If one had the misfortune to be born in the 12th century, then Sicily was the place to be. The Normans had conquered the island, finding it effectively divided in two, inhabited partly by Arabs, partly by Greeks. From the outset, they had given both these communities major responsibility in the government. As well as Latin and Norman French, Greek and Arabic were official languages of the developing state; and when in 1130 that state became a kingdom under Roger II, it was already an example to all Europe of cultural and religious toleration. The chief minister and head of the all-important navy was always a Greek (our word admiral derives through Norman Sicily from the Arab title of emir), while the treasury was entrusted to Arabs, whose mathematics were better than anyone else's. Roger himself was as unlike a Norman knight as it is possible to be. Brought up in Palermo by an Italian mother in a world of Greek and Muslim tutors, he was a southerner – indeed, an oriental – through and through; and the chapel that he built in the Royal Palace is one of the wonders of the world. The ground plan is that of a western basilica; but the walls are encrusted with Byzantine mosaics as fine as any in existence, while the wooden roof, in the classical Islamic style, would do credit to Cairo or Damascus. Here as nowhere else the Norman achievement is given visual expression. But of course it was all too good to last. The independent Norman kingdom of Sicily endured only 64 years, ending soon after the death of the last legitimate king, William the Good. But perhaps that kingdom, swallowed up by the Holy Roman Empire, carried within itself the seeds of its own destruction. It was too heterogeneous, too eclectic, too cosmopolitan. It hardly tried – or perhaps it had no time – to develop any natural traditions of its own. And it paid the price. Here, then, is the tragedy that forms the backdrop to the Booker-longlisted The Ruby in her Navel. Nowadays the story of Norman Sicily is largely and undeservedly forgotten; knowing it and loving it as I do, I picked the book up with some trepidation (which, I may say, was hardly diminished by its appalling title). But I have long admired its author, so I plunged in – and was instantly, and almost literally, transported. Now, it is not easy to transport a reader 1,000 years into the past, into a country and cultural climate 1,000 miles away from his own; I can only say that Unsworth succeeded triumphantly. His hero, born in England of a Norman father but brought to Sicily as a child, tells his story in the first person. It begins with him working as a civil servant in the office of a high-ranking Arab; he is sent on a mission to Calabria, where he meets a troupe of travelling dancers from eastern Anatolia (one of them the owner of the eponymous navel) and where he is accidentally reunited with a childhood sweetheart, now unhappily married. There follows a somewhat picaresque story of love, betrayals and attempted regicide, all of it set against the constant rivalries of Latin and Greek, Christian and Muslim – the latter further exacerbated by the recent catastrophic second crusade. It is a good story, which holds the attention from start to finish; but its real strength lies in the power of the author's historical imagination. He made me feel what it was actually like to live, work and travel in Norman Sicily. There is no whitewashing; almost all the characters, including the narrator himself, are to a greater or lesser degree unpleasant. But life, one feels, was never dull, if one had the misfortune to be born in the 12th century

In 1993, Scott Smith wowed readers with A Simple Plan, his stunning debut thriller about what happens when three men find a wrecked plane and bag stuffed with over 4 million dollars-a book that Stephen King called "Simply the best suspense novel of the year!" Now, thirteen years after writing a novel that turned into a pretty great movie featuring Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton, Smith is back, with The Ruins, a horror-thriller about four Americans traveling in Mexico who stumble across a nightmare in the jungle. Who better to tell readers if Smith has done it again than the undisputed King of Horror (and champion of Smith's first book)? We asked Stephen King to read The Ruins and give us his take. Check out his review below

Princeton. Good Friday, 1999. On the eve of graduation, two students are a hairsbreadth from solving the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a Renaissance text that has baffled scholars for centuries. Famous for its hypnotic power over those who study it, the five-hundred-year-old Hypnerotomachia may finally reveal its secrets-to Tom Sullivan, whose father was obsessed with the book, and Paul Harris, whose future depends on it. But as the deadline looms, research has stalled-until an ancient diary surfaces. What Tom and Paul discover inside shocks even them: proof that the location of a hidden crypt has been ciphered within the pages of the obscure Renaissance text. Armed with this final clue, the two friends delve into the bizarre world of the Hypnerotomachia—a world of forgotten erudition, strange sexual appetites, and terrible violence. But just as they begin to realize the magnitude of their discovery, Princeton's snowy campus is rocked: a longtime student of the book is murdered, shot dead in the hushed halls of the history department. So begins a cycle of deaths and revelations that will force Tom and Paul, with their two roommates, into a fiery drama spun from a book whose power and meaning have long been misunderstood. A tale of timeless intrigue, dazzling scholarship, and great imaginative power, The Rule of Four is the story of a young man divided between the future's promise and the past's allure, guided only by friendship and love. Suspenseful, passionate, and wise, it is certain to propel Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason to the forefront of contemporary fiction

The Old Weatherman dreams of a plan that could be his swan song, an attack to drive a stake through the heart of the right-wing establishment and bury it for good. Now he's found the money, the ideal weapon, and the professional who knows how to use it. And he has set his sights on the perfect target at the very seat of the United States government, in the heart of downtown Washington. It will be a strike heard round the world. San Diego defense attorney Paul Madriani is still reeling from the trauma of a near nuclear explosion he helped avert at the naval base in Coronado. Threatened by federal authorities to keep quiet about the close call in California, Madriani is now faced with a new problem in the steely-eyed and alluring Joselyn Cole, a weapons control expert, who believes he has to go public with what he knows if they have any hope of stopping a similar event in the future. But Madriani has been linked to the murder of a Washington, D.C., political staffer, and authorities believe a shadowy figure called Liquida – a hired assassin known as "the Mexicutioner" – may be responsible. And this man, as the last survivor of the attack in San Diego, might be driven by a bizarre and horrifying star-crossed vendetta, and might now be looking for Madriani himself. What Madriani and Cole begin to fear is that the Old Weatherman and this madman have joined forces and intend to pull the city – and the country – into a vortex of terror before Madriani and Cole can find answers to the enigma that is "the rule of nine."

What would you do to survive the apocalypse? Jack Gee, hiking the New Zealand mountains, is blissfully unaware of the Hemorrhage virus sweeping the world. A desperate message from his wife Dee alerts him, and he must return to Hamilton. On the way, he is captured by flesh-eating Variants and taken to their meat locker. To escape, he will need to draw on all his experience as an outdoorsman, but first he must find the will to survive. Surrounded by Variants, Dee is trapped in her Hamilton basement with a group of survivors. With Jack missing, and dwindling food supplies, she must leave the basement, her only defense a Katana

One shocking afternoon, computers around the globe shut down in a viral catastrophe. At sixteen-year-old Adam Daley’s high school, the problem first seems to be a typical electrical outage, until students discover that cell phones are down, municipal utilities are failing, and a few computer-free cars like Adam’s are the only vehicles that function. Driving home, Adam encounters a storm tide of anger and fear as the region becomes paralyzed. Soon—as resources dwindle, crises mount, and chaos descends—he will see his suburban neighborhood band together for protection. And Adam will understand that having a police captain for a mother and a retired government spy living next door are not just the facts of his life but the keys to his survival, in The Rule of Three by Eric Walters

What would you do to survive the apocalypse? Jack Gee, hiking the New Zealand mountains, is blissfully unaware of the Hemorrhage virus sweeping the world. A desperate message from his wife Dee alerts him, and he must return to Hamilton. On the way, he is captured by man-eating monsters and taken to their meat locker. To escape, he will need to draw on all his experience as an outdoorsman, but first he must find the will to survive. Surrounded by Variants, Dee is trapped in her Hamilton basement with a group of survivors. With Jack missing, and dwindling food supplies, she must leave the basement, her only defence a Katana. The nightmare has just begun. Will they find each other in the chaos?

Two couples' lives become scandalously entwined in this novel by best-selling author Elin Hilderbrand, the 'queen of the summer novel' (People). Nantucket writer Madeline King has a new novel coming out, and it's got best seller potential. But Madeline is terrified, because in her desperation to revive her career she's done something reckless: reveal the truth behind an actual affair involving her best friend, Grace. And that's not the only strain on Madeline and Grace's friendship. One fateful night the two women argue, voicing jealousies and resentments that have built for 20 years. Bereft of each other, they get caught in the snares of a mysterious and destructive stranger. The Rumour is an irresistible novel about the power of gossip to change the course of events and the desire of people to find their way back to what really matters

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The inspiration for American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson on FX, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., John Travolta, David Schwimmer, and Connie Britton The definitive account of the O. J. Simpson trial, The Run of His Life is a prodigious feat of reporting that could have been written only by the foremost legal journalist of our time. First published less than a year after the infamous verdict, Jeffrey Toobin’s nonfiction masterpiece tells the whole story, from the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman to the ruthless gamesmanship behind the scenes of “the trial of the century.” Rich in character, as propulsive as a legal thriller, this enduring narrative continues to shock and fascinate with its candid depiction of the human drama that upended American life

Magnus Bane has a royal role in the French Revolution—if the angry mobs don’t spoil his spells. One of ten adventures in The Bane Chronicles. While in France, immortal warlock Magnus Bane finds himself attempting to rescue the royal family from the horrors of the French Revolution—after being roped into this mess by a most attractive count. Naturally, the daring escape calls for invisible air balloons… This standalone e-only short story illuminates the life of the enigmatic Magnus Bane, whose alluring personality populates the pages of the #1 New York Times bestselling series, The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices series. This story in The Bane Chronicles, The Runaway Queen, is written by Maureen Johnson and Cassandra Clare

“I don’t know how I’m going to say it so you’ll understand, but time is just as much a dimension as length and breadth.” He frowned. He wanted to talk about Wells’s Time Machine but he knew that’d be no use – these folks didn’t read that sort of thing. “If the earth had settled down, we’d have been lower. If it had settled to one side, we’d have been moved one way or another, but as it’s settled back in the Fourth Dimension, we’re going back in time.” “Then –” “We’re in a runaway skyscraper, bound for some time back before the discovery of America!”

Phillip C. Jennings’s new tale unfolds at a dizzying pace, as most of the known universe discovers it can’t keep up with…

The triumphant return of the New York Times-bestselling, critically acclaimed fantasy series that has become a modern classic. Since their publication more than two decades ago, the initial six books in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series have sold more than 6 million copies and have been published in ten countries around the world. Now, starting with The Runes of the Earth, Stephen R. Donaldson returns with a quartet of new Covenant novels that are certain to satisfy his millions of fans, and attract countless new followers. In the original series, a man-living in our world and in our time-is mysteriously struck down with a disease long since believed to have been eradicated. He becomes a pariah in his small town and is abandoned by his wife who departs with their infant son. Alone and despairing, Thomas Covenant falls and, while unconscious, is transported to a fantastic world in which a battle for the soul of the land is being waged. Christened "The Unbeliever"-for he is convinced the world is only an illusion, a dream-he finds himself slowly forced to accept the role that seems to be his destiny: savior of the Land. At the end of the sixth book, Covenant is killed, both in the real world and in the Land, as his companion, Linden Avery, looks on in horror. His death is both the ultimate sacrifice-and his redemption. At the opening of The Runes of Earth, ten years have passed. Linden Avery comes home one day to find her child building images of the Land with blocks, and senses a terrible foreboding. She had thought that she would never again be summoned to the Land-nor ever again see her beloved Thomas Covenant. But in the Land, evil is unmaking the very laws of nature…

A top Chinese swimmer kills himself of the eve of an international event — shattering his country's hopes of victory against the Americans. An Olympic weightlifter dies in the arms of his Beijing mistress — a scandal to be hushed up at the highest level. But the suicides were murder, and both men's deaths are connected to an inexplicable series of "accidents" which has taken the lives of some of China's best athletes. In this fifth China Thriller, Chinese detective Li Yan and American pathologist Margaret Campbell are back in Beijing confronting a sinister sequence of murders which threatens to destroy the future of international athletics

**In the seventh installment in the "outrageously entertaining" Strike series, detective duo Cormoran and Robin must rescue a man ensnared in the trap of a dangerous cult. ( *Financial Times* ) ** Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside. The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organization that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths. In order to try to rescue Will, Strike's business partner, Robin Ellacott, decides to infiltrate the cult, and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito among its members. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her. . . Utterly page-turning, *The Running Grave* moves Strike 's

1126. Heulwen, daughter of Welsh Marcher baron Guyon FitzMiles, has grown up with her father's ward, Adam de Lacey. There has always been a spark between them, but when Heulwen marries elsewhere, to Ralf le Chevalier, a devastated Adam absents himself on various diplomatic missions for King Henry I. When Ralf is killed in a skirmish, Heulwen's father considers a new marriage for her with his neighbour's son, Warrin de Mortimer. Adam, recently returned to England, has good reason to loathe Warrin and is determined not to lose Heulwen a second time. But Heulwen is torn between her duty to her father and the pull of her heart. Adam is no longer the awkward boy she remembers, but a man who stirs every fibre of her being - which places them both in great danger, because Warrin de Mortimer is not a man to be crossed and the future of a country is at stake

A Short Story His sister is dying but he hates her. Does the guilt bother him? When the house blows up, does he learn his lesson? Does it take death to teach him to feel? Or is it all a ruse? A man receives a mysterious text message on his cell phone that turns out to be prophetic. A few days later he receives another, which again comes true. He acts on the prophecies, and what follows changes his life forever. He thinks he knows the truth but that's just part of the ruse

John le Carré was born in 1931. He attended the universities of Bern and Oxford. Later he taught at Eton and spent five years in the British Foreign Service. THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, his third book, secured him a wide reputation and was followed by THE LOOKING-GLASS WAR, A SMALL TOWN IN GERMANY, THE NAIVE AND SENTIMENTAL LOVER, and his trilogy TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY and SMILEY'S PEOPLE. His most recent novels are THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL and A PERFECT SPY. Though he divides his time between England and the continent, he is most at home in Cornwall

Major Kit Bennings is an elite military intelligence agent working undercover in Moscow. When he is blackmailed and compromised by a brutal mafia don and former KGB general, he knows that his military career, if not his life, will soon be over. With little to lose, he goes rogue in the hope of saving his kidnapped sister and stopping a deadly scheme directed against America. Yulana Petkova is a gorgeous divorcee, devoted mother, and Russian weapons engineer. And maybe more. Spy? Mob assassin? The shotgun marriage to stranger Kit Bennings takes her on a life-or-death hopscotch from Moscow to Los Angeles, from secret US military bases to Las Vegas, where she uses her wiles at every turn to carry out her own hidden agenda. Hunted by killers from both Russia and the United States, Bennings struggles to stop the mobster’s brilliant deception—a theft designed to go unnoticed—that will make the mafia kingpin the richest man in the world, while decimating the very heart of America’s economic and intelligence institutions

Kate Furnivall was inspired by her mother’s story to write this book. The Russian Concubine contains fictional characters and events, but makes use of the extraordinary situation that was her mother’s childhood experience – that of two White Russian refugees, a mother and daughter, stuck without money or papers in an International Settlement in China. Kate Furnivall and her husband live by the sea in the beautiful county of Devon. *** A sweeping novel set in war-torn 1928 China, with a star-crossed love story at its center. In a city full of thieves and Communists, danger and death, spirited young Lydia Ivanova has lived a hard life. Always looking over her shoulder, the sixteen-year-old must steal to feed herself and her mother, Valentina, who numbered among the Russian elite until Bolsheviks murdered most of them, including her husband. As exiles, Lydia and Valentina have learned to survive in a foreign land. Often, Lydia steals away to meet with the handsome young freedom fighter Chang An Lo. But they face danger: Chiang Kai Shek's troops are headed toward Junchow to kill Reds like Chang, who has in his possession the jewels of a tsarina, meant as a gift for the despot's wife. The young pair's all-consuming love can only bring shame and peril upon them, from both sides. Those in power will do anything to quell it. But Lydia and Chang are powerless to end it

A visionary novel from the author of Super Sad True Love Story and Little Failure. The Russian Debutante’s Handbook introduces Vladimir Girshkin, one of the most original and unlikely heroes of recent times. The twenty-five-year-old unhappy lover to a fat dungeon mistress, affectionately nicknamed "Little Failure" by his high-achieving mother, Vladimir toils his days away as a lowly clerk at the bureaucratic Emma Lazarus Immigrant Absorption Society. When a wealthy but psychotic old Russian war hero appears, Vladimir embarks on an adventure of unrelenting lunacy that takes us from New York’s Lower East Side to the hip frontier wilderness of Prava—the Eastern European Paris of the nineties. With the help of a murderous but fun-loving Russian mafioso, Vladimir infiltrates the Prava expat community and launches a scheme as ridiculous as it is brilliant. Bursting with wit, humor, and rare insight, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook is both a highly imaginative romp and a serious exploration of what it means to be an immigrant in America

Two women, one planet, incredible odds! The online appearance of Anna, the rebellious daughter of Russian syndicate higher-ups, lands intelligence contractor, Jessica Ducat, a job in Kiev, Ukraine. But when Anna’s headstrong behavior destroys the operation, the only way to curtail the collateral damage is by fleeing with Anna through Ukraine to Turkey and across several seas. Hampered by Anna’s Russian passport, tagged as belonging to a terrorist, and aided by a mysterious American, Jess uses ingenuity to overcome obstacles encountered en route to safety in the west. She fights for a young woman’s life against a backdrop of post Orange Revolution political unrest in Ukraine, relentless pursuers, and even nature itself. Rooted in actual events, the action is enmeshed in Russian politics, corruption and syndicate activity

It all began with an online date, which led Marina Peters into the ruthless world of international espionage. This is a first novel from an experienced writer of non-fiction books. It describes how Marina Peters’ grandparents emigrated to England from Russia in the 1930s. She is a likeable and quietly ambitious single young woman working at the Royal Navy’s Portsmouth Base on the Dockyard Commodore’s staff. Nikolai Aldanov is a handsome 35-year old widower and a Lieutenant in the Russian Navy who has been corresponding with Marina through an online dating site. The pair have been sharing details of their lives, common interests and histories and have struck up quite a friendship. When Marina arranges to meet her Russian Lieutenant in person, she has no inkling of the unexpected consequences of her date, as she is introduced into the ruthless world of international espionage

Nestor Makhno (1888–1934) was a peasant anarcho-communist who organized an experiment in anarchist values and practice in southeast Ukraine during the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and the subsequent Civil War (1917–1921). The Russian Revolution in Ukraine is the first volume of his memoirs which covers the two Russian revolutions of 1917 and the beginnings of the Civil War from the point of view of a peasant activist in a Ukrainian village. This is the first English translation of this work, originally published in France in 1928–1929

The Russian White, a large uncut diamond given by the Holy Eastern Fathers to the founders of the Russian State, is revered by the Russian Orthodox Church. Tsar Peter the Great, determined to rule Russia without the church’s intervention, gives the diamond to King William of Orange of England on a visit to London’s shipbuilding yards and so. with a single stroke, weakens the church’s authority in Russia. King William, aware of the diamond’s significance and certain that the Russian Orthodox Church will attempt to steal the diamond back, hides the diamond with a group he calls The Brotherhood. A group of four of the most influential gentlemen in English society. The date is now 1853. Russian flexes its military might against Turkey. In Victorian London, Russian spies are everywhere and The Brotherhood fights to keep the diamond secret and safe. One of The Brotherhood, William Hunt, has a sister called Isobel. She is a fiery and headstrong young woman who is determined to live her life according to her rules. She runs away from home and joins a theatrical troupe where she falls in love with the young manager, James Turney. The troupe is a front for smuggling Russians into London who have been sent to find and retrieve the Russian White. Isobel is caught up in a dangerous situation that brings her into confrontation with her brother, The Brotherhood and even the government as it faces war with Russia. The Russian White remains a hidden but very real presence as intrigue, deceit and murder are carried out in its name

In this classic and timeless Western novel, hero Vaughn Steele, a formidable Texas Ranger, will face a tough assignment that comes from within: revenge. In the good old days, Texas was a huge wide place full of frontiersmen, ranchers, farmers, cowpokes, shiftless no-accounts, happy shooters, drunks, rascals, and politicians; Texas had it all. In those days, the mighty Texas Rangers were outnumbered a thousand to one. And the situation was even worse in the county of Pecos, where the law seemed all but helpless. But all of that will forever change when a Texas Ranger, Vaughn Steele, decides that enough is enough

From the moment he sees Abbey at a charity fashion show, Russian tycoon Nikolai Arlov wants every inch of that curvy, creamy body. When she refuses him, he mercilessly switches tactics, aiming straight for her vulnerable heart… With her family's business in serious trouble, Abbey knows Nikolai's money is their only hope. She submits to his lethal brand of seduction and blackmail – ready and willing to do anything he desires. Only, Nikolai has no idea his reluctant mistress is.a virgin