The Gladstone Bag


Book Description

Family ties draw Boston’s art sleuths into an island murder mystery in this “unalloyed pleasure” from the international bestselling author (Publishers Weekly). Though a few years past sixty, Sarah Kelling’s Aunt Emma is as vigorous as a girl of twenty-two. She sings, she dances, and when the local fire department needs a fundraising boost, she’s happy to jump out a window for charity. This summer, she decamps to Maine, to beat the heat at an island retreat for artists and great thinkers. There are writers, painters, a psychic, and a historian, and their company promises to be great fun—until a few of them go treasure-crazy. Sensible people have long dismissed rumors of the Pocapuk Island treasure as myth, but artists are seldom sensible. When their rampant digging stirs up buried trouble, it leads to theft, drugging, and a murder. And although Sarah and her husband Max give investigative advice by phone, it’s up to Aunt Emma to save the islanders from themselves.




The Gladstone Bag


Book Description

The Gladstone Bag is a touching and engrossing tale of colonial China in the 1930s. Peter Herriton travels from his family’s guilty past and the stifling atmosphere of middle England in to Foochow, China. The languid pace of life in Colonial China amuses Peter, but as the bombs fall and Japan mobilises Peter realises the depth of the British myopia in the face of the impending Japanese Invasion.The novel has been informed by author Urusla Ryland’s own experiences of China in the 1930s, Ursula was born in Fuzhou (Foochow) where her father was the Superintendent of Tak Ding Hospital and medical officer to the British Consulate. Looked after by her Chinese amah, Ursula spoke Fuzhou dialect, Pidgin English and English from an early age. In 1938 she moved with her parents to Sarawak, Borneo to avoid the immanent Japanese invasion.




Bibliomysteries


Book Description

Specially commissioned by the Mysterious Bookshop, the “bibliomysteries” in this unique collection feature original stories by the genre’s most distinguished authors: Ian Rankin, Thomas Perry, Joyce Carol Oates, Megan Abbott, and Elizabeth George. If you like mysteries and you like books, what could be better than combining both worlds, with mysteries set against a background involving books? This collection of crime for bibliophiles includes stories about rare books, bookshops, libraries, manuscripts, magical books, collectors—in short, the wonderful universe that makes this precious object we all love so important and priceless. Ian Rankin sets his tale of the lost original manuscript of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the legendary Paris bookshop Shakespeare & Co., while F. Paul Wilson offers a book with remarkable powers. Joyce Carol Oates portrays an overly ambitious dealer in mystery fiction, while James Grady has the “Condor” working in the Library of Congress. Ste- phen Hunter tells a previously unknown story of Alan Turing set during World War I—involving a book that could change the history of the world—and Peter Lovesey writes about a box full of Agatha Christie titles that just may be priceless. Carolyn Hart’s story is about an astonishing inscription in a book, while Megan Abbott and Denise Mina add their Edgar-nominated stories to this stellar collection. Whether your taste is for the traditional mystery, something a little more hard-boiled, or the bizarre and humorous tale, you will find exactly your cup of tea in this outstanding collection of fifteen stories by the most distinguished mystery writers working today. Including stories by: Peter Lovesey, F. Paul Wilson, Lyndsay Faye, Bradford Morrow, R. L. Stine, Joyce Carol Oates, Thomas Perry, Elizabeth George, Carolyn Hart, Megan Abbott, Stephen Hunter, Denise Mina, James Grady, Ian Rankin, and James W. Hall.




Hot Flushes, Cold Science


Book Description

For over two thousand years, attitudes to the menopause have created dread, shame and confusion. This meticulously researched and always entertaining book traces the history of 'the change of life' from its appearance in classical texts, via the medical literature of the eighteenth century, to up-to-the-minute contemporary clinical approaches. Its progression from natural phenomenon to full-blown pathological condition from the 1700s led to bizarre treatments and often dangerous surgery, and formalized a misogyny which lingers in the treatment of menopausal women today. Louise Foxcroft delves into the archives, the boudoir and the Gladstone bag to reveal the elements that formed the menopause myth: chauvinism, collusion, trial, error and secrecy. She challenges us to rethink absurd assumptions that have persisted through history - that sex stops at the menopause, or that ageing should be feared. It redresses the myths and captures the truths about menopause.




The Widening Circle of Us


Book Description

The Widening Circle of Us is personal, political and theological. Peter Francis charts his own ‘widening’ from a privileged beginning with an unquestioning naïve faith, to a liberal understanding of faith and society. He now believes that Christianity is best viewed as a completely non-supernatural ethic for life. The memoir weaves his personal story alongside his passion for the humanity of Jesus and writes about the battles for inclusion that have shaped his life and ministry. It is an honest reflection on his life as a priest in England, Scotland and Wales, including nearly 25 years as Warden of Gladstone’s Library, where his ‘widening’ continues with responding to the Gladstone legacy of historic slavery in the wake of Black Lives Matter.




Magisterial Cases


Book Description




Three Parts Dead


Book Description

A tale of intrigue, a murdered god, and the business of necromancy: an urban fantasy set in an alternate reality




On Books and the Housing of Them


Book Description

Gladstone, the four times Liberal Prime Minister of Britain loved books almost as much as anything else (possibly more), and in this treatise he describes how one could arrange one's own personal library. Due to his wealth and position in history, his ideas while fascinating, are not really practical for the 21st century, but the book makes for interesting reading.







Munsey's Weekly


Book Description