(0)Catalog Search Results
1) Original sin
Author
Series
Summary
Adam Dalgliesh takes on a baffling murder in the rarefied world of London book publishing in this masterful mystery from one of our finest novelists. • Part of the bestselling mystery series that inspired Dalgliesh on Acorn TV
Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of impenetrable complexity. A murder has taken place in the offices of the Peverell Press, a venerable London publishing
...Author
Summary
Construction engineer Bartley Alexander is a troubled, middle-aged man torn between Winifred, his American wife - a cold woman with clearly defined standards - and Hilda Burgoyne - an alluring mistress in London who has helped him recapture his youth and sense of freedom. Alexander's relationship with Hilda gnaws away at his sense of propriety and honor and eventually proves disastrous. (He is with Hilda when a messenger, unable to find him, fails...
3) Neverwhere
Author
Lexile Measure
760L
Summary
A man goes to the aid of woman pursued by assassins and discovers an alternative City of London, a subterranean, medieval world populated by "people who fell through the cracks" from the real city above. A fantasy tale, replete with demons and wizards. By the author of The Sandman.
5) 1984
Author
Series
Lexile Measure
1090L
Summary
A chilling portrait of a totalitarian society under the ever-watchful gaze of Big Brother, where love, privacy, and individuality are banned. The year 1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's nightmare vision from 1949 of the world we are becoming is timelier that ever. 1984 is the great modern classic of a 'negative utopia' - a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing
6) Oliver Twist
Author
Series
Lexile Measure
940L
Summary
Adentures of an orphan boy who lives in the squalid surroundings of a nineteenth-century English workhouse until he becomes involved with a gang of thieves.
Author
Summary
John Harmon returns to England as his father's heir. Believed drowned under suspicious circumstances--a situation convenient to his wish for anonymity--John evaluates Bella Wilfer whom he must marry to secure his inheritance. The story is filled with colorful Victorian characters and incidents -- the faded aristocrats and parvenus gathered at the Veneering's dinner table, Betty Higden and her terror of the workhouse and the greedy plottings of Silas...
Author
Series
Summary
This revealing romp through proper society follows three different women who dare to defy Victorian standards. Can You Forgive Her? comically intertwines the stories of three very independent-minded women who each desires to decide her own fate in a world where love comes second to obedience and familial expectations set them apart from their peers. First and foremost is the spirited Alice Vavasor, whose indecision and repeated rejections of two...
Author
Lexile Measure
990L
Summary
A young orphan, Oliver is left to fend for himself until he is befriended by a band of young thieves who quickly train him in their craft. But Oliver is not content to be a thief for he knows that life holds great joys and true happiness cannot be stolen, but must be earned.
10) Bleak House
Author
Lexile Measure
1180L
Summary
Bleak House is one of Dickens' finest achievements, establishing his reputation as a serious and mature novelist, as well as a brilliant comic writer. It is at once a complex mystery story that fully engages the reader in the work of detection, and an unforgettable indictment of an indifferent society. Its representations of a great city's underworld, and of the law's corruption and delay, draw upon the author's personal knowledge and experience....
Author
Summary
An unassuming scientist takes an unbelievable adventure in the Middle East in this “extraordinary” novel—the inspiration for the major motion picture starring Ewan McGregor (The Guardian).
Dr. Alfred Jones lives a quiet, predictable life. He works as a civil servant for the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence in London; his wife, Mary, is a determined, no-nonsense financier; he has simple routines...
Dr. Alfred Jones lives a quiet, predictable life. He works as a civil servant for the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence in London; his wife, Mary, is a determined, no-nonsense financier; he has simple routines...
Author
Summary
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “[A] torrent of endlessly inventive prose, by turns comic and enraged, embracing life in all its contradictions. In this spectacular novel, verbal pyrotechnics barely outshine its psychological truths.”—Newsday
Winner of the Whitbread Prize
One of the most controversial and acclaimed novels ever written, The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie’s...
Winner of the Whitbread Prize
One of the most controversial and acclaimed novels ever written, The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie’s...
13) The heir
Author
Series
Summary
In the aftermath of World War I, new company head Edward Deravenel struggles between his loyal brother Richard and treacherous brother George while navigating the brutal politics of inheritance.
14) Maisie Dobbs
Author
Series
Summary
Maisie Dobbs entered domestic service in 1910 at thirteen, working for Lady Rowan Compton. When her remarkable intelligence is discovered by her employer, Maisie becomes the pupil of Maurice Blanche, a learned friend of the Comptons. In 1929, following an apprenticeship with Blanche, Maisie hangs out her shingle: "M. Dobbs, trade and personal investigations." She soon becomes enmeshed in a mystery surrounding The Retreat, a reclusive community of...
15) The murder room
Author
Series
Summary
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Murders present meet murders past in this harrowing, thought-provoking thriller • Part of the bestselling mystery series that inspired Dalgliesh on Acorn TV
"Suspenseful, atmospheric.... No shortage of surprise twists.” —The New York Times Book Review
Commander Adam Dalgliesh is already acquainted with the Dupayne—a museum dedicated...
"Suspenseful, atmospheric.... No shortage of surprise twists.” —The New York Times Book Review
Commander Adam Dalgliesh is already acquainted with the Dupayne—a museum dedicated...
16) Gallows thief
Author
Summary
The year is 1820. Rider Sandman, a hero of Waterloo, returns to London to wed his fiancée. But instead of settling down to fame and glory, he finds himself penniless in a country where high unemployment and social unrest rage, and where men-innocent or guilty-are hanged for the merest of crimes. When he's offered a job as private investigator to re-open the case of a painter due to be hanged for a murder he didn't commit, Sandman readily accepts-as...
Author
Summary
“Once again, the incomparable Quick has whipped up a delectable Regency romance” (Booklist)—about an ice-cold business agreement that turns into something far more heated…
The Earl of St. Merryn needs a woman. His intentions are purely practical—he simply wants someone sensible and suitably lovely to pose as his betrothed for a few weeks among polite society. He has his own agenda to pursue,...
The Earl of St. Merryn needs a woman. His intentions are purely practical—he simply wants someone sensible and suitably lovely to pose as his betrothed for a few weeks among polite society. He has his own agenda to pursue,...
Author
Summary
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning, flashing past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stopping at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. Their life, as she sees it, is perfect ... until she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but now everything is changed. Rachel goes to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in the lives of everyone involved....
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Summary
When dystopian futures don't feel so future at all…Four decades before George Orwell wrote 1984, The Napoleon of Notting Hill defined the dystopian genre. One of the first dystopian comedies, instead of a dark vision of jackboots and surveillance states, G.K. Chesterton explores the question of what a society would look like if no one could take a joke.In this future England, each new king is decided by lottery. When Auberon Quin, a man who cares...
