Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Historical

New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan Island, 1746. One evening, a handsome young stranger off the boat from England pitches up to a counting house on Golden Hill Street, with a compelling proposition - he has an order for 1,000 pounds in his pocket that he wishes to cash. But can he be trusted? New York is a place where a young man with a fast tongue can reinvent himself, fall in love, and find trouble....

The thrilling follow-up to Treasure Island, as told by one of England's greatest contemporary writers. July, 1802. In the marshy eastern reaches of the Thames lies the Hispaniola, an inn kept by Jim Hawkins and his son. Late one night, a mysterious girl named Natty arrives with a request from her father, Long John Silver. Aged and weak, but still possessing a strange power, the pirate proposes that Young Jim and Natty sail to Treasure Island in search of Captain Flint's hidden bounty, left behind many years before....

March 1976: St Constance, a tiny Caribbean village on the island of Black Conch, at the start of the rainy season. A fisherman sings to himself in his pirogue, waiting for a catch but attracts a sea-dweller he doesn't expect. Aycayia, a beautiful young woman cursed by jealous wives to live as a mermaid, has been swimming the Caribbean Sea for centuries. And she is entranced by this man David and his song. 

On the day of her grandmother's funeral, Marta discovers that she is to be sent to be governess at Fyneshade, her charge the young daughter of the owner, Sir William Pritchard. All is not well at Fyneshade. Sir William is mysteriously absent, and his son and heir Vaughan is forbidden to enter the house. Marta finds herself drawn to him, despite the warnings of the housekeeper that Vaughan is a danger to all around him. But Marta is no innocent to be preyed upon. Guided by the dark gift taught to her by her grandmother, she has made her own plans.

Elizabeth Zhang knows her place in the world. She knows she’s in the tenth percentile for likability, the seventieth percentile for attractiveness, and the ninety-ninth percentile for academics. With a hard-working ethic instilled in her by immigrant parents, armed with impeccable grades...

A score of years after he first walked into the histories of men, Anasûrimbor Kellhus rules all the three seas, the first true aspect-emperor in a thousand years. As Kellhus and his Great Ordeal march ever farther into the perilous wastes of the Ancient North, Esmenet finds herself at war with not only the Gods, but her own family as well. Achamian, meanwhile, leads his own ragtag expedition to the legendary ruins of Sauglish, and to a truth he can scarce survive, let alone comprehend.

On August 12th each year, members of the upper class retire to their country estates for grouse-shooting season. Frances Wynn, the widowed Countess of Harleigh however, is expecting to spend a quiet few months in London. Instead, she's immersed in a shocking mystery when a friend, Mary Archer, is found murdered. Her cousin Charles is in the spotlight for the murder, along with dozens of others. It seems Mary had countless notes hidden in her home, detailing private indiscretions of society's elite.

The Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers has long been tasked with maintaining magic within His Majesty's lands. But lately, the once proper institute has fallen into disgrace. Zacharias Wythe ventures to the border of Fairyland to discover why England's magical stocks are drying up. When his adventure brings him in contact with a woman with immense power, he sets on a path which will alter the nature of sorcery.

From the moment she’s struck by lightning as a baby, it is clear Mary Anning is marked for greatness. When she uncovers unknown dinosaur fossils in the cliffs near her home, she sets the scientific world alight, challenging ideas about the world’s creation and stimulating debate over our origins. In an arena dominated by men, however, Mary is soon reduced to a serving role, facing prejudice from the academic community, vicious gossip from neighbours, and the heartbreak of forbidden love.

Paris, 1938. A shadow edges over Europe, while in Spain the war has already begun. Cristián Ferrar, a handsome Spanish lawyer in Paris, is approached to help a clandestine agency supply weapons to beleaguered Republican forces and agrees, putting his life on the line. Joining Ferrar is an unlikely group of allies: including Max de Lyon, a man hunted by the Gestapo, and the Marquesa Maria Cristina, a refined beauty with a taste for danger.

West Cork, Ireland, 1900. The year marks the start of a new century and the birth of three very different women: Kitty Deverill, the flame-haired Anglo-Irish daughter of the castle; Bridie Doyle, the daughter of the Irish cook; and Celia Deverill, Kitty's flamboyant English cousin. Together they grow up in the dreamy grounds of the family's grand estate, Castle Deverill. Yet their peaceful way of life will soon be threatened by Ireland's struggle for independence.

Forensic pathologist Richard Pryor uses his 'golden handshake' to set up in private practice with scientist Angela Bray. A friendly coroner gives them a start, and when two women both claim that human remains found near a reservoir are their relatives, the dilemma is given to them to investigate. Set in 1950’s post-war Britain, this thrilling new series is set during the emergence of forensic science.

It is 1925, and the war is long over. But much has been lost, and life will never be quite the same. Castle Deverill, cherished ancestral home to the Deverill family in the west of Ireland, has burned to the ground. Young and flighty Celia Deverill is determined to restore the sad ruins to its former glory. But dark shadows are gathering once more as the financial markets start to shake, and everything that felt so certain is thrown once again into doubt....

1793 and Europe is ablaze with war. Thomas Paine Kydd, a young wig-maker from Guildford, is seized by the press gang to be a part of the crew of the 98-gun line-of-battle ship Duke William. The ship sails immediately and Kydd has to learn the harsh realities of shipboard life fast. Despite all that he goes through in danger of tempest and battle he comes to admire the skills and courage of the seamen - taking up the challenge himself to become a true sailor.

France, July 1944: In the Pas de Calais, Nathalie Mercier, a young British special operations executive secret agent working with the French Resistance, disappears. In London her husband, Owen Quinn, an officer with Royal Navy Intelligence, sets off on a perilous hunt through France in search of his wife. With the help of the Resistance, he finds Nathalie, but then the bitterness of war and its insatiable appetite for revenge catch up with them in a dramatic fashion.

In this novel, set in Scotland in 1863, Bessy Buckley attempts to escape her past by taking a job as a maid in a big house outside of Edinburgh, where she works for the beautiful Arabella. Bessy is intrigued by her new employer, but puzzled by her increasingly strange requests.

Paris, 1585: Giordano Bruno has come to Paris, a city on the edge of catastrophe. Alone and near destitute, Bruno turns to old friend and zealous preacher Paul Lefevre. But when the priest is murdered, Bruno is pulled into a dangerous world. If Bruno can't uncover the truth, not only is the future of the de Valois monarchy threatened - but his own life will be the forfeit.

He vowed he'd never marry. To Vane Cynster, Bellamy Hall seems like the perfect place to temporarily hide from London's husband hunters. But when he encounters irresistible Patience Debbington, Vane realises he's met his match. Patience vowed no man would catch her, and she isn't about to succumb to Vane's propositions. Yes, his caresses made her melt; but Patience has promised herself she'll never become vulnerable to a broken heart. Is this one vow that was meant to be broken?

Summer, 1585: Sir Francis Drake prepares to embark on an expedition by royal commission to cross the Atlantic and seize major Spanish ports, diverting King Philip of Spain’s treasure to Queen Elizabeth. When a ship captain is brutally murdered, and Drake’s life threatened, it becomes clear that someone plans to destroy the expedition before it begins. Giordano Bruno and Sir Philip Sidney hunt for the killer, but are they being lured into a trap?

London, 1933. Two months after an Indian woman, Usha Pramal, is found murdered, her brother turns to Maisie Dobbs to find the truth about her death. Not only has Scotland Yard made no arrests, they failed to conduct a full and thorough investigation. When another Indian woman who was close to Usha is found murdered, Maisie is pulled deeper into an unfamiliar yet alluring subculture.