Prima Ballerina Darcey Bussell takes you on a captivating journey to a faraway land of ballet and magic, the wonderful world of Enchantia! The third of sparkly new series for all young girls who dream of being a ballerina, or simply love to dance!
Reader. The complete story and original illustrations of MARCELLO MOUSE AND THE MASKED BALL by Julie Monks have been specially re-designed into a smaller early reader format. Created with expert advice from a literacy consultant, this new version offers children a natural next step on from picture books to support them as they grow in reading confidence. Marcello Mouse is off to the Magical Masked Ball. But he hasn't been invited. And as Marcello soon discovers, this ball is no place for a mouse. This is a great series which, by using well-loved stories, will encourage young children to become enthusiastic, independent readers.
THE FIRST ROYAL SPYNESS MYSTERY! The New York Times bestselling author of the Molly Murphy and Constable Evan Evans mysteries turns her attentions to “a feisty new heroine to delight a legion of Anglophile readers.”* London, 1932. Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, 34th in line for the English throne, is flat broke. She's bolted Scotland, her greedy brother, and her fish-faced betrothed. London is a place where she'll experience freedom, learn life lessons aplenty, do a bit of spying for HRH—oh, and find a dead Frenchman in her tub. Now her new job is to clear her long family name...
If you received an invitation to attend a mysterious masked ball held by a secret organization of the rich and powerful, would you accept? Meet the five candidates who do: the scientist, the singer, the chef, the attorney, and the financier. They crave power, love, money, respect, fame – that which eludes them. Their enigmatic host, known only as Pig King, craves something more basic: salvation for his kind. But the Illuminati Ball requires a sacrifice… “I was seduced by Cynthia’s art. She is a wonder.” – Neil Gaiman “Creative genius.” – Forbes
Monika is an artist, desperately searching for the sister she lost as a child. When a lead takes her into a dark erotic underworld, she realizes that her missing sister is involved... Hiding her true self, Monika is only truly comfortable with an advanced, secret, Artificial Intelligence that fascinates her.
A delectable prequel to the national bestselling Royal Spyness mysteries featuring Lady Georgiana Rannoch—thirty forth in line to the throne, and England’s poorest heiress. At the end of her first unsuccessful season out in society, Lady Georgiana has all but given up on attracting a suitable man—until she receives an invitation to a masked Halloween ball at Broxley Manor. Georgie is uncertain why she was invited, until she learns that the royal family intends to marry her off to a foreign prince, one reputed to be mad. When the prince, dressed as the devil, rescues her from an embarrassing situation at the ball, Georgie is surprised to find her unwanted suitor to be a dashing, charming man—especially when he pulls her aside and gives her the kiss of a lifetime. But as the time comes for the unmasking, Georgie’s rescuer vanishes and the party is thrown into chaos, making it clear that everything at Broxley Manor is not as it appears… Includes a preview of the latest Royal Spyness mystery, The Twelve Clues of Christmas, available November 2012.
In 1966, everyone who was anyone wanted an invitation to Truman Capote's "Black and White Dance" in New York, and guests included Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, C. Z. Guest, Kennedys, Rockefellers, and more. Lavishly illustrated with photographs and drawings of the guests, this portrait of revelry at the height of the swirling, swinging sixties is a must for anyone interested in American popular culture and the lifestyles of the rich, famous, and talented.
"The Masque of the Red Death", originally published as "The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy", is an 1842 short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague, known as the Red Death, by hiding in his abbey. He, along with many other wealthy nobles, hosts a masquerade ballwithin seven rooms of the abbey, each decorated with a different color. In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure disguised as a Red Death victim enters and makes his way through each of the rooms. Prospero dies after confronting this stranger, whose "costume" proves to contain nothing tangible inside it; the guests also die in turn. Poe's story follows many traditions of Gothic fiction and is often analyzed as an allegory about the inevitability of death, though some critics advise against an allegorical reading. Many different interpretations have been presented, as well as attempts to identify the true nature of the titular disease. The story was first published in May 1842 in Graham's Magazineand has since been adapted in many different forms, including a 1964 film starring Vincent Price.
Having relocated to Perth, cancer surgeon Aresh Mehta is preparing to settle down in life. Travelling with him is an unsigned painting that he came across – and kept – more than a decade earlier. Haunted by the violent scene it depicts, Aresh decides that the time has come for him to find out who painted it and if it has any value. Local art experts cannot pinpoint the artist and choose instead to focus on a distinctive work of art, painted in miniature, and shown hanging on the wall of the plush suburban study in which the violence has been set. The search into the origins of this small painting uncovers deep familial connections stretching from London to Melbourne and on to Sydney. And, as the investigation into the crime portrayed in Aresh’s painting advances, people determined to prevent the shocking truth from emerging are alerted, holding nothing back to avoid being exposed. The Masked Ball is a story about the abiding strength of our attachment to the paintings we possess and to the stories that lie beneath their making.