The germ of the idea to produce an anthology of the work of the Brampton Writers Guild came early in 2020. It had been at least fifteen years since we had last produced an anthology; time enough for our members to have written some memorable stories.To encourage entries, as President of the Guild along with Ken Puddicombe, owner and publisher of MiddleRoadPublishers, we decided to start the ball rolling by running a contest for members only. We retained two outside judges to review...

1989 - the world holds its breath. The Soviet Union is on the brink of collapse, its eastern empire in a state of rebellion. Only a street trader, a drug dealer, a discredited young colonel and a woman, haunted by her past, stand between the world and Armageddon. STROIKA is the story of their friendship, love and betrayal, the quest for unparalleled wealth... and a coup which threatens them all.Stroika is a fast moving, atmospheric tale, charting the destruction of the old...

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2011Snowdrops. That's what the Russians call them - the bodies that float up into the light in the thaw. Drunks, most of them, and homeless people who just give up and lie down into the whiteness, and murder victims hidden in the drifts by their killers.**Nick has a confession. When he worked as a high-flying British lawyer in Moscow, he was seduced by Masha, an enigmatic woman who led him through her city: the electric nightclubs and ...

FROM THE #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR‘Deadly conspiracies, bone-crunching action and a tormented hero with a heart . . . packs a real punch’ Andy McDermottA LOST MANUSCRIPT. A SAVAGE MURDER. A DEADLY SECRET.While on a business trip to the UK, Ben Hope makes an impulse decision to attend a college reunion at his former university, Oxford. There he meets an old friend, Nick, now an internationally-renowned classical musician.But storm clouds are soon...

It is 1999 and Russia is on the edge of total implosion. Social and moral order has collapsed and what small semblance of control there is, is being imposed by mafia-like criminal gangs. While public opinion in the West is largely indifferent, the political analysts are less sanguine - Russian meltdown will make the disintegration of the Balkans look like the collapse of a cup-cake. Out of the chaos, however, a single charismatic voice is starting to be heard - that of Igor Komarov, a visi...

"Birmingham sets new standards in alternate history, time travel, and sheer dancing-on-the-edge-of-the lava gonzo inventiveness. Solid and wild at the same time." – S.M. Stirling, author of Dies the FireTen years have passed since Admiral Kolhammer's 21st century battlefleet was dragged into a wormhole and thrown across oceans of time, emerging with disastrous consequences and shattering the history of the Second World War.Hitler a...

Andy McNab at the top of his game, delivering pulse-pounding entertainment and awe-inspiring, widescreen action.Spetsnaz used to be a name to strike fear into the hearts of Russia's enemies. But now that the country has gone to the dogs, Dima Mayakovsky - once a revered figure inside the elite Special Forces unit - wants no part of it any more. But when a dangerous fugitive surfaces in Tehran, Dima is the man Kremlin wants to bring him in. There is no option: the e...

An Australian surgeon's extraordinary story of courage and conflict.

A Granta Best Young American Novelist1930s Leningrad: a failed portrait artist employed by Soviet censors must erase political dissenters from official images and artworks. One day, he receives an antique painting. The mystery behind this painting threads together each of the stories that follow, where we meet a Siberian beauty queen, a young soldier in the battlefields of Chechnya, the Head of the Grozny Tourist Bureau, a ballerina performing for the camp director...

Ukraine. A simmering cauldron of old hatreds between Russia and the West. Separatist rebels have an unlimited supply of guns, and the land is ripped apart by rival factions fighting for supremacy. This is a land where brother kills brother, and women can only watch and weep while a Russian invasion threatens.On the other side of the Atlantic, a charitable foundation in New York City, established by Alexander Dragan, a mysterious Ukrainian philanthropist. A man who harbors a bitter ...

By the age of six, Nicolai Lilin had been given his first 'pike knife' by an uncle, and by the age of twelve, he had been convicted of attempted murder . . .Nicolai Lilin gained his 'education' as a member of the Siberian Urkas - a small and tight-knit community of 'honest criminals' in a forgotten corner of Eastern Europe. It was a remarkable upbringing, defined by an elaborate set of rituals and strict codes of honour, and by a deep distrust of outsiders - especially the police a...

Iranian Mullahs have offered a $4 million reward to the person who carries out their fatwa, the death sentence of the internationally acclaimed author Sara Santanda. A Danish daily newspaper has in cooperation with Danish PEN Centre invited her to Copenhagen, and police officer Per Toftlund of the Danish Secret Police is put in charge of protecting the author. A politician in parliament strikes a deal with dire consequences. And somewhere in the former Yugoslavia a young man signs up for m...