Literature & Fiction

When Milan Patel visits his parents at their family-run motel in Montana, he's expecting the usual drama. But shortly after he arrives, his father mysteriously dies in the motel pool. Now everyone's a suspect. What was meant to be a quick trip becomes Milan's worst nightmare, as he races to solve his father's murder while confronting the past he tried to leave behind.

Hilda Tablet is a fictitious ‘twelve-tone composeress’ created by Henry Reed in a series of radio mockumentaries. She first appeared in the play A Very Great Man Indeed, which follows the quest of a fictional biographer, Herbert Reeve, who is writing the biography of the equally fictional novelist Richard Shewin.

Someone wants to murder Princess Melilot. This is sadly normal. Melilot is sick of being ordered to go on dangerous quests by her domineering stepmother. Especially since she always winds up needing to be rescued by her more magically talented stepsisters. And now, she's been commanded to marry a king she’s never met. When hideous spider-wolves attack her on the journey to meet her husband-to-be, she is once again rescued—but this time, by twelve eerily similar-looking masked huntsmen.

Entertainment journalist Dawn Roberts has a lot to work through: a widow’s grief, betrayals of family and friends, and scandals that almost tanked her reputation. Not that Dawn dwells on the past. Well, hardly. When she returns to Baltimore with her husband’s ashes, she can’t avoid it. In fact, she’s diving into decades of backstabbing and treachery for her first trip home in years. She’s looking at you, Joe Perkins. Her former mentor, whose explosive exposé about big-city corruption is being turned into a slanderous movie, is also back in town.

Fran Donoghue has just killed her neighbour. Don’t worry, you’ll agree, he deserved it. Detective Gareth Donoghue has a terrible feeling about his missing neighbour. By the time this is over, that will be the least of his worries… A dark, sharp and hilarious novel about love, marriage, and murder, with an ending you won’t see coming… Gareth certainly didn’t.

As a daughter of the notorious Wyverne family, Lady Amelia is used to being the subject of gossip. But while she has accepted her marred reputation – however unfair it is – she hates the horrible men it attracts. Amelia decides she needs a suitor of impeccable repute to save her from the attentions of ungentlemanly gentlemen, and who better than the handsome and famously moral Lord Thornfalcon? Since coming into his title, ‘Thorn’ has been besieged by women who want to marry him, or have an affair with him, or both – so perhaps a pretend relationship might suit him too?

Before Jane Austen, there was Fanny Burney. In the 1780s, she was England’s most celebrated female author, having achieved extraordinary success with two hit novels. She went on to become a royal servant, marry an exile from the French Revolution and undergo a gruelling mastectomy without the aid of anaesthetic – all events chronicled in her diaries, which were published posthumously to great acclaim. Contained here are dramatisations of her first and most famous novel, and her remarkable journals and letters.

How to Dodge a Cannonball is funnier than the Civil War should ever be. It follows Anders, a teenage idealist who enlists and reenlists to shape the American Future—as soon as he figures out what that is, who it includes, and why everyone wants him to die for it. Escaping his violently insane mother is a bonus. Anders finds honor as a proud Union flag twirler—until he’s captured. Then he tries life as a diehard Confederate—until fate asks him to die hard for the Confederacy at Gettysburg. Barely alive, Anders limps into a Black Union regiment in a stolen uniform.

Dogsplaining is a fast-paced, witty novel centred on the floundering marriage of Morgan and Daisy Somerville. Morgan, a former war correspondent, is eating himself into an early grave. Daisy is staging a sex strike because of her husband’s obesity. In a desperate attempt to make him lose weight, save his life, and revive her marriage, Daisy secretly buys a puppy with dramatic consequences.

Anthony Wistern es más rico de lo que cualquiera podría imaginar. Lo tiene todo: una esposa despampanante, un puñado de hijos muy fotogénicos, un castillo francés, una mansión en Cotswold, una plétora de amantes, una inclinación a tomar atajos morales... Por desgracia para él, también está muerto. Ahora, con su fortuna como inminente herencia, todos los miembros de la familia caen bajo sospecha. Y es entonces cuando todo se viene abajo...

Quando gli zombie incontrano i social, vince la fama o la fame? Essere famosi non è facile: non hai privacy, i passi falsi non sono contemplati e nessuno conosce chi sei davvero. E poi c’è quella storia del perdere la testa. Il che è davvero un grosso problema. Soprattutto se sei uno zombie. Zack è un diversamente vivo, attrazione in uno zoo della Georgia, e desidera solo essere visto. Purtroppo l’America si è stufata degli zombie, e l’unica sua prospettiva sembra una pensione a forma di proiettile.

Flachwitze, Dadjokes und andere Peinlichkeiten. Die Witze Parade, bei der garantiert kein Auge trocken bleibt. Hier darf wirklich jeder lachen. Genießen sie den schwarzen Humor und haben Sie viel Spaß.

A witty story from the bestselling author of Excavations, Salty takes us to a tropical paradise with a hurricane on the way, where two estranged sisters uncover their rich employers’ reckless development—could these yacht owners have something to do with the dead body found in the marina?

In the soul-crushing beige of an Idaho IRS office, where fluorescent lights hum endless and the radio loops forgotten hits, Elliot toils over tax forms, auditing losses that mirror his own. Trapped in a purgatory of mildew-stained carpets and petty office wars, he’s haunted by dreams he never chased, a life unlived. Amid the droning despair of coworkers reduced to shadows, each clinging to their rituals of donuts, weather reports, and futile team-building, a spark of chaos ignites, threatening to unravel the fragile order.

When a cast member goes missing from the hit reality show Sex Island, producers hire detective Luella van Horn to go undercover as a contestant and solve the case. What the producers don’t know is that the enigmatic Luella van Horn is actually a woman named Marie Jones, a divorced ex-social worker from Staten Island attempting to lead a double life as a private eye. The local press couldn’t get enough of Luella . . . until she horribly bungled her last case and a murderer went free.

When gossipy notes written in the margins of an old book turn out to be clues to the disappearance of another guest, Mia finds herself diving headfirst into a dangerous adventure. With everyone at the resort hiding secrets of their own, she’ll have to solve this real-life mystery before she becomes the next target.

Otto Steven was an idiot who held a doctoral degree in agricultural economics. Otto performed sophisticated-looking analyses of data from surveys of livestock producers for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and got papers published in peer-reviewed journals. Otto’s work was pure garbage, but was exactly what the scientific journals wanted. Patsy Nowak was a bright young university student who had a part-time internship, thanks to a special USDA program for individuals with disabilities. Otto was her supervisor.

Heaven's Queens is a satirical fantasy, derived from the Bible, archaeological findings from the Ancient Near East, Roman Catholic doctrine, and American Evangelical Protestant Christian teaching. In antiquity, the Israelites worshiped Asherah, as the Queen of Heaven and YHWH’s wife, together with YHWH. Judah’s King Josiah put a violent end to the worship of Asherah, and to the worship of (and belief in) any divinity besides YHWH. This caused YHWH to experience considerable loneliness. One day, following Satan’s advice, YHWH decided to find a virgin with whom to copulate.

Barry’s got issues. Anger issues. Drinking issues. Authority issues. Oh—and his stinger has a name. It's Carl. And Carl wants blood. After being kicked out of Bee Therapy (again), Barry finds himself slapped with Hive Probation, forced to work with a butterfly “Calmness Coach” named Clover, and hunted by riot-gear-wearing Peace-Beetles. His crime? Buzzing too hard and giving zero pollen about authority.

Where do you get an abortion in 1960 Georgia, especially if your small town’s midwife goes to the same church as your parents? For seventeen-year-old Doris Steele, the answer is Atlanta, where her favorite teacher, Mrs. Lucas, calls upon her brash, wealthy childhood best friend, Sylvia, for help. While waiting to hear from the doctor who has agreed to do the procedure, Doris spends the weekend scandalized by, but drawn to, the people who move in and out of Sylvia’s orbit.

Ashleigh Carmichael has it all: money, fame, expensive cars, a multi-million-pound London house and the adoration of millions of social media followers. Curtis Redding does not have it all: homeless, penniless, down on his luck and he doesn’t even own a phone. Plus, he’s wanted to kill Bryan Matthews since he was a child. Ashleigh (through no fault of her own) winds up getting dragged into the power-play between Curtis and Bryan, who clearly have ongoing issues with each other.

In The Marching Morons, C. M. Kornbluth delivers a biting science fiction satire set in a future where intelligence has all but vanished. With society ruled by mediocrity and the average IQ plummeting, one cunning man from the past awakens to seize control. A darkly humorous, prophetic tale about ignorance, manipulation, and the cost of cultural decay.

Vile Soreinbut survived Mudbath Community War College’s flaming death gauntlets, vicious rivalries, and a painfully attractive brooder with the emotional depth of a wet sponge. Now she’s back—and so is the chaos. The wards protecting Boudoir are failing, the ancient enemy known only as “The Varmint” is tunneling into reality with its six nipples of doom, and Xadence Marriott has developed… feelings. Gross.

What could be more charming than an English department store bedecked for the Christmas holidays? When Tony Black scores a seasonal position working retail, he expects it will be hard work for little money—what he doesn’t expect is that his boss will lead him through a Terry Gilliam-esque, labyrinthine hellscape of mystery, scandal, dominion and clearance markdown prices. A gritty, darkly comic novella by the unique A.J. Reid.

In this humorous, thought provoking and action packed fictional story, learn why some people choose not to use the ‘Gifts’ bestowed upon them, electing to be only prosaic primates, while others around them benefit from exercising their ‘Gifts’ not only for their own betterment, but also for the greater good of society.