Simon Prebble
21) The red door
Author
Language
English
Description
Lancashire, England, June 1920. In a house with a red door lies the body of a woman who has been bludgeoned to death. Meanwhile, in London, a man suffering from a mysterious illness first goes missing and then just as suddenly reappears. His family, in searching for him, give conflicting accounts of where they were and why. Inspector Ian Rutledge, drawn into both cases and facing a wall of silence, must solve two mysteries before he can bring a ruthless...
22) The black ascot
Author
Language
English
Description
An astonishing tip from a grateful ex-convict seems implausible--but Inspector Ian Rutledge is intrigued and brings it to his superior at Scotland Yard. Alan Barrington, who has evaded capture for ten years, is the suspect in an appalling murder during Black Ascot, the famous 1910 royal horserace honoring the late King Edward VII. His disappearance began a manhunt that consumed Britain for a decade. Now it appears that Barrington has returned to England,...
Author
Series
Inspector Banks ; 25
Language
English
Description
"Two suspicious deaths challenge DS Alan Banks and his crack investigative team. A young local student's body is found in an abandoned car on a lonely country road. The death looks like suicide, but there are too many open questions for Banks and his team to rule out foul play. The victim didn't own a car. She didn't even drive. How did she get there? Where--and when--did she die? Did someone move her, and if so, why? A man in his sixties is found...
25) Scorpia
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
After being told that his father was an assassin for a criminal organization, fourteen-year-old Alex goes to Italy to find out more and becomes involved in a plan to kill thousands of English schoolchildren.
26) Point blank
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Fourteen-year-old Alex continues his work as a spy for the British MI6, investigating an exclusive school for boys in the French Alps.
27) Dead cert
Author
Language
English
Description
The debut novel from the New York Times–bestselling "master of crime fiction and equine thrills" features an investigation into the death of a jockey (The Atlantic Monthly).
Dick Francis, Edgar Award–winning master of mystery and suspense, takes you into the thrilling world of horse racing.
Steeplechaser Alan York knows well the dangers of the sport. But when his best friend and rival jockey Bill Davidson takes a fall in the middle...
Author
Language
English
Description
In the Hugo-award winning, epic New York Times Bestseller and basis for the BBC miniseries, two men change England's history when they bring magic back into the world.
In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, most people believe magic to have long since disappeared from England - until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers and becomes an overnight celebrity.
Another practicing magician then emerges: the...
In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, most people believe magic to have long since disappeared from England - until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers and becomes an overnight celebrity.
Another practicing magician then emerges: the...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Corduroy Mansions is the nickname given to a building in London's vibrant Pimlico neighborhood, home to a captivating collection of quirky characters. The author traces their amusing foibles and interactions through the ins and outs of neighborliness in all its unexpected variations.
30) A pale horse
Author
Language
English
Description
In the ruins of Yorkshire's Fountains Abbey lies the body of a man wrapped in a cloak, the face covered by a gas mask. Next to him is a book on alchemy, which belongs to the schoolmaster, a conscientious objector in the Great War. Who is this man, and is the investigation into his death being manipulated by a thirst for revenge?
Meanwhile, the British War Office is searching for a missing man of their own, someone whose war work was so secret
...31) All about love
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The last unwed male in his family, roguish Alasdair "Lucifer" Cynster, decides to escape to rural Devon in order to avoid the matchmaking mothers and their marriage-minded daughters in Regency London, only to meet Phyllida Tallent, a headstrong, independent, and wealthy beauty
32) Proof of guilt
Author
Language
English
Description
An unidentified body appears to have been run down by a motorcar and Ian Rutledge is leading the investigation to uncover what happened. While signs point to murder, vital questions remain. Who is the victim? And where, exactly, was he killed? One small clue leads the Inspector to a firm built by two families, famous for producing and selling the world's best Madeira wine. Alone in a no man's land rife with mystery and danger, Rutledge must tread...
Author
Language
English
Description
"Oliver Sacks explores the place music occupies in the brain and how it affects the human condition. In Musicophilia, he shows us a variety of what he calls "musical misalignments." Among them: a man struck by lightning who suddenly desires to become a pianist at the age of forty-two; an entire group of children with Williams syndrome, who are hypermusical from birth; people with "amusia," to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of pots and...
34) Crocodile tears
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
"Targeted by a hitman and under threat of his past being exposed by the media, Alex reluctantly turns to MI6. But their help doesn't come cheap: they need Alex to spy on the activities at a GM crop plant. There he spots Desmond McCain, a high profile charity organiser, who realises that Alex is on to him and the real plans for the money he's raising. Kidnapped and whisked off to Africa, Alex learns the full horror of McCain's plot: to create an epic...
35) Skeleton Hill
Author
Language
English
Description
On Lansdown Hill near Bath, where a battle between Roundheads and Cavaliers that took place over 350 years ago is reenacted annually, two of the reenactors discover a skeleton that is female, headless, and only about twenty years old. One of them is later found murdered. In the course of his investigation, Peter Diamond butts heads with a group of vigilantes who call themselves the Lansdown Society, discovering in the process that his boss is a member....
Author
Series
Inspector Banks ; 22
Language
English
Description
"As Banks and his team follow what few clues they have, desperate to find the missing boy, who holds the key to the puzzle, they find themselves branching out in different directions. As the end game becomes a race against time, even Banks's team isn't safe from the rage of the hunted animal"--
Author
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
"London, 1868. Claudine Burroughs dreads the holiday season for forcing her to face how empty her life has become. She no longer expects closeness with her coldly ambitious husband, and she has nothing in common with their circle of wealthy, status-minded friends. Then, at a glittering yuletide gala, she meets the charming poet Dai Treggaron and finds her spirits lifted. But scarcely an hour later, the charismatic Dai is enmeshed in a nightmare --...
38) Skeleton Key
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Reluctant teenage-spy Alex Rider, on a routine mission at the Wimbledon tennis championships, gets caught up in Chinese gangs, illegal nuclear weapons, and the suspect plans of his Russian host, General Sarov.
39) The confession
Author
Language
English
Description
Troubled Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge wrestles with a startling and dangerous case that reaches far into the past when a false confession from a man who is not who he claims to be leads to a brutal murder.
40) Scorpia rising
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
When the world's deadliest terrorist organization, Scorpia, stirs up trouble in the Middle East, it is up to fourteen-year-old MI6 agent Alex Rider to thwart their plans.