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  The Spirit Engineer

  A.J. West

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  ‘A fiendishly clever tale of ambition, deception, and power.’ DERREN BROWN 
  Belfast, 1914. Two years after the sinking of the Titanic, high society has become obsessed with spiritualism, attending séances in the hope they might reach their departed loved ones. 
  William Jackson Crawford is a man of science and a sceptic, but one night with everyone sitting around the circle, voices come to him – seemingly from beyond the veil – placing doubt in his heart and a seed of obsession in his mind. Could the spirits truly be communicating with him or is this one of Kathleen’s parlour tricks gone too far? 
  Based on the true story of Professor William Jackson Crawford and famed medium Kathleen Goligher, and with a cast of characters including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, The Spirit Engineer conjures a haunted, twisted tale of power, paranoia and one ultimate, inescapable truth... 
  PRAISE FOR THE SPIRIT ENGINEER 
  ‘I adored this book. Haunting, witty and deeply moving, The Spirit Engineer is surely set to become a gothic classic. I was instantly drawn into the mystery and swept along by the shocking twists and turns. A beautifully written novel.’ JODIE WHITTAKER, ACTOR 
  ‘A.J. West has history at his fingertips and writes brilliantly - so clever it makes your head spin! The Spirit Engineer is a work of true invention and drama that moves at a cracking pace from the very first page and keeps you guessing. A compelling and daring book.’ JEREMY VINE, BROADCASTER 
  ‘Set in a historical moment where science and spiritualism meet, The Spirit Engineer is an ingeniously plotted debut novel.’ SARAH BURTON, AUTHOR OF THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF H 
  ‘A marvellous and menacing gothic chiller, filled with secrets and soaked in atmosphere, in which the ghouls and fiends are not of the other world, but this one...’ NEIL BLACKMORE, AUTHOR OF THE INTOXICATING MR LAVELLE  
  ‘A spooky tale of frustrated ambition, hidden loyalties, and desperation, told with wit, charm and devastating twists. A gothic novel that also manages to make you laugh, even if you shouldn't.’ JONATHAN HARVEY, PLAYWRIGHT 
  ‘With a skilful misdirection that any Edwardian spirit medium would be proud to demonstrate, A.J. West soon turns the screw in this fascinating novel… Obsession builds until the stunning climax of the final shocking séance and its awful repercussions. Was William right to be convinced? Did he prove ghosts exist?’ ESSIE FOX, AUTHOR OF THE SOMNAMBULIST 
  ‘A gripping, gothic story anchored in the political and spiritual chaos of Edwardian Belfast. Part horror, part history, The Spirit Engineer is a chilling and thought-provoking tale of exploitation, faith, deception, fraud, séances, hubris, and prejudice… accomplished and page-turning. Fans of Penny Dreadful and The Nevers will love it.’ GARETH RUSSELL, HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR OF THE SHIP OF DREAMS: THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC AND THE END OF EDWARDIAN BELFAST

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  The Collected Novels Volume One...

  Pearl S. Buck

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  From the Nobel Prize–winning author of The Good Earth: These three novels are fascinating portraits of women in China.   In 1938, Pearl S. Buck became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Literature for The Good Earth, which had already earned her the Pulitzer Prize. Upon choosing Buck’s novel for her book club in 2004, Oprah Winfrey said: “Reading Pearl Buck’s writing feels like reading poetry to me. I just love the quiet rhythm of the words. They evoke the simple beauty of the characters and the harsh mystery of China’s ancient culture.” The daughter of missionaries, the New York Times–bestselling author would continue to explore many aspect of Chinese culture in her work, and the three novels collected in this volume represent some of her most compassionate and revealing fiction.  Pavilion of Women: This “vivid and extremely interesting novel,” set in early twentieth-century China, follows an upper-class wife’s quest for personal freedom (The New Yorker). After Madame Wu turns forty, she encourages her husband to take a young concubine so she can finally begin to discover her own mind—and a new world opens up before her as she reads forbidden books and studies English with a progressive former priest.   “Beautifully written . . . A fine, full flavorsome novel.” —Newsweek  Peony: A young Chinese bondmaid in nineteenth-century China falls in love with the son of the wealthy Jewish family she works for. As the couple’s traditions collide, their relationship faces opposition from every side.   “Peony has the vividness of scene and episode and character and the colorful detail that [Buck’s] readers have come to expect of her novels in China.” —New York Herald Tribune  Imperial Woman: In this “richly woven . . . quite absorbing” New York Times bestseller, Buck brings to life the story of Tzu Hsi, the magnetic and fierce-minded woman who rose from concubine to become the working head of the Qing Dynasty and the last empress of China for nearly half a century (The Nation).   “Certainly, no fictioneer could imagine a more incredible woman. . . . Pearl Buck has done a remarkable and painstaking job in recreating her.” —Saturday Review

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  Let It Be Love

  Victoria Alexander

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  “[A] rollicking historical romance . . . the perfect holiday read” from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of When We Meet Again (Publishers Weekly). 
   
  Dashing Jonathon Effington, the Marquess of Helmsley, has had more than one lady willingly fall into his arms. But he’s so delicious none has ever complained at their inevitable parting. And while Jonathon’s no stranger to passion of the flesh, his heart has remained untouched. Until now . . .  
   
  At each Christmas Ball, Jonathon selects a delectable lady to share the pleasures of the evening—after all, it’s a holiday tradition! But he is shocked to discover that his choice is replaced by an enchanting stranger who surprises him with a proposal of marriage. Beautiful Fiona Fairchild is desperate—only a wedding will save her sisters and her inheritance. But Jonathon has no interest in marriage, and what starts as a shocking proposal turns into a scandalous proposition that might ruin them both . . . 
   
  “Let It Be Love is fantastic! Humorous, sensuous and touching, it’s a most excellent addition to Victoria Alexander’s Effington family saga.” —Fresh Fiction

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  Paris Spring

  James Naughtie

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  Paris in 1968 - seething with revolutionaries and spies - sees Will Flemyng's world turned upside down, after a mysterious encounter on the metro and a chance revelation from a rival operative.  
  In a city alive with talk of revolution, Will finds himself in the thick of the action. But now he gets news that threatens the closest and most complicated relationship in his life, with his younger brother.

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  The Condor Passes

  Shirley Ann Grau

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  From the Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist: A family saga of a wealthy man’s rise and his children’s fight for his fortune in 1920s New Orleans. Like many people in turn-of-the-twentieth-century New Orleans, Thomas Henry Oliver came to the city to escape a dull life—in his case, a childhood in the backwoods of the Midwest. But few New Orleans immigrants find as much prosperity as Oliver does amongst the city’s lively streets, amassing an enormous fortune built from brothels and speakeasies. By the time he’s ninety-five, Oliver has created a dynasty in Storyville, the city’s notorious red-light district, but as his wealth grows, so does his family’s desire to control it. After a series of strokes, Oliver must choose an inheritor, even though his two entitled daughters and ambitious adopted son don’t always seem worthy of his legacy.   His first daughter, an introverted perfectionist, marries a greedy, alcoholic, and adulterous Cajun, and his second daughter fosters a secret desire for her brother-in-law. On his deathbed, Thomas learns that the gold that built the Oliver name now corrupts his legacy and threatens to tear his family apart.   In this simmering dynastic saga by the author of Keepers of the House, three generations collide in their battle to control an empire.  This ebook features an illustrated biography of Shirley Ann Grau, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.    

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  The Short Stories of Jack London...

  Jack London

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  John Griffith Chaney was born on January 12th, 1876 in San Francisco.   
   
  His father, William Chaney, was living with Flora Wellman when she became pregnant.  Chaney insisted she have an abortion.  Flora's response was to turn a gun on herself.  Although her wounds were not severe the trauma made her temporarily deranged. 
   
  In late 1876 his mother married John London and the young child was brought to live with them as they moved around the Bay area, eventually settling in Oakland where now, calling himself Jack, he completed grade school. 
   
  Jack worked hard at several jobs, sometimes 12-18 hours a day, but his dream was university.  He studied hard and borrowed the money to enrol in the summer of 1896 at the University of California in Berkeley. 
   
  In 1897, at 21, Jack searched out newspaper accounts of his mother's suicide attempt and for the name of his biological father. He wrote to Chaney, then living in Chicago, who claimed he could not be Jack’s father because he was impotent and casually asserted that London's mother had relations with other men.  Jack, devastated by the response, quit Berkeley and went to the Klondike. Other accounts suggest that his dire finances presented Jack with the excuse he needed to leave. 
   
  In the Klondike Jack began to gather material for his writing but also accumulated many health problems, including scurvy, which together with hip and leg problems he would carry for the rest of his life. 
   
  During the late 1890's Jack was regularly publishing short stories and by the turn of the century full blown novels. 
   
  By 1904 Jack had married, fathered two children and was now in the process of divorcing.  A stint as a reporter on the Russo-Japanese war of 1904 was equal amounts trouble and experience. But that experience was always put to good use in a continuing and remarkable output of work. 
   
  In 1905 he married Charmian Kittredge who at last was a soul and companion who brought him some semblance of peace despite his advancing alcoholism and his incurable wanderlust. 
   
  Twelve years later Jack had amassed both wealth and a literary reputation through such classics as ‘The Call of the Wild’, ‘White Fang’ and many others. He had a reputation as a social activist and was a tireless friend of the workers.   
   
  Jack London died suffering from dysentery, late-stage alcoholism and uremia, aged only 40, on November 22nd 1916 at his property in Glen Elen in California. 
  01 - Jack London - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  02 - To Build a Fire by Jack London 
  03 - A Wicked Woman by Jack London 
  04 - The Unparallelled Invasion by Jack London 
  05 - A Thousand Deaths by Jack London

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