Christmas in the alpine town of Furth am See: a six-year-old girl finds her grandfather lying outside, his skull broken, his face a red pulp against the white snow. From that time on, she does not speak a single word.For detective Ludwig Kovacs, year-end crimes are always an imposition, and he is sure this victim will keep him busy well into January. Raffael Horn, the psychiatrist engaged to treat the silent child, is drawn into solving the crime along with Kovacs. Their parallel enquiries sweep through Furth, but the psychological profile of this claustrophobic, snowbound town is not reassuring. The Sweetness of Life is a brilliant exploration of unbalanced minds by a writer of penetrating intelligence.
When Olivia Berrington gets the call to tell her that her best friend from university has been killed in a car crash in New York, her life is turned upside down. Her relationship with Sally was an exhilarating roller coaster, until a shocking betrayal drove them apart. But if Sally really had turned her back, why is her little girl named after Olivia? As questions mount about the fatal accident, Olivia is forced to go back and unravel their tangled history. But as Sally's secrets start to spill out, Olivia's left asking herself if the past is best kept buried.
Catch-22 meets The Brothers Karamazov in the last great satire of the Soviet Era
The Great Patriotic War is stumbling to a close, but a new darkness has fallen over Soviet Russia. And for a disparate, disconnected clutch of wanderers - many thousands of miles apart but linked by a common goal - four parallel journeys are just beginning.Gorych and his driver, rolling through water, sand and snow on an empty petrol tank; the occupant of a black airship, looking down benevolently as he floats above his Fatherland; young Andrey, who leaves his religious community in search of a new life; and Kharitonov, who trudges from the Sea of Japan to Leningrad, carrying a fuse that, when lit, could blow all and sundry to smithereens.Written in the final years of Communism, The Bickford Fuse is a satirical epic of the Soviet soul, exploring the origins and dead-ends of the Russian mentality from the end of World War Two to the Union's collapse. Blending allegory and fable with real events, and as deliriously absurd as anything Kurkov has written, it is both an elegy for lost years and a song of hope for a future not yet set in stone.Translated from the Russian by Boris Dralyuk
Enid Blyton's books are beloved the world over and The Famous Five have been the perennial favourite of her fans. Now, in this new series of Enid Blyton for Grown-Ups, George, Dick, Anne, Julian and Timmy confront a new challenge: is it possible to get a good gluten-free cream tea?Julian, Anne, Dick, George and Timmy are all feeling really rather rum, and it's been going on for days. Nothing seems to work, and with their doctors mystified, they're driven to trying out various expedients to cure themselves. Julian goes online to self-diagnose that he's got pancreatic cancer, bird flu and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Anne decides that the old methods are the best and decides to have herself exorcised - which proves to be an awful lot of bother for everyone, and such a mess. Dick goes to a witch-doctor who calls himself a 'homeopath' ('sounds only one short of sociopath, Dick!') but it's George who discovers they need to go on an exclusion diet, so they enter a world of hard-to-find, maddeningly expensive specialist foods . . .Just perfect for anyone who likes Deliciously Ella, Amelia Freer and the Naturalista - as well as any reluctant partners who are begrudgingly spiralising courgettes for dinner.
KILLING GOLDFINGER charts the extraordinary rise and spectacular bullet-riddled fall of John Palmer, the richest, most powerful criminal ever to have emerged from the modern British underworld. During the late 1990s, Palmer was rated as rich as The Queen by the Sunday Times Rich List.Palmer earned his nickname Goldfinger after smelting (in his back garden) tens of millions of pounds worth of stolen gold bullion from the 20th century's most lucrative heist; the Brink's-Mat robbery. Palmer then used his share of the millions to become the vicious overlord of a vast illegal timeshare property empire in Tenerife. At the same time, Goldfinger financed huge international drugs shipments as well as some of the most notorious UK robberies of the past 30 years, including the £50m Securitas heist in Kent in 2006 and, many believe, the Hatton Garden heist in 2015.Palmer vowed to hunt down all his underworld enemies. But in the end it was those same criminals who decided to bring his life to an end. Murdered in June 2015, with charges of fraud, money laundering and worse pending, this book tells his murky story for the first time.As outrageous and bullet-riddled as the hit Netflix series Narcos, Killing Goldfinger tells the true story of Britain's underworld kingpin, who turned the sunshine holiday island of Tenerife into his very own Crime Incorporated and then paid the ultimate price.
***THE NO. 1 EBOOK BESTSELLING AUTHOR***Status Update - You have 18 months left to live . . . Jess Mount goes online one wet morning in January, and discovers that her Facebook timeline appears to has skipped forward 18 months to a day when shocked family and friends are sharing heart-breaking tributes to her following her death in an accident. Jess is left scared and confused: is she the target of a cruel prank or is this a terrifying glimpse of her true fate? Amongst the posts are photos of a gorgeous baby son she has not yet conceived. But when a post from her best friend suggests her death was deliberate, Jess realises that if she changes the future to save her own life, the baby boy she has fallen in love with may never exist.An emotionally gripping psychological suspense for fans of FRIEND REQUEST by Laura Marshall***What readers are saying about AFTER I'VE GONE: 'One of the best books I've ever read!' Amazon reviewer. 'Enjoyable, original and intriguing' B A Paris, bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors'The story was authentic, absorbing and unputdownable.' Louise Jensen, bestselling author of The Sister'Stunning, such a unique premise and really well executed.' Jenny Blackhurst, bestselling author of How I Lost You'I wanted to compare the author to Gillian Flynn or Alice Sebold . . . Linda Green is bloody brilliant!' Amanda Prowse, #1 bestselling author ***The next suspense novel from Linda Green - THE LAST THING SHE TOLD ME - is available to preorder
AS HEARD ON THE STEVE WRIGHT SHOW
'FORGET HYGGE. IT'S ALL ABOUT IKIGAI (THAT'S JAPANESE FOR A HAPPY LIFE)' The Times
Find out how to live a long and happy life thanks to the ikigai miracle, a Japanese philosophy that helps you find fulfilment, joy and mindfulness in everything you do.It is extraordinary that Japanese men's longevity ranks 4th in the world, while Japanese women's ranks 2nd. But perhaps this comes as no surprise when you know that the Japanese understanding of ikigai is embedded in their daily life and in absolutely everything that they do. In their professional careers, in their relationships with family members, in the hobbies they cultivate so meticulously. Ken Mogi identifies five key pillars to ikigai:
Pillar 1: Starting small
Pillar 2: Releasing yourself
Pillar 3:Harmony and sustainability
Pillar 4:The joy of little things
Pillar 5:Being in the here and nowThe Japanese talk about ikigai as 'a reason to get up in the morning'. It is something that keeps one's enthusiasm for life going, whether you are a cleaner of the famous Shinkansen bullet train, the mother of a newborn child or a Michelin-starred sushi chef. The Five Pillars at the heart of everything they do.But how do you find your own ikigai? How does ikigai contribute to happiness? Neuroscientist and bestselling Japanese writer Ken Mogi provides an absorbing insight into this way of life, incorporating scientific research and first-hand experience, and providing a colourful narrative of Japanese culture and history along the way.
It's a year after the Brexit vote. The four housemates and Timmy are on a visit to see their evil genius cousin Rupert. Rupert owns a chunk of the Jurassic Coast, part of which he has turned into an island and declared independence from Britain. Its fifteenth-century Dorset castle is a tourist attraction, but a computer hack puts the ancient fortifications into lockdown and plunges the Five into peril. Can our intrepid friends escape to the safety of mainland Europe?
