Common perception seems to have placed Dr Crippen as a vicious serial killer - The Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussauds even has a waxwork of him - and yet the truth is that he `only' killed one person, his wife Cora. While many of the characters and situations in this book are taken from the facts of the case - Inspector Drew did chase `Mr Robinson' and `Edmund' across the ocean; Louise Smythson really was the first person to suspect foul play; Captain Kendall really did discover the truth about the `father' and `son' by chance - but many others have been created by John Boyne to serve the plot.

The Crippen that John Boyne has depicted is obviously very different from the one we have been encouraged to accept over the years. But then this book is a novel, and the events of the night on which Cora Crippen met her bloody end are entirel_v a supposition on the part of the author....

Following the bestselling "Summer of a Dormouse", Sir John Mortimer - playwright, novelist, octogenarian and erstwhile QC - offers up more lessons in living and growing old disgracefully. What would we like to leave to our descendants? Not a third-rate painting or our PEPS, according to Sir John, but a love of Shakespeare, a taste for alcohol, the ability to defeat boredom, the importance of never locking the lavatory door, and so on. Owing something to Montaigne's essays, something to Wilde's aphorisms and something to Yeats' poem for his daughter, "Where There's a Will" offers plenty of advice from one who has seen it all.

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When an anonymous e-mail alerts UpLink Technology's operatives to suspicious activity on an exclusive island resort, Pete Nimec goes undercover to investigate. Located off the coast of Trinidad, Rayos del Sol is not just a playground for the world's richest and most powerful people - it's also the headquarters for a joint fiber optic and oil refinery project run by UpLink and Sedco Oil. What Nimec discovers is a plot to drain oil from the United State's strategic petroleum reserve and sell it to outlaw nations. And when the island's highly trained security force is sent to take Nimec out - heaven on earth erupts into hell

After years of fending off challenges from the world's most dangerous terrorists, Op-Centre has been brought to heel by the US Congress. A short-sighted committee has cut Paul Hood's budget, and the first victim is his friend Mike Rodgers. But General Rodgers may not be looking for work for very long. Dynamic Senator Donald Orr is making a run for President at the head of his own third party. Running on a platform of extreme isolationism, Orr presents a real challenge to the two-party system, and he needs a strong military advisor to make his team complete. The problem is that Orr may be involved in more than just ordinary political intrigue. The bodies of two murdered millionaires may be tied into the new party, and Op-Centre is seeking the killer.