Bøker utgitt av Hodder & Stoughton

'In his whistle-stop tour of inventions large and small, the scientist Trevor Norton shares the Gershwins' view that invention is fundamentally comic.' The Sunday TimesTrevor Norton, who has been compared to Gerard Durrell and Bill Bryson, weaves an entertaining history with a seductive mix of eureka moments, disasters and dirty tricks. Although inventors were often scientists or engineers, many were not: Samuel Morse (Morse code) was a painter, Lazlow Biro (ballpoint) was a sculptor and hypnotist, and Logie Baird (TV) sold boot polish. The inventor of the automatic telephone switchboard was an undertaker who believed the operator was diverting his calls to rival morticians so he decided to make all telephone operators redundant. Inventors are mavericks indifferent to conventional wisdom so critics were dismissive of even their best ideas: radio had 'no future,' electric light was 'an idiotic idea' and X-rays were 'a hoax.' Even so, the state of New Jersey moved to ban X-ray opera glasses. The head of the General Post Office rejected telephones as unneccesary as there were 'plenty of small boys to run messages.'Inventomania is a magical place where eccentrics are always in season and their stories are usually unbelievable - but rest assured, nothing has been invented.

Jim Carver: a tough, resolute war veteran, he returns from the trenches to build a better life for his family to find his wife dead. Archie Carver: Jim's eldest son, smart, ruthless, he has a quick eye for financial profits and beautiful women. Elaine Frith: beautiful and ambitious, she uses her charms to snare any man she thinks will bring her wealth. The First World War ends and the soldiers return to the peaceful Avenue. On the surface their homes look just the same, but behind the carefully tended front gardens everything has changed, and their families' lives in the next twenty years will be as turbulent as any they have known.

They find the boy by the swimming pool, dolls floating on its surface. Inside the house, his teacher lies dead. But he claims to remember nothing... Marsac is a quiet town in the Pyrenees, best known for its elite university. But when one of its professors is murdered, it becomes clear that the tranquil surface is a lie. The chief suspect is the son of Commandant Servaz's university sweetheart; and when she implores him to investigate, he cannot refuse. To close the case, Servaz must delve into his own past and re-open old and terrible wounds. It will be his most dangerous - and his most personal - investigation yet.A Song for Drowned Souls is the new novel by international bestseller Bernard Minier, author of The Frozen Dead, which was selected by The Sunday Times as one of the best crime novels in recent years.

One of the Sunday Times 100 Best Crime Novels and Thrillers Since 1945Now on Netflix, the Commandant Servaz series: The Frozen Dead'Great storytelling, with a creeping sense of dread that would not disgrace Stephen King at his best' Daily MailOne winter morning, in a small town nestled in the Pyrenees, a group of workers discover the headless body of a horse, hanging suspended from a frozen cliff.Toulouse city cop Servaz is sent to investigate the disturbing crime.When DNA from one of the most notorious inmates of a nearby asylum is found on the corpse the case takes a darker turn...and then first human victim is found.The twists and come thick and fast in this suspenseful thriller as Servaz races to uncover the town's dark secret before the killer strikes again.

'A master of the genre' The TimesThe Tungrians have no sooner returned to Rome than they find themselves tasked with a very different mission to their desperate exploits in Parthia. Ordered to cross the river Rhenus into barbarian Germany and capture a tribal priestess who may be the most dangerous person on the empire's northern border, they are soon subject to the machinations of an old enemy who will stop at nothing to sabotage their plans before they have even set foot on the river's eastern bank. But after their Roman enemy is neutralised they face a challenge greater still. With two of the Bructeri tribe's greatest treasures in their hands they must regain Roman territory by crossing the unforgiving wilderness that was the graveyard of Roman imperial strategy two hundred years before. And capture by the Bructeri's vengeful chieftain and his warband can only end in one way - a horrific sacrificial death on the tribe's altar of blood.

'A master of the genre' The TimesThe eighth book in the Empire sequence takes Centurion Marcus Aquila and his Tungrian legion on a dangerous mission to the heart of the Parthian empire.With Rome no longer safe Marcus and the Tungrians are ordered east, to the desolate border lands where Rome and Parthia have vied for supremacy for centuries.Ordered to relieve the siege of an isolated fortress, their task is doomed to bloody failure unless they can turn the disaffected Third Legion into a fighting force capable of resisting the terrifying Parthian cataphracts.And Marcus must travel to the enemy capital Ctesiphon on a desperate mission, the only man who can persuade the King of Kings to halt a war that threatens the humiliation of the empire and the slaughter of his friends.

A cosy Dandy Gilver mystery set in 1920s Scotland. For fans of PG Wodehouse, Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie.Perthshire 1929 and the menfolk of the Gilver family have come down, between them, with influenza, bronchitis, pneumonia and pleurisy. Dandy the devoted wife and mother decides it is time to decamp; Dandy the intrepid detective, however, decides to decamp to the scene of a murder she would dearly love to solve. The family repairs to the Borders town of Moffat, there to drink the sulphurous waters straight from the well and to submit to the galvanic wraps and cold salt rubs of the splendid Laidlaw Hydropathic Hotel.But all is not well at the Hydro. The Laidlaw family is at war, the guests are an uneasy mix of old faithfuls and giddy upstarts, and the secret of the lady who arrived but never left cannot be kept for long. And what of those drifting shapes in the Turkish bath? Just steam shifting in the air? Probably. But the Hydro was built in the lee of a Gallow Hill, and in this town the dead can be as much trouble as the living...Catriona McPherson's latest novel in the series, Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble is now available for pre-order.

'A master of the genre' The TimesThe seventh novel in Anthony Riches' acclaimed Empire sequence brings Marcus Aquila back to Rome, hunting the men who destroyed his family. But the revenge he craves may cost him and those around him dearly.The young centurion's urge to exact his own brutal justice upon the shadowy cabal of assassins who butchered his family means that he must face them on their own ground, risking his own death at their hands.A senator, a gang boss, a praetorian officer and, deadliest of all, champion gladiator Mortiferum - the Death Bringer - lie in wait. The knives are unsheathed, and ready for blood . . .

A cosy Dandy Gilver mystery set in 1920s Scotland. For fans of PG Wodehouse, Alexander McCall Smith and Agatha Christie.'1920s lady detective Dandy Gilver lands a sleuthing gig in a setting straight out of Enid Blyton,. Cosier than a pair of WI-knitted mittens, Corpses serves up murder most foul - and is also good for several giggles.' TIME OUT Before she was a detective, before she was a reluctant wife and distracted mother, before she was even a debutante, Dandy Gilver spent one perfect summer with the Lipscotts of Pereford. The golden memories of it have sustained her through many a cold snap in Perthshire. So when two of the Lipscott sisters beg her to help the third, she can hardly refuse. Sweet, pretty Fleur Lipscott: where is she now? The astonishing answer to this is that Fleur - still Miss Lipscott, indeed more Miss Lipscott than ever - is buried alive in the tiny seaside village of Portpatrick, working as a schoolmistress at St Columba's College for Young Ladies.But she is one of the few remaining, for St Columba's has been shedding mistresses as a snake its skins and the exodus is far from over. With mistresses vanishing and corpses mounting up, can Mrs Gilver, detective, pass herself off as Miss Gilver, English mistress, to solve the one and stop the other?Catriona McPherson's latest novel in the series, Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble is now available for pre-order.

This unputdownable Amazonian adventure is perfect for fans of The Lost City of Z. 'The thinking person's Dan Brown' Tom Harper has taken you to the underworld. He's taken you to the Arctic. Now he's taking you to the deadliest jungle on earth. When Kel MacDonald joins an expedition looking for a legendary lost city in the Peruvian Amazon, he's expecting the adventure of a lifetime. But things are not what they seem. Paramilitaries, drug cartels, and wildcat prospectors all want what the jungle has to offer - while untamed local tribes will fight desperately to protect their way of life. Maps of the region have been doctored. And what exactly happened to the previous expedition, a government vaccination program that went upriver and never returned? Soon finding the lost city is the least of their troubles. The jungle hides deadly secrets that must be hidden at all costs. And someone in the group wants to make sure they never get out.

An award-winning short story collection from the author of the must-read DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE trilogy.In Victorian times, goblins offered sumptuous fruits in exchange for maidens' souls... and were usually successful. But what does it take to tempt today's savvy young women? Discover the answer in GOBLIN FRUIT. In SPICY LITTLE CURSES a demon and the ambassador to Hell tussle over the soul of a beautiful English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in love and decides to test the curse placed upon her. And in HATCHLING, six days before Esme's fourteenth birthday, her left eye turns from brown to blue. She little suspects what the change heralds, but her small safe life begins to unravel at once. What does the beautiful, fanged man want with her, and how is her fate connected to a mysterious race of demons?

I have never written down the answers to the deepest mysteries, nor will I ever... The philosopher Plato wrote these words more than two thousand years ago, following a perilous voyage to Italy -- an experience about which he never spoke again, but from which he emerged the greatest thinker in all of human history.Today, twelve golden tablets sit in museums around the world, each created by unknown hands and buried in ancient times, and each providing the dead with the route to the afterlife. Archaeologist Lily Barnes, working on a dig in southern Italy, has just found another. But this tablet names the location to the mouth of hell itself.And then Lily vanishes. Has she walked out on her job, her marriage, and her life -- or has something more sinister happened? Her husband, Jonah, is desperate to find her. But no one can help him: not the police, and not the secretive foundation that sponsored her dig. All Jonah has is belief, and a determination to do whatever it takes to get Lily back.But like Plato before him, Jonah will discover the journey ahead is mysterious and dark and fraught with danger. And not everyone who travels to the hidden place where Lily has gone can return.

Nat Hearn came back from the War to be assistan editor and can carrier in chief of the Sandcome Clarion. R.F. Delderfield takes the lid off small town life with a relish born of experience and reveals the politicking and doubtful but only too human motives that swirl round and through the sieve of a small local paper.

From the writer of the award-winning Game of Thrones series for HBO based on the books of George R. R. Martin.'David Benioff is an exceptional storyteller' Khaled Hosseini'[An] acerbically captivating first novel' New York TimesAlso adapted as a feature film by Spike Lee starring Edward Norton and Philip Seymour HoffmanMonty Brogan starts a seven-year prison sentence for dealing drugs tomorrow. Tonight is his last night of freedom. His father wants him to run. His drug-lord boss, Uncle Blue, wants to know if he squealed. His girlfriend isn't sure what she wants, and his two best friends know one thing for sure; after he goes in, he will never be the same.'As unusual as it is well wrought: it resonates with a Whitmanesque sense of the city's possibilities and unsatisfied longings' New Yorker

The main lesson Luce had learned was that you couldn't count on anybody. In the lonesome beauty of the forest, across the far shore of the mountain lake from town, Luce acts as caretaker to an empty, decaying Lodge, a relic of holidaymakers a century before. Her days are long and peaceful, her nights filled with Nashville radio and yellow lights shimmering on the black water. A solitary life, and the perfect escape. Until the stranger children come. Bringing fire. And murder. And love.

LONGLISTED FOR THE FOLIO PRIZE 2015One heart, two lives...When a teenager dies in an accident in rural Cambridgeshire, it affords Patrick, a fifty-year-old professor, drinker and womaniser, the chance of a life-saving heart transplant. But as Patrick recovers, he has the odd feeling that his old life 'won't have him'. He becomes bewitched by the story of his heart, ever more curious about the boy who donated it, his ancestors, the Fenland he grew up in. What exactly has Patrick been given?

'Brilliant'Paula HawkinsIn 1964, the eccentric American novelist Patricia Highsmith is hiding out in a cottage in Suffolk, to concentrate on her writing and escape her fans. She has another motive too - a secret romance with a married lover based in London. Unfortunately it soon becomes clear that all her demons have come with her. Prowlers, sexual obsessives, frauds, imposters, suicides and murderers: the tropes of her fictions clamour for her attention, rudely intruding on her peaceful Suffolk retreat. After the arrival of Ginny, an enigmatic young journalist bent on interviewing her, events take a catastrophic turn. Except, as always in Highsmith's troubled life, matters are not quite as they first appear . . .Masterfully recreating Highsmith's much exercised fantasies of murder and madness, Jill Dawson probes the darkest reaches of the imagination in this novel - at once a brilliant portrait of a writer and an atmospheric, emotionally charged, riveting tale.

Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful and the heir to a vast family fortune. She was also deeply in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to fulfil her social ambitions and marry an English Duke. Leaving her life in America, she came to England as the Duchess of Marlborough in 1895 and took up residence in her new home - Blenheim Palace.The 9th Duchess gives unique first-hand insight into life at the very pinnacle of English society in the Edwardian era. An unsnobbish, but often amused observer of the intricate hierarchy both upstairs and downstairs at Blenheim Palace, she is also a revealing witness to the glittering balls, huge weekend parties and major state occasions she attended or hosted. Here are her encounters with every important figure of the day - from Queen Victoria, Edward V11 and Queen Alexandra to Tsar Nicholas, Prince Metternich and the young Winston Churchill.Causing a scandal by separating from the Duke after 11 years, Consuelo began her new life as philanthropist, public speaker and campaigner for women's suffrage. Her literary soirees would include H G Wells, JM Barrie and George Bernard Shaw. In 1921 she remarried aviator Jacques Balsan moving with him to a chateau in the South of France.This intimate, richly enjoyable memoir is a wonderfully revealing portrait of a golden age.

From the creator and writer of the Emmy Award-winning series Fargo, based on the Oscar-winning Coen Brothers film.An ordinary boy with an ordinary life stands accused of killing the next president of the United States.WHAT HAPPENED?Dr Paul Allen is a well-respected man. He lives a happy, comfortable life with his second wife and their family. Until the night when a knock at the door blows his world apart: a hugely popular presidential candidate has been shot, and they say the young man who pulled the trigger is Paul's son.Daniel, the only child from his first, failed marriage, was always a good kid and Paul is convinced his quiet boy is not capable of murder.Overwhelmed by a vortex of feelings, Paul embarks on a mission to understand what happened and why. Following the trail of his son's journey across America, he is forced to re-examine his life as a husband and a parent, and every decision he ever made.What follows is a powerfully emotional and suspense-filled quest that keeps you guessing to the very end.'Monsters don't just become monsters, after all.'

This morning Detective John Tallow was bored with his job.Then there was this naked guy with a shotgun, and his partner getting killed, and now Tallow has a real problem: an apartment full of guns. Old guns. Modified guns. Arranged in rows and spirals on the floor and walls. Hundreds of them.Each weapon is tied to a single unsolved murder. Which means Tallow has uncovered two decades' worth of homicides that no one knew to connect and a killer unlike anything that came before.Tallow's bosses don't want him to solve the case. The murderer just wants him to die. But there's a pattern hiding behind the deaths, and if Tallow can figure it out he might even make it out alive.

All parents want their child to get the most out of school and to acquire the knowledge and skills that will stand them in good stead for later life. But with an ever-expanding curriculum, increasing class sizes, and the lure of TV and computer games, parents are sometimes at a loss as to how to help their children.In Calmer, Easier, Happier Homework, parenting expert No l Janis-Norton, shows how parents can help their children develop the skills and resources they need to succeed.A former classroom teacher, No l offers practical strategies on everything from establishing good homework habits to encouraging even the most reluctant reader to love books. Calmer, Easier, Happier Homework is a practical programme that will transform your child's education.- For parents of children ages 4-14 -

When Philip Serrell - now well known for his television appearances - gave up teaching to become a professional auctioneer, he thought he was embarking on a sensible and safe career . . . a quiet life in the country with no surprises. In THE AUCTIONEER'S LOT we found out how wrong he was. SOLD TO THE MAN WITH THE TIN LEG Philip describes more of his extraordinary experiences as a country auctioneer, aided and abetted by some of the most colourful characters Worcestershire has to offer. From dodgy cars to fakes in the saleroom; angry livestock, mangled silverware and tortuous - not to mention muddy - experiences in local markets and farm sales, Philip has been there, done that and got the hoofprints on his suit to prove it. And of course, there's the return Philip's tin-legged boss . . .

There on her forearm, next to a small brown birthmark, were six tattooed numbers. 'Do you remember me now?' he asked, trembling. She looked at him again, as if giving weight and bone to a ghost. 'Lenka, it's me,' he said. 'Josef. Your husband.' During the last moments of calm in prewar Prague, Lenka, a young art student, falls in love with Josef. They marry - but soon, like so many others, they are torn apart by the currents of war. In America Josef becomes a successful obstetrician and raises a family, though he never forgets the wife he thinks died in the camps. But in the Nazi ghetto of Terez??n - and later in Auschwitz - Lenka has survived, relying on her skills as an artist and the memories of a husband she believes she will never see again. Now, decades later, an unexpected encounter in New York brings Lenka and Josef back together. From the comfort of life in Prague before the occupation to the horrors of Nazi Europe, The Lost Wife explores the endurance of first love, the resilience of the human spirit and our capacity to remember.

This is the story of the great con game that was the late twentieth century, of American history's worst presidency, of how I learned to lie. It is not history as you know it. There are at least three sides to this story, and I'm telling both of mine. I promise you I will show the same contempt for the historical record that it has shown for me.My name is Richard Milhous Nixon. I swore an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, and I have seen the devil walk.An alternate history, a horror novel, a political satire and a study of what people will sacrifice to succeed, CROOKED is the ultimate inside story of the strange, all-too-human monsters at the heart of American power.

When she was a little girl, Jasvinder Sanghera's father told her about the village he came from, Kang Sabhu in rural Punjab. One day, he promised to take her there so she could meet her half-sister, Bachanu, who had stayed behind. But at the age of sixteen - as she so vividly related in her bestseller Shame - Jasvinder ran away from home to escape a forced marriage. Her parents disowned her. 'Shame travels...' her father told her. Although her mother took all her other daughters to meet the extended family in the Punjab, Jasvinder was never allowed to go. With her own daughter about to marry, Jasvinder decides to challenge thirty years of rejection by going to India herself. She wants to explore her roots and to see for herself the place her parents called home until the day they died. What Jasvinder finds in India and what she learns changes the way she sees the world, and has important lessons for all of us. SHAME TRAVELS is not only a gripping and revealing quest, but also an inspirational journey of the heart.

A terrifying ghost story from the Queen of Icelandic crime, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, author of the Thora Gudmundsdottir novels.'Yrsa is one of the most exciting new voices in the crime thriller world.' - Peter JamesThe crunching noise had resumed, now accompanied by a disgusting, indefinable smell. It could best be described as a blend of kelp and rotten meat. The voice spoke again, now slightly louder and clearer: Don't go. Don't go yet. I'm not finished.In an isolated village in the Icelandic Westfjords, three friends set to work renovating a derelict house. But soon they realise they are not alone there - something wants them to leave, and it's making its presence felt.Meanwhile, in a town across the fjord, a young doctor investigating the suicide of an elderly woman discovers that she was obsessed with his vanished son.When the two stories collide the terrifying truth is uncovered . . .

'Best book ever!' - 5-star reader reviewTheodore Boone, young lawyer, has had a lot to deal with in his thirteen years, everything from kidnapping to murder. But he's come through it all and, with the law on his side, justice has always prevailed. Sometimes, though, the law doesn't seem so just. His friend Hardie Quinn is about to have his family home bulldozed to make way for a bypass. Hardie is not the only one affected: other homes, businesses and schools lie in the path of the road. Theo has to tell his friend the bad news: for once, the law isn't on his side, and there's very little anyone can do to end the destruction. Theo joins the campaign to stop the road. But when he stumbles on a terrible secret about the corrupt men behind the plan - a secret it is illegal for him to know - Theo must figure out how to keep the developers from breaking the law . . . without breaking it himself.*******************What readers are saying about THEODORE BOONE: THE ACTIVIST'Fantastic' - 5 stars'Thoroughly enjoyable' - 5 stars'This is the best book in the series, a gripping read from the first page to the last' - 5 stars'Awesome' - 5 stars'Wonderful' - 5 stars

'Truly gripping!'' - 5-star reader reviewTheodore Boone is the thirteen year old who knows more about the law than most adult lawyers. He certainly never expected to be the victim of crime himself. But then his bike is vandalised, he's attacked while doing his homework and, worst of all, framed for a robbery.When stolen computer equipment turns up in Theo's school locker, the police start leaning on him hard. And he is the only suspect. What if he is found guilty? What about his dreams of becoming a lawyer? In a race against time, aided by his renegade uncle, Ike, Theo must find the real felon and reveal the true motivation behind the crimes of which he stands accused.*******************What readers are saying about THEODORE BOONE: THE ACCUSED'A rattling good read' - 5 stars'Brilliant' - 5 stars'Outstanding' - 5 stars'He's done it again' - 5 stars'A sharp, intelligent, easy read' - 5 stars

Ex-counterterrorist soldier Joe Hunter has been called to Mexico to bring an end to a cartel that preys on the people they smuggle across the US border. Once the mission's ended, however, Joe's mission leader and mentor, CIA Black Ops director Walter Hayes Conrad, confesses that the bloody mission is not the real reason Joe has been summoned south of the border. For years, Walter has kept the details of his private life - especially his family - secret from everyone, even his closest friends. But disaster has struck: his great-grandson Benjamin has been abducted, kidnapped by Walter's sworn enemy, the leader of one of Mexico's largest drug cartels. Walter will do whatever it takes to get the boy back. And he know Hunter is the man for the job.But there's one complication -- the drug boss just happens to be Benjamin's father.

Britain's favourite gardener Alan Titchmarsh has also been the most popular contributor to Gardeners' World magazine for the last twenty years.This collection of his very best columns, demonstrates just why he is regularly voted the readers' favourite. His brilliant writings are, in turn, practical - just how far back should we prune our roses? - opinionated - I always rail at people who go out on a Sunday afternoon to tidy their gardens. I mean, a garden is not a sock drawer - cheeky - I have a theory that gardeners grow to look like their soil and wistful - You've got to be a bit of a dreamer to get the most out of your garden.So lay down your trowel, take off your wellies, sit back and enjoy a bit of quintessential Titchmarsh.