Arrow Books Passage to Mutiny Kent Alexander

1774: The new year seems to offer Richard Bolitho and his friend Martyn Dancer the culmination of a dream. Both have been recommended for promotion, although they have not yet gained the coveted lieutenant's commission • But a routine passage from Plymouth to Guernsey in an untried schooner becomes, for Bolitho, a passage from midshipman to King's officer, tempering the promise of the future with the bitter price of maturity • Will he rise to the occasion?

1774: Bolitho is now a newly appointed third lieutenant joining the 28-gun frigate Destiny at Plymouth. It is a far step from midshipman's berth to wardroom - and, at a time when most of the fleet is laid up, Bolitho is considered fortunate • Bolitho's promotion is tinged by personal sadness, but his new captain soon points out that Bolitho's loyalty is to him, the ship and His Britannic Majesty - in that order • Despatched on a secret mission far south to Rio and then to the Caribbean, Destiny and her company face the hazards of conspiracy, treason and piracy - and, as the little ship sails on, Bolitho has to learn how to accept his new responsibilities as a King's officer • All amid broadside battles at sea and the clash of swords in hand-to-hand actions

1794: as the year draws to a close Richard Bolitho, commanding the old Hyperion, leaves Plymouth to join a squadron blockading the rising power of Revolutionary France. After six months of repairs his ship is ready to fight again, but her company is mostly raw and untrained • Unfortunately, Bolitho finds himself under a commodore who is no match for the French admiral, Lequiller, whose powerful squadron uses guile and ruthless determination to elude him and vanish into the Atlantic. Hyperion gives chase, the desperate voyage taking them from the Bay of Biscay's squall to the heat of the Caribbean - and for each mile sailed and every battle fought, Bolitho finds himself being forced into the ever more demanding role of strategist and squadron commander

1778: a seminal year for the young Richard Bolitho... The American War of Independence changes to an all-out struggle for freedom from British rule - and Bolitho takes command of the Sparrow, a small, fast and well-armed sloop of war • As the pace of war increases, the Sparrow is called from one crisis to another - and when the great fleets of Britain and France convene on the Chesapeake, Bolitho has to throw aside the early dreams of his first command to find maturity in a sea battle that might decide the fate of a whole continent • Bolitho's adventures continue in To Glory We Steer

1777: the revolution in America has erupted into a full-scale war • The navy's main task is to prevent military supplies from reaching Washington's armies and to destroy the fast-growing fleet of French and American privateers • As a junior officer Bolitho is often bewildered by swiftly changing events, but in a ship of the line, under a hard and determined captain, he has little opportunity for uncertainty. At a time of shortages and sudden death even a lieutenant can find himself faced with tasks and decisions more suitably given to officers of greater experience • As the Trojan goes about her affairs the threat to Bolitho and his companions makes itself felt from New York to the Caribbean

‘The first concern of an author is to do down his colleagues.’ • In the long, hot Roman summer of AD 74, Falco, private informer and spare-time poet, gives a reading for his family and friends. Things get out of hand as usual. The event is taken over by Aurelius Chrysippus, a wealthy Greek banker and patron to a group of struggling writers, who offers to publish Falco’s work. A visit to the Chrysippus scriptorium implicates Falco in a gruesome literary murder, so when commissioned to investigate, Falco is forced to accept • Lindsey Davis’s twelfth novel wittily explores Roman publishing and banking, taking us from the jealousies of authorship and the mire of patronage to the darker financial world, where default can have fatal consequences…

Would you be bewildered if someone described you as radgy? • Do you know how to recognise a tittamatorter? • And would you understand if someone called you a culchie? • How to Talk Like a Local gathers together hundreds of words from all over the country and digs down to uncover their origins. From dardledumdue, which means daydreamer in East Anglia, through forkin robbins, the Yorkshire term for earwigs, to clemt, a Lancashire word that means hungry, it investigates an astonishingly rich variety of regional expressions, and provides a fascinating insight into the history of the English language • If you're intrigued by colourful words and phrases, if you're interested in how English is really spoken, or if you simply want to find out a bit more about the development of our language, How to Talk Like a Local is irresistible - and enlightening - reading

From the Sunday Times bestselling author Katie Flynn. Three girls, evacuated from Liverpool during World War Two, support each other through hardship and heartbreak • It’s 1939, and three ten-year-old girls meet on a station platform • Imogen, Rita and Debby all missed the original evacuation and now the authorities are finding it difficult to place them. When Auntie and her niece, Jill, who run the Canary and Linnet Public House, offer to take them in, the billeting officer is greatly relieved • The countryside is heaven to the three little townies, especially after they meet Woody and Josh, also evacuees. They find that by climbing to the top of the biggest tree in the beech wood they have a perfect bird’s-eye view of the nearest RAF station and are able to watch the comings and goings of the young fighter pilots as the Battle of Britain rages

Rachel vowed that she would love David for better or worse • But when she spots him kissing another woman, she knows their marriage is over • And she's determined to get her revenge through divorce • The trouble is, her romantic destination wedding wasn't exactly legal - so if she wants to divorce her husband, she'll have to marry him first • But as Rachel recreates the magic of their early days in a bid to lure David back down the aisle again, will it bring back long-lost feelings for him too?

Petronius Longus, captain of the Aventine watch and Falco's oldest friend, has finally nailed one of Rome's top criminals. Under Roman law citizens are not imprisoned but are allowed 'time to depart' into exile outside the Empire. One dark and gloomy dawn Petro and Falco put the evil Balbinus aboard ship • But soon after, an outbreak of robbery and murder suggest a new criminal ring has moved into Balbinus' territory. Petro and Falco must descend into the underworld of Vespasian's Rome to investigate

Detective Alex Cross has lost everything and everyone he's ever cared about • His enemy, Thierry Mulch, is holding his family hostage. Driven by feelings of hatred and revenge, Mulch is threatening to kill them all, and break Cross for ever • But Alex Cross is fighting back • In a race against time, he must defeat Mulch, and find his wife and children - no matter what it takes • The End-Game Has Begun

Alexander Kinross is remembered in his native Scotland only as a shiftless boilermaker's apprentice. But when he writes from Australia to summon his bride, his relatives realize he is now a man to be reckoned with • Arriving in Sydney after a difficult voyage, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Drummond meets her husband-to-be and discovers that he frightens and repels her • Isolated in Alexander's great house, Elizabeth finds that marriage does not prompt her husband to enlighten her about his past life - nor his present one, in which his mistress, the sensuous, tough, outspoken Ruby Costevan, still plays a part • Will she be able to forge a happy new life in this new world?