Hardcover, UK First Edition, First Printing, Signed, Quoted and Dated by author to the title page.Book comes with a Signed flyer from the signing event.
Quote is: "For a world with so much sun we live in a dark place in a dark time..."
Tutankhamun, son of Akhenaten, has inherited an empire that seems to be at the height of its power and international glory. But the young King, just eighteen years old, is faced with the political and personal intrigues and conspiracies of the Court, where his godfather Ay, and the General Horemheb are locked in a bitter struggle for ascendancy. Tutankhamun must steer the empire back from the brink of disaster and dissent to which his father Akhenaten's rule led the Two Lands of Egypt, and re-assert the stability and authority of his famous dynasty. Rahotep, chief detective of the Thebes division, has his own worries - his daughters are growing up in a changing world of danger and instability, while out on the streets of Thebes things are falling apart; poverty and dissent are breaking out into a nightmare of violence, gold and corruption seem all-powerful, and the city's shadowy underworld is itself witnessing mysterious acts of shocking brutality. Yet when he receives a mysterious invitation to the secret halls of the Royal Palace, he cannot refuse. What he finds there, and the quest on which he embarks, will change his life, and put everything he thought he believed, and everything he loves, at risk.
The Snake Stone - Jason GOODWIN
Published by UK Faber & Faber 5 July 2007
Price£34.99
ISBN 9780571229253
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Hardcover, UK First Edition, First Printing, Signed, Quoted and Dated (5/7/07, Publication Date) by author to the title page.
Lefevre, a French archaeologist, has arrived in Istanbul determined to uncover a lost Byzantine treasure. Yashim is commissioned to find out more about him. But when Lefevre's mutilated body is discovered outside the French embassy, it turns out that there is only one suspect: Yashim himself. Once again, Yashim finds himself in a race against time to uncover the startling truth behind a shadowy secret society dedicated to the revival of the Byzantine Empire, caught in a deadly game deep beneath the city streets, a place where the stakes are high - and betrayal is death. The sequel to The Janissary Tree.
The Sion Revelation - Lynn & Clive PICKNETT & PRINCE
Published by UK Time Warner Books 2 February 2006
Price£16.99
ISBN 0316727726
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Hardcover, UK First Edition, First Printing, Signed by both authors to the title page.
Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince have long been fascinated by the conspiracies surrounding secret knowledge of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and John the Baptist, much of which centred on the activities of individuals and groups allegedly connected with the Priory of Sion. Now, in The Sion Revelation, Picknett and Prince look more closely at this controversial organisation, said to be the ancient protector of great religious and historical secrets. Suggesting that their apparently bizarre belief systems actually hide real activity on behalf of military and political movers and shakers, The Sion Revelation will reveal just how important the Priory of Sion really is - and why we should all care...
The Secret Supper - Javier SIERRA
Published by UK Simon & Schuster 6 March 2006
Special Price £15.00
ISBN 0743276299
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Hardcover, UK First Edition, First Printing, Signed by author to the title page.
In January of 1497, Fray Augustin Leyre, a Dominican Inquisitor and expert on the interpretation of secret messages, is sent to supervise Leonardo Da Vinci's last touches to "The Last Supper" painting. He was sent by Alejandro VI who had heard that Da Vinci was painting the twelve apostles without their halo of sanctity, that the chalice was missing, and that Leonardo had painted himself in the painting with his back to Jesus. This could have sent him to the inquisition. Why then did he do this? Was Leonardo Da Vinci a heretic? Full of misleading facts and controversies, "The Secret Supper" reveals the truth behind Da Vinci's best-known Christian piece. After finishing this novel, you'll never see "The Last Supper" in the same way again.
The Religion - Tim WILLOCKS
Published by UK Jonathan Cape 3 August 2006
Price£18.99
ISBN 022407797X
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Book comes with a 1st Chapter sampler.
In 1994, Tim Willocks burst onto the scene with an unforgettable novel called "Green River Rising". Hailed as 'the best thriller since "The Silence of the Lambs"' ("Daily Telegraph"), it was particularly praised for the quality of Tim Willocks' prose and for his extraordinarily dark imagination. Both these qualities are very much in evidence in his new novel, "The Religion". In Malta, in May 1565 - from the shores of the Golden Horn, Suleiman the Magnificent, Emperor of the Ottomans, has sent the greatest armada since antiquity to wipe out Islam's most implacable foe, the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, in their stronghold on the island of Malta. To the Turks the knights are known as 'The Hounds of Hell'. The knights call themselves 'The Religion'. Meanwhile, in Sicily, a disgraced and exiled Maltese noblewoman, Carla La Penautier, has been trying to return to the doomed island in an attempt to find the bastard son who was taken from her at his birth. The Religion have refused her every plea and a tormented Roman Inquisitor, Ludovico Ludovici, seeks to imprison her. But Carla recruits a notorious adventurer and arms merchant - Mattias Tannhauser - to help her evade the Inquisition and to escape on the last galley to run the Turkish blockade. As the ensuing apocalyptic conflict between Islam and Christianity becomes the most brutal and harrowing siege in military history, Tannhauser and Carla must survive the bloody inferno and track down a twelve-year-old boy whose face they have never seen and whose name they do not know. And neither of them reckon on the return of the avenging Inquisitor, Ludovico Ludovici... "The Religion" is an epic and exuberant tale of love and war, of intrigue and obsession, of politics and faith and high adventure. Against a rich and meticulously detailed historical backcloth, it tells of a small band of intrepid men and women who defy the madness of Holy War to realize their own vision of God and Eternity.
The Poe Shadow - Matthew PEARL
Published by UK Harvill Secker 23 May 2006
Price£34.99
ISBN 0436205459
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
UK First Edition, First Printing, Signed, Dated (publication date 23 May 06) & First Line quoted by author to the title page.
This title is set in Baltimore, in 1849. The body of Edgar Allan Poe has been buried in an unmarked grave. The public, the press, even Poe's family and friends accept the conclusion that Poe was a second-rate writer who died a drunkard. But none of this deters a young Baltimore lawyer named Quentin Clark, an ardent admirer who risks his own career and reputation in a passionate crusade to salvage Poe's. Clark discovers that Poe's last days are riddled with vital unanswered questions. The police, it seems, may be concealing things. But just when Poe's death looks destined to remain a mystery Quentin realises he must find the one person who can solve this strange case: the real-life model for Poe's brilliant fictional detective character, C. Auguste Dupin, the hero of ingenious tales of crime and detection. Clark successfully recruits the man he believes to have inspired Poe's Dupin only to be confronted by another claiming to be the true model and a dangerous race between the two master detectives begins, each seeking to prove he is the real 'Dupin' by solving the mystery of Poe's death. In short order, Clark finds himself enmeshed in sinister machinations involving international political agents, a female assassin, the corrupt Baltimore slave trade and the lost secrets of Poe's final hours. With his own future hanging in the balance, he must turn master investigator himself to unchain his now imperiled fate from that of Poe. "The Poe Shadow" is a beautifully detailed, ingeniously plotted tale of suspense which opens a thrilling new window on the truth behind Poe's demise, literary history's most persistent enigma.
The Observations - Jane HARRIS
Published by UK Faber & Faber 6 April 2006
Price£12.99
ISBN 0571223354
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Debut novel: So there I was with two pens, my two titties, Charles Dickens, two slice of bread and a blank book at the end of my first day in the middle of nowhere. Except as it turned out it wasn't quite the end ...Scotland, 1863. In an attempt to escape her not-so-innocent past in Glasgow, Bessy Buckley - the wide-eyed Irish heroine of "The Observations" - takes a job as a maid in a big house outside Edinburgh working for the beautiful Arabella. Bessy is intrigued by her new employer, but puzzled by her increasingly strange requests and her insistence that Bessy keep a journal of her most intimate thoughts. And it seems that Arabella has a few secrets of her own - including her near-obsessive affection for Nora, a former maid who died in mysterious circumstances. Then, a childish prank has drastic consequences, which throw into jeopardy all that Bessy has come to hold dear. Caught up in a tangle of madness, ghosts, sex and lies, she remains devoted to Arabella. But who is really responsible for what happened to her predecessor Nora? As her past threatens to catch up with her and complicate matters even further, Bessy begins to realise that she has not quite landed on her feet.
Short listed for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007
The Merchant's Mark - Pat McINTOSH
Published by UK Constable & Robinson 28 June 2006
Price£16.99
ISBN 1845290607
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Hardcover, UK First Edition, First Printing, Signed by author to the title page.
Gil Cunningham and his old acquaintance, Glasgow merchant Augie Morison, expecting a delivery of books from the Low Countries, report the gruesome substitute to the Provost, and at the inquest the next morning Morison is accused of the murder and imprisoned. He appeals to Gil, who sets out with his friend and future father-in-law Maistre Pierre, the French master-mason, to find the treasure's owner, trace the barrel and identify the dead man. The trail they follow leads them from the court of James IV at Stirling via a cooper's yard in Linlithgow, to another death on the bare slopes of the Pentland Hills.
The Meaning of Night++Signed Ltd Edition Slipcase++ - Michael COX
Published by UK John Murray September 2006
Special Price £20.00
ISBN 0719569664
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst PrintingLimited Edition
UK Signed, Numbered Limited Edition Slipcase. One of only 1,200 copies issued. Still in manufacturer's shrink wrap. Book comes with a promotional postcard.
This work is set in a cold October night, 1854. In a dark passageway, an innocent man is stabbed to death. So begins the extraordinary story of Edward Glyver, booklover, scholar and murderer. As a young boy, Glyver always believed he was destined for greatness. This seems the stuff of dreams, until a chance discovery convinces Glyver that he was right: greatness does await him, along with immense wealth and influence. And he will stop at nothing to win back a prize that he now knows is rightfully his. Glyver's path leads him from the depths of Victorian London, with its foggy streets, brothels and opium dens, to Evenwood, one of England's most enchanting country houses. His is a story of betrayal and treachery, of death and delusion, of ruthless obsession and ambition. And at every turn, driving Glyver irresistibly onwards, is his deadly rival: the poet-criminal Phoebus Rainsford Daunt. Thirty years in the writing, "The Meaning Of Night" is a stunning achievement. Full of drama and passion, it is an enthralling novel that will captivate readers right up to its final thrilling revelation.
Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2006
The Meaning of Night++Signed Dated Quoted++ - Michael COX
Published by UK John Murray 7 September 2006
Price£45.00
ISBN 0719568358
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
UK First Edition, First Printing Signed, Dated (Publication date 07.09.06) and Quoted by author to the title page. Book comes with a promotional postcard and a flyer from the signing event in Northampton.
Quote is: "Death of a Stranger" which is the catalyst of the story.
Debut novel: This work is set in a cold October night, 1854. In a dark passageway, an innocent man is stabbed to death. So begins the extraordinary story of Edward Glyver, booklover, scholar and murderer. As a young boy, Glyver always believed he was destined for greatness. This seems the stuff of dreams, until a chance discovery convinces Glyver that he was right: greatness does await him, along with immense wealth and influence. And he will stop at nothing to win back a prize that he now knows is rightfully his. Glyver's path leads him from the depths of Victorian London, with its foggy streets, brothels and opium dens, to Evenwood, one of England's most enchanting country houses. His is a story of betrayal and treachery, of death and delusion, of ruthless obsession and ambition. And at every turn, driving Glyver irresistibly onwards, is his deadly rival: the poet-criminal Phoebus Rainsford Daunt. Thirty years in the writing, "The Meaning Of Night" is a stunning achievement. Full of drama and passion, it is an enthralling novel that will captivate readers right up to its final thrilling revelation.
Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2006
The Last Templar - Signed Numbered Limited Edition Slipcase - Raymond KHOURY
Published by UK Orion 2005
Price£69.99
ISBN 0752875353
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst PrintingLimited Edition
UK Orion Signed, numbered limited slipcase edition. First edition, thus first printing, one of only 1000 copies. VFine copy, still in manufacturer's shrinkwrap.
Acre, 1291: as the burning city falls to the Sultan's men, a lone galley escapes out to sea, carrying the young Templar Knight Martin of Carmaux, his mentor Aimard of Villiers, and a mysterious chest entrusted to them by the Order's dying Grand Master. Present day, Manhattan: Four masked horsemen, dressed as Templar Knights, emerge from Central Park and ride up to the Metropolitan Museum. They don't stop at the steps, but steer the horses through the crowds gathered for the gala opening of a major exhibition of Vatican treasures and storm into the museum, scattering the great and the good of Manhattan society. Caught in the brutal mayhem, archaeologist Tess Chaykin watches in silent terror as the leader of the horsemen homes in on one piece in particular, a strange geared device. He utters a few cryptic Latin words as he takes hold of it with reverence before leading the horsemen out and disappearing into the urban nightscape of Manhattan. The FBI's investigation team is led by Sean Reilly, an anti-terrorist specialist as well as a practising Catholic, aided by his longtime partner Nick Aparo and a Vatican envoy, the monsignor De Angelis…
The Last Days of Newgate Signed Dated Lined - Andrew PEPPER
Published by UK Weidenfeld & Nicolson 6 July 2006
Price£19.99
ISBN 029785237X
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Hardcover, UK First Edition, First Printing, Signed, Dated (publication date) and First Line Quoted by author to the title page.
St Giles, London, 1829: three people have been brutally murdered and the city simmers with anger and political unrest. Pyke, sometime Bow Street Runner, sometime crook, finds himself accidentally embroiled in the murder investigation but quickly realises that he has stumbled into something more sinister and far-reaching. In his pursuit of the murderer, Pyke ruffles the feathers of some powerful people, and, falsely accused of murder himself, he soon faces a death sentence, and the gallows of Old Bailey. Imprisoned, and with only his uncle and the headstrong, aristocratic daughter of his greatest enemy who believe in him, Pyke must engineer his escape, find the real killer and untangle the web of politics that has been spun around him. From the gutters of Seven Dials, to the cells of Newgate prison; from the turmoil of 1800s Belfast to the highest levels of murky, pre-Victorian politics, The Last Days of Newgate is a gripping, darkly atmospheric story with a fantastic, pragmatic - and reluctantly heroic - hero.
The Janissary Tree - Jason GOODWIN
Published by UK Faber & Faber 1 June 2006
Price£45.00
ISBN 0571229212
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Hardcover, UK First Edition, First Printing, Signed and Quoted by author to the title page.
Yashim is no ordinary detective. It's not that he's particularly brave. Or that he cooks so well, or reads French novels. Not even that his best friend is the Ambassador from Poland, whose country has vanished from the map. Yashim is a eunuch. As the Sultan plans a series of radical reforms to his empire, a concubine is strangled in the palace harem. And a young cadet is found butchered in the streets of Istanbul. Delving deep into the city's crooked alleyways, and deeper still into its tumultuous past, Yashim discovers that some people will go to any lengths to preserve the traditions of the Ottoman Empire. Brilliantly evoking Istanbul in the 1830s, "The Janissary Tree" is a fast-paced literary thriller with a spectacular cast, from mystic orders and lissom archivists to soup-makers and a seductive ambassador's wife. Darker than any of these is the mysterious figure who controls the Sultan's harem.
Edgar Award 2007: WINNER Best Novel
'Intelligent, elliptical and beguilingly written, The Janissary Tree is a rare pleasure.' The Times
The Incendiary's Trail - James McCREET
Published by UK Macmillan New Writing 3 July 2009
Price£29.99
ISBN 9780230736276
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Hardcover, UK First Edition, First Printing, Signed, Dated and Quoted by author to the title page. Book comes with a signed postcard and a signed flyer from the signing event.
Quote is: "Murder is rampant in Early Victorian London. Dectective Inspector Newson of the Dectective Force decides to recuit a recently apprehended master criminal to help...
Murder is rampant in Early Victorian London. Detective Inspector Newsome of the new Detective Force decides to recruit a recently-apprehended master criminal to help bring the culprits to justice. A polymath with a mysterious past, the man is no eager volunteer. And when the ghastly murder of conjoined twins galvanizes the city, Newsome blackmails his prisoner - Noah Dyson, as he calls himself - into working with the Force's finest: Sergeant George Williamson. Unknown to the policemen, the criminal genius behind the murder shares a dark past with their new associate. It is not justice that is on Dyson's mind, but retribution. As Williamson and Dyson together close the net, the murder-rate soars and the streets of London begin to burn. Ingeniously plotted and seething with grotesque characters, James McCreet's striking debut will grip readers from its first dark pages.
The Great Stink - Clare CLARK
Published by UK Viking 24 February 2005
Special Price £14.00
ISBN 0670915300
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Hardcover, UK First Edition, First Printing, Signed by author to the title page.
Debut novel: William May returns to London after the horrors of the Crimean War. Scarred and fragile though he is, he lands a job at the heart of Bazalgette's transformation of the London sewers. There, in the darkness of the stinking tunnels beneath the rising towers of Victorian London May discovers another side of the city and remembers a disturbing, violent past. And then the corruption of the growing city soon begins to overwhelm him and a violent murder is committed. Will the sewers reveal all and show that the world above ground is even darker and more threatening than the tunnels beneath? Beautifully written, evocative and compelling and with a fantastically vivid cast of characters, Clare Clarke's first book is a rich and suspenseful novel that draws the reader right into Victorian London and into the worlds of its characters desperately attempting to swim the tides of change.
The Gardens Of The Dead - William BRODRICK
Published by UK Little Brown 16 February 2006
Special Price £11.00
ISBN 0316724661
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Hardcover, UK First Edition, First Printing, Signed by author to the title page.
In his first novel, THE SIXTH LAMENTATION, William Brodrick introduced Father Anslem, the barrister turned monk who found himself plunged into the tangled history of occupied Paris. Now, in THE GARDENS OF THE DEAD, Father Anslem is brought back to his own past at the Bar, and someone else's secrets. Elizabeth Glendinning QC has lost faith in the legal system to which she has given her life. In an attempt to restore it, she has secretly devised a scheme to bring a guilty man back to court -- Graham Riley, whom she had successfully defended some ten years previously. As part of an elaborate contingency plan, Elizabeth leaves the unsuspecting Anslem with a key to a safety deposit box, to be opened in the event of her death. Three weeks later she is found dead in the East End of London. Once the box has been opened, a chain of events is triggered as if from beyond the grave, and Anslem is led to fulfil what Elizabeth has begun.
The Column of Phocas - Sean GABB
Published by UK HarperPress 2006
Price£45.00
ISBN 9780954103248
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Softcover original, First Edition, First Printed Signed quoted and Dated by author to title page.
.Rome in 609 AD the empire has fallen. The City itself is rapidy falling into ruins. The Emperor, far off in Constantinople, has other concerns. The church is the one institution left intact, and is now flexing its own imperial muscles. Little did Aeltri know, back in Canterbury, how getting someone`s daughter with child would land him in this post imperial snake pit. A chance encounter on the road outside Rome leads to a daring fraud. Its consequence follow them to Rome. They are followed to kill him. Where are those letters and what do they contain?. Aelric at last gets his answer. What he chooses to do with the answer will shape the future of history of Europe and the world- This novel blends historical detail with mystery
The Blade Itself - Joe ABERCROMBIE
Published by UK Gollancz 4 May 2006
Price£29.99
ISBN 0575077859
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Debut novel: Inquisitor Glokta, a crippled and increasingly bitter relic of the last war, former fencing champion turned torturer extraordinaire, is trapped in a twisted and broken body - not that he allows it to distract him from his daily routine of torturing smugglers. Nobleman, dashing officer and would-be fencing champion Captain Jezal dan Luthar is living a life of ease by cheating his friends at cards. Vain, shallow, selfish and self-obsessed, the biggest blot on his horizon is having to get out of bed in the morning to train with obsessive and boring old men. And Logen Ninefingers, an infamous warrior with a bloody past, is about to wake up in a hole in the snow with plans to settle a blood feud with Bethod, the new King of the Northmen, once and for all - ideally by running away from it. But as he's discovering, old habits die really, really hard indeed ... especially when Bayaz gets involved. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Glotka, Jezal and Logen a whole lot more difficult…
The Bellini Card ('Yashim the Eunuch' Mystery) - Jason GOODWIN
Published by UK Faber & Faber 3 July 2008
Price£24.99
ISBN 9780571239924
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Hardcover, UK First Edition, First Printing, Signed, Quoted and Dated by author to the title page. Book comes with a flyer from the London signing event.
The third book in Jason Goodwin's celebrated series takes Yashim from the winding alleyways of Istanbul to the decaying grandeur of Venice. Charged by the Sultan to find a stolen painting by Bellini, he enlists the help of his friend Palewski, the Polish Ambassador, and goes undercover. Venice in 1840 is a city of empty palazzos and silent canals, and Palewski starts to mingle with Venetian dealers - self-made men, faded aristocrats and the hedonistic Contessa. But when two bodies turn up in the canal, he realises that art in Venice is a deadly business. And meanwhile, what has happened to Yashim? "The Bellini Card" is a thrilling adventure in which a quest for a lost painting turns into dangerous game of cat and mouse that threatens to destroy the Ottoman throne and overturn the balance of power in Europe.
The Alchemist's Daughter - Katharine McMAHON
Published by UK Weidenfeld & Nicolson 9 February 2006
Price£16.99
ISBN 0297850857
Signed by Author
First EditionFirst Printing
Hardcover, UK First Edition, First Printing, Signed by author to the title page.
Dark secrets haunt the manor house at Selden in Buckinghamshire, where Emilie Selden, motherless, fiercely intelligent and more beautiful than she realises, has been raised in near isolation by her father. John Selden, student of Isaac Newton, is conducting a bold and secret experiment. He aims to turn Emilie into a brilliant natural philosopher and alchemist. Secluded in his ancient manor house, with only their two servants for company, he fills her with knowledge and records every step she takes. In the spring of 1725, when Emilie is eighteen, father and daughter begin their most daring alchemical adventure of all - an attempt to breathe life into dead matter. But their work is interrupted by the arrival of two strangers, one a researcher into the life of plants, the other a dazzling young merchant. During the course of a sultry August, whilst her father is away, Emilie is caught up in the passion of first love and, listening for the first time to her heart rather than her head, she makes her choice...with consequences that are far-reaching and tumultuous.