After a chance skirmish with an armed killer in central London, agent John Mordred ends up in hospital, condition critical. Six weeks and a full recovery later, he’s persuaded it’s purely a police matter, so one he should forget about. But nothing in MI7 is ever that simple. There’s more to this particular incident than meets the eye and unnamed people in high places want it investigating. They believe Mordred’s the man for the job. Add to the mix five missing IMF officials, the kidnapping of a top British financier in Venezuela, evidence of a related cover-up in Whitehall, a young and unpredictable London Lord Mayor with acute delusions of grandeur, plus - most bizarrely - persistent rumours of local UFO sightings, and things threaten to spin radically out of control. Suddenly Mordred’s life is on the line again. This time, alongside those of innumerable others. And it’s him versus the clock.

Four of the world's greatest murders took place within a square mile of Glasgow's city centre during the latter part of Queen Victoria's rein. These horrific murders were committed not in the East End as expected, but in the fashionable and respectable West End of Glasgow. Madeline Smith was accused and found not guilty of lacing her doomed lover's late-night cocoa with arsenic; an eighty-three year old woman was brutally battered to death, and Jessie McPherson was brutally struck forty times with a meat cleaver, in a case considered by some authorities to be the finest in the world. However, by far the most chilling crimes are those of Dr Edward William Pritchard, "The Human Crocodile", who had the coffin lid unscrewed so that he could kiss the lips of the wife he had calculatingly murdered by slow poisoning. Glasgow is a city renowned for its crime and violence, but little has been documented about Victorian crime. This timely new edition of a classic best-seller, is the first of its kind, and is as valid today as ever.

In nineteenth-century Canada, the Square Mile was an elite residential district in Montreal that represented a dramatic new concentration of wealth. Montreal’s Square Mile chronicles the history of the neighbourhood, from its origins to its decline, including the diverse and far-reaching sources of its making and its twentieth-century transformations. Spanning the interconnected worlds of family and home life, business and high politics, architecture and urban redevelopment, this interdisciplinary and richly illustrated volume presents a new account of the Square Mile’s history and an investigation of the neighbourhood’s impact beyond the immediate urban environment.

“Readers will find John Mordred to be one of the most appealing characters in fiction today.” – Publisher’s Daily “John Mordred comes alive on the page and is a character readers will not soon forget.” – The Booklife Review When John Mordred leaves MI7, marries the woman he loves, and settles down to a relatively humdrum lifestyle, it ought to be a brave new start. But he and his wife have formerly been top-level spies, and they find the readjustment harder than they anticipated. When - courtesy of a friend, and apparently out of the blue - they’re offered an all-expenses-paid holiday in Malta, it seems the answer to both their prayers. Sunshine, relaxation and romance. Just what the doctor ordered. But Malta's no ordinary tourist-trap. Hidden cameras, none-too-subtle intimations of blackmail, and the murder of a professional acquaintance send them reeling back to Britain; back to what they dearly hope will be a snug 9 to 5 normality. But there's a limit to how often they can walk away. Especially when any number of foreign intelligence agencies now have hostile eyes on them. They were once two of Britain's best assets; they're currently untethered from central control; they're fair game. And actually, come to think if it, this is an excellent time to put an assassin on their tail. Get rid of them both, once and for all. “James Ward brings protagonist John Mordred alive on the page … The author displays exceptional ability when it comes to storytelling.” – Emerald Book Review

"A mystery that touches the heart, with characters caught in a world that's harsh but trembles with tender emotions. A beautiful story." JAMES NAUGHTIE, BBC Radio 4 When the door opened and he came out, there came with him the stench of a dead thing, the sweet, sulphurous, warm, rotten chicken smell that only ever comes from unburied flesh. A dead body is found in a locked house. It has been stabbed in a frenzy, the hands and feet bound, the skull smashed, false teeth knocked from its jaws. Blood pools around the corpse and drips from the staircase. Yet nothing is missing: money and valuables remain untouched. Who could have murdered an old woman in such a horrifying way? And why? This is the mystery facing Sergeant John Fraser and Detective Lieutenant Trench when wealthy spinster Miss Jean Milne is murdered in the quiet seaside town of Broughty Ferry. Yet, despite an abundance of clues and apparent witnesses, the investigation proves troublesome: suspects are elusive and Miss Milne herself is found to be far from a model of propriety. And when sensational headlines put pressure on the police force to find a culprit, Fraser and Trench must work fast to prevent the wrong man from going to the gallows. But will they ever unravel the secret life and curious death of Miss Jean Milne? REVIEWS "Nicoll takes a true story and builds it into a twisting piece of prose with an unexpected shift towards the end." DAILY EXPRESS (****, Summer's Most Addictive Crime Fiction) "Beautifully Done." THE SUN "The sense of setting and era are spot on, and the dusky streets of Scotland are suitably spooky." HEAT MAGAZINE "A superb read, the sort of book that keeps you compulsively turning pages." UNDISCOVERED SCOTLAND "Nicoll offers a plausible, if shocking, solution to the crime at the end...in the style of the best Agatha Christie. The writing of a Christie-esque novel in the 21st century, however, requires a fresh and lively narrative, coupled with a wry and critical humour, to make it feel compellingly modern enough. Nicoll achieves that and more by bringing us, sometimes uncomfortably so, closer to our sins of the past." THE NATIONAL "An intelligent crime novel with secrets, passion and great characters - just a great murder mystery." PORTOBELLO BOOK BLOG "A triumph of tone, very moving, completely convincing." ANDREW MARR on The Good Mayor "An exuberant, whirlwind read, with a glint of steel beneath the frothy plot." THE GUARDIAN on The Good Mayor