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A stunning coming-of-age novel about a young woman struggling to find her place in a vast world - taking the reader from Kenya to China and Turkey - by the award-winning author of Dust.

Armed with only an open mind and a little karate, Mrs Pollifax is the most lovable and most unlikely of international spies.

All Bob Dillon ever wanted was a truck with a big fiberglass bug on the roof. All he had to do was survive a half dozen assassination attempts, pull a ten million dollar con on a Bolivian drug lord, and then fall off the face of the earth with his family and his new best friend, Klaus. Six years later, they've surfaced in Oregon where they are continuing to work on an all-natural means of pest control.Bob and Klaus are using advanced gene sequencers to consolidate the perfect insectkilling traits into one deadly bug. All this serious DNA tampering is expensive and they're running low on funds. But who will invest? The interested outfit turns out to be a front for an agency of the Department of Defense, and they want to enlist Bob, Klaus, and the bugs in the War on Terror.Things go swimmingly until that Bolivian drug lord discovers he was conned: he offers twenty million to whomever kills Bob and Klaus. Some of the world's best assassins descend on Hollywood and the weirdness reaches an apocalyptic level...Reviews for the Assassin Bugs series'One of the funniest, most off-beat thrillers... an action-packed plot stuffed with streetwise lines and larger than life characters.' The Times'Wild and clever fun.' Carl Hiaasen'Does for beetles what Jurassic Park did for dinosaurs... within its fascinating pages is a cast of creepy crawlies whose murderous methods put human predators to shame. Perfect holiday reading.' Liverpool Daily Post

What if you could trade places with someone? Epiphanie swaps Madison Square Garden for gigs in pubs. Sally is catapulted from suburban semi-life to mega-stardom. But which life will each choose in the end?

In the third instalment of the Battlestar Suburbia series, robots and humans learn the answers to all their problems lie not in space but under their feet. It's time for toasters and fleshies to Sashay to the Centre of the Earth.

The bickering but loving Rooks run a small family business - ghost hunting. They claim that there's no supernatural problem too small or too big for them... which unfortunately includes the apocalypse.

Brigade Criminelle is mobilised when a fatal stabbing, an anticipated delivery of lethal drugs from Marseilles, and the discovery of a thirty-year-old corpse in an ancient turreted tower in the town of Puyceldome coincide with a frantic search for two murderous hitchhikers - all on Chief Inspector Pel's patch.

Fires have been breaking out all over Chief Inspector Pel's beloved province of Burgundy, from small houses to woodland. Then a local farmer's flock of sheep is poisoned, a tray of valuable rings stolen from a local jewellers, and the body of a woman is found.

A dead man is found floating in a canal, his wallet revealing a strange symbolic drawing; and a hostage drama unfolds at the Banque Credit Rural, where not only millions in currency and jewellery are at stake but also lives. On the other side of town, a stunning art student switches masterpieces for copies.

When Chief Inspector Pel accepts a drinks invitation at the house of a big shot, Deputy Claude Barclay, he doesn't realise how compromised he will become by his acceptance.

An extravagant, big time gangland criminal is ambushed and assassinated; the only witness a ten-year-old-boy.

Brigade Criminelle is mobilised when a fatal stabbing, an anticipated delivery of lethal drugs from Marseilles, and the discovery of a thirty-year-old corpse in an ancient turreted tower in the town of Puyceldome coincide with a frantic search for two murderous hitchhikers - all on Chief Inspector Pel's patch.

Still on the run, Smiler hitches a train to Scotland where he finds work as an animal caretaker within the grounds of a castle occupied by 'the Laird', Sir Alec Elphinstone.

Smiler flees to the farm of the 'The Duchess' in North Devon, where he stays and tends to circus animals housed there for the winter. All is going well until a peregrine falcon, Fria, escapes.

A double shooting of two ageing crooks leads Chief Inspector Pel following the trail all the way to Mexico. Pel and his detectives know how, when and by whom they were murdered; but they must discover why.Away from his beloved Burgundy, Pel is given a quick course in the history of the French intervention in Mexico during the 1860s. A brief spell among the Pueblos, and a shoot-out under a moonless sky eventually bring him his reward.Moody, sharp-tongued and worrying constantly about his health, Inspector Pel ensures that no case goes unsolved, in these mordantly witty French mysteries.Praise for the Inspector Pel Mystery series:''Totally convincing.'' Financial Times''Mr Hebden has created a nice band of flics.'' Oxford Times''Pel and his procedurals are some of the best things since Maigret.'' Observer''Chief Inspector Evariste Clovis D├⌐sir├⌐ Pel, as well rounded a character as Maigret or Van der Valk.'' Punch''Impeccable French ambience, unexaggerated flics, and a well-constructed solution. Hebden proves again that few understand Gallic cops better than English writers!'' The Times''Some characters grow as their saga lengthens and Pel... is one of them. You might say he is ripening along with the grapes.'' Police Review''...written with downbeat humour and some delightful dialogue.'' Financial Times''...all is most cunningly contrived and dovetailed into a coherent plot.'' Irish Times''A thoroughly entertaining read.'' Evening Standard''The best Gallic sleuth since Maigret.'' London Mystery Selection

Rick and Lollie find themselves looking back half a century to solve the case and it takes them up famed Highway 61 to places rich in the history of the blues. A place where certain people have worked hard to keep the lid on some unsavoury business.

Eddie Long plans to be a country music star but he''s stuck touring the college frat circuit. After his wife dies at the hands of a serial killer, Eddie writes the best song of his life. It goes straight to number one. And that''s when all the trouble starts.Jimmy Rogers is a freelance writer covering the Mississippi music scene. He sets out to write the life story of Nashville''s latest sensation but unearths some facts that could ruin Eddie''s burgeoning career while making Jimmy a huge bestseller.Throw in a beautiful and opportunistic country radio DJ, a pair of wily record producers, and a naive young singer-songwriter, and the stage is set. Everybody plans to make a killing -- one way or another. It''s murder on Music Row, where things don''t always turn out as planned.Praise for Bill Fitzhugh''s Books''A strange and deadly amalgam of screenwriter and comic novelist... in league with Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard.'' New York Times Book Review ''A rip-roaring farce of a thriller.'' Mirror''Fitzhugh tightens his grip on a reputation for absurdist black comedy.'' Bookpage

Rick Shannon is an unemployed FM rock DJ considering a mid-life change in careers. But just as he begins selling off his record collection, a job offer comes from a small station in Mississippi, where a DJ recently stopped showing up for work.No sooner than he settles into the job, Rick finds a mysterious reel of tape that just might explain what happened to the missing DJ. His curiosity piqued, Rick starts poking around and soon finds himself going down a road littered with extortion, arson, murder, and an FCC violation that makes Howard Stern look like a Cub Scout.Before you can say "Stairway to Heaven", Rick finds himself wading through a swamp of suspects, including a tough divorcee who rents construction equipment, a former local beauty pageant queen (Miss Tire & Auto Parts), and the president of a local personal finance company who has peculiar ideas about collateral and who just might be part of the feared Dixie Mafia.Reviews of the DJ Rick Shannon series''Hilarious - and dead on. Fitzhugh treats us to a tragicomic tour of regional black-and blues history.'' New York Times''Fast, funny, and fabulous. This is Fitzhugh''s finest - and that''s saying a lot!'' Jill Conner Browne''A lost-tapes mystery - all blues mysteries are lost-tapes mysteries - but unlike the rest, this pays off with a climax so rich you want to hear the tapes as much as the people hunting them down.'' Greil Marcus

Jake Trapper isn''t your average organ acquisition specialist. He''s the best in L.A. But Jake has a soft spot for underdogs and his current case is Angel, a young girl from a broken home. She needs a kidney. So Jake makes a deal with a broker and gets seduced into the kidney business.When a potential organ donor is killed, Jake meets LAPD Homicide Detective Megan Densmore who enlists Jake to help with the investigation. Enter Special Agent Fuller, a Fed looking into the black market angle. He''s an oddball with an architecture fetish and an endless supply of strange tales to tell.As more bodies surface, Special Agent Fuller turns a suspicious eye toward Jake and the noose tightens, threatening to reveal Jake''s dirty little secret.Reviews of the Transplant Tetralogy''One of the funniest, most off-beat thrillers in years.'' The Times''His wit and style are as compelling as his tightly wound thriller plots, and his thoughts on the world we live in are fascinating and, often, spot on... An awe-inspiring feat.'' Washington Post''Bill Fitzhugh just gets better and better.'' Christopher Moore''A thrilling tale of science run amok... laugh-out-loud send-ups of the madness of modern life.'' Booklist

Given a terminal diagnosis, Miguel Padilla decides he must accomplish something meaningful before death. He seizes on the idea of donating a kidney to save someone's life. Then decides: why stop there? Why not donate... everything?

Big-shot ad exec Dan Steele feels entitled to the best life has to offer - even if he has to live way beyond his means to acquire it. But there''s hope on the horizon. Dan has just stolen what''s sure to be an award-winning idea for a multimillion-dollar account. If he can keep the creditors at bay long enough, he''ll get the keys to the executive restroom and all his problems will be solved.Unfortunately, that''s when his brother, a Catholic priest, shows up at Dan''s door in need of a loan to pay for some essential medical attention. Being both financially and morally challenged, Dan hands over his insurance card instead of his credit card. But it''s too late. After running up a bill for $300,000, Father Michael goes the way of all flesh.Now Dan has a choice: go to prison for insurance fraud or take a vow of poverty and become a man of the cloth. Before he can say "God bless," Dan finds himself pursued by a relentless insurance investigator, the psychopathic copywriter whose idea he stole, and a deadly killer from his brother''s mysterious past. And, as if that wasn''t enough, Dan finds himself falling in love with a gun-toting nun. Let us pray.Praise for Bill Fitzhugh''s Books''A strange and deadly amalgam of screenwriter and comic novelist... in league with Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard.'' New York Times Book Review ''A rip-roaring farce of a thriller.'' Mirror''Fitzhugh tightens his grip on a reputation for absurdist black comedy.'' Bookpage

A collection of theatrical misfits goes on tour across the Atlantic in this nostalgic post-war novel sure to delight fans of PG Wodehouse and Jerome Jerome

A marvellously macabre look at how some of the world's favourite historical figures got even more interesting past their expiration dates with their corpses in part or in whole going on hilarious and horrifying adventures!

A comedy murder mystery set in France with an amateur sleuth out of his depth. When an older gentleman disappears from a B&B, Richard and his more capable partner must solve the case! Written by a leading comedian.

On a night of wild storms, two troubled figures - a 15-year-old boy, Smiler, and a cheetah, Yarra - escape from captivity. Their lives become inextricably bound up as they fight for survival on the edge of Salisbury Plain.

1665. King Charles II has returned from exile but the scars of the English Civil Wars are yet to heal and now the Great Plague engulfs the land. When Alethea is cast out on the streets of London, a long road to Derbyshire lies ahead of her.

Spence Tailor, a lawyer with an actual set of principles, loves his mama, Rose. Rose - with advanced cardiomyopathy and a rare blood type - is scheduled for a heart transplant.But when the president's heart craps out during a photo op three months before the national election, the White House chief of staff orders the FBI to seize the heart that was going to Rose - all in the name of democracy. But Spence isn't about to let anybody steal what rightfully belongs to his mom.So with the help of his reluctant older brother, they hijack the heart, inadvertently kidnap a beautiful cardiac surgery resident, and take to the road in a '65 Mustang - with all the president's men in potentially murderous pursuit.Reviews of the Transplant Tetralogy'One of the funniest, most off-beat thrillers in years.' The Times'His wit and style are as compelling as his tightly wound thriller plots, and his thoughts on the world we live in are fascinating and, often, spot on... An awe-inspiring feat.' Washington Post'Bill Fitzhugh just gets better and better.' Christopher Moore'A thrilling tale of science run amok... laugh-out-loud send-ups of the madness of modern life.' Booklist

Originally published: London: Arrow, 1996.