Funny, moving and sharply observed, these stories are confirmation of Boyd's status as one of English fiction's finest writers. Here are twenty-four gripping tales told in bold, distinct voices from Brazil to Africa and from Nice to Hollywood. This eclectic collection by the acclaimed author of Restless and Brazzaville Beach is a must-read for any...

They set a Slamhound on Turner's trail in New Delhi, slotted it to his pheromones and the colour of his hair.When the Maas Biolabs and Hosaka zaibatsus fight it out for world domination, computer cowboys like Turner and Count Zero are just foot soldiers in the great game: useful but ultimately expendable.When Turner wakes up in Mexico - in a new bo...

It's every parent's worst nightmare. But there's no waking up from this . . . On board a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, Kimberly wakes to discover that her two-year-old son Robert has vanished from the cabin overnight. She and her husband Jason vow to do whatever it takes to bring Robert home. But he is never found. Forty years later, their ther...

The howling doesn't stop after the full moon. My first term of university: bad grades and worse sex. After losing my sister/best friend Grace and spending my teenage years suffering for it, I thought academia could be my saviour. So, I buried my head in as many books as I could find. But it turns out you can't just turn the page on years of guilt....

When homicide Detective Kit McKittrick and psychologist Sam Reeves discover a mutilated body in the desert outside San Diego, any number of people could be on their suspect list. The murder victim, local Councillor Brooks Munro, was a hated figure. Following the killer's trail, it becomes clear that those who abducted Brooks - and his prized Ferrar...

Lexi is looking for no-strings-attached fun with a stranger. She deserves one night for herself, doesn't she? Zeke is looking for love. But for one night with a woman like Lexi, he'll break his rules . . . Sparks fly at the pub, one passionate kiss leads to another and they end up stumbling home to the marina together. The next morning, hungover an...

Detective Chief Inspector Tony McLean is called to investigate a break-in at Drake BioTech, a trendsetting Edinburgh start-up. It's well below McLean's pay grade, but given the extensive political connections of its eccentric owner Nathaniel Drake, he doesn't have a choice. Even if nothing appears to have been stolen. A missing person case turns co...

The Earth colony of Landin has been stranded on Werel for ten years - and each of Werel's years is over 60 terrestrial years! After so long an exile, the lonely and dwindling human settlement is beginning to feel the strain. Every winter—a season that lasts a decade and a half - the Earthmen have neighbours: the humanoid hilfs, a nomadic peop...

Raised in a Greek legion, Phaidros has been taught to follow his commander's orders at all costs. But when he rescues a baby from a fire at Thebes' palace, he defies those orders and keeps the blue-eyed boy's existence a secret. Years later, after a strange encounter that led to the death of his battalion, Phaidros has become a training master for...

The Darke family and their associates are under attack. Ruby's burlesque club has been razed to the ground. Her son Kit's closest associate, Rob Hinton, is dead. And when Ruby's lover, gangland boss Thomas Knox, is blown to pieces by a car bomb, everyone suspects a rival gang. But is that the truth? As Kit and Ruby trawl the mean streets of London...

ELPHIE: A WICKED CHILDHOOD is the captivating coming-of-age story of the most iconic witch ever to grace our screens and bookshelves. Young Elphaba is destined to be a witch, she bears the markings from childhood. But what happened before her powers took hold? Elphie is a girl like any other and no other. Nothing like her parents - one beautiful, t...

Earth, like the rest of the Known Worlds, has fallen to the Shing. Scattered here and there, small groups of humans live in a state of semi-barbarism. They have lost the skills, science and knowledge that had been Earth's in the golden age of the League of Worlds, and whenever a colony of humans tries to rekindle the embers of a half-forgotten tech...

It is a June morning in Milan when Sandro abandons his flat, his job and the increasingly unfulfilled promises of a hostile city to return to his hometown of Rimini. His mother, Caterina, has been dead for a few years, but his father - headstrong, taciturn Nando - soldiers on in the same house of Sandro's youth. The two men could not be more differ...

Clementine Clark isn't looking for love. She's a talented singer, but she's set her dreams of stardom - and romance - aside to care for her ailing mother. And then her best friend calls her with a life-changing opportunity: join Irish megastar Halloran on his first US tour as a backing vocalist. Clementine wants to reject the offer, but the pay wou...

1999. A group of archaeologists are excavating a Bronze Age burial site in the grounds of Trusloe Hall, a minor stately home in Wiltshire. Excited that their dig is being filmed for a TV documentary, the group are camping onsite and having the time of their lives. In the blink of an eye, one of the party disappears: a young woman called Nazma Kirma...

Meet Frankie, Miriam and Bronagh: three very different women from Belfast, but all mothers to eighteen-year-old boys. Gorgeous Frankie, now married to a wealthy, older man, grew up in care. Miriam has recently lost her beloved husband Kahlil in ambiguous circumstances. Bronagh, the CEO of a children's services charity, loves celebrity and prestige....

Celebrated writer and historian Maria Graham must make the treacherous voyage from Brazil to London to deliver her latest book to her publisher. Having come to terms with the loss of her beloved husband, Maria is now determined to live her life as she pleases, free from the smothering constraints of Georgian society. For a woman travelling alone it...

Dorset, 1965: twenty-five-year-old aspiring artist Marilyn longs to escape to London, but her family relies on her wages from the hotel on the cliff. Then one day Marilyn meets Bruno, an intriguing Italian, and the two fall madly in love, painfully aware of Bruno having very little time left in the country. Over fifty years later, Marilyn's daughte...

Slow horse River Cartwright is waiting to be passed fit for work. With time to kill, River investigates the secrets of his grandfather's library, and a mysteriously missing book. Regent's Park's First Desk, Diana Taverner, doesn't appreciate threats. So when those involved in a covert operation during the height of the Troubles threaten to expose t...

Poland, 1942. After witnessing the destruction of her hometown in Warsaw, Anna Kowalski joins the Polish Resistance. She is tasked with smuggling as many children as possible out of the Warsaw Ghetto to safety. Through her work, Anna meets Johnnie Nowak, an RAF pilot who had managed to escape from a prisoner of war camp. He's not safe in Warsaw, so...

Can she finally put herself first, in order to find love? Peggy Cassidy is a milly, working in the Belfast linen mills to just about get by. But Peggy also has another job - a secret one. She works as a handywoman - an illegal midwife, tending to the women of her community in their time of need. When Peggy is offered the chance to leave Belfast to...