Books

Those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.

In 1935, Susan Shawe abandons England for Mussolini’s Italy, marrying a Fascist official and cutting herself off from her family. Thirty-seven years later, her nephew Charlie follows her path to Rome, hoping escape will give his life direction.

There he meets Rosa, Susan’s daughter: beautiful,...

‘I don’t want to lose my past,’ he said to his doctor, ‘it’s all I have. It’s all any of us has.’

Julius Durward, 64-year-old author of the cult book Pandora’s Mirror, is visiting the French town of Uzès hoping to meet up with old friends. His memory failing, haunted by a past tragedy, Julius finds himself being pressured to support two wildly...

In Oxford, a bestselling author revisits an old secret . . .

Why is bestselling author Tessa Wainwright visiting Oxford again after so many years abroad? Even Vince, her agent and factotum, is in the dark but Conrad Merrivale, a student doing vacation work at the hotel she’s staying at, unearths the reason.

Conrad, with his taste for hard drugs...