Quercus The Pit Girl Gill Elizabeth

1877, Durham • After a traumatic and harrowing incident at the hands of a stranger, a woman gives birth to a child. However, she is persuaded by her husband to give him up to a local couple • On the same dark and stormy night, a local pit owner turns his wife out onto the bleak moors, telling her son she is evil. The woman is never seen again • 1895, Durham • Twenty years later, these seemingly unrelated events have shaped the characters of two unloved boys, who have now grown to be men. They, in turn, are about to change the lives of two innocent young women as the past reaches out and casts a shadow over the present

When little Ella's grandmother dies, she is turned out of her home with nowhere to go. After her mother chooses her new husband over her daughter, Ella is forced to seek refuge at the Foundling School for Girls • Meanwhile, twins Julia and Ned are torn apart by their parents, sent away to different schools. They long to be reunited but will have to take matters into their own hands • In a world of hardship and betrayal, three children search for belonging. But with a lifetime of scars to carry, can they ever find true happiness?

Start the journey here and you will be hooked • Dr Ruth Galloway is called in when a child's bones are discovered near the site of a prehistoric henge on the north Norfolk salt marshes. Are they the remains of a local girl who disappeared ten years earlier - or are the bones much older? • DCI Harry Nelson refuses to give up the hunt for the missing girl. Since she vanished, someone has been sending him bizarre anonymous notes about ritual sacrifice, quoting Shakespeare and the Bible. He knows that Ruth's expertise and experience could help him finally to put this case to rest • But when a second child goes missing, Ruth finds herself in danger from a killer who knows she's getting ever closer to the truth

Elizabeth II's coronation is looming, but the murder of their wartime commander, Colonel Cartwright, spoils the happy mood for DI Edgar Stephens and magician Max Mephisto. A playbill featuring another deceased comrade is found in Colonel Cartwright's possession, and a playing card, the ace of hearts: the blood card. The wartime connection and the suggestion of magic are for Stephens and Mephisto to be summoned to the case • Edgar's ongoing investigation into the death of Brighton fortune-teller Madame Zabini is put on hold. Max is busy rehearsing for a spectacular Coronation Day variety show - and his television debut - so it's Edgar who is sent to New York, a land of plenty worlds away from still-rationed England. He's on the trail of a small-town mesmerist who may provide the key, but someone silences him first

The Angelotti family reels when the lost son, given up for adoption in the war, traces his birth family and returns to the fold, with devastating consequences • As poverty-stricken newlyweds, Laura and Giovanni Angelotti were forced to put their first child - a boy - up for adoption. They have had other children since, and their first little Italian cafe has become a restaurant empire, but Laura is still haunted by thoughts of the baby she lost • Tom is a successful businessman enjoying the fast-paced City lifestyle - until his best friend and business partner is killed in the 9/11 attacks and his world turns upside down. Searching for meaning in his life, he decides to track down his birth family: the Angelottis • But Laura has been keeping an explosive secret about Tom's parentage that means his reappearance in her life is bittersweet

The first in a heartwarming saga series set during the Second World War. Perfect for fans of Pam Howes and Elaine Everest • 1942 • Working in the greengrocers and playing the piano in the pub a couple of nights a week isn't fulfilling nineteen-year-old Trixie Smith's idea of helping Britain win the war. One day she sees a poster advertising the Women's Timber Corps and decides to sign up - soon she is on her way to Scotland for four weeks of training to become a Lumberjill • On her journey north she meets Cy, an American soldier on leave. Their attraction is instant and they both feel that fate has brought them together. Although their time with one another is brief, they promise that they'll be together as soon as the war is over • But training to become a Lumberjill is hard; working in all weathers, felling trees and hauling timber is dangerous and exhausting

The McKenzies are your average complicated family: knotted together by in-jokes, arguments and a few closely-guarded secrets. Thirty-something sisters Leni and Alice became inseparable following the divorce of their parents, Belinda and Tony, with younger brother Will always trying to keep up. They're not perfect, but they love each other - most of the time, anyway • But then one ordinary summer day, an accident changes the family forever. Questions arise, guilt surfaces and secrets begin to emerge. Scattered by grief and seeking comfort in the unlikeliest of places, can the McKenzies find their way back to each other? • Set over the course of one life-changing year, The Best Days of Our Lives is a warm, big-hearted and poignant story, full of hope, heartache and love

The Kingdom of France, 1173. A remarkable queen rallies her sons against a tyrannical king - their father • It is with a soft voice, full of menace, that our mother commands us to overthrow our father • Richard Lionheart tells the story of his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. In 1173, she and three of her sons instigate a rebellion to overthrow the English king, her husband Henry Plantagenet. What prompts this revolt? How does a great queen persuade her children to rise up against their father? And how does a son cope with this crushing conflict of loyalties? • Replete with poetry and cruelty, this story takes us to the heart of the relationship between a mother and her favourite son - two individuals sustained by literature, unspoken love, honour and terrible violence

The loss of her mother has left Kali McKenzie with too many unanswered questions. But while clearing out Elena's art studio, she finds a drawer packed with postcard each bearing an identical one-line message from a Canadian gallery owner called Susannah Gillespie: thinking of you. Who is this woman and what does she know about Elena's hidden past? • Desperate to find out, Kali travels with her toddler, Finn, to Susannah's isolated home on a remote British Columbian island, a place of killer whales and storms. But as bad weather closes in, Kali quickly realises she has made a big mistake. The enigmatic Susannah refuses to talk about the past, and as Kali struggles to piece together what happened back in the 1970s, Susannah's behaviour grows more and more erratic

Torn between love and duty • When Vinia walked down the aisle she knew it was a marriage of practicality: as the owner of the local pit, Joe could provide her with a life of status. But her heart lies with another • With gypsy blood in his veins and an intense passion in his soul, Dryden has always held a torch for Vinia. And with the death of his wife, he vows to make good on the lost years when they were apart • Will Vinia find a new chance of happiness or be forever destined to a loveless marriage?

When Mary's father, the miller, leaves his family and runs away with another woman, Mary and her siblings are left to weather the storm. But when their mother dies soon after, the children, alone and unwanted, are sent to the Foundling School for Girls to start a new life • When the miller learns of his wife's death and what has happened to his children, he tracks them down and brings them to be a part of his new family, safe at last. But the miller is desperate for a son, and when Mary's newest sibling turns out to be a girl, he begins to court a vulnerable and lonely young woman called Isabel • After Isabel gives birth to a boy, the miller believes that the son he has been waiting for is finally here. But when rumours abound that the miller may not be the father of Isabel's child, he begins to lose control

Will he ever find the life he longs for? • Born to a mother who died in childbirth and an uninterested father, Niall McAndrew grows up a solitary child, without a home to call his own. His only friend is Bridget, a young girl forced prematurely into womanhood • Niall has brains, spirit and ambition, as well as being blessed with handsome good looks. But his loveless childhood has left its mark. Can he ever find the happiness he yearns for? • A moving and uplifting tale of a young boy with big dreams