Somewhere Beyond Dark Waters

31st December 1942. In the middle of the North Atlantic, the deadly 'gap' where aircraft cannot protect them, a destroyer and 4 corvettes are shepherding a convoy of ships from America to Britain. But as midnight passes, the New Year is marked by a white flash on the horizon - a German torpedo. What follows is a night scarred forever in the memory of its survivors. But for Michael Villiers, officer on the HMS Daisy, it is just another chapter in an extraordinary life. The son of a beautiful socialite and a British diplomat, Michael is brought up in Sombreado, Uruguay alongside his guardian's daughter Maria, and the pair are inseparable. Even when he is sent to school in England, the family ranch remains Michael's home and when his schooling is complete, there is never any doubt that he will return to Sombreado, to Maria. But when Michael returns to Montevideo in 1939, his steamer crosses paths with a German warship - an ominous sign of the conflict to come. And though Uruguay is neutral in the coming conflict, Michael is to be allowed no such luxury: the British Legation want him to make the most of his family connections. In a war, the English ambassador explains, everyone has to take sides . . .

Disgraced detective Danny returns to his Newfoundland hometown to bury his grandfather. Instead, he finds himself accused of a thirty-year-old murder. Can he bring the truth to light?

AN ABANDONED ROAD There is a path now where once there was a road Where smooth brown earth and jaded rocks Fell away in deep depression The trail of wheels and neighing horses and of lighter walks It grows thick and tall, the grass that was once held at bay Dared not to rise where tramping feet would crush But staged on edge where cruel ungainly winds Vent their wrath unceasingly with rain and dust It has conquered now, for slowly the grinding ceased And the lighter steps dwindled with the laughter it had known It dared to rise between the ruts and bend To hide the scars from some stray steps that roam And intrude upon their sanctuary, where conquered winds Hold not the lash of yore, but with gentleness obey The lull moods of quiet rains, the brushed air That shrouds the stillness of an abandoned road

Imprisoned in a dank cottage deep in the English countryside Arthur Doyle lies half-unconscious and at the mercy of his nemesis - Cream. Gathering all his dwindling strength he smashes a window and crawls to safety. With a sharp piece of broken glass he awaits his torturer's return, but the man has eluded him once more, leaving behind the rotting body of a local miser and thwarted in his attempt to obtain money for his 'deadly' cause. Securing the help of the remarkable pioneering criminal investigator Dr Joseph Bell the two men return to the scene of the crime but find few clues. London reveals little more except the possibility that their archenemy has gone to the Suffolk coast under the name of Dr Mere. Full of legend the local community fear the 'Dunwich witch' has returned with her evil curse. A man has died in suspicious circumstances and it seems many are unwilling to talk about it. More hideous crimes are yet to come as Dr Bell and Doyle move closer and closer to confronting Cream: Bell to capture a notorious villain, Doyle to avenge himself for a crime which robbed him of his future happiness. Dr Bell and Arthur Doyle are reunited once again in their quest to hunt down a criminal mastermind in a sinister tale of intrigue and violence, which reaches a terrifying and dramatic climax -

After The Fall … America's Great Dream is over. Centuries ago it was devastated by the ultimate war. The effects still linger. Food is scarce, water even scarcer and human compassion nowhere to be found. Even so, society is slowly rebuilding itself. But is it a society whose thirst for success is built on an enormous, barbaric lie. Silver Island … an almost legendary place to most Americans. The citadel where the government is building a new and better nation from the ashes of the war-ravaged land. Everyone envies the few children who are chosen to be sent to Silver Island to help realize that dream. At least, that's what Howie Ryder was told when his little sister became one of the Chosen. And that's what he believed before the soldiers slaughtered his parents. Six years on, Howie has discovered the horrifying truth about Silver Island. And will do anything — anything — to rescue his sister from its grip…

Across the Black Waters is widely rated as an outstanding novel. It is a simple story about the ultimate futility and sorrow of war. It is a journey not just from a small village in Punjab to Flanders, from father to soldier, field to front — but from a soul that nurtures to one that kills. Overlooking the claims of war classics like All Quiet on the Western Front, the British Council selected and adapted this novel into a play to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War I. "The foremost of Indian novelists." — Daily Telegraph "His descriptions of brutality match in compassion and outrage, and perhaps also in poetic flair, those of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sasson, or David Jones." — Alastair Niven, British Literary Critic

“Craig wields powerful and vivid prose to illuminate a country and a family trapped not only by war and revolution, but also by desire and loss.” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Miss Burma tells the story of modern-day Burma through the eyes of Benny and Khin, husband and wife, and their daughter Louisa. After attending school in Calcutta, Benny settles in Rangoon, then part of the British Empire, and falls in love with Khin, a woman who is part of a long-persecuted ethnic minority group, the Karen. World War II comes to Southeast Asia, and Benny and Khin must go into hiding in the eastern part of the country during the Japanese occupation, beginning a journey that will lead them to change the country’s history. Years later, Benny and Khin’s eldest child, Louisa, has a danger-filled, tempestuous childhood and reaches prominence as Burma’s first beauty queen soon before the country falls to dictatorship. As Louisa navigates her newfound fame, she is forced to reckon with her family’s past, the West’s ongoing covert dealings in her country, and her own loyalty to the cause of the Karen people. Based on the story of the author’s mother and grandparents, Miss Burma is a captivating portrait of how modern Burma came to be and of the ordinary people swept up in the struggle for self-determination and freedom. “At once beautiful and heartbreaking . . . An incredible family saga.” —Refinery29 “Miss Burma charts both a political history and a deeply personal one—and of those incendiary moments when private and public motivations overlap.” —Los Angeles Times