These four short stories from a master storyteller are packed full of twists and turns. Jeremy finds out exactly the best way to steal the perfect ring for his fiancee. Albert celebrates his 100th birthday, and is pleased to be sent The Queen's Birthday Telegram. In Russia, businessman Richard plots the ideal way to murder his wife. And as Diana, a busy single mother, drives to have dinner with friends, she realises that a black van is following her

These puzzles will test solvers' powers of logic, reasoning, ingenuity, and wordplay. Flex your mental muscle with some of the toughest nuts to crack, including Geometracts, a visually vexing boggler, as well as Tic-Tac-Topology, a strategy game for two players. There are also lost, hidden, and missing-number conundrums that add up to loads of brain-stretching fun.

Martin Watts, a bookseller, is captured by Royalists. Jane Afton's brother Nat is taken too. They suffer inhumane treatment as prisoners-of-war. In Oxford Castle jailor William Smith tortures, beats, starves and deprives his helpless victims. Can Jane rescue her sick brother before he dies of neglect? Will Martin dare to escape? Based on real events in the English Civil War, Lindsey Davis retells the grim tale of Captain Smith's abuse of power in Oxford prison - where many died in misery though a lucky few survived.