Violet is in love with River, a mysterious 17-year-old stranger renting the guest house behind the rotting seaside mansion where Violet lives. But when eerie, grim events begin to happen, Violet recalls her grandmother's frequent warnings about the devil and wonders if River is evil.

This brilliant account of the maritime world of the eighteenth-century reconstructs in detail the social and cultural milieu of Anglo-American seafaring and piracy. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

'Captivating, a John le Carre-esque yarn' Telegraph 'A thoroughly good read' Michael Portillo, author of Portillo's Hidden History of Britain and presenter of Great British Railway Journeys 'A compelling story of courage, determination and skill' Terry Waite CBE, author of Taken on Trust The true story of a retired British army officer's private Somali-hostage rescue mission During the peak of the Somali piracy crisis, three ships - from Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan - were hijacked and then abandoned to their fate by their employers, who lacked the money to pay ransoms. All would still be there, were it not for Colonel John Steed, a retired British military attaché, who launched his own private mission to free them. At 65, Colonel Steed was hardly an ideal saviour. With no experience in hostage negotiations and no money behind him, he had to raise the ransom cash from scratch, running the operation from his spare room and ferrying million-dollar ransom payments around in the boot of his car. Drawing on first-hand interviews, former chief foreign correspondent of The Sunday Telegraph, Colin Freeman, who has himself spent time held hostage by Somali pirates, takes readers on an inside track into the world of hostage negotiation and one man's heroic rescue mission.

In the early 1970s, César Alvarez enlists in the navy to escape a life of crime; while the decision saves him from the streets, it also lands him amid volatile racial tensions at a crucial moment in US history. "Skillfully blending his fictional hero’s coming-of-age story with a real-life racial confrontation aboard ship, Carter’s tale is a winning combination of military procedural, suspense, and Black history." —Booklist, Starred Review "Taking its title from a nautical term for a conundrum, the novel is a coming-of-age and redemption story about two young Black men going through boot camp, training school and their first assignments in an early 1970s Navy struggling with racism and sexism." —The Oregonian The Vietnam War is raging, the US Navy has only recently begun the process of integration, and the country is reeling from racial turmoil and unrest. So why does César, a street-tough kid of Afro-Cuban descent, enlist in the navy? He is on the run from a life of crime and from Mr. Mike, a charismatic, sociopathic gangster who was once a mentor but has now turned on him. Escaping into a navy wrestling with its history of racism and sexism, César soon sees the absurdity of certain prejudices that seem as old as the US Armed Forces. When he is deployed aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, racial tensions are high and are moving quickly toward violence. Through it all, César’s ever-growing sense of honor and self-worth force him to make moral decisions he never knew he was capable of. It’s a fortitude he will desperately need.

In the early 1990s the collapse of the Atlantic groundfish stocks signaled the destruction of life in the seas, but it also threw 40,000 people out of work, unraveling the very fabric of rural life throughout Atlantic Canada. Twenty years later, even after fishing moratoriums and limited directed fishing, the cod have not recovered and some stocks are on the verge of biological extinction. The fishing industry, politicians and government scientists blame the growing population of grey seals – a species that had up until the 1970s been severely depleted – and argue that a large-scale cull of the population is needed to save the cod. In The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Linda Pannozzo finds that the truth is much more complex and that the seals are scapegoats for the federal government’s mismanagement of the cod stocks, deflecting attention away from the effects of global warming and the continued use of destructive fishing methods. The collapse of the cod, its failure to recover and the recent recommendations for large-scale grey seal culls are stark reminders of how fisheries, science and public policy are increasingly estranged from each other.

When Hillary and her girlfriends rent a country house for their summer vacation, it is a pleasant surprise to find that its secretive and kinky owner - Darius Harwood - seems to be the most desirable man in the locale. That is, before Hillary meets Haldane, the blonde and beautifully proportioned Norwegian sailor who works nearby. Intrigued by the sexual allure of two very different men, Hillary can't resist exploring the possibilities on offer. But these opportunities for misbehaviour quickly lead her into a tricky situation for which a difficult decision has to be made.

A modern-day pirate. An heiress lost at sea. And the treasure of a lifetime. He’s beautiful. Calculating. Cruel. And he’s taken me hostage. When pirates board my boyfriend’s yacht, I jump overboard to save myself. Drifting asea. Until one man rescues me from the endless ocean. Except he has plans of his own. I’m worth too much money for ransom. He’ll keep me on his ship and in his bed. The real danger lies in his dark-depth eyes. He wants more from me than money. Than passion. He wants everything. He rescued me, but I’m far from safe. There’s an entire sea of danger threatening to drag me under. The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by USA Today bestselling author Amelia Wilde is a dangerously sexy contemporary romance that will blow you out of the water.