The most talked about fiction debut in years: a large, suspense-laden thriller that is also a novel of brilliantly astute social observation focusing on two fascinating worlds: that of the New York-Washington black upper middle class, and the complex world of an Ivy League law school.

Judge Oliver Garland has just died in suspicious circumstances. Conservative and famously controversial, Garland has made many enemies. Many years ago, he'd earned a judge's highest prize: a Supreme Court nomination. But in a scene of bitter humiliation in front of a televised audience and before the eyes of his family, he had to withdraw his nomination. It was a national scandal, and a private agony, one from which he never recovered.
Now, years later, the judge's death raises even more questions than his life did and seems to be leading to a second, even more terrible scandal. Could he have been murdered? He has left a strange message for his son Talcott, a professor at an elite Ivy League law school, entrusting him with 'the arrangements' - a mysterious puzzle that only Tal can unlock, and only by unearthing the ambiguities of his father's turbulent past. When another man is found dead, and then another, Talcott must risk life, marriage and reputation, following the clues his father left him.

Intricate, superbly written, often scathingly funny, The Emperor of Ocean Park is a triumphant work of fiction, a brilliantly crafted tapestry of ambition, family secrets, murder, and justice gone terribly wrong.

The Dream of Scipio, Iain Pears' first mainstream novel since An Instance of the Fingerpost, is a work of astonishing ambition that appeals equally to the head and heart. It is set in Provence at three different critical moments of Western Civilisation – the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, the Black Death in the fourteenth, and the Second World War in the twentieth – and follows the fortunes of three men, Manlius Hippomenes, a Gallic aristocrat obsessed with the preservation of Roman civilisation, Guilaume Noyen, a poet, and Julien Barneuve, an intellectual who joins the Vichy government.The story of each man is woven through the narrative, linked by the classical text that gives the book its title, and by each man's love for an extraordinary woman. Dense, dark, erudite and yet, like The Instance of the Fingerpost, utterly compelling, The Dream of Scipio confirms Iain Pears as one of Britain's most imaginative novelists.

Iain Pears was born in Coventry in 1955. Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, he has worked as a journalist, an art historian and a television consultant. He is the author of seven highly praised detective novels, a book of art history and countless articles on artistic, financial and historical subjects, and

Iain Pears was born in Coventry in 1955. Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, he has worked as a journalist, an art historian and a television consultant. He is the author of seven highly praised detective novels, a book of art history and countless articles on artistic, financial and historical subjects, and

The Ninth Gate

Sonia Soto Translator

Fencing is not a game but a science. The outcome is invariably the same: triumph or disaster, life or death. Jaime Astarloa is a master-fencer of the old school, priding himself on the precision, dignity and honour of his ancient art. It is 1868; Spain teeters on the brink of revolution, his friends spend their days in cafes discussing plots at court, but Jaime's obsession is to perfect the irresistible sword thrust. Then Adela de Otero, violet-eyed and enigmatic, appears at his door. When Jaime takes her on as a pupil he finds himself embroiled in dark political intrigues against which his old- fashioned values are no protection.

In the fag-end of his youth, Simon 'Sick Boy Williamson is back in his native Edinburgh after a long spell in London. Having failed spectacularly as a hustler, pimp, husband, father and businessman, Sick Boy taps into an opportunity, which to him represents one last throw of the dice.
To enable this scam to work out, Sick Boy needs bedfellows. A desirable one may be the lovely Nicola Fuller-Smith, a young student with enough ambition, ego and troubles to rival his own. However, to realize his dream of directing and producing a pornographic movie, Sick Boy gets teamed up with old pal and fellow exile Mark Renton and a motley crew that includes the citys favourite ex-aerated-water salesman, 'Juice' Terry Lawson.
In the world of Porno, however, nothing is straightforward, as Sick Boy and Renton find out that they have unresolved issues to address, concerning the increasingly unhinged Frank Begbie, the troubled, drug-addled Spud, but, most of all, with each other.

Porno is a novel about the Trainspotting crew ten years further down the line: still scheming, still scamming, still trying to fight for the first-class seats as the locomotive careers at high speed towards the buffers.