Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Novel of the White Powder -...

  Arthur Machen

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Arthur Llewelyn Jones was born in Caerleon, Monmouthshire on the 3rd March 1863. 
  Machen came from a long line of clergymen, and when he was two, his father became vicar of a small parish about five miles north of Caerleon, and Machen was brought up at the rectory there. 
  In his early years he received an excellent classical education, but family poverty ruled out university, and he was sent to London to sit exams to attend medical school but failed the exams.  He did show literary promise with the publication of the poem ‘Eleusinia’ in 1821.  But life in London was difficult and it was only in 1884 that he published again and was taken on to translate several French works which thereafter became the standard editions for many years. 
   
  In 1887, his father died.  That same year he married Amelia Hogg, a maverick music teacher with a passion for the theatre.  He also began to receive legacies from Scottish relatives which allowed him to devote more time to writing. 
   
  After publishing in literary magazines in 1894 he published his first book ‘The Great God Pan’.  Its sexual and horrific content very much helped sales. 
   
  Over the next decade or so he wrote some of his best work but was unable to find a publisher mainly due to the collapse of the decadent market over Oscar Wilde’s scandalous trial. 
   
  In 1899, his wife died and during his long recovery he took up acting and travelled around the country as part of a travelling company.  Three years later he was publishing again and had remarried. 
   
  Re-publishing of earlier works helped anchor both his reputation and his income.  By the time the Great War opened Europe’s wounds he returned to the public eye with ‘The Bowmen’ helped by the publicity around the ‘Angel of Mons’ episode. 
   
  However, by the late 20’s new works had dried up and his back catalogue was no longer a source of regular income. 
   
  In 1932 he received a Civil List pension of ₤100 per annum but other work was not forthcoming.  His finances finally stabilised with a literary appeal in 1943 for his eightieth birthday and allowed him to live his remaining years in relative comfort. 
   
  Arthur Machen died on 15th December 1947 in Beaconsfield. He was 84. 
   
  A man is prescribed a medicine that turns him from a hard studying student of the law to something so compellingly awful that only Machen himself could have willed it into reality.<

  Show book

• 

  Sins of the Mother

  Cheryl Saban

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A woman' s long-held secret comes back to jeopardize not only her but her entire family.
  Alison Young seems to have it all: a brilliant career, a beautiful San Francisco townhouse, a loving husband, and a talented teenage daughter. But for 18 years, Alison has kept a terrible secret: She was the victim of a violent rape, and her daughter is the result of it. Unable to bring her attacker to trial or get a legal abortion, Alison left her hometown, reinvented her past, and built a new life for herself. Now, however, someone threatens to destroy all that Alison has achieved. Country Davis— rapist, convicted felon, and career criminal— is getting out of prison and heading for California, where he plans to claim his place beside the woman and child he calls family.

  Show book

• 

  The Collins Case

  Julie C. Gilbert

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A young family disappears … 
  FBI Special Agent Julie Ann Davidson isn’t assigned the case, but she works it anyway because she knows the Collins family. Add in a baffling case of internet thievery, and Ann and her partner, Patrick Duncan, have plenty to think about. 
  Who took the Collins family and why? 
  One thing’s certain: time is running out. 
  If Ann and Patrick don’t work fast, Rachel Collins and her kids will die. 
  *** 
  Please Note: This series is Christian mystery/suspense. If that doesn't appeal to you, try something like Shadow Council or Fatal Interest. The Collins Case is the first Heartfelt Cases book. It's followed by The Kiverson Case, The Davidson Case, and The Keres Case (not on audio yet ETA ~summer/fall 2020). There is also The Quinn Case which is a short prequel.

  Show book

• 

  The Winter Knight

  Jes Battis

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Arthurian legends are reborn in this upbeat queer urban fantasy with a mystery at its heart
  		 
  The knights of the round table are alive in Vancouver, but when one winds up dead, it’s clear the familiar stories have taken a left turn. Hildie, a Valkyrie and the investigator assigned to the case, wants to find the killer — and maybe figure her life out while she’s at it. On her short list of suspects is Wayne, an autistic college student and the reincarnation of Sir Gawain, who these days is just trying to survive in a world that wasn’t made for him. After finding himself at the scene of the crime, Wayne is pulled deeper into his medieval family history while trying to navigate a new relationship with the dean’s charming assistant, Bert — who also happens to be a prime murder suspect. To figure out the truth, Wayne and Hildie have to connect with dangerous forces: fallen knights, tricky runesmiths, the Wyrd Sisters of Gastown. And a hungry beast that stalks Wayne’s dreams.
  		 
  The Winter Knight is a propulsive urban fairy tale and detective story with queer and trans heroes that asks what it means to be a myth, who gets to star in these tales, and ultimately, how we make our stories our own.

  Show book

• 

  Poisonville

  Massimo Carlotto, Marco Videtta

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  “[An] outstanding fable of greed, corruption and moral abandonment. Filled with echoes of Dante’s Inferno.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) 
   
  Poisonville is noir par excellence—there’s murder, moral ambiguity, and a less than heroic main character. In this bestselling novel, however, the real killer is not an individual but an entire system. 
   
  The heavily industrialized northeast, Italy’s richest region, is undergoing dramatic change. It once drove the nation’s economic boom—a regional superpower, affluent and arrogant, a land that abided only its own rules. But then the factory owners began moving their operations across the border to former Soviet countries where labor was cheap and regulatory bodies all but absent. With the factories closed and the jobs gone, new elements insinuated themselves into the old system, and the Brahmin families of the northeast began employing increasingly violent methods to protect their wealth. Once renowned for its economic might, the region is now known for trafficking every imaginable commodity, media personalities and politicians on the payrolls of oligarchs and mobsters, and its ongoing environmental catastrophe. 
   
  Welcome to Poisonville! Here, the young lawyer Francesco, heir to the region’s second richest family, will have to decide between business as usual or a violent rupture with the ways of the past. The wrong choice could cost him his life. 
   
  “Corruption, Cynicism. Illegality. Collusion. The world of business described by Massimo Carlotto in Poisonville is frightening as hell.” —La Repubblica 
   
  “A black fable that exposes that dark side of the wealth that has been generated over the last few decades.” —Il Mattino

  Show book

• 

  Trust Me

  Peter Leonard

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  When Bobby and Lloyd decide to rob Lou Starr's home, they don't reckon on being propositioned about an even bigger scam by Lou's girlfriend Karen. But Karen has been looking for a way out and a way to recover her life savings, stolen from her by the treacherous Samir. And so a plan is set in motion that sounds all too simple...

  Show book