Plague Pits and River Bones


Book Description

London, 1812: Treacherous gangs roam the capital, and not even the Palace of Westminster is safe. When Detective Stephen Lavender is called in to investigate a highway robbery and a cold-blooded murder, both the cases take a dangerous and disturbing personal twist. And when Lavender's trusted deputy, Constable Ned Woods, finds a mysterious severed foot washed up on Greenwich Beach, they soon realise that these ancient bones are more sinister than they first appeared. With Bow Street Police Office undermanned and in disarray, it will take all of Lavender and Woods's wit and skill--and some help from Lavender's spirited wife, Magdalena--to unmask the fiend behind the mayhem, restore peace and justice to the beleaguered city and solve the tragic mystery of the severed foot. But will they do so in time to foil a plot that threatens to plunge the country into chaos?




The Missing Heiress


Book Description

Northumberland, November 1809. A menacing figure stalks women through Hareshaw Woods. When Helen Carnaby, a beautiful young heiress, disappears from her locked bedchamber, everyone fears the worst. The townsfolk cry "witchcraft" and the local constabulary are baffled. Detective Stephen Lavender and Constable Woods now face their toughest and most dangerous assignment. Lavender and Woods are alarmed to discover a sinister, murderous world of madness, violence, and secrets lurking behind the heavy oak door of the ancient pele tower at Linn Hagh. Why did Helen Carnaby flee on that wintry October night? Hindered by Helen's uncooperative siblings, distracted by gypsies, rebellious farmers, highwaymen, and an attractive and feisty Spanish senora, Helen Carnaby's disappearance is to prove one of the most perplexing mysteries of Lavender's career. Set in the beautiful market town of Bellingham, The Missing Heiress is the first in a planned series of Regency whodunits featuring Detective Lavender and Constable Woods.




The Heiress of Linn Hagh


Book Description

Northumberland, November 1809. A menacing figure stalks women through Hareshaw Woods and when Helen Carnaby, a beautiful young heiress, disappears from her locked bedchamber everyone fears the worst. The townsfolk cry 'witchcraft' and the local constabulary are baffled. Helen Carnaby's worried uncle sends for help from Bow Street magistrates' court in London. Detective Stephen Lavender and Constable Woods now face their toughest and most dangerous assignment. Convinced at first that this is just a simple case of a young woman eloping with a lover, Lavender and Woods are alarmed to discover a sinister, murderous world of madness, violence and secrets lurking behind the heavy oak door of the ancient pele tower at Linn Hagh. Why did Helen Carnaby flee on that wintry October night? How did she get out of her locked bed chamber? And where is she now? Hindered by Helen's uncooperative siblings, distracted by gypsies, rebellious farmers, highwaymen and an attractive and feisty Spanish senora, Helen Carnaby's disappearance is to prove one of the most perplexing mysteries of Lavender's career. Set in the beautiful market town of Bellingham, 'The Missing Heiress' is the first in a planned series of Regency whodunits featuring Detective Lavender and Constable Woods.




Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World


Book Description

This is the first systematic scholarly study of the Ottoman experience of plague during the Black Death pandemic and the centuries that followed. Using a wealth of archival and narrative sources, including medical treatises, hagiographies, and travelers' accounts, as well as recent scientific research, Nükhet Varlik demonstrates how plague interacted with the environmental, social, and political structures of the Ottoman Empire from the late medieval through the early modern era. The book argues that the empire's growth transformed the epidemiological patterns of plague by bringing diverse ecological zones into interaction and by intensifying the mobilities of exchange among both human and non-human agents. Varlik maintains that persistent plagues elicited new forms of cultural imagination and expression, as well as a new body of knowledge about the disease. In turn, this new consciousness sharpened the Ottoman administrative response to the plague, while contributing to the makings of an early modern state.




Catching The Eagle


Book Description

Easter Monday, 1809: Kirkley Hall manor house is mysteriously burgled. When suspicion falls on Jamie Charlton, he and his family face a desperate battle to save him from the gallows. When £1,157 rent money is stolen from Kirkley Hall, it is the biggest robbery Northumberland has ever known. Suspicion soon falls on impoverished farm labourer, Jamie Charlton, and the unpopular steward, Michael Aynsley. Jamie Charlton is a loving family man but he is hot-tempered and careless. As the case grows against him, it seems that only his brother, William, can save him from an impending miscarriage of justice. But William is struggling with demons of his own. Desperate to break free from the tangled web of family ties which bind him to their small community, he is alarmed to find that he is falling in love with Jamie's wife. Set beneath the impenetrable gaze of a stray golden eagle whose fate seems to mirror that of Jamie's, 'Catching the Eagle' is a fictionalised account of a real trial that devastated a family and divided a community. A SUSPENSE-FILLED PAGE-TURNER "Told with gritty realism, 'Catching The Eagle' is a suspense-filled page-turner, which spares nothing in its descriptions of the hardships and injustices suffered by the poor at the turn of the 19th century. Its ending leaves the reader poised perfectly for the next volume – for which I can hardly wait." Kathy Stevenson, 'The Daily Mail' AN ENJOYABLE READ "It is a rollicking tale full of adultery, drinking, fighting, gambling. Rich imagery, suspense and some genuinely likeable characters – as well as plenty of murky ones – make this an enjoyable read. Karen is particularly strong at capturing the Geordie dialect and recreating the rural Northumbrian world of the 1800s, where the wealthy lived in comfort and the poor struggled to make ends meet." Laura Fraine, Culture Magazine, 'The Journal' (Newcastle)




The Sans Pareil Mystery


Book Description

On a cold February night in Regency London, a dark curtain falls on the Sans Pareil Theatre following the death of April Clare, a promising young actress, whose body is found in mysterious circumstances. Detective Stephen Lavender and his dependable deputy, Constable Woods, quickly discover that nothing is quite as it seems. As successive mysteries unfold, they soon realise that it is not only the actors from the Sans Pareil who are playing a part. With the Napoleonic War looming dangerously across the Channel, this is a time of suspicion and treachery. Following the clues from the seedy back streets of Covent Garden up through the echelons of society, Lavender and Woods begin to fear that the case is much bigger than they'd dared imagine--and worse, that they are at risk of becoming mere players in a master criminal's shadowy drama. It will take all of Lavender's skill and wit, and help from the beautiful Magdalena, to bring the mystery of the Sans Pareil Theatre to a dramatic conclusion in the final act.




A History of Ancient Egypt


Book Description

The ancient world comes to life in the first volume in a two book series on the history of Egypt, spanning the first farmers to the construction of the pyramids. Famed archaeologist John Romer draws on a lifetime of research to tell one history's greatest stories; how, over more than a thousand years, a society of farmers created a rich, vivid world where one of the most astounding of all human-made landmarks, the Great Pyramid, was built. Immersing the reader in the Egypt of the past, Romer examines and challenges the long-held theories about what archaeological finds mean and what stories they tell about how the Egyptians lived. More than just an account of one of the most fascinating periods of history, this engrossing book asks readers to take a step back and question what they've learned about Egypt in the past. Fans of Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra and history buffs will be captivated by this re-telling of Egyptian history, written by one of the top Egyptologists in the world.




Derelict London: All New Edition


Book Description

______________________________ The huge word-of-mouth bestseller – completely updated for 2019 THE LONDON THAT TOURISTS DON’T SEE Look beyond Big Ben and past the skyscrapers of the Square Mile, and you will find another London. This is the land of long-forgotten tube stations, burnt-out mansions and gently decaying factories. Welcome to DERELICT LONDON: a realm whose secrets are all around us, visible to anyone who cares to look . . . Paul Talling – our best-loved investigator of London’s underbelly – has spent over fifteen years uncovering the stories of this hidden world. Now, he brings together 100 of his favourite abandoned places from across the capital: many of them more magnificent, more beautiful and more evocative than you can imagine. Covering everything from the overgrown stands of Leyton Stadium to the windswept alleys of the Aylesbury Estate, DERELICT LONDON reveals a side of the city you never knew existed. It will change the way you see London. ______________________________ PRAISE FOR THE DERELICT LONDON PROJECT ‘Fascinating images showing some of London’s eeriest derelict sites show another side to the busy, built-up capital.’ Daily Mail ‘Talling has managed to show another side to the capital, one of abandoned buildings that somehow retain a sense of beauty.’ Metro ‘Excellent . . . As much as it is an inadvertent vision of how London might look after a catastrophe, DERELICT LONDON is valuable as a document of the one going on right in front of us.’ New Statesman ‘From the iconic empty shell of Battersea Power Station to the buried ‘ghost’ stations of the London Underground, the city is peppered with decaying buildings. Paul Talling knows these places better than anyone in the capital.’ Daily Express ‘[London has an] unusual (and deplorable) number of abandoned buildings. Paul Talling’s surprise bestseller, DERELICT LONDON, is their shabby Pevsner.’ Daily Telegraph ______________________________




The Popol Vuh


Book Description




Death in the Silent Places


Book Description

From the master of adventure behind the classic Death in the Long Grass, former big-game hunter Peter Hathaway Capstick now turns from his own exploits to those of some of the greatest hunters of the past with Death in the Silent Places. With his characteristic color and flair, Capstick recalls the extraordinary careers of men like Colonel J.H. Patterson and Colonel Jim Corbett, who stalked legendary man-eaters through the silent darkness on opposite sides of the world; men like Karamojo Bell, acknowledged as the greatest elephant hunter of all time; men like the valiant Sasha Siemel, who tracked killer jaguars though the Matto Grosso armed only with a spear. With an authenticity gained by having shared the experiences he writes of, Capstick eloquently recreates the acrid taste of terror in the mouth of a man whose gun has jammed as a lion begins his charge, the exhilaration of tracking and finding a long-sought prey, the bravery and even nobility of performing under circumstances of primitive and savage stress, with death all around in the silent places of the wilderness.