A heart-warming family saga from the much-loved author of A Cornish Orphan and Solomon's Tale. The second novel in The Boy with no Boots trilogy... Moments after she is born, Tessa Barcussy is branded as 'trouble'. On the same day, her father Freddie encounters a Romany Gypsy who makes a chilling prediction about Tessa's destiny. Freddie finds it so disturbing that he writes it down and hides it in a sealed envelope - never to be opened, he hopes. Yet the gypsy's words haunt him as he bonds with his new baby daughter. Hyper-sensitive and rebellious, Tessa grows up a misfit, difficult to handle and disruptive. Freddie and his wife Kate struggle to raise this challenging child and nurture her creative gifts. Tessa feels that her path to happiness is chequered, growing up in the shadow of her sister, golden-child Lucy, and hiding a dark secret from everyone? Will the words of the Romany Gypsy come true? Or will they empower Tessa to finally become the person she was born to be?
A gritty tale of how far we’ll go to protect the ones we love for fans of Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone from Gale Massey, a talented new name in crime fiction. Everyone says the Elders family are nothing but cheats, thieves, and convicts—a fact nineteen-year old Jamie Elders has been trying desperately to escape. She may have the natural talent of a poker savant, but her dreams of going pro and getting the hell out of the tiny town of Blind River, New York are going nowhere fast. Especially once she lands in a huge pile of debt to her uncle Loyal. At Loyal’s beck and call until her debt is repaid, Jamie can’t easily walk away—not with her younger brother Toby left at his mercy. So when Loyal demands Jamie’s help cleaning up a mess late one night, she has no choice but to agree. But disposing of a dead man and covering up his connection to the town’s most powerful judge goes beyond family duty. When it comes out that the victim was a beloved athlete and Loyal pins the murder on Toby, only Jamie can save him. But with a dogged detective on her trail and her own future at stake, she’ll have to decide: embrace her inner criminal, or defy it—and face the consequences.
Who's killing the girls of Willow Bay? When the body of a missing girl washes up on the banks of the Willow River, the killing is linked to two cold case murders, and the investigation must uncover the twisted motive of a serial killer before he kills again. Still reeling after her sister's brutal murder, grief-stricken Eden Winthrop has returned to Willow Bay, where she runs the Mercy Harbor Foundation, a safe haven for victims of violence. When a teenage trafficking victim disappears from a shelter run by her foundation, Eden is drawn into the search for the sadistic killer. The hunt becomes personal when Eden's niece is abducted just as the body of yet another victim is discovered in a local river. In a desperate effort to save her niece, Eden must partner with the small-town police force that had failed to save her sister. And to catch the killer, she realizes she must trust the one man she vowed to never forgive and summon the strength to face her deepest fears.The gripping first book in the page-turning Mercy Harbor Thriller series will keep you up at night.
I Cannot Undo What They Have Made Of Me. I Cannot Go Back And Smoothen Out The Wrinkled Brow Of My Childhood . . . There Are Things I Must Settle, Gaps I Must Fill. Both For Their Sake And Mine. It Is The 1930S And The Fire Of The Freedom Movement From Distant Bengal And Delhi Is Warming The Languid Bones Of The Small Town In Mysore, Where Kaveri And Setu Grow Up. Theirs Is A Liberal, Prosperous Household And The Family Takes Its Privileges For Granted. Mylaraiah, Their Father, Believes That They Are Twice Protected From Such Delusions As Swaraj Once By The British And Then By The Maharaja. While Setu Absorbs Their Father S Unquestioning Veneration Of The British, Kaveri, Profoundly Affected By Mahatma Gandhi S Visit To Their Town, Comes To Recognize Their Attempts To Be More English Than The English As Rather Shameful. In An Attempt To Follow Her Heart And Take Charge Of Her Own Future, Kaveri Defies Her Father And Participates In The Quit India March Organized By Shyam, The Hot-Headed Revolutionary She Is Attracted To. Angered And Jealous, And Loyal To His Father, Setu Is Forced Into Betraying His Sister. The Small Town Is Shaken Into Life Quite Brutally When It Faces A Police Firing For The First Time In Its History. But Kaveri Is Safe And Home, Or So Setu Thinks . . . Fifty Years Later, Setu S Daughter Tries To Unravel The Circumstances Of Her Uneasy Upbringing, Of The Grit-In-The-Eye Feeling To Her Childhood; Understand Her Cold Father, Her Self-Effacing Mother And Their Refusal To Talk About Their Past. Two Books And A Letter Found In A Tea Tin In The Attic Lead Her To Kaveri And It Is Kaveri, Whose Fate Remains Shrouded In Mystery, Who Has The Answer To Her Questions. But Even With All The Pieces Of The Jigsaw In Hand, The Picture Eludes Her. She Is Forced To Come To Terms With The Insidiousness Of Family Bonds As She Realizes That The Truth, If It At All Exists, Is Made Of Elisions And Imperfections.
ABOUT GIRL BY THE RIVERLike a river runs from the highest sources, down mountainsides and through forests and cities all across the world, so a river runs through the lives of the women in this short story collection. As a silent witness, a soothing passers by or a roaring accomplice, the river flows through veils of time and great distances, playing a vital part in the lives of these young girls and women as they live through great obstacles and great losses, great accomplishments and great loves.
From the instant #1 New York Times bestselling author of the “eerie and fascinating” (USA TODAY) The Thirteenth Tale comes a “swift and entrancing, profound and beautiful” (Madeline Miller, internationally bestselling author of Circe) novel about how we explain the world to ourselves, ourselves to others, and the meaning of our lives in a universe that remains impenetrably mysterious. On a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed. Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless. Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their son’s secret liaison stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parson’s housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyone’s. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girl’s identity can be known. Once Upon a River is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic, and richly atmospheric, this is “a beguiling tale, full of twists and turns like the river at its heart, and just as rich and intriguing” (M.L. Stedman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Light Between Oceans).
Set in Jamaica and New York, this acclaimed first novel explores the ties that bind mother to child and weaves a mesmerizing tale of promises broken and dreams deferred.
In the tradition of The Man from Snowy River comes a gripping and courageous sequel to A Waltz for Matilda The year is 1919. Thirty years have passed since the man from Snowy River made his famous ride. But World War I still casts its shadow across a valley in the heart of Australia, particularly for orphaned sixteen-year-old Flinty McAlpine, who lost a brother when the Snowy River men marched away to war. Why has the man Flinty loves returned from the war so changed and distant? Why has her brother Andy 'gone with cattle', leaving Flinty in charge of their younger brother and sister and with the threat of eviction from the farm she loves so dearly? A brumby muster held under the watchful eye of the legendary Clancy of the Overflow offers hope. Now Flinty must ride to save her farm, her family and the valley she loves. Set among the landscapes of the great poems of Australia, this book is a love song to the Snowy Mountains and a tribute to Australia's poets who immortalised so much of our land. The Girl from Snowy River combines passion, heartbreak, history and an enduring love and rich understanding of our land. PRAISE FOR A WALTZ FOR MATILDA '... this absorbing saga abounds in social and historical detail' -- Magpies
