Boris Akunin
Special Assignments: The Further Adventures of Erast Fandorin
Pbk published January 2008 by Phoenix at £6.99
ISBN: 0753823489
Two new adventures for Boris Akunin's well-loved, inimitable hero in which Erast Fandorin faces two very different adversaries: one, a deft, comedic swindler and master of disguise, whose machinations send ripples spreading through the carefully maintained calm of Moscow in 1886, and the other a brutal serial killer, driven by an insane, maniacal obsession, who strikes terror into the heart of the Moscow slums in 1889 - and who may have more in common with London's own Jack the Ripper than simply a taste for women of easy virtue. Peopled by a cast of eccentric characters, and with plots that are as surprising as they are inventive, Fandorin's 'Special Assignments' will delight Akunin's many thousands of fans, while testing their gentleman sleuth's powers of detection to the limit.
Boris Akunin is the pseudonym of Grigory Chkhartishvili. He has been compared to Gogol, Tolstoy and Arthur Conan Doyle, and his Erast Fandorin books have sold over ten million copies in Russia alone. He lives in Moscow.
Katharine McMahon
The Rose Of Sebastopol
Pbk published January 2008 by Phoenix at £6.99
ISBN: 0753823748
Russia, 1854: the Crimean War grinds on, and as the bitter winter draws near, the battlefield hospitals fill with dying men. In defiance of Florence Nightingale, Rosa Barr - young, headstrong and beautiful - travels to Balaklava, determined to save as many of the wounded as she can. For Mariella Lingwood, Rosa's cousin, the war is contained within the pages of her scrapbook, in her London sewing circle, and in the letters she receives from Henry, her fiance, a celebrated surgeon who has also volunteered to work within the shadow of the guns. When Henry falls ill and is sent to recuperate in Italy, Mariella impulsively decides she must go to him. But upon their arrival at his lodgings, she and her maid make a heartbreaking discovery: Rosa has disappeared. Following the trail of her elusive and captivating cousin, Mariella's epic journey takes her from the domestic restraint of Victorian London to the ravaged landscape of the Crimea and the tragic city of Sebastopol, where she encounters Rosa's dashing stepbrother, a reckless cavalry officer whose complex past - and future - is inextricably bound up with her own. As her quest leads her deeper into the dark heart of the conflict, Mariella's ordered world begins to crumble and she finds she has much to learn about secrecy, faithfulness and love. But, in the thick of a war fought on more fronts than one, she also discovers a strength and passion she never knew she possessed.
Katharine McMahon is the author of five novels. She has taught in secondary schools, performed in local theatre and worked as a Royal Literary Fund fellow teaching writing skills at the Universities of Hertfordshire and Warwick. She lives in Hertfordshire.
Rebecca Stott
Ghostwalk
Pbk published February 2008 by Phoenix at £7.99
ISBN: 0753823578
Rebecca Stott was born in Cambridge. She writes both fiction and non-fiction, is a Professor of Literature at Anglia Ruskin University and is affiliated to the Cambridge History and Philosophy of Science department. Her work, in radio writing, fiction and non-fiction, weaves together history, literature and the history of science. She lives in Cambridge.
