Headline The Blood Crows Скэрроу Саймон

Germany has conquered Poland. The world is praying for peace. At home, the Nazi Party's hold on power is absolute • One freezing night, an SS doctor and his wife cheerfully return home from an evening out. By sunrise, the doctor will be lifeless in a pool of blood • There is pressure to record the incident as a suicide, but the first evidence uncovered by Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke points to a chillingly staged murder. The investigation is swiftly blocked by Schenke's superiors, but he can't let it go. When he uncovers links to the mysterious death of a child, a terrifying secret begins to emerge • In times of war, under a ruthless regime, there are places no man should ever enter. And Schenke fears he may not return alive

1565, Malta: a vital outpost between the divided nations of Europe and the relentlessly expanding Ottoman Empire. Faced with ferocious attack by a vast Turkish fleet, the knights of the Order of St John fear annihilation. Amongst those called to assist is disgraced veteran Sir Thomas Barrett. Loyalty and instinct compel him to put the Order above all other concerns, yet his allegiance is divided. At Queen Elizabeth's command, he must search for a hidden scroll, guarded by the knights, that threatens her reign • As Sir Thomas confronts the past that cost him his honour and a secret that has long lain buried, a vast enemy army arrives to lay siege to the island

1938. A perfect summer on the Greek island of Lefkas for three young people untroubled by the simmering politics of Europe. Peter, visiting from Germany while his father leads an archaeological dig, has become close friends with locals Andreas and Eleni. As the world slides towards conflict and Peter is forced to leave, they swear to meet again • 1943: Andreas and Eleni have joined the partisan forces resisting the German invasion. Peter has returned - now a dangerously well-informed enemy intelligence officer. A friendship formed in peace will turn into a desperate battle between enemies sworn to sacrifice everything for the countries that they love

Set in seventeenth-century Iran, The Blood of Flowers is the powerful and haunting story of a young girl's journey from innocence to adulthood • The novel begins in the 1620s in a remote village where the narrator (whose name, in the Iranian storytelling tradition, we are never to know) lives with her mother and rug-maker father. On the sudden death of her father, our heroine and her mother fall upon hard times and are forced to travel to the bustling, beautiful, exotic city of Isfahan where relatives take them in • Everything is new: the grudging charity of her aunt, the encouragement of her uncle, one of the finest carpet-makers in the world, who begins to teach her his craft, the treacherous friendship of the daughter of rich neighbours. And there's an adventure ahead which will introduce her to the sensual side of life as well as to the cruelty of betrayal and rejection before she finds her way to contentment and possibly, even, to happiness, in a world full of contrasts and dangers

How was a man killed while alone in a locked room? Is it the perfect murder? • It's a case for FBI Special Agent Rose Blake. Still raw after a notorious serial killer slipped through her net, Rose will do whatever it takes - including putting her own life at risk - to nail the perpetrator this time • When a second body with identical wounds is discovered, Rose realises that a twisted murderer is playing a deadly game. A murderer who's not going to stop any time soon. But what links the victims? And who's next? No one is safe, and the clock is ticking

It is AD 55. As trouble brews on the eastern fringes of the Roman Empire, Prefect Cato and Centurion Macro must prepare for war • The wily Parthian Empire has invaded Roman-ruled Armenia, ousting King Rhadamistus. The King is ambitious and ruthless, but he is loyal to Rome. General Corbulo must restore him to power, while also readying the troops for war with Parthia. Corbulo welcomes new arrivals Cato and Macro, experienced soldiers who know how to knock into shape an undermanned unit of men ill-equipped for conflict • But Rhadamistus's brutality towards those who ousted him will spark an uprising which will test the bravery of the Roman army to the limit. While the enemy watches from over the border

The brutal backdrop of Ancient Rome provides the setting for the gripping story of the champion gladiator Pavo. Trained to kill, he has also become a pawn in the games of the powerful and ambitious • Pavo's journey begins when he encounters the Roman soldier Macro, who has been charged with his training. Bonds of friendship develop between the two men, both aware that their fates depend not only on Pavo's skills in the arena but also on the whims of powerful and ruthless senators. Can Pavo survive to fulfil his most cherished goal - revenge for the murder of his father at the hands of a champion gladiator?

The Thousand Lights Hotel is the gorgeous new novel from Emylia Hall, author of Richard and Judy Summer Pick THE BOOK OF SUMMERS. Set in idyllic Italy, it's the perfect holiday read, for fans of Louise Douglas and Hannah Richell • When Kit loses her mother in tragic circumstances, she feels drawn to finally connect with the father she has never met. That search brings her to the Thousand Lights Hotel, the perfect holiday escape perched upon a cliff on the island of Elba. Within this idyllic setting a devastating truth is brought to light: shaking the foundations upon which the hotel is built, and shattering the lives of the people within it • A heartbreaking story of loss, betrayal, and redemption, told with all the warmth and beauty of an Italian summer

The locals of the Cornish village of Polperran are grieving the sudden loss of Bea Kimbrel, a cornerstone of their small community • Now her reclusive, estranged daughter Alice has turned up, keen to tie up Bea's affairs and move on • But Alice receives a strange bequest from Bea - a collection of unfinished tasks to help out those in Polperran most in need • As each little act brings her closer to understanding her mother, it also begins to offer Alice the courage to open her clamped-shut heart. Perhaps Bea's project will finally unlock the powerful secrets both women have been keeping • The Kindness Project will draw you deep into the lives of two compelling women who should never have missed their chance to say goodbye. It will break your heart - and piece it back together again

The gritty new mystery in Quintin Jardine's bestselling Bob Skinner series, set in Edinburgh and the Scottish countryside; not to be missed by readers of Ian Rankin and Peter May • Nine years ago, divorcee Marcia Brown took her own life. A pillar of the community, she had been accused of theft, and it's assumed that she was unable to live with the shame. Now her former husband wants the case reopened. Marcia was framed, he says, to prevent her exposing a scandal. He wants justice for Marcia. And Alex Skinner, Solicitor Advocate, and daughter of retired Chief Constable Sir Robert Skinner, has taken on the brief, aided by her investigator Carrie McDaniels • When tragedy strikes and his daughter comes under threat, Skinner steps in. His quarry is about to discover that the road to hell is marked by bad intentions

Roman Britain, AD 44. The land is far from tamed. A puppet king is doing little to calm the hatred of the native tribes • Fighting is in Optio Horatius Figulus' blood. His Celtic ancestry gives him the toughness essential for survival. That toughness will be tested to the very limit when he is sent on a mission deep in hostile territory. And Figulus knows that, even utterly crushed in battle, their warriors routed and the Druids driven from their hill forts, the tribesmen of Britannia will sooner die than surrender

It is AD 25. Pirate ships strike terror in the hearts of those who brave the seas of the Roman Empire • When young Telemachus joins the crew of the merchant ship Selene, he's delighted to escape the rough streets of Piraeus. He knows little of the dangers of life at sea. And even past hardship has not prepared him for the terror on board when a pirate ship appears • The fight is bloody, but the result is never in doubt. Then the victorious pirate chief, Bulla, offers the beaten men a cruel choice: join us, or die. After surviving a brutal initiation rite, Telemachus impresses his new captain with his resourcefulness and strength, and swiftly rises through the pirate ranks. But dangerous rivals talk of mutiny and murder. While Prefect Canis, notorious commander of the imperial fleet, is relentless in his pursuit of the pirate brotherhood