Fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian is touring a failing velvet factory in Virginia on its final day of operations-and finds one of the factory owners dead, lashed to a spool of velvet and soaked in blue dye. The workers are delighted, since they blamed the "Blue Devil" for killing their jobs. But when another nickname, the "Velvet Avenger", makes the rounds, and ribbons of blue velvet start popping up, it could be more than Lacey's job at stake-it could be her life...

Loren Randolph returns home from a business trip to find the one hundred year old ancestral home located in a small town on the coast of California burned to the ground and a body inside identified as her husband, John. She blames herself for neglecting the grand old house, left to her by her grandmother, and for the loss of her grandmother's art collection and her many priceless antiques. Then an item that should have been in the house turns up at an auction, and Cam Montogmery, a San Francisco lawyer, appears in town looking for her husband under another name. When the local police chief shows that the body is not Loren's husband, she tries to locate him. She is shocked to hear that over a year before the fire, John quit the firm where he said he was employed. It is clear he has no intention of confiding in her and may be involved in illegal actions involving her grandmother's wealth. When Cam's apartment is blown up and an attempt on Loren's life is barely averted, the two begin to pool information to try to save themselves, find John and alleviate the chaos John has created.

Velvet is a laundress in a Victorian steam laundry. With both her mother and father dead, she is an orphan and has to rely upon her own wits to make a living. The laundry's work is back-breaking and Velvet is desperate to create a better life for herself. Then Velvet is noticed by Madame Savoya, a famed medium, who asks Velvet to come to work for her. Velvet is dazzled at first by the young yet beautifully dressed and bejewelled Madame. But soon Velvet realises that Madame Savoya is not all that she says she is, and Velvet's very life is in danger . . . A romantic and thrillingly exciting new novel from an acclaimed and much loved historical writer for teens.

Lily Ivory hopes to score some great vintage fashions when she buys an antique trunk full of old clothes. But she may have gotten more than she bargained for.… As soon as Lily opens the trunk, she feels strange vibrations emanating from a mysterious velvet cloak. When she tries it on, Lily sees awful visions from the past. And when the antiques dealer who sold her the cape is killed, Lily suspects a supernatural force might be behind his death. Then Lily’s familiar, Oscar the potbellied pig, disappears. Lily will do anything to get him back—including battling the spirit of a powerful witch reaching out from the past. But even with the aid of her grandmother, unmasking a killer and saving Oscar might be more than one well-intentioned sorceress can handle.

The Rough Guide to Film is a bold new guide to cinema. Arranged by director, it covers the top moguls, mavericks and studio stalwarts of every era, genre and region, in addition to lots of lesser-known names. With each film placed in the context of its director’s career, the guide reviews thousands of the greatest movies ever made, with lists highlighting where to start, arranged by genre and by region. You’ll find profiles of over eight hundred directors, from Hollywood legends Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston to contemporary favourites like Steven Soderbergh and Martin Scorsese and cult names such as David Lynch and Richard Linklater. The guide is packed with great cinema from around the globe, including French New Wave, German giants, Iranian innovators and the best of East Asia, from Akira Kurosawa to Wong Kar-Wai and John Woo. With overviews of all major movements and genres, feature boxes on partnerships between directors and key actors, and cinematographers and composers, this is your essential guide to a world of cinema.