It is a sweltering August in Aberystwyth. A man wearing a Soviet museum curator's uniform walks into Louie Knight's office and spins a wild and impossible tale of love, death, madness and betrayal. Sure, Louie had heard about Hughesovka, the legendary replica of Aberystwyth built in the Ukraine by some crazy nineteenth-century czar. But he hadn't believed that it really existed until he met Uncle Vanya. Now the old man's story catapults him into the neon-drenched wilderness of Aberystwyth Prom in search of a girl who mysteriously disappeared thirty years ago. Soon Louie finds his fate depending on two most unlikely talismans - a ticket to Hughesovka and a Russia cosmonaut's sock.
Schoolboys are disappearing all over Aberystwyth and nobody knows why. Louie Knight, the town's private investigator, soon realises that it is going to take more than a double ripple from Sospan, the philosopher cum ice-cream seller, to help find out what is happening to these boys and whether or not Lovespoon, the Welsh teacher, Grand Wizard of the Druids and controller of the town, is more than just a sinister bully. And just who was Gwenno Guevara?
To the girls who came to make it big in the town's 'What the Butler Saw' movie industry, Aberystwyth was the town of broken dreams. To Dean Morgan who taught at the Faculty of Undertaking, it was just a place to get course materials. But both worlds collide when the Dean checks into the notorious bed and breakfast ghetto and mistakenly receives a suitcase intended for a ruthless druid assassin. Soon he is running for his life, lost in a dark labyrinth of druid speakeasies and toffee apple dens, where every spinning wheel tells the story of a broken heart, and where the Dean's own heart is hopelessly in thrall to a porn star known as Judy Juice.
There is nothing unusual about the barrel-organ man who walks into private detective Louie Knight's office. Apart from the fact that he has lost his memory. And his monkey is a former astronaut. And he is carrying a suitcase that he is too terrified to open. And he wants a murder investigated. The only thing unusual about the murder is that it took place a hundred years ago. And needs solving by the following week. Louie is too smart to take on such a case but also too broke to turn it down. Soon he is lost in a labyrinth of intrigue and terror, tormented at every turn by a gallery of mad nuns, gangsters and waifs, and haunted by the loss of his girlfriend, Myfanwy, who has disappeared after being fed drugged raspberry ripple ...
It's Christmas in Aberystwyth. The tourists have gone home. The latest movie starring Clip the Sheepdog is on at the cinema. And a man wearing a red and white robe is found brutally murdered in a Chinatown alley. A single word is scrawled in his blood on the pavement- Hoffmann. But who is Hoffmann? Thus begins the latest hilarious adventure in the Louie Knight series. This time, Aberystwyth's celebrated crime fighter finds himself all at sea in a brilliant pastiche of a cold war spy thriller. Caught in a web of intrigue spanning the world from Patagonia to Aberystwyth, Louie sets out on the trail of a legendary document stolen long ago from Adolf Eichmann. It is said to contain an astonishing revelation about the ultimate fate of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but he's not the only one who wants it. A bewildering array of superannuated spooks and silver-haired spies have descended on Aberystwyth, all lured out of retirement by one tantalising rumour- Hoffmann has decided to come in from the Cold. Louie Knight, who still hasn't wrapped his presents, just wishes he could have waited until after the holiday.
It is a sweltering August in Aberystwyth. A man wearing a Soviet museum curator's uniform walks into Louie Knight's office and spins a wild and impossible tale of love, death, madness and betrayal. Sure, Louie had heard about Hughesovka, the legendary replica of Aberystwyth built in the Ukraine by some crazy nineteenth-century czar. But he hadn't believed that it really existed until he met Uncle Vanya. Now the old man's story catapults him into the neon-drenched wilderness of Aberystwyth Prom in search of a girl who mysteriously disappeared thirty years ago. Soon Louie finds his fate depending on two most unlikely talismans - a ticket to Hughesovka and a Russia cosmonaut's sock.
A passionate and personal book about the writer's own love for a controversial architectural style. Whether you love or hate brutalist buildings, this book will explain what it is about them that elicits such strong feeling. You will understand the true power of concrete and of mammoth-sized buildings, but also some of the more subtle aspects of brutalist buildings that you may not have known or considered. Brutalist architecture, which flourished in the 1950s to mid-1970s, gained its name from the term ' Béton-brut', or raw concrete – the material of choice for the movement. British architectural critic Reyner Banham adapted the term into 'brutalism' (originally 'New Brutalism') to identify the emerging style. The architectural style – typified by buildings such as Trellick Tower in London and Unité D'Habitation in Marseille – is controversial but has an enthusiastic fan base, including the author who is on a mission to explain his passion. John Grindrod's book will be enlightening for those new to the subject, bringing humour, insight and honesty to the subject but will also interest those already immersed in built culture. Illustrated with striking drawings by The Brutal Artist, the book is divided up into a series of mini essays that explains the brutalist world from a human aspect, as well as an architectural, historical and even pop cultural angle. The book journeys from the UK to discover brutalism and its influence around the world – from Le Corbusier's designs in Chandigarh, India, to Lina Bo Bardi's buildings in Brazil.
When Serena wakes up in hospital with amnesia, her only visitors are Rafael Cordoba and his baby son, Tonio. Following doctor’s orders, Rafael tells her nothing except she had her accident in his car—but he doesn’t know her. Rafael insists Serena recuperate at his home and, already having strong feelings for the sexy Spaniard, and adoring his son, she accepts. But what is Rafael not telling her—and where is his baby’s mother?
Jack Wenlock is the last of the Railway Goslings: that fabled cadre of railway detectives created at the Weeping Cross Railway Servants' Orphanage, who trod the corridors of the GWR trains in the years 1925 to 1947. Sworn to uphold the name of God's Wonderful Railway, Jack keeps the trains free of fare dodgers and purse-stealers, bounders and confidence tricksters, German spies and ladies of the night. But now, as the clock ticks down towards the nationalisation of the railways Jack finds himself investigating a case that begins with an abducted great aunt, but soon develops into something far darker and more dangerous. It reaches up to the corridors of power and into the labyrinth of the greatest mystery in all the annals of railway lore – the disappearance in 1915 of twenty-three nuns from the 7.25 Swindon to Bristol Temple Meads, or the case of the 'Hail Mary' Celeste. Shady government agents, drunken riverboat captains, a missing manuscript and a melancholic gorilla all collide on a journey that will take your breath away.
While sitting in a London airport during a snowstorm, Lydia meets a Middle Eastern sheikh named Amir. She finds herself wanting him like she’s never wanted anyone before, and they end up spending a sultry, passionate night together. When they wake up the next morning, they’re informed that the airport will be closed for three days due to the bad weather. That’s when Amir offers Lydia three days and three nights with him. All she has to do is ask!
