FBA Archives - Duckworth Books

A Splintering

An unforgettable story of motherhood, obsession and ambition

‘Smart and gripping – I read it in one sitting. Tara is a glorious creation, crackling with life and aspiration and sensuality’ Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire

‘A lacerating novel by a writer of great insight and deep compassion’ Mohsin Hamid, author of The Last White Man

In a village in rural Pakistan, Tara is waiting and watching. The smell of dung and dust hangs over her world. She is desperate to leave the petty life of the village and escape the iron grip of her violent, unpredictable brother. Marrying a middle-class accountant allows her to escape to the capital, but she soon finds that life as a respectable housewife is not sufficient either. She wants what the rich mothers at her children’s school have. She wants what their husbands have. But can she truly shake her past? And what of the menacing spectre of her brother, a reminder of the threads that tie her to the life she left behind?

Set against a hypnotic, oppressive backdrop of political violence and natural disaster, A Splintering traces the class struggle of a woman stuck between province and metropolis, between motherhood and ambition. Disquieting and utterly gripping, it is an extraordinary achievement by Dur e Aziz Amna, an exploration of a complex and unforgettable character who will risk everything to carve out a life of her own.

A Very French Corpse

AN IMMORTAL FOUND DEAD
AN IMMORTAL RUN THROUGH
AN ANCIENT HERITAGE UNDER THREAT

The death of a 16-year-old, dressed as an ‘Immortal Knight’ and having taken a fatal overdose, proves a perplexing case in the ancient city of Tours. Juge d’instruction Matthieu Lombard is brought in to lead the investigation.

When the adolescent’s death is followed a few weeks later by the gruesome murder of a firebrand author, Lombard senses a malign coercive force behind the two fatalities, one that succeeds in challenging his own loyalties and assumptions.

What is it that is nagging at Lombard, locked away in the past? What soon becomes clear is that this game is beyond roleplay. It is deadly.

The third book in the gripping new crime series from The Times-bestselling author.

Dead Behind the Eyes

‘An engrossing, slickly plotted policier that will leave you wanting more’ TOM BENJAMIN, author of the Daniel Leicester mysteries

A HEADLESS MAN. A MISSING GIRL. A LIFE RULED BY SECRETS.

When a decapitated body washes up on the banks of the River Loire in the ancient city of Tours, the reluctant juge d’instruction Matthieu Lombard is brought in to lead the investigation.

But when Lombard’s young niece appears, the inquiry changes course. Suddenly immersed in another world – one of eco-terrorism, bio-medical research, French aristocracy and the violent forgotten underbelly of society – Lombard begins to make unexpected connections.

Can the brutal murder of a lonely man really be justified by a noble cause? Or are good intentions hiding darker motives, more cynical and more deadly?

The second book in the gripping new crime series from The Times-bestselling author of Death and Croissants

Spider, Spider

‘L. C. Winter is fantastic writer. If you liked The Silence Factory by the splendid Bridget Collins, I think this is for you’ Natasha Pulley, author of The Hymn to Dionysus and The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

Vengeance is theirs and theirs alone. But who will deal the fatal blow?

Young Nancy Ratcliffe is on the run. Her father had sought refuge for his family with the Brethren, led by the charismatic but dangerous Prophet. But now her father is gravely ill, and even the sooty streets of Victorian London hold less terror for Nancy than the brutality of Brethren Hall.

Meanwhile, Spider is biding her time. Wrapped in dreams and visions, she paces the dark corridors and hidden staircases of the crumbling house she grew up in. The man who murdered a part of her disappeared many years ago, but still she hopes for revenge.

Jet-black and thrilling, Spider, Spider is an unforgettable tale of a woman who has lost herself in the poison of vengeance, and the knife-sharp girl who might just bring her back.

The Man Who Didn’t Burn

A KILLER. A SAINT. A TOWN FULL OF WHISPERS

When an English expat is brutally murdered, his charred corpse left on a Loire Valley hillside, the police turn to juge d’instruction Matthieu Lombard to find the killer.

Instead, Lombard discovers a wealth of secrets, grudges and feuds in the idyllic town of Saint-Genèse-sur-Loire. He begins to suspect that the remaining members of the Comité des Fêtes know more about the death than they are letting on.

But rather than towards an arrest, each clue he uncovers seems to point in one, unexpected direction: Joan of Arc. Is the answer to the murder hiding in the barroom gossip of the Lion d’Or? Or in another century altogether?

The thrilling new crime series from The Times-bestselling author of Death and Croissants

The Prisoner of Measham Hall

1690. England is in crisis – the new protestant King William III has embarked on wars in France and Ireland, inflation is rampant and the price of corn is causing riots.

At Measham Hall, Sir William Hawthorne faces a predicament of his own: his loyal steward has died, and he must find another. His problems appear to have been solved when the charming Mr Goodwyn arrives with a mysterious letter of recommendation and takes up the post. But soon, to the rest of the household’s dismay, Goodwyn appears to have both Sir William and the estate dancing to his tune.

Meanwhile, Sir William’s heir, Nicholas, is in Ireland fighting against the Williamite troops. But Nicholas is playing a dangerous game as double agent, risking both his love and his life. When one battle is over, he must return to Measham Hall to fight another and defeat an old foe in a new guise or lose Measham Hall forever…

Sinners of Starlight City

FROM INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR ANIKA SCOTT

Madame Mystique is a performer extraordinaire, come to work her scandalous magic at the glittering 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. Of African American and Sicilian heritage, Mystique – aka Rosa Mancuso – and her fellow performers move on the margins. Her ambiguous status serves a hidden vendetta: she awaits the arrival of Paolo Amanta, the dashing pilot sent by Mussolini to dazzle spectators with a phenomenal air show.

Back in Sicily, Paolo’s band of young Fascists had murdered her relatives as the old Mafia families were swept from their palazzi with unsparing brutality. Rosa is fixed on revenge. Then her estranged cousin, Mina, comes to the Fair, begging her help to face down their American family. Sinners of Starlight City is an immersive story of injustice, retribution and redemption that asks: who decides who we are and where we belong?

The Messenger of Measham Hall

For Nicholas Hawthorne, the Catholic heir to Measham Hall in Derbyshire, subterfuge is part of everyday life. But there are deeper and darker secrets even than his family’s outlawed religion: why is his father, Sir William, so reclusive? What became of his mother, and his aunt Alethea? And who fatally betrayed his cousin Matthew?

Nicholas is determined to find out, but as England slides towards invasion by the Protestant forces of Prince William of Orange, he becomes entangled in conspiracies within King James’s court – and soon learns that both truth and love come at a high price.

Black Butterflies

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS’ CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILBUR SMITH PRIZE 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NOTA BENE PRIZE 2023

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Sarajevo, spring 1992. Each night, nationalist gangs erect barricades, splitting the diverse city into ethnic enclaves; each morning, the residents – whether Muslim, Croat or Serb – push the makeshift barriers aside.

When violence finally spills over, Zora, an artist and teacher, sends her husband and elderly mother to safety with her daughter in England. Reluctant to believe that hostilities will last more than a handful of weeks, she stays behind while the city falls under siege. As the assault deepens and everything they love is laid to waste, black ashes floating over the rooftops, Zora and her friends are forced to rebuild themselves, over and over. Theirs is a breathtaking story of disintegration, resilience and hope.

The Spirit Engineer

‘A fiendishly clever tale of ambition, deception, and power’ DERREN BROWN

Belfast, 1914. Two years after the sinking of the Titanic, high society has become obsessed with spiritualism, attending séances in the hope they might reach their departed loved ones.

William Jackson Crawford is a man of science and a sceptic, but one night with everyone sitting around the circle, voices come to him – seemingly from beyond the veil – placing doubt in his heart and a seed of obsession in his mind. Could the spirits truly be communicating with him or is this one of Kathleen’s parlour tricks gone too far?

Based on the true story of Professor William Jackson Crawford and famed medium Kathleen Goligher, and with a cast of characters including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, The Spirit Engineer conjures a haunted, twisted tale of power, paranoia and one ultimate, inescapable truth…

An unforgettable story of motherhood, obsession and ambition

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