Maud is forgetful. She makes a cup of tea and doesn't remember to drink it. She sometimes thinks her daughter Helen is a total stranger. But there's one thing Maud is sure of: her friend Elizabeth is missing. The note in her pocket tells her so. And no matter who tells her to stop going on about it, Maud will get to the bottom of it. A debut novel...

Sue Townsend, creator of the much-loved Adrian Mole series, tells a compassionate and gritty story of love and loss in Ghost Children. Seventeen years ago Angela Carr aborted an unwanted child. The child's father, Christopher Moore, was devastated by the loss and retreated from the world. However, when he makes a horrifying discovery on the heath,...

If you had the chance to make a fresh start, what would you keep from your old life? What would you give away? Gina is starting her life again, after a difficult few years she'd rather forget. But the belongings she's treasured for so long just don't seem to fit who she is now. So Gina makes a resolution. She'll keep just a hundred items-the rest c...

The collection begins in the 1950s in an insular northern village 'scoured by bitter winds and rough gossip tongues.' For the child narrator, the only way to survive is to get up, get on, get out. The title story sees our narrator ironing out her northern vowels with the help of an ex-actress with one lung and a Manchester accent. In Third Floor Ri...

Loopy follows an unnamed man who is struggling to grow up and move beyond the confines of his mother's home. Indifferent to his fianc‚e and bored with his 9 to 5 job, his only outlet is with his local drama group. Following a performance as the wolf in Red Riding Hood, he gradually becomes obsessed with his wolf alter-ego, spending more and m...

Gabrielle is sitting in an apartment in Manhattan, watching the clock. Her daughter has been kidnapped, she's shot and killed a man, and is trying to negotiate with the kidnapper. He wants the October List, and he wants money. The doorbell rings...That is the end of Gabrielle's story, and the first chapter of the novel. The next chapter is the scen...

Before she soared to massive popularity with her bestselling True Blood novels, Charlaine Harris launched her career with this critically acclaimed mystery. Catherine Linton has returned to her hometown of Lowfield, Mississippi, unconvinced that the death of her parents in a car crash six months earlier was an accident. And her suspicions are confi...

Miles Flint is a low-level operative in the world of espionage, with a watching brief that satisfies him perfectly; he's not a man who craves more active duty. But IRA bombs are wreaking havoc on the British mainland, and Miles finds himself with all kinds of problems. He is sent to Belfast, where he finds that his job is much more than merely watc...

Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry her ideal man, but in one afternoon everything begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring in a hotel fire drill, but in the panic that follows, her phone is stolen. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations and mysterious phone calls, she soon realizes that she is in for the...

Lara has always had an overactive imagination, but now the spirit of her great aunt Sadie has appeared to make one last request: she must find a missing necklace. Lara's got enough problems of her own: her start-up company is floundering and she's just been dumped. But perhaps Sadie's ghost could also be the answer to Lara's problems?

A Study in Scarlet was the very first Sherlock Holmes novel. Here. In the most remarkably precise manner, Doyle produced two of the most well-known characters in English fiction. Their individual traits and their relationships, their ambitions and foibles are introduced against the backdrop of an exciting story of revenge and persistence, which sta...

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of About a Boy by Nick Hornby, read by Stephen Mangan. Nick Hornby's second bestselling novel is about sex, manliness and fatherhood. Will is thirty-six, comfortable and child-free. And he's discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women-through single-parent groups. Marcus is twelve...

A 20th anniversary edition of this million copy bestseller, with a new introduction by John Niven: a classic story of paradise found-and lost. Richard lands in East Asia in search of an earthly utopia. In Thailand, he is given a map promising an unknown island, a secluded beach-and a new way of life. What Richard finds when he gets there is breatht...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The House by Simon Lelic, read by Adam Newington and Gemma Whelan. THE PERFECT COUPLE. THE PERFECT HOUSE. THE PERFECT CRIME. Londoners Jack and Syd moved into the house a year ago. It seemed like their dream home: tons of space, the perfect location, and a friendly owner who wanted a young couple to have it...

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audibook edition of My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout, read by Kimberly Farr. A mother comes to visit her daughter in hospital after having not seen her in many years. Her unexpected visit forces Lucy to confront her past, uncovering long-buried memories of a profoundly impoverished childhood;...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Some Kind of Wonderful by Giovanna Fletcher, read by Emily Atack. When the love of your life says you're not The One, who are you? Lizzy and Ian have been a couple since the first week of university. Now, after celebrating a decade together, everyone thinks they're about to get engaged. Instead, a romantic...

Edinburgh, 1888. A virtuoso violinist is brutally killed in his home. But with no way in or out of the locked practice room, the murder makes no sense. Fearing a national panic over a copycat Ripper, Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Frey to investigate under the cover of a fake department specializing in the occult. However, Frey's new boss, Detec...

One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock hears urgent knocking on his front door. One of his captains is waiting eagerly on the step. He has sold Jonah's ship for what appears to be a mermaid. As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlours and brothels, everyone wants to see Mr Hancock's marvel. Its arrival spins him...

Here is the beginning of a legend. Long before Camelot rose, a hundred years before the myth of King Arthur was half-formed, at the start of the Red Century, the world was slipping into a Dark Age...It is AD 367. In a frozen forest beyond Hadrian's Wall, six scouts of the Roman army are found murdered. For Lucanus, known as the Wolf and leader of e...

Arthur C Clarke is without question the world's best-known and most celebrated science fiction writer. His career, spanning more than sixty years, is one of unequalled success. Clarke has always been celebrated for his clear prophetic vision, which is fully on display in this audiobook, but there are also many stories which show his imagination in...

Who says youth is wasted on the young? Jasper wants to get on in the world, but life is distracting. He's got his A-levels to contend with, his mother pushing him to overachieve, weekly visits to his psychologist, come-downs, YouTube suicides and pregnant one-night-stands. And then there's his step-dad-the murderer. Hilarious and heartbreaking by t...