From 1906 to 1925 Quail Island, in Lyttelton Harbour, was the site of New Zealand’s leprosy colony. The colony began by accident, as it were, after the discovery of a leprosy sufferer in Christchurch. As further patients arrived from across the country, it grew into a controversial and troubled institution – an embarrassment to the Health Department, an object of pity to a few, a source of fear to many. This remarkable narrative reveals a little-known aspect of New Zealand’s past, shedding light on the treatment of some of society’s most marginal, unfortunate and isolated people. Written in lucid, compelling prose, The Dark Island heralds the arrival of a significant historical voice.
A former WWII intelligence agent searches for redemption in this thriller by the New York Times–bestselling author of The Midnight Bell. It’s been nearly twenty years since Hugh Lomax set foot on the Greek island of Kyros. During World War II, British Intelligence sent him there on a mission to take out a high-tech German radar station. Aided by the local resistance, he succeeded—but was also captured and spent the rest of the war imprisoned. Now, he’s returned. But he is far from welcome. When he reunites with someone he thought an old friend, the man threatens to kill him. The local authorities make it clear that he should leave and never come back. Because although he thought he had helped save Kyros, Lomax soon learns that his former comrades believe he turned traitor in captivity—a betrayal that cost many lives. Unwilling to live with the betrayal, Lomax must delve into the violent past and dig into the unfamiliar present to find the man who stained his name with the blood of his friends. But this secret enemy is still watching his every move, waiting to silence him forever . . . Written before his novel The Eagle Has Landed took the world by storm, Jack Higgins’s adventure of war and treachery showcases his absolute mastery of combining plot, action, and vividly drawn characters into the perfect thriller.
This is a collection of unpredictable stories about love and cruelty, crimes, desperation, and hope from the man Irvine Welsh has described as 'the most arresting and original writer to emerge from these islands in years'.
The new graphic novel from the team behind bestseller Man-Eaters is a terrifying, sexy, and thought-provoking espionage thriller-that also happens to be laugh-out-loud funny! The world's best spies keep watch over the Bermuda Triangle from a mysterious island outpost teeming with supernatural intrigue, monsters, and evil villains set on global domination. The best of these spies is named Nora Freud (no relation). She knows eighty-seven ways to kill someone with a cocktail toothpick, and she's used thirty-two of them. Lately though, Nora has started to feel like she's going through the motions. Close the temporal portal. Assassinate the genocidal maniac. Have sex with the MI-6 agent. Plus, the island has gotten kind of touristy. She agrees to one last mission. But when Nora's troubled marine cryptozoologist sister shows up unexpectedly, warning of mermaid attacks, Nora realizes that boredom is not her biggest problem. Laugh-out-loud funny, terrifying, sexy, and philosophical, Spy Island is the perfect comic book for anyone who enjoys travel, chardonnay, krakens, Atlantis, volcanos, scuba diving, mermaids, ghost pirates, tropical espionage, secret agents, and/or island-casual Sean Connery.* *Sponsored by the Bermuda Triangle Chamber of Commerce. Spy Island was created by NYT best-selling author, Chelsea Cain, writer of the Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell thrillers, as well as One Kick, which was adapted for television starring Chris Noth. Her previous comics include Man-Eaters (Image) and Mockingbird (Marvel), both nominated for Eisner Awards. Spy Island is co-created by Lia Miternique--cocreator of Man-Eaters and illustrator of The Hippie Handbook (Chronicle), Does This Cape Make Me Look Fat (Chronicle), and Confessions of a Teen Sleuth (Bloomsbury). Spy Island also reunites the entire Man-Eaters creative team, including Elise McCall, Rachelle Rosenberg, Joe Caramagna, Eliza Fantastic Mohan, Stella Greenvoss, Emily Powell, and Liv Osborn.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Wager, a thrilling and powerful true story of adventure and obsession in the Antarctic, lavishly illustrated with color photographs. "[Grann is] one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today."—New York Magazine Henry Worsley was a devoted husband and father and a decorated British special forces officer who believed in honor and sacrifice. He was also a man obsessed. He spent his life idolizing Ernest Shackleton, the nineteenth-century polar explorer, who tried to become the first person to reach the South Pole, and later sought to cross Antarctica on foot. Shackleton never completed his journeys, but he repeatedly rescued his men from certain death, and emerged as one of the greatest leaders in history. Worsley felt an overpowering connection to those expeditions. He was related to one of Shackleton's men, Frank Worsley, and spent a fortune collecting artifacts from their epic treks across the continent. He modeled his military command on Shackleton's legendary skills and was determined to measure his own powers of endurance against them. He would succeed where Shackleton had failed, in the most brutal landscape in the world. In 2008, Worsley set out across Antarctica with two other descendants of Shackleton's crew, battling the freezing, desolate landscape, life-threatening physical exhaustion, and hidden crevasses. Yet when he returned home he felt compelled to go back. On November 13, 2015, at age 55, Worsley bid farewell to his family and embarked on his most perilous quest: to walk across Antarctica alone. David Grann tells Worsley's remarkable story with the intensity and power that have led him to be called "simply the best narrative nonfiction writer working today." Illustrated with more than fifty stunning photographs from Worsley's and Shackleton's journeys, The White Darkness is both a gorgeous keepsake volume and a spellbinding story of courage, love, and a man pushing himself to the extremes of human capacity. Look for David Grann’s latest bestselling book, The Wager!
September 25, 1985. The worst storm in half a century is headed towards the United States, her point of landfall--Fire Island, a narrow sandbar hugging the shore of Long Island. The East Coast is evacuated for hundreds of miles north and south, but on Fire Island itself, ten people refuse to leave. In Dark Wind, a remarkable work of nonfiction, John Jiler tells the story of those people. A gay man with AIDS stayed behind because he had nothing left to lose. One pair of fiends tried to endure the storm with deep, meditative prayer; another trio, with a wild, chattering cocktail party. Also on the island lay the Sunken Forest, an ancient woods teeming with birds, plant, and animal life that was no less profoundly threatened by the power of Hurricane Gloria. In this literary tour de force, Jiler combines the results of in-depth interviews with the survivors and detailed knowledge of the unique social and natural history of Fire Island to produce a panoramic account of nature in its inexplicable, sublime fury.
