"The Maze Investigators have reached the final message from the medium Claire Lewis—about a young Scot who traveled to Spain in 1938 and disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only a strange, enigmatic message. Maggie returns to Catalonia, to a story heard on her first trip three years before which now has a significance she didn't understand or appreciate at the time. Further revelations lead back to Glasgow and a long hidden crime. Back in Wales, the final confrontation with the Quinn and McCarthy Miller families is looming. There has to be a winner. Can anyone emerge unscathed?"
"If there's one art the French have mastered as well as fine cuisine, it's haute couture. Tabitha and Julia are already accustomed to sampling the delights of the former. Now fashion is returning to the forefront in Paris, as the somber hues of wartime are replaced by vibrant colors and ultra-feminine silhouettes, influenced by Christian Dior's 'New Look.'
Tabitha and Julia join a friend for a private showing at an exclusive fashion atelier, Maison Lannet. The event goes well, but when Tabitha returns later that evening to search for a lost glove, she finds the lights still on—and the couturier dead, strangled by a length of lace. The shop manager suspects that a jealous rival—perhaps Dior himself—committed the crime. Tabitha dismisses that idea, but when another body is found, it's apparent that someone is targeting employees of Maison Lannet.
Meanwhile, Tabitha's Grand-père and Oncle Rafe are in the midst of their own design-related fracas, as they squabble over how to decorate their new restaurant. And there are strange break-ins at a nearby shoe store—but are the crimes related? It's up to Tabitha to don her investigative hat and find answers before someone commits another fatal fashion faux pas."
"What is it like to care for another family, while yours remains in a different country? In today's capitalist society, migrant women performing care work in private households experience the painful tension of caring for both, often under precarious conditions.
Characterized as the 'backstage' family, the carer's remote relationship with their loved ones at home is often purely digital, with the double dilemmas of migrant motherhood and stay-behind fathers—exposing the pitfalls of transnational employment relations and the growth of social inequality.
Here, Helma Lutz explores the debates around this issue, focusing on carers from Eastern Europe working in the West. She unpacks questions around feminist critiques of capitalism and the commodification of emotional labor, exploring how gender justice and the search for socialist feminist utopias can shape how we see a future—not only for the improvement of the carers' working and living conditions but also for a new way of dealing with care work."
"Based on a true story, Trail to Treason is an evocative historical drama set during WWI, where a mother's sacrifice and clandestine espionage test the bounds of love and duty.
In a world where love and duty collide, Florence finds herself wedded young to a stern man, her life a silent testament to obedience and sacrifice. Cast out into the cold from seeking solace in forbidden arms, she faces her exile with the weight of a shattered family—one son by her side, the other left behind in the grip of her unforgiving husband. With doors shut firmly by those she once called family and the church that promised sanctuary, Florence embarks on a humble journey as a nurse.
Just as hope begins to glimmer on the horizon, love blossoms anew with a wealthy widower. Yet fate deals a cruel hand, snatching her newfound happiness away. As the shadows of the First World War stretch across Europe, a desperate Florence is ensnared in a deadly game of espionage, coerced into spying for the Germans.
Bound by love, torn by duty, and haunted by the ghosts of choices past, Florence must navigate the treacherous waters of a world at war, where trust is a luxury and survival is a constant battle.
Will she emerge unscathed, or will the sacrifices demanded by her clandestine role shatter the fragile hope she's clung to? Dive into the heart of an era where war rages not just across battlefields but within the very souls of those caught in its grasp.
Based on a true story."
"A colorful account of women's health, beauty, and cosmetic aids, from stays and corsets to today's viral trends
Victorian women ate arsenic to achieve an ideal, pale complexion, while in the 1790s balloon corsets were all the rage, designed to make the wearer appear pregnant. Women of the eighteenth century applied blood from a black cat's tail to problem skin, while doctors in the 1880s promoted woolen underwear to keep colds at bay. Beautification and the pursuit of health may seem all-consuming today, but their history is long and fantastically varied.
Ranging across the last four hundred years, Margarette Lincoln examines women's health and beauty in fascinating detail. Through firsthand accounts and reports of physicians, quacks, and advertising, Lincoln captures women's lived experience of consuming beauty products, and the excitement—and trauma—of adopting the latest fashion trends.
Considering everything from body sculpture, diet, and exercise to skin, teeth, and hair, Perfection is a vibrant account of women's body-fashioning—and shows how intimately these practices are related to community and identity throughout history."
"Everything comes at a cost.
London, 1862. Now that London's most notorious criminal has set his sights on her, navigating the scandal-mongers and fortune hunters of society is the least of Samantha's problems. Yet, even the looming threat of Skinny Jim won't stop her from finding ways to put her new inheritance to good use. But when one of her philanthropist friends is found dead in what police say was a robbery gone wrong, she's certain he was murdered, and she thinks she knows who did it. To find out, she'll need the help of the man whose proposal she rejected—a man she is beginning to think she can't live without.
V.T. Wyatt would love nothing more than to win Samantha over, but first he needs to keep her alive—which would be a lot easier if she didn't walk headlong into danger. As Samantha and Wyatt find themselves drawn into a web of blackmail and deception, they must decide what price they are willing to pay to protect their secrets."
"Less than one year into her marriage to respected magistrate George Knightley, Emma has grown unusually content in her newfound partnership and refreshed sense of independence. The height of summer sees the former Miss Woodhouse gracefully balancing the meticulous management of her elegant family estate and a flurry of social engagements, with few worries apart from her beloved father's health . . .
But cheery circumstances change in an instant when Emma and Harriet Martin, now the wife of one of Mr. Knightley's tenant farmers, discover a hideous shock at the local church. The corpse of Mrs. Augusta Elton, the vicar's wife, has been discarded on the altar steps—the ornate necklace she often wore stripped from her neck . . .
As a chilling murder mystery blooms and chaos descends upon the tranquil village of Highbury, the question isn't simply who committed the crime, but who wasn't secretly wishing for the unpleasant woman's demise. When suspicions suddenly fall on a harmless local, Emma—armed with wit, unwavering determination, and extensive social connections—realizes she must discreetly navigate an investigation of her own to protect the innocent and expose the ruthless culprit hiding in plain sight."
"'A gripping, flawless novel' - Sophie Hannah, author of The Opposite of Murder
A mother and daughter, pushed too far. Complex and compulsive, Mice is a twisting work of psychological suspense from Gordon Reece.
Sixteen year old Shelley and her mother move to Honeysuckle cottage in the middle of the countryside, fleeing their fears and anxieties and hoping to put behind them years of suffering at the hands of others.
Shelley has endured terrible bullying from the girls who used to be her best friends, and her mother has been left reeling following a divorce from her selfish, demanding husband. For Shelley and her mother are 'mice' - timid, nervous and obliging. And for a while, in their cottage-haven, the women flourish.
But one night, their fragile peace is shattered when Shelley wakes to hear a creak on the stairs. Someone has broken into the house . . .
In the shocking, chilling events that follow, Shelley's world is turned on its head, as the women find themselves tested as never before. And as their lives spiral out of control, the tension reaches fever pitch, and Shelley begins to wonder: if she and her mother are not mice after all, then what are they?
'A sophisticated psychological thriller . . . gripping' - Guardian
'Truly remarkable . . . Mice is a book many will without question be talking about' - Daily Express"
"After receiving an unexpected inheritance of jewelry, including a rare 'spoon ring', Zelah agrees to go to Cornwall to find out more about its history. She knows she may have to face discovering her own closely-guarded family history. Reluctant to dig up her past at first, she gathers the courage to find out where she comes from and who she really is. So, in the middle of a glorious summer, the Maze Investigations team takes a month off and heads to Cornwall. Staying in a beautiful, unique house on the edge of a cliff above the sea, Maggie, Nick, and Zelah begin an investigation of a very personal nature. However, they soon find that the story of the ring and the other items are shrouded in theft, betrayal, and murder. And something unexplained."
"The Maze Investigators have taken on a herculean task with a looming deadline, based on a story heard from a friend, who is a well-known medium.
They must get to the answer to prevent a public relations disaster, knowing that no one can ever find out what they have done.
Meanwhile, they commit to helping a young girl find the truth about her missing, presumed dead, mother. When the cases split wide open, the outcomes of both are far from assured."
"Maze Investigations has been operating for six months and has been an exciting international success.
Maggie is still doing her weekly radio slot. Zelah has discovered a new talent and Nick is still slogging away at what he does best: finding the truth in hidden places.
Maggie announces some unexpected news but it isn't well received, particularly by Zelah. There is an argument and a standoff.
Nick has been planning news of his own and asks Maggie for help. He has decided to open up about his past and resolve his own family mystery. Meanwhile, an angry Zelah has taken on a new client, but this Canadian is not what he seems. Maggie also works on her own case—a lost child from the Spanish Civil War.
Can the investigators solve their cases and resolve their differences—or is Maze Investigations destined to fail?"
"Maggie Gilbert and her children, Jack and Alice, live a pretty normal life. That is, until Maggie starts looking into her family tree. In doing so, she uncovers a dark mystery that endangers her children. She has to solve the mystery in the past, if she is to save her family in the present. Together with a fellow genealogist, Zelah, Maggie unearths more and more details about the drowning of a small girl and the unsolved disappearance of Maggie's ancestor. Strange forces are at work, and they seem to be leaking into the present. This supernatural mystery is set in and around Cwmbran and Newport in South Wales, and draws on real historical details."
