Stuart Fiction

Lin Sukai finally sits on the throne she won at so much cost, but her struggles are only just beginning. Her people don’t trust her. Her political alliances are weak. And in the northeast of the Empire, a rebel army of constructs is gathering, its leader determined to take the throne by force. Yet an even greater threat is on the horizon, for the Alanga - the powerful magicians of legend - have returned to the Empire. They claim they come in peace, and Lin will need their help in order to defeat the rebels and restore peace. But can she trust them?

It is 1997, and in a basement flat in Hackney, Isla Green is awakened by a call in the middle of the night: her father phoning from Sydney. Thirty years ago, in the suffocating heat of summer 1967, the Greens’ next-door neighbor Mandy disappeared. At the time, it was thought she had fled a broken marriage and gone to start a new life; but now Mandy’s family is trying to reconnect, and there is no trace of her. Isla’s father, Joe, was allegedly the last person to see her alive, and now he’s under suspicion of murder.

The prize possession of former football hero, part-time media personality, and full-time blowhard BJ Baker has been stolen from his palatial Palm Beach home. Baker has called in the mayor, the police, the sheriff, and everyone else he can co-opt into the search. But if he really wants the person who can find it, one name keeps coming up: Miami Jones. Problem is, he can't stand Jones. And the feeling is mutual.

Though India Devlin left her hometown to pursue a brilliant career as a criminal prosecutor, she has always loved historic Devlin’s Light, visiting as often as her busy schedule permits. But when her brother is found murdered on the steps of the lighthouse - the town’s namesake - she returns to uncover who killed Ry. When her brother’s good friend, Nick Enright, offers to help in her investigation, India accepts - after all, he’s the one who found Ry that night, and heard his mysterious last words.

Twenty-eight, single, and struggling to keep her little shop of handicrafts afloat, Zoey Enright is pleasantly surprised when a knockout audition for a home-shopping network lands her an impressive job as an on-air saleswoman. Little does she know, Delaney O’Connor, the company’s CEO, is bringing his only grandson and the hero of Zoey’s childhood, Ben Pierce, home from Europe to run the network. Ben’s one true passion was Grand Prix racing - until he laid eyes on Zoey again, all grown up and more beautiful than ever. But he also must face his haunted past....

Each of the Maguire brothers has his own driving, single-minded obsession. For Jonathan it is his magnificent, talented, and desirable wife, Harriet. For Roger it is the elaborate universe he has constructed in a shed in their parents' garden, populated by millions of tiny insects. While Jonathan's pursuit of Harriet leads him to feelings of jealousy and anguish, Roger's immersion in the world he has created reveals a capability and talent that are absent from his everyday life.

After a difficult childhood, Samantha Williams craves simplicity: jigsaw puzzles, lectures at the library, and the students she adores in her role as an elementary school art teacher in the dusty farming community of LaCrosse, Washington. But when an SUV crashes into the building where she teaches, her entire world is upended. Samantha manages to keep the children safe, but her car isn’t so lucky. Oddly, her purse—with her driver’s license, credit cards, and other identification—is missing from the wreckage.

Architect Cassidy Logan has sworn off good-looking adventurers. Newly divorced, she's focused on building ecologically friendly, historically accurate homes on the Chesapeake Bay for her father's construction company. Traveling to Cannonball Island - where there has been no new construction in nearly 100 years - Cass is sensitive to the heritage of the island and has come up with plans so perfect she's determined to buy a home for herself.

Welcome to The Sweet Isle—where the beaches are made of sprinkles, the mountains swirl with chocolate, and every corner hides a delicious surprise! When Alex and his friends discover the magical Ice Cream Island, they can't believe their taste buds. But reaching the legendary Ice Cream Castle isn’t as easy as it sounds! From jellybean jungles to sticky syrup rivers, they’ll face playful, sugary challenges that test their teamwork, creativity, and courage.

Hooking up with Quincy was a no-brainer. The sexy hot-shot Navy pilot wasn’t on my SEAL team. I thought she’d be safe for a one-night stand. I realized too late she wasn’t a one-and-done for me. But now she thinks I’m a player. Okay, she knows I’m a player. Which is why she won’t go there with me again. Quincy’s on my team. We live in the same bunkhouse. We’re friends. I don’t want to screw that up. Being near her is pure torture. I don’t know how much longer I can last Before I risk the biggest mistake of all—losing her.

Museum curator Summer Hawthorne considered the exquisite ice-blue ceramic bowl given to her by her beloved Japanese nanny a treasure of sentimental value, until somebody tried to kill her for it.

Evelyn McTavish’s world came crashing down with the suicide of her fiancé. As she struggles to put her life back together and make a living from her art, she receives a call that her dog is about to be destroyed at the pound. Except she doesn’t own a dog. The shelter is adamant that the microchip embedded in the canine with her name and address makes it hers. Evelyn recognizes the dog as one owned by archaeologist John Coyote - she was commissioned to draw the two of them. The simple solution is to return the dog to his owner - but she arrives to discover John’s murdered body.

From the number-one best-selling author of The Missing and the Dead comes the short novel 22 Dead Little Bodies; two short stories: 'Stramash' and 'DI Steel's Bad Heir Day'; and a novella: The 45% Hangover, all featuring his most popular characters - DS Logan McRae and DCI Roberta Steel. They say 'small is beautiful', but as Stuart MacBride demonstrates in these four tales, it can also be dark, violent, disturbing, and sometimes really quite rude.

With the king's health in decline, the time is short for Crown Prince Phillip of Elsinore to choose a suitable wife. Preferably not one of the many titled women who seem only interested in the crown. Like the logical, responsible man he is, Phillip treats this task the way he does everything else—analytically, with measurable data points. Leaving Elsinore in secret, Phillip travels to a tiny Italian village to meet the woman best matching his qualifications. The plan is to present Alessia with a proposal of marriage and return to the palace before anyone notices his absence.

Welcome to the Misfit Mob... It's where Police Scotland dumps the officers it can't get rid of but wants to: the outcasts, the troublemakers, the compromised. Officers like DC Callum MacGregor, lumbered with all the boring go-nowhere cases. So when an ancient mummy turns up at the Oldcastle tip, it's his job to find out which museum it's been stolen from. But then Callum uncovers links between his ancient corpse and three missing young men, and life starts to get a lot more interesting.

Gill McArdle is on the island of Iona searching for the burial places of kings. What begins as an archaeological survey risks descending into a treasure hunt and Gill suspects subterfuge from new enemies as well as old. And when a find on Iona sheds a little light on the nature of ‘The Torn Isle’, Gill doesn’t like what he sees.

In the wake of a failed love affair, brainy beauty Jilly Lovitz takes off for Tokyo. She's expecting to cry on her sister Summer's shoulder, then spend a couple months blowing off steam in Japan. Instead, she's snatched away on the back of a motorcycle, narrowly avoiding a grisly execution attempt meant for her sister and brother-in-law. Her rescuer is Reno, the Committee's most unpredictable agent. They'd met once before and the attraction was odd - tattooed Yakuza punk meets leggy California egghead - but electric.

Meet Elvis Cole, L.A. private eye.... He quotes Jiminy Cricket and carries a .38. He's a literate, wisecracking Vietnam vet who is determined never to grow up.

When her father was charged as a serial killer, Nina Madden and her stepmother became pariahs in their small Maryland town. Though Nina never believed the hideous accusations, evidence led to her father's conviction. When her father died in prison, Nina left Stone River and never looked back. But she couldn't shake the lingering doubts.

It sounds idyllic: a leisurely drive through the sun-drenched landscape of Provence. But Charity's dream holiday turns into a nightmare when she becomes embroiled in a sinister plot to kidnap a young boy. She soon finds herself in a deadly pursuit and must uncover whom to trust...and whom to fall for.