Archive | Large Print Books

Jina Bacarr
Paris, 1940: Two sisters separated by the Nazis… After a devastating attack, Justine and Ève Beaufort find themselves on opposite sides of the war, both in their beloved Paris. But can they ever find their way back to each other? It was the day that changed everything. When the Nazis broke into our home, destroying everything, taking our home and our security. I thought it couldn’t get worse. But then they also took my sister.

After that day nothing was the same. I thought I’d never see her again. I thought she was lost to me forever. I joined the Resistance, vowing to fight against the evil German army with every last spark of fire in my body. Nothing and nobody can stop me.

Until I catch a glimpse of a woman who looks just like my sister. Alive. But this is not the sweet darling girl I once knew. This is a platinum blonde happily conversing with a terrifying Gestapo officer. No longer my sister. But a traitor.

And I know what I must now do…

Could you choose your country – and what is right – over the person you once loved more than anyone in the world?

Jim Eldridge
December 1940. Down Street underground station, in the heart of London’s Mayfair, is now a secret retreat for Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his cabinet from the relentless air raids overhead. In this supposedly secure location, the body of a woman is found, stabbed in the heart. The victim, fortune-teller Lady Za Za, did not see this one coming.

Chief Inspector Coburg and Sergeant Lampson are called to investigate but whispers of treason and corruption succeed in muddying the waters of the case. As the pressure rises and more victims come to light, Coburg and Lampson are on dangerous ground, with a devious killer on the loose.

Ruby Speechley
Single mum Ellie is shown a missing person post on Facebook.
It’s of her three-year-old son, Tyler…
But he’s right there, holding her hand. Surely this is some kind of prank – she knows her friend Louise can go too far with her jokes sometimes. And Ellie is used to the other mums gossiping at the school gates…

But now the other parents are questioning whether Tyler is really her child. Ellie does everything she can to prove the post is fake, but the longer it goes on she knows it is malicious. Who would do this to her? And why? It could be her ex, Darren, but deep down she knows it must be linked to what happened all those years ago – the night she’s been doing her best to forget… All she knows is that she has to keep her son safe – no matter what.

Gil North
It is a wet and windy night in the town of Gunnarshaw, on the edge of the Yorkshire moors. The body of young Jane Trundle, assistant in the chemist’s shop, is discovered lying face down on the cobblestones. Sergeant Caleb Cluff is not a man of many words, and neither does he play by the rules. He may exasperate his superiors, but he has the loyal support of his constable and he is the only CID man in the division. The case is his.

Life in Gunnarshaw is tough, with its people caught up in a rigid network of social conventions. But as Cluff’s investigation deepens, Gunnarshaw’s veneer of hard-working respectability starts to crumble. Sparse, tense, and moodily evoking the unforgiving landscape, this classic crime novel keeps the reader guessing to the end. Originally published in 1961, this is the second in the series of Sergeant Cluff detective stories. Televised in the 1960s, they have since been neglected. This new edition is published in the centenary year of the author’s birth.

Val McDermid
Val McDermid returns with DCI Karen Pirie in a new thriller of deceit and vengeance, set against the disquiet and investigative challenges of a global pandemic.

It’s April 2020 and Edinburgh is in lockdown, but that doesn’t mean crime takes a holiday. It would seem like a strange time for a cold case to go hot — the streets all but empty, an hour’s outdoor exercise the maximum allowed — but when a source at the National Library contacts DCI Karen Pirie’s team about documents in the archive of a recently deceased crime novelist, it seems it’s game on again. What unspools is a twisted game of betrayal and revenge, but no one quite expects how many twists it will turn out to have.

Helen Fitzgerald
When her disastrous Australian love affair ends, Lou O’Dowd heads to Edinburgh for a fresh start, moving in with her cousin, and preparing for the only job she can find … working at a halfway house for very high-risk offenders. Two killers, a celebrity paedophile and a paranoid coke dealer – all out on parole and all sharing their outwardly elegant Edinburgh townhouse with rookie night-worker Lou…

And instead of finding some meaning and purpose to her life, she finds herself trapped in a terrifying game of cat and mouse where she stands to lose everything – including her life.

Slick, darkly funny and nerve-janglingly tense, Halfway House is both a breathtaking thriller and an unapologetic reminder never to corner a desperate woman…

Louise Douglas
1968, Sicily

Just months after a terrible earthquake has destroyed the mountain town of Gibellina, Enzo and his wife Irene Borgata are making their way back to the family home, Villa Alba del Ciliegio, on roads overlooked by the eerie backdrop of the flattened ghost town. When their car breaks down, Enzo leaves his young wife to go and get help, but when he returns there is no trace of Irene. No body, no sign of a struggle, nothing.

Present Day

TV showman and true crime aficionado Milo Conti is Italy’s darling, uncovering and solving historic crimes for his legion of fans. When he turns his attention to the story of the missing Irene Borgata, accusing her husband of her murder, Enzo’s daughter Maddi asks her childhood friend, retired detective Jane Cobain, for help to prove her father’s innocence. But the tale Jane discovers is murky: mafia meetings, infidelity, mistaken identity, grief and unshakable love. As the world slowly closes in on the claustrophobic Villa Alba del Ciliegio, and the house begins to reveal its secrets, will the Borgata family wish they’d never asked Jane to investigate? And what did happen to Enzo’s missing wife Irene?

Alexandra Walsh
1605
Bess Throckmorton is well used to cunning plots and intrigues. With her husband Sir Walter Raleigh imprisoned in the Tower of London, and she and her family in a constant battle to outwit Robert Cecil, the most powerful man in the country who is determined to ruin her, Bess decides to retreat to her beloved home, Crestwell Hall. But there she is shocked to hear talk of a new plot to murder the king.

So, unbeknownst to their menfolk, the wives of the plotters begin to work together to try to stop the impending disaster.

Present Day

Isabella Lacey and her daughter, Emily, are excited to be starting a new life at her aunt’s home, Crestwell Hall in Wiltshire. During renovations, Isabella discovers an ancient bible that once belonged to Bess Throckmorton, and to her astonishment finds that it doubled as a diary. As Isabella reads Bess’s story, a new version of the Gunpowder Plot begins to emerge – told by the women.

When Emily’s life is suddenly in terrible danger, Isabella understands the relentless fear felt by Bess, hundreds of years ago. And as the fateful date of 5th November draws ever closer, Bess and the plotters’ wives beg their husbands to stop before a chain of events is set into action that can only end one way…

L.H. Stacey
A woman on the run… Madeleine Frost knows she has to get away from her partner Liam. His behaviour has become increasingly controlling and Maddie fears for her safety and that of her young daughter Poppy. Desperation leads Maddie to the hotel owned by her estranged father – the extraordinarily beautiful Wrea Head Hall.

The reunion is tense, but Maddie’s father agrees to her staying as his guest for as long as she needs. Maddie’s whereabouts must stay a secret; but as she spends time getting to know her new home, she discovers the house has its own shocking past and secrets of its own. Secrets that could cost her dearly… And when Liam makes it clear he wants Maddie back, she has to reassess everything. Because when Liam wants something, he gets it – no matter who he hurts…