Head of Zeus Best Crime Stories of the Year Оутс Джойс Кэрол

The eldest was a razor-sharp novelist of upper-class manners; the second was loved by John Betjeman; the third was a fascist who married Oswald Mosley; the fourth idolized Hitler and shot herself in the head when Britain declared war on Germany; the fifth was a member of the American Communist Party; the sixth became Duchess of Devonshire • They were the Mitford sisters: Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah. Born into country-house privilege, they became prominent as 'bright young things' in the high society of interwar London. Then, as the shadows crept over 1930s Europe, the stark – and very public – differences in their outlooks came to symbolise the political polarities of a dangerous decade • The intertwined stories of their lives – recounted in masterly fashion by Laura Thompson – hold up a revelatory mirror to upper-class English life before and after World War II

A glorious illustrated history of sixteen of the world's greatest cathedrals, interwoven with the extraordinary stories of the people who built them • The emergence of the Gothic in twelfth-century France, an architectural style characterized by pointed arches, rib vaults, flying buttresses, large windows and elaborate tracery, triggered an explosion of cathedral-building across western Europe. It is this remarkable flowering of ecclesiastical architecture that forms the central core of Emma Wells's authoritative but accessible study of the golden age of the cathedral. Prefacing her account with the construction in the sixth century of the Hagia Sophia, the remarkable Christian cathedral of the eastern Roman empire, she goes on to chart the construction of a glittering sequence of iconic structures, including Saint-Denis, Notre-Dame, Canterbury, Chartres, Salisbury, York Minster and Florence's Duomo

Spring has arrived at The Potting Shed and things seem to finally be going Maddie's way. Her relationship with lovable lawyer Ed is going well and the business is thriving with the help of her new friend Jo and his bright orange coffee van • But troubles are just around the corner... the upgrade of The Potting Shed from a nursery to a garden centre is at a critical point, turning part of Maddie's business into a building site. And just as she has to temporarily move out of her home, a major garden centre announces its grand opening only twenty miles away • With money running out Maddie and her sister Sabi must think fast – they only have until the end of bluebell season to save The Potting Shed

The world's most ruthlessly efficient assassin, Jason Bourne, has carved a bloody swathe through all his opponents but now he's facing the one force he can't defeat – his own past – in the latest thrilling entry in Robert Ludlum's New York Times bestselling series • Three years ago, Jason Bourne embarked on a mission in Estonia with his partner and lover, a fiery Treadstone agent codenamed Nova. Their job was to rescue a Russian double agent, recently been smuggled out of St. Petersburg in the midst of an FSB manhunt • They failed. Their charge died at the hands of a shadowy assassin • Now, three years later, everything has changed. Nova is gone, killed in a mass shooting in Las Vegas. Bourne is a lone operative working in the shadows for Treadstone

From Joyce Carol Oates, literary icon and author of BLONDE, now a major motion picture, come four psychologically daring and chillingly suspenseful stories where women face threats both past and present • A Pennsylvania academic unearths a terrifying trauma from her past after inheriting a house in Cardiff, Maine from a stranger. A lonely pubescent girl befriends a feral cat that protects her from the increasingly aggressive men that surround her • A brilliant but shy college sophomore realizes she is pregnant and, distraught, allows a distinguished visiting professor to take her under his wing. And a widower remarries, but finds his young bride haunted by his dead wife's voice dancing in the wind

A man is murdered in broad daylight by a stealthy killer in this pitch-perfect WWII crime mystery • September 1939. Inspector Betty Church – one of the few female officers on the force – has arrived from London to fill a vacancy at Sackwater police station. But Betty isn't new here. This is the place she grew up. The place she thought she'd left for good • After a slow start, Betty's called to the train station to investigate a stolen bench. But though there's no bench, there is a body. A smartly dressed man, murdered in broad daylight, with two distinctive puncture wounds in his throat • While the locals gossip about the Suffolk Vampire, Betty Church steels herself to hunt a dangerous killer

A witty, scatological illustrated version of the world's most celebrated fables, allegedly written by a slave in the 5th century BC. A book for our times: as Gebler notes, Aesop has two subjects – the exercise of power and the experience of the powerless, who endure life and all that it inflicts on them. This retelling of the Fables makes them relevant and richly enjoyable. Gavin Weston's brilliant images complement Gebler's prose • Large and fierce animals kill and butcher weaker creatures; gods play games with the hopes and fears of lesser species, including men and women; and occasionally the weak turn the tables on the strong, exposing their pretensions. This is a stunning new version of a book that was often bowdlerised and used to teach moral lessons to children

Jason Bourne tackles a global media conspiracy and a murderous tech giant in the latest electrifying entry in Robert Ludlum's New York Times bestselling series • Jason Bourne has faced many killers before, but none as dangerous as the assassin Lennon. Bourne thought he had his foe cornered in Iceland, only to have the killer escape in a fiery explosion. Lennon's trail leads Bourne to New York and then to Washington D.C. – and the body count rises with each deadly encounter • Bourne believes the assassin has a new employer, a shadowy group called the Pyramid. The only clue is the murder of a young German woman, killed in D.C. while on her way to a covert meeting. But the woman's entire identity is a lie, and news reports of her death have been strangely twisted and suppressed

In equal measure gritty and tender, Coming Home to the Four Streets is the latest instalment in the Four Streets saga, from Sunday Times bestseller Nadine Dorries • Trouble is coming to the four streets, especially for its redoubtable women, who've struggled through a bitter winter to put food on the table. The Dock Queen Carnival is only weeks away, but there's no money for the usual celebrations. No sign of a tramp ship with illicit cargo to be quietly siphoned off by the dockers • Peggy Nolan, with seven boys and a husband too lazy to work, has hit rock bottom and is hiding a terrible secret. Little Paddy, her mischievous eldest, is all too often in trouble, but he'd do anything for the mother he loves. How can he save her from selling herself on the streets – or worse? • Maura and Tommy Doherty always looked out for any neighbour in trouble, especially Peggy, but they're far away, running a pub in Ireland and corrupt copper, Frank the Skank, is moving into their old house on the four streets

Когда патриарх семейства, бывший мэр городка в штате Нью-Йорк, становится жертвой полицейского насилия, его жена и все пятеро детей реагируют самым неожиданным образом, и давние фамильные тайны становятся явными, и глубоко закопанные психологические катастрофы дают всходы, и ни один скелет в многочисленных шкафах не остается непотревоженным • "Ночь, сон, смерть и звезды" - захватывающее исследование современной Америки через призму семейной трагедии: когда умирает влиятельный родитель, каждый из его взрослых детей реагирует поразительным и неожиданным образом, а его скорбящая вдова - самым удивительным образом из всех • Суровый и проникновенный, последний роман Джойс Кэрол Оутс - это яркое исследование расы, психологических травм, классовой борьбы, горя и возможного исцеления, а также интимный семейный роман

Мастерский роман о насильственном преступлении и его последствиях для общества – такой же своевременный и актуальный в 2019 году, каким он был при первой публикации в 2001 году • - Мы были Малвани, помнишь нас? Долгое время вы нам завидовали, потом пожалели нас. Долгое время вы восхищались нами, потом подумали о хорошем! это то, чего они заслуживают • Малвани с фермы Хай-Пойнт благословенны. Но затем, в День Святого Валентина 1976 года, что-то случается с Марианной, хорошенькой шестнадцатилетней дочерью, и ничто уже никогда не будет прежним • Книга на английском языке • A masterful novel about a violent crime and its reverberations throughout a community – as timely and relevant in 2019 as it was when first published in 2001 • ‘We were the Mulvaneys, remember us? For a long time you envied us, then you pitied us