Search results for ""Canongate Books""

When death becomes entertainment, every life has a price. And Cassie West is about to find out how much hers is worth . . . Ready Player One meets Black Mirror in this stunning speculative thriller set in a future world in which virtual reality isn''t just a game, it''s daily life.Pinter''s accessible speculative story will appeal to fans of Ernest Cline''s enduring hit, Ready Player One Booklist Starred ReviewDark, gritty, and suspenseful . . . A spellbinding story Publishers Weekly on Past CrimesWow Lee Child on Hide Away Absolutely addictive Lisa Gardner on Hide Away You''ll burn through the pages David Baldacci on Hide AwayWelcome to Earth+. The year is 2037, and nearly all human interactions have migrated to the virtual world. Now, true crime fans don''t just listen to podcasts or watch documentaries - they participate in hyper-r

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CIA field agent Kelly Kaiser is drawn into a dangerous, top-secret mission to stop the number of people affected by the rowan tree''s mysterious forces getting out of control.Junior CIA field agent Kelly Kaiser jumps at the chance to lead a risky mission to enter Mexico and gather refugees from under the nose of the notorious drug lord who murdered her fiancé.When the mission takes a revenge-fuelled twist, Kelly finds herself facing dismissal, but Agnes Pendalon, the CIA''s chief ''spook'' lady, has other ideas. Kelly must lead a new, top-secret team to hunt down everyone infected by a magical, mysterious rowan tree''s supernatural forces, and stop the outbreaks getting out of control. Facing an enemy she cannot see or define, Kelly is pulled into a war between alien forces and humanity, and soon discovers that there is more to her fiancé''s death than meets the eye . . .

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An unflinching examination of motherhood and the dark side of domesticity set against a suburban backdrop that''s anything but blissful. This twisty tale invites readers to a slow motion unravelling that culminates in a devastating finale!Who was I? What had I become?Breathe, I commanded. You''re doing this for your family.When Laurel and Rob West move into their new home in New Jersey, it seems too good to be true. But Laurel can''t shake off her old feelings of anxiety. The neighbor who pays far too much attention to the Wests'' two young children . . . Rob watching her every misstep . . . and there''s something people aren''t telling her about this house . . . I promised myself I wouldn''t go to that neighborhood again. Not that street. Not so soon.But I couldn''t help it. They made it too easy.Corey Sutton is trying to outrun her past. Recently divorced and reeling from a devastating loss, she moves into

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Spies, secrets and suspicious circumstances: Friar-sleuth Brother Athelstan races against time to solve impossible crimes and uncover a traitor in this gripping historical mystery set in medieval London.London. March, 1382. Deep in the shadows, a clandestine organization known as the Secret Chancery operates under the sinister leadership of John of Gaunt''s Master of Secrets. When two clerks from this covert group meet their demise in suspicious circumstances, friar-sleuth Brother Athelstan is urgently summoned to unravel the truth behind their deaths.A puzzling question lies at the heart of the investigation: how did the killer manage to navigate a labyrinth of locked doors, leaving no trace behind? As Brother Athelstan delves deeper into the mystery, a terrifying threat also emerges: the possibility of treason. King Richard''s spies in France are also dying, almost as if someone''s discovered exactly who they are . . .Brother Athelstan

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OCEAN''S 8 meets Janet Evanovich, this fast-paced crime caper features one badass mother, with a certain set of skills who is forced to come out of retirement to protect her son, and teach a few men a few lessons!Ex-con artist Bee Cardello is going legit. Divorced from her mafia boss husband, she is determined to stay on the straight and narrow. So, when ex-hubby Charlie steals $37.5 million from a dangerous kingpin, who puts out a hit on Bee and her ten-year-old son Oliver, she finds herself pulled back into the life she''s worked so hard to escape.Part of that old life being one Adam Gage - an old flame and all-round sexy badass who Charlie''s now employed to keep her and Oliver safe . . . well, that''s what he tells her. Bee has been in this game long enough to know that everyone is in it for themselves, and she''d be stupid to trust Adam . . . again.When Oliver is snatched from right under their noses, rather than risk losing him forever,

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The restoration of a stately home takes a deadly turn in the gripping new Bea Abbot mystery.No one had been more surprised than Julian to find he was the heir to Marston Hall, a stately home in the Home Counties. His hitherto unknown relatives had done their best to ensure he didn''t live to inherit, but with his ill-wishers in jail, Julian and his wife Polly celebrated the birth of their son and heir and set about the uphill task of restoring the neglected Tudor mansion to its former glory. Bea Abbot is called in when yet another attempt is made on Julian''s life and the corpse of a woman is found in the stables at the Hall. Could the relatives who targeted Julian before be behind this murder, and what is the link between the dead woman and the Marston-Lang family? Something wicked is afoot at Marston Hall, and Bea is determined to get to the bottom of it.

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A trip to the Lake District proves to be anything but idyllic when Dorothy and Alan investigate a mysterious death.Dorothy Martin and her husband, retired chief constable Alan Nesbitt, jump at the chance to holiday in the beautiful Lake District when Alan''s old friend, Christopher Prideaux, invites them to visit him in Grasmere.A party at Christopher''s cottage is the perfect way to meet the locals, but one stands out - accountant Donald Atkinson, an egoist hoping to become a politician, clearly isn''t popular among his fellow villagers. When he''s found mysteriously dead during the Fell Race, could his demise be due to a sudden, fatal medical emergency, or was it murder? Dorothy and Alan find themselves catapulted into a disturbing case that will lead them back in time, and to a terrible, scandalous secret that someone is determined to keep hidden.

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When a Boston judge is being blackmailed, Andy Roark must find out who is behind the threat before lives get ruined in this thrilling mystery featuring the Vietnam veteran turned private investigator.Fans of Robert B. Parker''s Spenser novels . . . will be eager to see more of Roark Publishers Weekly Roark is genuinely likeable (not too tough, but not a patsy) The New York TimesBoston, 1985. With the late December cold comes a new job for ex-military operative turned private investigator Andy Roark. Boston judge Ambrose Messer is being blackmailed, and he needs Roark''s help to stop the culprit. Messer is judging the bench trial of a chemical company accused of knowingly dumping chemical waste in an unsafe manner, causing birth defects and cancer. The evidence against them is overwhelming, but the message from the blackmailer is clear: If you don''t want the world to know your secret, the chemical co

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Hope and Summer Bailey have their work cut out for them when a man who seems to be The Hermit from their Tarot card readings is found dead in their back yard!In the fun and exciting third instalment of the Fortune Telling Mysteries, the Bailey sisters find themselves in very hot water!An impromptu Tarot reading reveals the stranger who has been watching Hope and Summer over the last few days to be the Hermit - a seeker of knowledge and wisdom. The sisters discover that he has been hired to steal a valuable and potentially dangerous book from them, but only after he''s found drowned in their back garden!Was he killed to hide the mastermind behind the theft? When a rival fortune teller holds a séance to determine the identity of the Hermit''s murderer, Hope and Summer find themselves accused of the crime. Can they clear their name and figure out who the real culprit is before the book falls into the wrong hands?

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Some secrets won''t let go . . . Is the truth about a devastating family tragedy about to be unveiled?Stellar . . . Fraser is in top form - Publishers Weekly Starred ReviewTragedy strikes a quiet Dorset town when the bodies of Sarah and Charles Drummond are discovered in their home one morning while their two young children, Abby and Mia, sleep upstairs. The police seem certain that Charles killed his wife before taking his own life, and the girls'' grandmother, Cicely Fairfax, makes sure that they are shielded from the horrific truth.Until now. Sixteen years later, an accident at work leads Mia to have disturbing flashbacks to the night her parents met their untimely deaths. What did she see? What really happened that fateful evening? When Mia and Abby eventually share painful memories from the night that changed their lives forever, they get closer to uncovering the truth, and a dark secret from the past is finally revealed . . .

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This volume presents the texts of two Old Testament books, Ruth and Esther, two of the very few biblical stories to focus on women. Ruth in particular has attracted much attention from feminist scholars, though it reinforces age-old notions of male dominance. With an introduction by Joanna Trollope.

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Giant Steps examines the most important figures in the creation of modern jazz, detailing the emergence of bebop through the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. Using this as its starting point, Giant Steps subsequently delves into the developments of jazz composition, modal jazz and free jazz. The music of each of these great masters is examined in detail and will provide both a fine introduction for the large audience newly attracted to the music but unsure of their direction through it, as well as an entertaining and informative read for those with a more substantial background.

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This collection marks the arrival of a major new talent in Scottish poetry. Kevin MacNeil's voice and vision, while rooted in the Hebridean islands, is open to a wide range of cultures, not only those of Scotland - from Gaeldom to urban Scotland - but to the wider European and American mind and, through his interest in Zen Buddhism, to Japanese and Chinese culture.With astonishing freshness and versatility, MacNeil's poetry creates powerful connections and new combinations -he has wit as well as feeling, a powerful sense of the past and the local while being resolutely turned towards the future and the cross-cultural.

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sland Landfalls · The Wrecker · The Ebb-TideDriven to the South Seas by ill health, Stevenson could not close his eyes to the impact of colonialism, the 'stirabout of epochs and races, barbarisms and civilisations, virtues and crimes'. Setting his imaginative writings within the social and political contexts of his letters and essays from the South Seas, reveals the deepening and broadening of Stevenson's genius and his growing awareness of and anger at white exploitation. It was a society in which his love of adventure, his awareness of the extremes of human nature, and his fascination with good and evil, could find full release.Tales of the South Seas gathers together all of Stevenson's South Sea fiction and a selection of prose and letters provides not only a vivid portrait of a colourful and exotic world, but also a full and rounded picture of a superb writer at the height of his powers.

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The Three Perils of Man is regarded as Hogg's most ambitious work of fiction. The book's extraordinary combination of the fantastic, the funny, the serious and the historically realistic must be unique in literature.The adventures of its characters, told with the author's characteristically bold simplicity, are many, mad, and breathtakingly fast. Ranging from Galloway to Northumberland, the main focus of the book is to be found in the Scottish Borders. Hogg knew and loved the Borders well, and the book is full of their oral tradition and local lore. In his attempt to synthesise this material with history, romance and the high literary ideals of his time, Hogg's nearest modern parallels would be a combination of Tolkien and Iain Banks.Hogg's fusion of traditional folklore and innovative style was viewed as an anachronism by his contemporaries, and it is only now that his work is recognised s one of the most original and masterly in the Scottish canon.

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In this haunting poem from the latter part of the nineteenth century, Scots-born writer James Thomson anticipated the modern age's nightmare vision of the city as a place of loneliness, alienation and spiritual despair. In contrast to the late Victorian confidence all around him, Thomson dared to face the possibility that the universe was utterly indifferent to human affairs. The strange and dark images in The City of Dreadful Night have become a landmark of modern literature, for the tomb-like streets and empty squares in this memorable poem preceded T.S Eliot's The Waste Land, and the darker visions of expressionism and surrealism by over forty-five years.Published in instalments in 1874 and then in book form in 1880, The City of Dreadful Night has long been unavailable as a complete text. This exciting new edition is introduced and annotated by Edwin Morgan, long an admirer of Thomson's work, and a leading modern poet in his own right.

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This book is an autobiographical account of the early years of James McBey, the self-taught boy from a humble north-east village who became one of Scotland's most successful and celebrated artists. Writing with charismatic frankness and realism, McBey describes his passionate desire to be an artist, from his first etchings (printed with the help of an old mangle) to the moment when he left a stultifying job to strike out for Holland to create a life of his own.McBey's journey was not an easy one. Poverty, ignorance, his family's indifference, the petty routines of an Aberdeen bank, his mother's suicide, all these are evoked with gravity, clarity and a lightness of touch - like the etchings themselves - which will long remain in the reader's mind.Introduced by Nicolas Barker, who edited the original manuscripts, this book offers a real-life portrait of the artist as a young man and establishes James McBey as a gifted prose stylist in his own right.

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The Thrie Estaitis was first performed in the mid-sixteenth century to an audience of royalty and commoners alike. With its high style and penetrating political satire, it pressed for reform in Church and State and even in kingship itself with a hilarious masque of vice and corruption in high places.Sir David Lindsay's great play is a milestone in world drama. After almost 400 years it was revived by Tyrone Guthrie in a famous production for the Edinburgh Festival of 1948. Ever since then this masterpiece has been recognized as a key text in the resurgance of political theatre in modern Scotland and it appears as irreverent today as it was in Lindsay's troubled times.This new editon has been fully edited and annotated by Professor Roderick Lyall.

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Introduced by Donald Smith. Set in Rome during Nero's reign of terror, The Blood of the Martyrs is a disciplined historical novel tracing the destruction of one cell of the early church. With a cast of slaves, ordinary Roman people, exiles and entertainers, it is thorough in its historical interpretation and in its determination to make the past accessible and readable. Written in 1938-9, the novel contains many symbolic parallels to the rise of European fascism in the 1930s and the desperate plight of persecuted minorities such as the Jews and the left-wing activists with whom Naomi Mitchison personally campaigned at the time. With the invasion of Britain a real possibility, she felt compelled to write a testament to the power of human solidarity which, even faced with death, can overcome the worst that human evil can achieve. The Blood of the Martyrs is the least autobiographical of Mitchison's major works of fiction, yet, with its implicit credo, is her most passionately self-revealing.

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Ill health drove Robert Louis Stevenson from Scotland; the urge for new and adventurous places drew him to the Pacific. There were those at home who would have been happier to see him purely as a spinner of the picturesque, but Stevenson could not close his eyes to the impact of colonialism, the 'stir-about of epochs and races, barbarisms and civilizations, virtues and crimes'.This collection sets three of his imaginative works -The Bottle Imp, The Isle of Voices, and The Beach of Falesa - within the social and political contexts of Stevenson's letters and essays from the South Seas. Island ambience, the clash of cultures, moral ambiguities, all are there, and so too is Stevenson's swift narrative control, giving a true modernity to his prose.

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This huge novel, closer in scope to a Russian epic than to any English counterpart, opens at the turn of the twentieth-century in the extreme poverty of the Rhinns of Galloway, an agicultural backwater of the southern-most part of Scotland.With a loving regard for the land and its people, Barke traces the lives of David and Jean Ramsay who, full of hope, painstakingly uproot themselves and their family in the search for prosperity. Their efforts to retain respect and a decent way of life are thwarted by unemployment in increasingly hostile circumstances, and a harsh environment inevitably leaves its mark.But a generation emerges to question the authority of an uncaring society and, even as Fascism rages through Europe, a new hope is born.

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Airtight Willie and Me is a collection of six tales from the underground, all of them characterized by Iceberg Slim's distinctive and unforgettable prose. From the opening story, in which Slim meets Airtight Willie, one of New York's slickest con men, to Satin, a classic tale of revenge in which a heist goes badly wrong, the reader is hooked into a rollercoaster ride through the badlands of urban America. Compelling always, funny sometimes, and typically bleak in their endings, Slim's slices of city life are important social documents that scorch most contemporary into submission. There is no moralizing bullshit, no romanticized illusions, few redemming factors - just straight-up sawn-off shotgun blasts from the 'King of the Ghetto'.

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The Greek scholar William Lorimer spent the last ten years of his life working on this project. Each Gospel has a different form of Scots to match the different forms of Greek used by the various apostles and scribes, and the vigour and immediacy of the language is everywhere apparent.Transcribed, edited and published by his son Robin Lorimer, this scholarly and dramatically fresh reading of an already familiar text caused a sensation when it first appeared in 1983. Beyond the poetry of the King James version, here are the voices of the disciples themselves, speaking, as they undoubtedly did, in 'plain braid Galilee'.

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The Bondurant Boys were notorious gangster brothers who ran liquor though Franklin County during Prohibition. LAWLESS is their story.Based on the true account of Matt Bondurant's grandfather and two granduncles, this is a gripping tale of bootlegging, brotherhood and revenge.

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From Amsterdam to Cambodia, from Rome to Indonesia, from New Orleans to Libya, and from Detroit to Ko Pha-Ngan, Geoff Dyer finds himself both floundering about in a sea of grievances and finding moments of transcendental calm. This aberrant quest for peak experiences leads, ultimately, to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, where, to quote Tarkovsky's Stalker, 'your most cherished desire will come true'.

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A young girl's midnight séance awakens a long-slumbering malevolent spirit . . .A band of runaway orphans allies with an underground collective of saboteurs and plans a daring rescue of their friends, imprisoned in the belly of an industrial wasteland . . .Two old friends draw closer to their goal of bringing together a pair of exiled toy makers in order to reanimate a mechanical boy prince . . .As the fate of Wildwood hangs in the balance.The third book in the Wildwood Chronicles is a rich, moving, and dazzling story, by turns funny and profound. Both Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis are at the height of their gifts with Wildwood Imperium.

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A Guardian Best Book of 2014A 2014 Brain Pickings Best Book on Psychology, Philosophy, and How to Live MeaningfullyWhy is it hard to fall asleep the night before an important meeting? Or be charming and relaxed on a first date? What is it about a comedian whose jokes fall flat or an athlete who chokes? What if, contrary to what we have long been told, spontaneity - not striving - is the answer to success? Through stories of mythical creatures and drunken cart riders, jazz musicians and Japanese motorcycle gangs, Slingerland effortlessly blends Eastern thought and cutting-edge science to show us how we can embody a spontaneous way of being and live more fulfilling lives.

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EVERY ACTION HAS A CONSEQUENCEBec Shepherd is a scientist struggling to lead a good life Ritchie, her brother, is a TV star with skeletons in his closet Alex wants a family if he could only meet the right woman . . . One man has the information to destroy them all

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- Private Sidney Phillips- First Lieutenant Austin Shofner- Ensign Vernon Micheel- Private Eugene Sledge- Sergeant John BasiloneThrough the eyes of these five fearless and devoted men, Hugh Ambrose tells the epic story of the war in the Pacific. It is an intimate, personal history of a brutal, unforgiving conflict.

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'A terrific portrait of Delhi right now' SALMAN RUSHDIE'An astonishing tour de force by a major writer at the peak of his powers' WILLIAM DALRYMPLEWINNER OF THE PRIX ÉMILE GUIMET DE LITTÉRATURE ASIATIQUE 2017WINNER OF THE RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI AWARD 2017SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2015SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE ONDAATJE PRIZE 2015SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX DU MEILLEUR LIVRE ÉTRANGER 2016When Rana Dasgupta arrived in Delhi at the turn of the twenty-first century, he had no intention of staying for long, but the city beguiled him - he 'fell in love and in hate with it' - and fifteen years later, Delhi is still his home.Over these fifteen years, he has watched as the tumult of destruction and creation which accompanies India's economic boom transformed the face of the city. In Capital, he explores the life-changing consequences for Delhi's people, meeting with billionaires and bureaucrats, drug dealers and metal traders, slum dwellers and psychoanalysts. These encounters, interwoven with over a century of history, plunge us into Delhi's intoxicating, sometimes terrifying, story of capitalist transformation - one that has repercussions not only for India, but for everybody's future.

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