Political Adventure

From the author of Caligula comes a new stand-alone novel in the Damned Emperors series: Commodus. AD 162. Rome is enjoying a period of stability and prosperity. The Empire's bounds are increasing, and two sons are born into the imperial succession for the first time in nearly a century. But all is not as it appears - cracks are beginning to show. The wars have rumbled on too long, and there are whispers of a sickness in the East. Just 30 years later, the Empire will be caught up in civil war, the imperial dynasty ended and Rome burned.

Writing in England at the turn of the 20th century, G.K. Chesterton was dubbed the "prince of paradox" for addressing serious questions with his light, whimsical style. In this classic allegory, which has captivated generations since it was first published in 1908, Chesterton tackles such profound concepts as honor, truth, and God with insightful humor and colorful enigma.

A top-secret drone crashes in the lawless Horn of Africa. The CIA is prepared to write off the loss, until evidence surfaces that the wreckage of their prized aircraft is hidden in a hangar outside Khartoum's main airport. The hangar is owned by a shady cargo airline that flies ancient DC-3s across Africa and the Middle East. The name of the company does nothing to still concern: FBN-Fly by Night Aviation.

When an old Delta Force buddy comes to Jon Reznick for help, paranoid and fearing for his life, Reznick feels duty-bound to protect him. As a black-ops specialist, loyalty to his brothers in arms comes before everything—even the law. But Jerry White proves difficult to protect. A runaway from a top-security psychiatric facility in upstate New York, he's considered a danger to himself and others, and Reznick is powerless to stop shadowy senior hospital managers taking Jerry back by force.

Jon Reznick has never played by the rules, a trait that has brought him into conflict with FBI Assistant Director Martha Meyerstein in the past. But now Meyerstein has been taken by a shadowy gang, and the renegade black-ops specialist may be her only hope for rescue.

Rome, AD 41. Caligula has been assassinated and the Praetorian Guard have proclaimed Claudius Emperor – but his position is precarious. His three freedmen, Narcissus, Pallas and Callistus, must find a way to manufacture a quick victory – but how? Pallas has the answer: retrieve the Eagle of the Seventeenth, lost nearly 40 years before. Who but Vespasian could lead a dangerous mission into the gloomy forests of Germania?

In 2035, the southwestern United States is ravaged by drought, reeling from an environmental catastrophe that has left the landscape a chaotic, depleted ruin. California, still viably inhabitable due to its oppressive social controls, marshals state-of-the-art surveillance technology and totalitarian policies to preserve its fragile hold on rapidly dwindling resources and an increasingly unsettled population.

Meet America's Sheriff. When a brutal murder takes place in the country's wealthiest county, just outside the Capital Beltway, Ronald Roland Fitzgerald, age 69, is called upon to solve a case that sits at the intersection of exurbia and international intrigue. Sheriff "Fitz" is a cross between Eastwood and Father Knows Best, all set to classic rock. Politically incorrect, salty, sassy, and smart, he's the total package. When the beautiful wife of a high-profile FBI agent is found dead, Sheriff Fitz is the right man in the right place at the right time.

A relic, stolen from the heart of an ancient city. An echo of nationalist violence not seen since the dark days of the Second World War. Budapest, Hungary. When a priest is murdered at the Basilica of St Stephen and the Holy Right relic is stolen, the ultra-nationalist Eröszak party calls for retribution and anti-Semitic violence erupts in the city. Dr Morgan Sierra, psychologist and ARKANE agent, finds herself trapped inside the synagogue with Zoltan Fischer, a Hungarian Jewish security advisor.

The president of the United States stands on an outdoor stage, flanked by powerful members of his administration and party. Television crews are preparing for broadcast. High above the stage, on a nearby rooftop, a decorated sniper adjusts the scope on his rifle. Afterwards, America will never be the same. Jake Grafton and Tommy Carmellini suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of the law when a public act of violence throws the country into chaos just before a presidential election.

A dazzling, compassionate and deeply moving audiobook from one of world literature's rising stars. A mesmerising literary novel, Questions of Travel charts two very different lives. Laura travels the world before returning to Sydney, where she works for a publisher of travel guides. Ravi dreams of being a tourist until he is driven from Sri Lanka by devastating events. Around these two superbly drawn characters, a double narrative assembles an enthralling array of people, places and stories.

She is a painter. He is a poet. Their art bridges time.

It is 1978. Merle is in her first year at the Corcoran School of Art, catapulted from her impoverished Appalachian upbringing into a sophisticated, dissipated art scene. It is also 1870. The teenage poet Arthur Rimbaud is on the verge of breaking through to the images and voice that will make his name. The meshed power of words and art thins the boundaries between the present and the past—and allows these two troubled, brilliant artists to enter each other’s worlds.

Tony Acero, a Mexican-American veteran of four combat tours, has a problem on his hands. His undersized 13-year-old son Luke is floundering at his new Kansas prep school. To save the young teen from his downward spiral, and to cheer up older brother Matt, Tony proposes to take both sons on a elk hunt in Colorado. Meanwhile in Boston, rootless young brothers, Pel and Moom Adams, are plotting a Colorado expedition of their own. Radical anarchists, the brothers have contracted with a trio of hardened Chechen terrorists to carry out a plot that will shake America to the core.

When rhino poachers kill two of his fellow rangers in Kruger Park, South African Defense Force veteran Cobus Venter reaches his breaking point. Quitting his job, he embarks on a vigilante mission to take down the animal-trafficking syndicate from the inside. Meanwhile, in Florida, insurance investigator Randall Knight is called to a private roadside zoo, where a new tiger cub of suspect lineage brought a virus that wiped out all the zoo’s tigers. The disease is just one species jump away from erupting into a deadly global human pandemic.

Thomas C. Squire, creator of the hit documentary series Frankenstein Among the Arts, one-time secret agent and founder of the Society for Popular Aesthetics, is attending an international media symposium in Sicily. It is here that he becomes involved with lovely, but calculating Selina Ajdina. Alongside the drama of the conference is the story of Squire's private life—the tale of his infidelity, the horrifying circumstances surrounding his father's death, and the threatened future of his ancestral home in England.

Twenty years in the future, America perches on the edge of collapse, devastated by drought and dwindling resources. California, now a totalitarian surveillance state controlling the lion's share of the nation's economy, is on the brink of secession. And family man Nathan Fisher finds himself at the heart of a bloody conspiracy that threatens the lives of his loved ones and the future of the country itself.

Set 25 years in the future, when a Committee of Medical Experts now rules the land, this interconnected series of stories takes us into the lives of people both living under and helping to protect the new power wrought by an unending state of emergency and a national focus on manufactured medical crises. The book is both funny and frightening, feeding off cracks that have begun to form in the Biostate and following a set of unrelated people who come together to budge the nation in a new direction.

AD 211: Septimius Severus, Emperor of Rome, has invaded what is now Scotland, but Tullius, second-in-command of the legendary Sixth Victrix Legion, has more to worry about. Severus’s eldest son, a young Caracalla, is already testing the limits of his power as his monstrous nature begins to reveal itself. With his family under threat of death from him, Tullius must balance their safety with a sworn duty to his emperor and turn to the only people who can help – those north of Hadrian’s Wall – his enemies.

In Our Darker Angel, the mystery begins with FBI Agent Rick Clark's investigation into a series of murders committed by a terrorist group identifying itself as ARC, Anarchists for Real Change. Terrorism has become a personal issue with Clark. Two years earlier, his daughter perished in a bombing orchestrated by EMMA, an acronym for Emergent Movement of Militant Anarchists. The ARC murders bear a striking resemblance to the killings by EMMA, as they, too, target the rich and powerful and morally bankrupt.

Albert Richardson and Junius Browne, two correspondents for the New York Tribune, were captured at the Battle of Vicksburg and spent 20 months in horrific Confederate prisons before escaping and making their way to Union territory. Their amazing, long-forgotten odyssey is one of the great escape stories in American history, packed with drama, courage, horrors and heroics, plus many moments of antic comedy.