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A funny and intensely moving portrait of childhood, death and a man’s relationship with his larger-than-life mother.This poignant, witty, warm-hearted yet unsentimental novel charts the turbulent relationship of a mother and son.As a young boy, Rory Keenan finds his mother bewilderingly and embarrassingly eccentric as his childhood is punctuated by hilarious, cringe-making episodes caused entirely by her unpredictable behaviour and bizarre habits and exploits. Kitty has a huge appetite – for food, for mysterious imaginary illnesses and for strange hobbies. Her irrepressible, opinionated nature ensures that she (and against his will, Rory too) is the centre of any attention to be had.At the end of Kitty’s life, Rory, now a grown man, begins to come to terms with his confused feelings for Kitty – he loves her devotedly, but nevertheless her cussedness still infuriates him. As memories and secrets from his family’s stormy past in Ireland and London echo through the tragedy of her final, very real illness we are given an outstandingly vivid and compassionate vision of life, love and death.

A novel of confusion and paranoia, love and doubt, fear and hysteria: unsettling, unhinged, provocative and bestially funny, ‘Animals’ is for human beings everywhere.Keith Ridgway's third novel is a psychological menagerie of confusion, paranoia, searching and love. Narrated by an illustrator who can no longer draw, it tells of the sudden and inexplicable collapse of a private life, and the subsequent stubborn search for a place from which to take stock. We are surrounded here – by unsafe or haunted buildings, by artists and capitalists who flirt with terror, by writers and actresses and the deals they have made with unreality, and by the artificial, utterly constructed, scripted city in which we have agreed to live out a version of living. But there are cracks in the facade, and there are stirrings under the floorboards, and there are animals everywhere you look, if only you'd dare to look for them.Unsettling, unhinged, provocative and richly funny, ‘Animals’ is for human beings everywhere.

The Art of Murder Chicago attorney Izzy McNeil is ready to take a break from private investigation and focus on her career in criminal law. But as a favor, she agrees to work with Madeline Saga, a beautiful art gallery owner who fears that artwork she has sold is fake. Who in Madeline’s tight circle of artists and gallery owners is guilty of the forgeries? When Madeline's life is threatened, Izzy is suddenly asking a more troublesome question: Who wants the gallery owner dead?As the case spins out of control, there’s only one person who makes Izzy feel safe. Detective Damon Vaughn. But getting close to her former nemesis is full of surprises. Astonishing truths about the glittering Chicago art scene that will introduce Izzy to the deadliest art of deception…."Caldwell combines the best courtroom dramas with the vibe of Sex in the City …Izzy McNeil’s wit and charm compel the reader and the mystery proves intriguing."–RTBook Reviews on Claim of Innocence

Dublin Palms is a moving examination of fatherhood and families across the world, a story of emigrants and strangers and people returning.The seafront was full of memory, full of sand and sex and shivering and wet bathing costumes pooled on the ground. Everything was familiar, the hedges with purple flowers, the granite pier, the lighthouse…You can be bullied by things you love.Sean has returned to Dublin from Berlin. He feels a constant dislocation, never quite arriving in his place of birth. Everything comes to him in a confusion of three languages.Irish: the ghost language, the one his father spoke, the one added to road signs, the one in which they sing the old songs of leaving. German: his mother’s tongue, with its distance and its dark history. And English: the language of the street, the language his father barred from the home, the language he now lives in with his partner Helen and their two children.In this spectacular novel from the author of The Speckled People, Sean attempts to build his own version of home, one that is made of stories and memory, one that is under constant threat of falling apart.

Shady is the town where I grew up in every way a young man could, where I saw every kind of good and bad there is to see.Everybody found their true nature in Shady. In a single day, Benjamin Purdue lost his family, his love, his freedom and even his name for reasons he’s never known. Now Ben, the boy he used to be, is dead. And Henry Cole, the man he’s become, is no one he would ever want to know.With only a few dollars in his pocket, Henry journeys back to the dangerous town where it all began. The only place he’s ever called home. As he drifts southward, he gets closer to the beautiful woman whose visit to Shady all those years ago ended in a killing. A woman who holds the keys to his past…and his future.

In her second volume of short stories, which follows the hugely successful 'Encounters', Barbara Erskine has created a compelling world of love, betrayal, suspense and grief.A biographer investigating a tragic death hears voices from the past drawing her towards the truth…A nineteenth century parson’s daughter is caught up in the excitement and romance of a smuggling intrigue…A young boy from a deprived background finds his own haven in the wastelands of the inner city…Contemporary, historical, spooky, and humorous – there are over thirty delightful stories, each one guaranteed to capture the reader’s imagination, and all demonstrating Barbara Erskine’s unique powers as a storyteller.

Forced off the road by a speeding sports car, a van carrying nine passengers bursts into flamesAll nine occupants of the van – eight of them children – are killed .Criminal defence attorney Harrison J. Walker, aka Jaywalker, has been trying to keep his nose clean while serving a three-year suspension. But when a woman seduces him into representing the driver – a man who also happens to be her husband – things get messy.Jaywalker tries to stay focused on his goal: limiting the damage to his client. But when he rounds a blind corner in the case, he collides with a truth that could change everything.A must-read for fans of John Grisham and Mark Gimenez

Terrifying secrets and a stunning mystery power this page-turner from the New York Times No.1 bestseller.Objects of desire… or death?When prize-winning photojournalist Jordan Glass chances upon a portrait by an unknown artist in Hong Kong, she is shocked. The face staring back at her is her missing identical twin sister.The painting is part of an exhibition entitled ‘Sleeping Women’ and Jordan realizes that the portraits are all of women who have recently disappeared from New Orleans. Electrifying a case previously paralysed by a lack of bodies, this new evidence spurs the FBI’s serial killer unit into action.Working with the FBI, Jordan becomes both hunter and hunted in search for the artist- and is forced to confront terrifying secrets about her past in a final stunning showdown.

A stunning debut coming-of-age novel set in the ambiguous and claustrophobic world of an exclusive New England prep school.The first time I saw my sister after she died was at the Fourth of July party. I felt someone behind me and my flesh started prickling. My skin recognized her before I did, rippling once then tightening on my bones.My sister, Nica.Grace spent her teenage years playing catch-up with her younger but cooler sister, Nica. Chasing and yet never quite catching up. So when Nica is murdered, Grace is cast adrift until it becomes clear to her that she must track down her sister’s killer – and in doing so, uncover the secrets she never knew her sister kept.

Special Agent Cece Blackwell is smart, savvy and knows her way around a race car Heading up a team to investigate the murder of a rally driver is right up her alley.The only problem is star driver Blain Sanders, the man who requested her. Blain is well-heeled, well-connected and drop-dead gorgeous – and he knew Cece when she was a drag-racing tomboy with grease under her nails. But Cece has grown up since then, in all the right places. And while catching the killer is her main objective, she’s not above making the man who ignored her as a teenager squirm a little. Two people on a sure-fire collision course.But Cece and Blain are about to discover that the sweetest victory does not always come from winning…