Collection: Historical Fiction

When Maud McIntyre sets up her own private detective agency, she never imagines her first case will involve murder... A mystery in the Highlands? The Scottish Ladies' Detective Agency is on the case!

Edinburgh, 1911: When Maud McIntyre and her lady's maid, Daisy, form a detective agency, they never dream their first case will take place at a glamorous house in the Scottish Highlands. But when the Duchess of Duddingston, concerned that a notorious jewellery thief will target her lavish weekend party, employs Maud to go undercover as a guest to find the culprit, the agency has its first case to solve...

Undercover with Daisy as her maid, Maud follows a trail of clues across the Duddingston House estate. And as she meets the weekend guests, she hopes one of them will reveal themselves as the jewellery thief. But when one of the house guests is discovered dead, Maud and Daisy realise they're not only hunting precious gems, but a murderer...

As Maud and Daisy investigate, they realise that a connection in Edinburgh might hold a vital clue that will help them solve the case. Travelling back to the city, Maud hopes that what she and Daisy uncover will help them piece together the mystery.

But when Maud receives a telephone call from the Duchess requesting urgent assistance, she realises that the murderer didn't have just one victim in mind. Speeding down the drive to Duddingston House, Maud and Daisy hear gunshots ring out across the estate. Will they reach the Duchess in time to save her? And might they catch the murderer in the act?

A warm page-turning historical whodunnit, perfect for fans of the mysteries of Helena Dixon, Verity Bright, T.E. Kinsey and Catherine Coles.

Readers are loving The Scottish Ladies' Detective Agency:

"I loved this... A pleasure to read!" Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Page-turning, wonderful... Loved it." Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"So charming! This one was everything I hoped for... Wonderful... I can't wait to read the second book!" @xhttp.sarahx

Auschwitz, 1941: It was her father's job to save the lives of the SS. But she chose to risk everything and save the lives of prisoners.

In Nazi-occupied Poland, Sofia cannot look her father in the eye. Sofia's mother, her papa's cherished wife, is Jewish-how dare he work as a doctor for the SS? She cannot forgive him, even if the bargain was made to spare their lives.

In the middle of the night, Isaac emerges from a packed train with hundreds of others. Beneath Auschwitz's barbed wire, soldiers surround them, and gunshots pierce the dark sky. The SS decide prisoners' fates on the spot-and Isaac is chosen to work, rather than to die.

Every day, Isaac and his fellow inmates are sent to a nearby farm. From sunup to sundown, they toil the land with barely a scrap to eat. Every breath feels like it could be Isaac's last, so when he sees a beautiful auburn-haired girl peering out of the farmhouse window, it feels like a dream...

Sofia refuses to accept what she is seeing. Disobeying her father and evading the guards, she risks her life to sneak a letter to the green-eyed boy outside. She explains that she has hidden them food, and that she'll do everything in her power to save them.

This secret exchange sparks an escape that should have been impossible-and a love story that is unforgettable. But is love enough in the face of evil? And when Sofia and Isaac are concealed underground, holding their breath as the Nazis hunt them, will they survive?

Fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Choice, and Orphan Train will be utterly gripped by this heartbreaking and unputdownable tale. This tear-jerking page-turner shows that even if your freedom has been robbed, and your loved ones torn from you, nobody can steal your hope...

Readers love Shari J. Ryan:

"I couldn't put it down, even when I thought my heart would burst out of my chest and I had tears pouring down my face. I will think about this book for a long time." Goodreads reviewer, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"Pass me the tissues, wow, what a story. I devoured this book in one sitting... I loved everything about this... Absolutely fantastic." Goodreads reviewer, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"Such a powerful and poignant story. One minute I was laughing, as the book brought me much joy, and the next minute, I was on the brink of tears. You will definitely need to have tissues ready!... I loved this story." Goodreads reviewer, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"I read it in literally a few hours. I couldn't put it down and when I did, it was due to having to do something of necessity like eating or washing up... There were so many ups and downs, turns and twists that I just wanted to know what happened next as soon as possible." Goodreads reviewer, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Named a Best Romance of April by Goodreads, Popsugar, Bustle, and more! "A laugh out loud Regency romp--if you loved the Bridgertons, you'll adore To Have and to Hoax!" --Lauren Willig, New York Times bestselling author In this fresh and hilarious historical rom-com, an estranged husband and wife in Regency England feign accidents and illness in an attempt to gain attention--and maybe just win each other back in the process.Five years ago, Lady Violet Grey and Lord James Audley met, fell in love, and got married. Four years ago, they had a fight to end all fights, and have barely spoken since. Their once-passionate love match has been reduced to one of cold, detached politeness. But when Violet receives a letter that James has been thrown from his horse and rendered unconscious at their country estate, she races to be by his side--only to discover him alive and well at a tavern, and completely unaware of her concern. She's outraged. He's confused. And the distance between them has never been more apparent. Wanting to teach her estranged husband a lesson, Violet decides to feign an illness of her own. James quickly sees through it, but he decides to play along in an ever-escalating game of manipulation, featuring actors masquerading as doctors, threats of Swiss sanitariums, faux mistresses--and a lot of flirtation between a husband and wife who might not hate each other as much as they thought. Will the two be able to overcome four years of hurt or will they continue to deny the spark between them? With charm, wit, and heart in spades, To Have and to Hoax is a fresh and eminently entertaining romantic comedy--perfect for fans of Jasmine Guillory and Julia Quinn.

For fans of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and David Mitchell, a genre bending, time twisting alternative history that asks whether it's worth changing the past to save the future, even if it costs you everyone you've ever loved.

Joe Tournier has a bad case of amnesia. His first memory is of stepping off a train in the nineteenth-century French colony of England. The only clue Joe has about his identity is a century-old postcard of a Scottish lighthouse that arrives in London the same month he does. Written in illegal English--instead of French--the postcard is signed only with the letter "M," but Joe is certain whoever wrote it knows him far better than he currently knows himself, and he's determined to find the writer. The search for M, though, will drive Joe from French-ruled London to rebel-owned Scotland and finally onto the battle ships of a lost empire's Royal Navy. Swept out to sea with a hardened British sea captain named Kite, who might know more about Joe's past than he's willing to let on, Joe will remake history, and himself.

From bestselling author Natasha Pulley, The Kingdoms is an epic, romantic, wildly original novel that bends genre as easily as it twists time.

Former lovers become reluctant allies in this delightfully witty historical rom-com from the bestselling author of A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem--for fans of Evie Dunmore, Enola Holmes, and Netflix's Bridgerton!

England, 1867: As half of the writing duo behind England's most infamous crime column, Miss Caroline Hardcastle has quite the scandalous reputation. It may have cost her a fiancé, but she would much rather bring attention to crimes against those ignored by society than worry about what the ton thinks of her.

After Caro's dear friend is kidnapped, however, she has no choice but to work with Lord Valentine Thorn, the same man who broke her heart. Worse, when her actions put her father's business at risk, a marriage of convenience may be her only solution . . . but can she trust Val to stand by her? Or will their past repeat itself?

Val--the new Viscount Wrackham--is in an untenable position: His father is demanding he find a respectable bride to secure the succession. Yet the only woman he's ever loved, Miss Caroline Hardcastle, is notorious for behaving improperly. And she's never forgiven him for his youthful transgressions, missteps made in the name of familial duty, but ones he still regrets to this day.

As they grow closer to unmasking the culprit, Val sees an opportunity to show Caro he's a changed man. But can he convince her to give their love a second chance--before death does them part?

An exquisitely illustrated paean to everyone who struggles to learn how to read, and to everyone who won't give up on them.

Cal is not the readin' type. Living way high up in the Appalachian Mountains, he'd rather help Pap plow or go out after wandering sheep than try some book learning. Nope. Cal does not want to sit stoney-still reading some chicken scratch. But that Book Woman keeps coming just the same. She comes in the rain. She comes in the snow. She comes right up the side of the mountain, and Cal knows that's not easy riding. And all just to lend his sister some books. Why, that woman must be plain foolish--or is she braver than he ever thought?

That Book Woman is a rare and moving tale that honors a special part of American history--the Pack Horse Librarians, who helped untold numbers of children see the stories amid the chicken scratch, and thus made them into lifetime readers.

Winner of the AWP Prize for the Novel

In 1950s Bombay, Jaya Malhotra studies medicine at the direction of her father, a champion of women's education who assumes the right to choose his daughters' vocations. A talented painter drawn to the city's dynamic new modern art movement, Jaya is driven by her desire to express both the pain and extraordinary force of life of a nation rising from the devastation of British rule. Her twin sister, Kamlesh, a passionate student of Bharata Natyam dance, complies with her father's decision that she become a schoolteacher while secretly pursuing forbidden dreams of dancing onstage and in the movies.

When Jaya moves out of her family home to live with a woman mentor, she suffers grievous consequences as a rare woman in the men's domain of art. Not only does her departure from home threaten her family's standing and crush her reputation; Jaya loses a vital connection to Kamlesh.

Winner of the AWP Prize for the Novel, Parul Kapur's Inside the Mirror is set in the aftermath of colonialism, as an impoverished India struggles to remake itself into a modern state. Jaya's story encompasses art, history, political revolt, love, and women's ambition to seize their own power.

Parul Kapur was born in Assam, India, grew up in the United States, and lives in Atlanta. She is a fiction writer, journalist, and literary critic whose writing has appeared in a number of publications, including Ploughshares, Pleiades, the New Yorker, Art in America, Guernica, Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Paris Review. Kapur holds an MFA from Columbia University and has received fellowships from the Hambidge Center and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts.

Named a Best Book of Fall by Vulture and Chicago Review of Books

From the award-winning author of the bestselling epic Ibis trilogy comes a globetrotting, folkloric adventure novel about family and heritage

Bundook. Gun. A common word, but one that turns Deen Datta's world upside down.

A dealer of rare books, Deen is used to a quiet life spent indoors, but as his once-solid beliefs begin to shift, he is forced to set out on an extraordinary journey; one that takes him from India to Los Angeles and Venice via a tangled route through the memories and experiences of those he meets along the way. There is Piya, a fellow Bengali-American who sets his journey in motion; Tipu, an entrepreneurial young man who opens Deen's eyes to the realities of growing up in today's world; Rafi, with his desperate attempt to help someone in need; and Cinta, an old friend who provides the missing link in the story they are all a part of. It is a journey that will upend everything he thought he knew about himself, about the Bengali legends of his childhood, and about the world around him.

Amitav Ghosh's Gun Island is a beautifully realized novel that effortlessly spans space and time. It is the story of a world on the brink, of increasing displacement and unstoppable transition. But it is also a story of hope, of a man whose faith in the world and the future is restored by two remarkable women.

From the best-selling author of The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton's Tex explores friendships, conflict, depression, self-destructive behavior, and truth and acceptance. This edition includes a new and exclusive Author's Note.

Easygoing and reckless, Tex, likes everyone and everything, especially his horse, Negrito, and Johnny Collins' blue-eyed sister, Jamie. Life with his older brother, Mason, would be just about perfect if only he would stop complaining about Pop, who hasn't been home in five months. While Mason worries about paying the bills and getting a basketball scholarship--his ticket out of Oklahoma--Tex just seems to attract trouble. When everything seems to be falling apart, how can Tex find a way to keep things together?

The third installment of Bernard Cornwell's New York Times bestselling series chronicling the epic saga of the making of England, "like Game of Thrones, but real" (The Observer, London)--the basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit television series.

The year is 878. Uhtred, the dispossessed son of a Northumbrian lord, has helped the Saxons of Wessex defeat the invading Danes. Now, finally free of his allegiance to the victorious, ungrateful King Alfred, he is heading home to rescue his stepsister, a prisoner of Kjartan the Cruel in the formidable Danish stronghold of Dunholm. Uhtred's best hope is his sword, Serpent-Breath, for his only allies are Hild, a West Saxon nun fleeing her calling, and Guthred, a slave who believes himself king. Rebellion, chaos, fear, and betrayal await them in the north, forcing Uhtred to turn once more, reluctantly, to the liege he formerly served in battle and blood: Alfred the Great.

Sparks fly when a daring diva clashes with an ice-cold war hero in the newest thrilling romance in USA Today bestselling author Julie Anne Long's Palace of Rogues series.

She arrives in the dead of night, a mob out for blood at her heels: Mariana Wylde, the "Harlot of Haywood Street," an opera diva brought low by a duel fought for her favors. But the ladies of the Grand Palace on the Thames think they can make a silk purse from scandal: They'll restore her reputation and share in her triumph...provided they can keep her apart from that other guest.

Coldly brilliant, fiercely honorable, General James Duncan Blackmore, the Duke of Valkirk, is revered, feared, desired...but nobody truly knows him. Until a clash with a fiery, vulnerable beauty who stands for everything he scorns lays him bare. It's too clear the only cure for consuming desire is conquest, but their only chance at happiness could lead to their destruction.

The legendary duke never dreamed love would be his last battleground. Valkirk would lay down his life for Mariana, but his choice is stark: risk losing her forever, or do the one thing he vowed he never would...surrender.

"For fans of The Handmaid's Tale...a debut novel with a dark setting and an unforgettable heroine...is a riveting depiction of hard-won female empowerment" (The Washington Post).

The Sin Eater walks among us, unseen, unheard
Sins of our flesh become sins of Hers
Following Her to the grave, unseen, unheard
The Sin Eater Walks Among Us.

For the crime of stealing bread, fourteen-year-old May receives a life sentence: she must become a Sin Eater--a shunned woman, brutally marked, whose fate is to hear the final confessions of the dying, eat ritual foods symbolizing their sins as a funeral rite, and thereby shoulder their transgressions to grant their souls access to heaven.

Orphaned and friendless, apprenticed to an older Sin Eater who cannot speak to her, May must make her way in a dangerous and cruel world she barely understands. When a deer heart appears on the coffin of a royal governess who did not confess to the dreadful sin it represents, the older Sin Eater refuses to eat it. She is taken to prison, tortured, and killed. To avenge her death, May must find out who placed the deer heart on the coffin and why.

"Very much reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale...it transcends its historical roots to give us a modern heroine" (Kirkus Reviews). "A novel as strange as it is captivating" (BuzzFeed), The Sin Eater "is a treat for fans of feminist speculative fiction" (Publishers Weekly) and "exactly what historical fiction lovers have unknowingly craved" (New York Journal of Books).

"The day I returned to Templeton steeped in disgrace, the fifty-foot corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass." So begins The Monsters of Templeton, a novel spanning two centuries: part a contemporary story of a girl's search for her father, part historical novel, and part ghost story. In the wake of a disastrous love affair with her older, married archaeology professor at Stanford, brilliant Wilhelmina Cooper arrives back at the doorstep of her hippie mother-turned-born-again-Christian's house in Templeton, NY, a storybook town her ancestors founded that sits on the shores of Lake Glimmerglass. Upon her arrival, a prehistoric monster surfaces in the lake bringing a feeding frenzy to the quiet town, and Willie learns she has a mystery father her mother kept secret Willie's entire life. The beautiful, broody Willie is told that the key to her biological father's identity lies somewhere in her family's history, so she buries herself in the research of her twisted family tree and finds more than she bargained for as a chorus of voices from the town's past -- some sinister, all fascinating -- rise up around her to tell their side of the story. In the end, dark secrets come to light, past and present day are blurred, and old mysteries are finally put to rest. The Monsters of Templeton is a fresh, virtuoso performance that has placed Lauren Groff among the best writers of today.

The only way you'll leave Auschwitz is through the chimney.

The words still rang in Agnes Markx's head as she left the Judenramp and the hive of activity around the train behind. As a nurse assigned to Block 10, she realizes the stories of the horrors transpiring here weren't exaggerated. Now an unwilling accomplice in the Nazi doctors' medical experiments, she vows to save as many women under her care as possible.

Electrician Joel Kozak has access to all areas of the gargantuan camp. When the underground camp resistance reaches out to him one day, he discovers his appointment wasn't by accident.

As a stoker in Birkenau's crematoria, Samson Tarski witnesses more death in an hour than most people in a lifetime. The thought of stepping into the gas chambers and ending his struggle is always on his mind. But when one of his friends shares a bold plan to rise up and destroy the buildings of death, he finds a renewed sense of purpose.

These three strangers are now part of an attempt to achieve the impossible without knowing each other.

To rise up, destroy the Auschwitz-Birkenau death factory, and escape to tell the world about it.

Based on actual events, Tracks to Freedom is a story of bravery and the battle to retain one's humanity in a place where there is none.

A dark curse. A deadly secret. The ill-fated girl at the heart of both.

Antonetta Ostwind is about to get everything she's ever wanted. If all goes to plan, she'll end the fae, steal back what was stolen, and win the post she's always dreamed of in time to dress for supper.

There's just one problem. His name is Gideon Alexander.

Gideon holds the key to her coveted post. He's fantastic with a sword, looks amazing in uniform, and commands even the adoration of his great, beastly dog. He's living the life Etta needs.

Gideon doesn't believe Etta should have any of it. In fact, he's planning to make sure she never does. And that's a real problem, because if Etta can't take her post as marshal, how can she have her vengeance and save the kingdom from the prince of the fae?

Enemies to lovers. Hidden identity. Break the curse. With slow-burn, sweet kisses, and properly stabby heroines, these regency and fairytale inspired fantasy standalones are perfect for fans of Sorcery of Thorns and Half a Soul.

TIMES 2020, los 100 mejores libros juveniles de todos los tiempos

Una novela preciosa, tremendamente humana y emocionante, que describe las peripecias de una niña alemana de nueve años desde que es dada en adopción por su madre hasta el final de la II Guerra Mundial.

Érase una vez un pueblo donde las noches eran largas y la muerte contaba su propia historia. En el pueblo vivía una niña que quería leer, un hombre que tocaba el acordeón y un joven judío que escribía bellos cuentos para escapar del horror de la guerra. Al cabo de un tiempo, la niña se convirtió en una ladrona que robaba libros y regalaba palabras. Con estas palabras se escribió una historia hermosa y cruel que ahora ya es una novela inolvidable.

No te pierdas El puente de Clay, la primera novela de Markus Zusak desde La ladrona de libros.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

TIMES 2020 100 Best YA of All Times

The extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller that is now a major motion picture, Markus Zusak's unforgettable story is about the ability of books to feed the soul.

When Death has a story to tell, you listen.

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist-books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

"The kind of book that can be life-changing." --The New York Times

"Deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank." --USA Today