A collection of stories by international bestselling author and Emmy-nominated screenwriter John Goldsmith.Do miracles really happen? Did Voltaire rise from the dead? Is our fate predestined? Are sex toys dangerous? The answers are to be found in this remarkable collection. Includes how-to advice on a number of topics: delivering practical jokes from beyond the grave; how best to murder an African despot; the secret of the world’s best rabbit stew. From fantastic to factual, contem...

A covert agent's memoir of three perilous missions in Nazi-occupied Paris, told with "unconditional honesty" ( Kirkus Reviews).At first, John Goldsmith's services were consistently refused. But in 1942, he was recruited into Buckmasters F Section of the Special Operations Executive—and his wartime exploits would be remarkable.His faultless French and upbringing in Paris were to prove invaluable. After intensive training he was parachuted into France ...

It was probably the greatest private hoard of gold in the world: two thousand tons of bullion lying in a vault in Zurich, which had to be sold.The Greek who owned the gold believed that he was cursed by it; the American underworld who had accepted it as security for a loan wanted their money back. Yet, its sale on the open market would cause the price of gold to plummet and precipitate a global financial crisis.Two men were separately commissioned to secretly sell the gold ...

Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger: Scotland Yard's James Pibble puzzles over the murder of a pygmy tribesman in the middle of London in this "first class" mystery ( The Times Literary Supplement).Oddball cases are James Pibble's specialty. But the brutal bludgeoning of the revered elder of a New Guinea tribesman may be his strangest yet.The corpse, in striped pajamas, lies in the middle of a room completely absent of furniture. Seven women squat on the f...

The New York Times–bestselling food writer delivers “a propulsively well-written trio of novellas . . . A richly layered book, full of surprises and pleasures” (Kate Christensen).In his three novellas, “In Short Measures,” “Strong Conspirators,” and “Sally Forth,” Michael Ruhlman delves deeply into the nuanced complexity of romantic and sexual love—and the inevitable evolution of the heart over the span of years and decades.Each novella asks questi...

A history of the Manhattan building and its famous tenants, from Lauren Bacall to John Lennon, by the New York Times–bestselling author of "Our Crowd".When Singer sewing machine tycoon Edward Clark built a luxury apartment building on Manhattan's Upper West Side in the late 1800s, it was derisively dubbed "the Dakota" for being as far from the center of the downtown action as its namesake territory on the nation's western frontier. Despite its remo...

The definitive collection from an Irish literary icon, "one of the masters of the short story" ( Newsweek).In the words of W. B. Yeats, Frank O'Connor "did for Ireland what Chekhov did for Russia." Anne Tyler, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, described his tales as "encapsulated universes." This indispensable volume contains the best of his short fiction, from "Guests of the Nation" (adapted into an Obie Award–winning play) to "The Mad Lomasneys" ...

'A real page-turner...juicy enough to devour in one sitting, you'll immediately want to order the next in the series.' DAILY MAILThe first instalment in the Frank Merlin series. Previously published as Prince's Gate.When a brilliant emigré scientist is killed by a hit-and-run driver and the body of an American embassy is washed up in the Thames, DCI Frank Merlin and his team are called to investigate.Merlin's investigations soon ruffle feat...

A noted Shakespeare scholar looks back on his life with love and regret in this “moving, beautiful story . . . about what can be repaired and what can’t” (Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves).Until John Wilson met the warm, wise woman who became his fourth wife, the object of his most intense devotion had been the works of William Shakespeare. From his time as a student, memorizing Romeo and Juliet and half a dozen other play...

Death by Dangerous is a compelling legal thriller set in Manchester and Bradford. John Anderson is one of the North West’s most dedicated and successful prosecution barristers. His career is going from strength to strength and he is on the verge of becoming Queen’s Counsel. But the life he once knew suddenly comes crashing down following a fatal road traffic accident...Recovering from his injuries, he has no memory of the collision. Was he responsible for the death of a ch...

Part human comedy and part mystery, Lies the Mushroom Pickers Told is an enthralling, masterful story about what holds a village together and what keeps people apart. When journalist Patrick Bracken returns to Gohen, the Irish village where he was born, he knows the eyes of the townspeople are on him. He has come home to investigate two deaths that happened decades earlier when he was a child, deaths that were ruled accidental. But Patrick knows-and believes the whole town knows-t...

Witch trials in Virginia? Salem wasn’t the first…Psychologist Shae Howard treats a patient who claims to recall nothing of the current century. Under hypnosis, Phoebe Wynne tells an astonishing tale of an ocean crossing to Colonial Jamestown, followed by near starvation and a daring escape to a nearby Indian tribe.Although Shae’s ex-husband, seasoned police detective Lee Crowley, is intrigued by Phoebe’s story, he remains skeptical regarding her claim that she’s from the se...