran detective who’d questioned him months before when an ex-girlfriend had been found murdered in the same brutal way as the other victims - her violent death now only leaving Carter doubting his sanity even more. Current Reality, the one we mistakenly think of as so ‘real’, is about to suffer an apocalyptic change. And only Nathan Carter - innocent or guilty - can avert it.

1877, Seth Marchwood, an Essex horse trader, and Mary Nolan, a Whitechapel orphan raised by London slum prostitutes, meet and marry. Both characters are shaped by childhoods steeped in neglect, cruelty, ignorance and poverty. Together they form a villainous partnership. When rural life declines, due to industrialisation, they move to Limehouse where they grasp opportunities to profit from the vice trade and form lucrative associations with brothel keepers, horse thieves and petty criminals. As Jack the Ripper carries out his murderous killings, Mary is imprisoned for larceny. Seth takes advantage of the terror on the streets to offer safe night-time travel in horse drawn cabs through Tower Hamlet alleyways. Running a Coffee House and Penny Gaff he invests money in property development. His adult sons, moulded in criminality, are active in the family’s fraudulent business practice. During WW1 Seth supplies the military with horses and fodder. His sons enlist and experience the horrors of the Somme. The conflict affects the family’s post war choices. Aged forty-two Seth takes a young mistress. But can the pragmatic and resilient Mary find peace and fulfilment in her later years?

Evie has a promising new life as a ballerina, but this is shattered when her parents are killed by monsters. Discovering she can wield fire, she’s thrust into the perilous world of Syrestia, where she must protect her estranged brother and navigate her growing attraction to Kit, the powerful ex-assassin aiding her. As dangerous secrets about her heritage come to light, Evie finds herself at the heart of a deadly political conflict, making her both a saviour and a target. When a brutal attack threatens everything she holds dear, Evie must turn to an enemy to confront her true identity and master her volatile powers – or risk becoming the devastating force the Faeries fear she is.

It was difficult for Will Jeavons to imagine just how his life could possibly get any better. Having overcome a traumatic childhood, he had gone on to study molecular pharmacology and win tenure as a lecturer at his beloved Cambridge University. But his life was soon to become better still, the CEO of a biotech company. Will’s unique research led to the discovery of a non-addictive drug for chronic pain. A remarkable solution for the opioid epidemic which had claimed the life of his mother. Will’s flourishing company was subsequently acquired, and this was when he first met Celeste Simmonds. The beguiling Celeste would steer Will away from his earlier hedonistic, womanising lifestyle. However, the only way he could ensure the success of his drug was to bury key safety data which could have led to the clinical trials being terminated. Clinical trials which resulted in the husband of Lydia Goldberg falling into a deep coma. It was Lydia’s scientific training which led her to discover Will’s fraudulent cover-up. She was determined to seek vengeance and concocted an elaborate honeytrap and a decision for Will to make. A career ending confession or being submitted to a life-threatening game of Russian roulette.

Windows is a celebration of the High Street, small-town life and the hard-working and dedicated shopkeepers, public servants and other people who work to keep that life going. It’s a funny and poignant portrayal of human nature and its many frailties and strengths, including love, hate, loyalty, ambition, determination, error and redemption. A key theme is the human tendency to rush to conclusions about others which can later prove to be wrong.It’s also a celebration of family, community, childhood and play, books and the joy of reading, and the beauty of the Scottish landscape.The apparent idyll in which it is set is, however, in danger from an unknown person secretly bent on revenge, threatening the inhabitants’ lives and livelihoods and the very fabric of the town itself. Will they realise the danger in time or will the threat strike and, if so, when, how, where and on whom? Will the townspeople escape it and, if not, will they survive and how will they put their shattered lives and town back together again?