Urban Historical

Even as the modern world pushes the supernatural aside in favor of science and steel, the old ways remain. God, demon, monster, and sorcerer alike plot to regain what was theirs. 1913, Salem, Massachusetts - Sarah Engelmann's life is full of friends, books, and avoiding the pressure to choose a husband, until an ominous vision and the haunting call of an otherworldly trumpet shake her.

Wild Bill Hickok awakens to the feel of flesh crawling onto his bones. Alive again, in the graveyard in Deadwood on a cold October night, he has an irresistible compulsion to go to Atlantic City. There, in the mysterious and magical Black Queen casino, he joins a rogue’s gallery of resurrected scoundrels, all gamblers who were murdered like himself.

In 1939, the unexpected death of Sandra Anderson dramatically and ruthlessly changes forever the lives of the family she leaves behind. Kitty, her spoiled and pampered 15-year-old daughter, has to give up her dreams of a career as she becomes the family drudge. Sandra's heartbroken husband, Johnny, finds solace for his grief by becoming the main mouthpiece for his trade union in the shipyards, leaving little time for newborn Rosebud, whose birth caused her mother's death.

Stefan Wishart, heir prince of Angliana, wants only one thing: the approval of the man who should have been his father. At age 10, when he overhears a conversation between his parents - the queen and prince consort - he learns the reason for the prince's antipathy toward him. Stefan's not his real son. He's the bastard child of a pirate.

Isabella Tenderini, a wealthy merchant's widow rescues a stranger from drowning in one of Venice's canals. And how does the man repay her selfless act? By kissing her - her, a respectable woman. Not only is Raphael di Santori grateful for his life being saved, he would also like to thank his rescuer very intimately - more intimately than decorum allows. But then, Raphael has never been one to play by the rules - as a vampire he doesn't have to.

When Julia Dulac's father is murdered onstage and her inheritance is swindled away, she must work through her grief and fear of poverty to find both the killer and a means of survival with help from the Raven, a black crystal that reveals images of past and future truths. While having the crystal appraised, Julia finds love and her life takes unexpected turns through mystery and betrayal against the backdrop of the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.

Raised on the magic-seeped Isle of Moon, Maeve is used to unusual powers - and the way they fuel the politics of her world. But when she discovers an ability to shape-shift at will, she knows who she wants to share it with first. Brody, the enigmatic, infuriating shifter-spy has always made time for Maeve. But it’s been almost two months since she’s seen him. And though no one else believes Brody is in danger, Maeve is more than ready to rescue him herself.

The Pratchett family have to contend with coalman Alfie Pratchett's obsessive jealousy. A bully, his two teenage children, John and Millie, have learned to dodge him and his moods. The main concern of ugly duckling Millie - who looks nothing like her handsome brother John - is to protect their mum, Eileen. When crisis strikes the Pratchetts' home, Alfie is forced to watch his whole world gradually collapse around him. Their old life has gone forever, and a new one has begun - one in which rape, debt, alcoholism and insanity play their parts. And redemption is a long time coming.

It's 1962, and Freda Scott and her five schoolmates are eager to embark on their life journeys. Madly in love with the dashing but unattainable Ewan, Freda instead throws herself into a hairdressing career, and soon she and her best friend, Robin, have established their own flourishing business. The future looks rosy - until Freda's life is turned upside down by a brutal attack. As Freda struggles to come to terms with what has happened to her, she relies on her old friends more than ever.

On a freezing Christmas Eve in 1879, a forensic psychic reader is summoned from her Baker Street lodgings to the scene of a questionable death. Alexandrina Victoria Pendlebury (named after her godmother, the current queen of England) is adamant that the death in question is a magically compromised murder and not a suicide, as the police had assumed. After the shocking revelation contained by the body in question, Alex must put her personal loss aside to uncover the deeper issues at stake, before more bodies turn up.

Jeff Powell is in over his head. He has a deadline to meet, an agent to satisfy, a barista to impress, and now, to top it all off, he's stuck in the world of his best-selling fantasy series. A world, it turns out, that doesn't even like him. Instead of deadlines, he's got dragons. Instead of an impatient agent, he's got characters who hate him. The girl of his dreams? Well, at least that's one less thing to worry about if he can't find his way home.

When Blythe Bradbury moves to Brekham, it takes less than a day for rumors of witchcraft to find their way to the town’s minister. But the ravings of the town’s gossip mean little to the minster’s son, Caleb Walcott, who finds himself drawn to the strange, outspoken young woman. Caleb isn’t the only man in Brekham entranced by her rare beauty, but he is the only one to earn her heart. Yet when the minister’s daughter is found murdered in the forest, Blythe is there beside her. Covered in blood. To save Blythe from the gallows, Caleb must piece together what really happened.

A gritty and compelling drama from the best-selling author of The Orphans of Halfpenny Street. Perfect for fans of Nadine Dorries and Sheila Jeffries. Little twin sisters Sarah and Samantha are all alone in the world. When their mother died giving birth to Sarah, she was blamed for the death by her father, and her learning difficulties serve only to make him more angry and violent towards her.

A religious war is brewing. The Catholic Church relies on the ruthless reputation of Lord Beltran Nemesto, who tirelessly hunts down those who don't believe or who practice dark arts. Half mortal, half Fae princess, Rhiannon le Fay is a healer trying to broker peace between the Faerie and mortal worlds. The Convergence is approaching, an occurrence every 1,000 years where the Veil that separates the two realms temporarily dissolves. Without her help, war between the two is inevitable.

Gwenyth Killigrew, the Witch of Kerrow, has seen the tragic fate that awaits any man she's foolish enough to fall in love with. Yet she yearns for a daughter to carry on her healer's wisdom and otherworldly gifts of Sight. When Rafe Fleming, a notorious smuggler, washes ashore near her home, she thinks she's found the man to father that child.

Victor McGlothin is the Essence best-selling author of Autumn Leaves. In The Secrets of Newberry, McGlothin crafts a stunning portrait of race relations in New Orleans circa 1955. When Hampton Bynote meets Bones Arcineaux, the two begin stealing from the rich whites of the French Quarter as a way of recovering the pride that was once taken from them. But when one burglary takes a turn for the worse, the consequences haunt the two men for years to come.

Hazel's parents saw the 1912 sinking of the Titanic as a portent of doom and locked their daughter away. Isolated and alone, each birthday she wishes to be free, whatever the risk. If only her childhood friend, Henry, would return and breach the high walls. On the front lines of the Great War, Henry kept a token of happier times - a worn photograph of a young girl with long blonde plaits. He returns from war damaged and vowing to do one brave thing to make up for his cowardice: release Hazel from her prison.

Jane Moone is hired to identify the witch who cursed a sheep. But her client, Kate Grazier, has already decided who did it - Dorcas Whiting, the hedge witch who happens to be Jane’s father’s sweetheart. Dorcas would never harm an innocent sheep and everyone knows it, but she’s arrested before Jane can credit the accusation. Now she has to persuade the poorest farmers in the district - Dorcas’ patients - to stand before the magistrate in Greenslade Hall and testify on the witch’s behalf.

Dragons, mythical beasts, mighty warriors, and perilous forests. This is England in AD 1066. The Anglo-Saxon king Harold is bound north to repel a strong force of Norsemen - unaware of the approaching threat upon the southern shores of his kingdom. Among his army of thousands, from noble thegns to battle-hardened housecarls and staunch fyrdmen, is the ambitious, loyal, and proud Leofwin.

The influence of magic is back in Albara after a decades-long absence. When a powerful evil corrupts his best friend, Thurk the orc ranger strikes out to save him. Alongside allies old and new, the quest to break Galmar's curse begins. Thurk and his companions journey across Albara; unsure of whom they can trust, even within their own group. All the while, a group of dangerous men is hot on their trail, waiting for their chance to strike. Can the orc ranger end the curse and free his friend, or will the evil of the ruby prevail?