The book is about an 18th-century British
secret mission to South America during the Imperial War with Spain. I love history and the way David Grann makes
this an absolutely thrilling bit of narrative non-fiction.
You can feel the terror of the sea voyage and
the storms, the anguish as the crew faces unbelievable odds and challenges, the
hunger when there’s no food, and the rage as the crew looks for someone to
blame for their misfortune.
It was a
ripping yarn that wouldn’t let me go, right to the end, even after some managed
to get back to England. I
felt like I was there. This didn’t have
the dusty feel of a tale pulled from an old archive or dredged up out of
yellowed letters or from the crumbling pages of library books. This was a living, breathing story of
heroism, cowardice, virtue, and malice. It was a book I couldn’t put down.
'The beauty of The Wager unfurls like a great sail... one of the finest nonfiction books I've ever read' Guardian
'The greatest sea story ever told' Spectator
'A cracking yarn... Grann's taste for desperate predicaments finds its fullest expression here' Observer
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER
From the international bestselling author of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and THE LOST CITY OF Z, a mesmerising story of shipwreck, mutiny and murder, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth.
On 28th January 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the…
Five Decembers was a hard-boiled mystery in the style of
Dashiell Hammett that begins just before Pearl Harbor and then was set in Japan
throughout the rest of the war.
In
addition to the mystery itself was an improbable love story between the
American detective and a Japanese woman who harbored and hid him behind enemy
lines. Wonderfully written, it was the book
I quite literally couldn’t put down.
"War, imprisonment, torture, romance...The novel has an almost operatic symmetry, and Kestrel turns a beautiful phrase." -New York Times
Five Decembers is a gripping thriller, a staggering portrait of war, and a heartbreaking love story, as unforgettable as All the Light We Cannot See.
NOMINATED FOR BEST THRILLER IN THE 2022 BARRY AWARDS
FINALIST FOR THE HAMMETT PRIZE 2021
"Read this book for its palpitating story, its perfect emotional and physical detailing and, most of all, for its unforgettable conjuring of a steamy quicksilver world that will be new to almost…
Demon Copperfield is a damning statement on the way the
opioid epidemic ravaged rural America, an uncomfortable overview of life in
Appalachia, and a coming-of-age story in the vein of Huckleberry Finn or Tom
Sawyer, only with a much sharper edge.
Barbara Kingsolver took David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, modernized
it, turned it on its head, and made it a heartbreaking, painful story that was part tragedy, part sardonic
comedy, and utterly readable.
It’s no
wonder it’s a bestseller because the dialogue, the plotting, and the writing itself are
all brilliant.
Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster…
Geneva Chase encounters a deceptive cast of
suspects who pull her into a high-speed pursuit into the Whisper Room, a dating
app for only the most elite members of society―where affairs, blackmail, and
murder are all on the menu.
When wealthy men crave no-strings-attached
encounters, the Whisper Room promises to deliver. Escorts are turning up dead,
and Geneva is ready to dive into the exclusive dating ring and catch the
killer.
But then one of the Whisper
Room's escorts turns up murdered―and she looks a lot like the blond in the
blackmail video. The more Genie digs, the more blackmail victims and potential
suspects she finds―and the more people she angers—dangerous people with links
to organized crime and human trafficking.
