Search results for ""author iain pears""

Three interlocking worlds. Four people looking for answers.April, 1960: In the cellar of a professor's house in Oxford, fifteen-year-old Rosie goes in search of a missing cat -- and instead finds herself in a different world.Anterwold is a sun-drenched land of storytellers and prophecies. But is this world real -- and what happens if Rosie decides to stay?Meanwhile, a rebellious scientist is trying to prove that time does not even exist -- with potentially devastating consequences.As the three worlds come together, one question arises: who controls the future -- or the past...?

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'A fictional tour de force which combines erudition with mystery' PD JamesOxford in the 1660s. Sarah Blundy stands accused of the murder of Robert Grove, a fellow of New College.Four witnesses describe the events surrounding his death: Marco da Cola, a Venetian Catholic intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood transfusion; Jack Prescott, the son of a supposed traitor to the Royalist cause, determined to vindicate his father; John Wallis, chief cryptographer to both Cromwell and Charles II, a mathematician, theologian and master spy; and Anthony Wood, the famous Oxford antiquary.Each one tells their version of what happened but only one reveals the extraordinary truth. Brilliantly written and utterly convincing, An Instance of the Fingerpost is gripping from the first page to the last.'A novel that combines the simple pleasures of Agatha Christie with the intellectual subtlety of Umberto Eco, don't let it pass by unread.' The Times

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John Stone, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War One he was able to manipulate markets, industries and indeed whole countries and continents, has been found dead in mysterious circumstances. His beautiful young widow commissions a journalist to carry out an unusual bequest in his will but as he begins his research he soon discovers a story far more complex than he could have ever imagined... As the story moves backwards through time, from London in 1909 to Paris in 1809, before concluding in Venice in 1867, the mystery of John Stone's life and loves begins to unravel. The result is a spellbinding novel that is both a quest for the truth, a love story that spans decades and a compelling murder mystery.

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A collection of the most famous cases faced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's peerless creation, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes contains an introduction by Iain Pears and notes by Ed Glinert in Penguin Classics.This collection includes many of the famous cases - and great strokes of brilliance - that made the legendary Sherlock Holmes one of fiction's most popular creations. With his devoted amanuensis Dr Watson, Holmes emerges from his smoke filled room in Baker Street to grapple with the forces of treachery, intrigue and evil in such cases as 'The Speckled Band', in which a terrified woman begs their help in solving the mystery surrounding her sister's death, or 'A Scandal in Bohemia', which portrays a European king blackmailed by his mistress. In 'Silver Blaze' the pair investigate the disappearance of a racehorse and the violent murder of its trainer, while in 'The Final Problem' Holmes at last comes face to face with his nemesis, the diabolical Professor Moriarty - 'the Napoleon of crime'.In his introduction, Iain Pears discusses characterization, the key themes of the stories and Victorian methods of deduction. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading and explanatory notes by Ed Glinert, author of The London Compendium.Edinburgh-born Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) took a degree in medicine at Edinburgh University before becoming a doctor in Southsea. He began writing detective stories to supplement his income and 'A Study in Scarlet' (1887) introduced his finest creation, the hawk-eyed detective, Sherlock Holmes.If you enjoyed The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, you might like Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone, also available in Penguin Classics. 'Arthur Conan Doyle is unique ... Personally, I would walk a mile in tight boots to read him to the milkman'Stephen Fry

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