Áine should be feeling happy with her life. She’s just moved in with Elliot. Their new flat is in an affluent neighbourhood, surrounded by bakeries, yoga studios and organic vegetable shops. They even have a garden. And yet, from the moment they move in, Áine can’t shake the sense that there’s something not quite right about the place…
It’s not just the humourless estate agent and nameless landlord: it’s the chill that seeps through the draughty windows; the damp spreading from the cellar door; the way the organic fruit and veg never lasts as long as it should. And most of all, it’s the upstairs neighbours, whose very presence makes peaceful coexistence very difficult indeed.
The longer Áine spends inside the flat – pretending to work from home; dissecting messages from the friends whose lives seem to have moved on without her – the less it feels like home. And as Áine fixates on the cracks in the ceiling, it becomes harder to ignore the cracks in her relationship with Elliott…
Charlotte’s daughter, Stella, is sensitive and brilliant – perhaps even a genius – but after the sudden death of her babysitter, Blanka, the once disruptive and anti-social child has become docile and agreeable. And what’s more unsettling is that she has begun to mirror Blanka’s personality, from her accent and repetitive phrases to fierce cravings for Armenian meat stew after being raised a vegetarian.
Charlotte is pregnant with her second child, depleted and sick, and convinced that Blanka herself is somehow responsible for Stella’s transformation. But how could Blanka still be entwined in their lives?
As Charlotte becomes increasingly obsessed, it’s clear her husband believes this is all in her head and soon, Charlotte is convinced she is the only one who can save her daughter.
Juliet has learnt that life is too short not to chase your dreams. But when she buys an old watermill in France, her tranquil new start is quickly kneaded into something far more ambitious when the local mayor offers her a deal she can’t refuse: reopen the village’s derelict boulangerie.
With a formidable rival – the owner of the local bread vending machine – determined to crush her, Juliet faces disgruntled villagers, her own lack of baking skills, and hidden secrets within the mill itself.
But with help from her outspoken neighbour and the charming Tabac owner, Juliet battles to bring back the aroma of freshly baked bread – and with it, the heart of the community.
Can she prove that even the biggest dreams start with just a little pinch of courage?
THE PSYCHIATRIST claims he can predict when people will die and has been using his skills with chilling accuracy.
THE PATIENTS trust their shrink. They believe him when he tells them their date and the predictions have always come true.
THE DETECTIVE is shaken when a man shoots himself after announcing it’s his ‘death day’. On his body, DI Silas Hart finds an hourglass, catapulting him back to two suspicious deaths that have haunted him for years.
When the psychiatrist turns his sights on Hart, the countdown to his own death day begins.
A decade of Thatcher is starting to bite and her planned “Community Charge” will only rub salt in the wounds. Privatisation has lined shareholders pockets, but at what cost? A nation stripped of its assets, going for broke.
DC Patrick Noble is assigned to a task force working out of Stoke Newington, gathering evidence of police corruption to use against his new colleagues. But this is a dangerous game. And his underlings – spycop Parker and reluctant civilian Suzie Scialfa – are getting restive. Turns out blackmail and intimidation can only get you so far. Meanwhile, council solicitor Jon Davies is once again lifting stones that shouldn’t be lifted – this time plumbing the depths of the deal to privatise water.
As the country hurtles towards disorder, in the form of riots that even the Iron Lady can’t withstand, Noble walks an inexorable path towards his own inescapable fate. Things can only get better. But first they have to hit rock bottom.
Joseph Severin, a respectable North London businessman, has a lucrative side job. He’s doing the books, old school (because these days the only trail you can’t trace is a paper one) for a rogue MI5 outfit, the Shadows, headed by psychopathic Sebastien. However, when the game is rumbled, Sebastien sends hitman Mr Phipps to kill Severin and get those books back. The spider web of collateral damage will be extensive, taking in Lottie, for whom Severin has developed a sudden, wild passion; Sonya, a Russian escort with a desperate deadline; and at MI5, the ambitious Ellerby, who has them all in her sights.
It’s the hottest summer in fifty years and in the shadows, a deadly domino effect is about to spill out into the harsh light of day.
Neelu came to Scotland with one goal: avoid drama. Now, she’s stuck on a road trip through the highlands with her estranged father and Jacob, her recent one-night stand, tracking down her father’s runaway bride. It’s going really well…
The night they met, sparks between Neelu and Jacob were instant, their chemistry unmatched. But now? Jacob can’t seem to stand her, and Neelu can’t understand why.
With nothing but the rolling hills, winding road, and each other for company, Neelu and Jacob clash over everything. But no matter how much they argue, the tension between them is still there – and ignoring it is getting harder by the mile…
Jia Khan has seized a power most only dare to dream of. In a world dominated by self-posturing men, she gave women a voice, and built a criminal empire that spans the globe. But now the time has come to legitimise her business. To protect the people she loves, she must escape the very chains her life was forged from.
Freedom, however, is never easily won. Her blood runs too deep in the underworld, and powerful enemies have no intention of letting her walk away.
When one of her own is murdered, the danger becomes more real than ever. Forced into uneasy alliances with those she once despised, Jia faces enemies pressing in from every side.
Is her reign destined to end in blood?
At 38, Louise O’Neill had the life she thought she wanted—until her long-term relationship ended, taking with it the home, future, and sense of certainty she’d built. Heartbroken but defiant, she made a radical decision: to say yes to everything, to take risks, and to reclaim her life—on her own terms.
What followed was a dating experiment that took her across Paris, London, New York, and beyond. Through the men she meets and the moments in between, Louise begins to challenge everything she’s been taught to settle for – in life, love, and in herself.
Lyse Doucet – now the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, then a young reporter on her inaugural trip to Afghanistan – first checked into the Inter-Continental in 1988. In the decades since, she has witnessed a Soviet evacuation, a devastating civil war, the US invasion, and the rise, fall and rise of the Taliban, all from within its increasingly battered walls. The Inter-Con has never closed its doors.
Now, she weaves together the experiences of the Afghans who have kept the hotel running to craft a richly immersive history of their country. It is the story of Hazrat, the septuagenarian housekeeper who still holds fast to his Inter-Continental training from the hotel’s 1970s glory days – an era of haute cuisine and high fashion, when Afghanistan was a kingdom and Kabul was the ‘Paris of Central Asia’. Of Abida, who became the first female chef after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. And of Malalai and Sadeq, the twenty-somethings who seized every opportunity offered by two decades of fragile democracy – only to see the Taliban come roaring back in 2021.
