Laura Nye is a book dealer and former sex worker who finds herself being pulled back into sex work by money issues—and a girl named Holly Oakes, a professional S&M provider with a secret. Holly knows something about a suspicious death at a commercial dungeon where she worked. Laura’s search for a book once owned by a celebrated Beat writer leads her to the Lude Collection—vintage porno mags, fetish art, and a small cache of Beat-related materials, including the book in question. The latter contains a note pointing to the completed manuscript of a fragmentary gothic poem by a famous nineteenth-century poet. When Laura begins her quest for this lost manuscript, though, she discovers others are pursuing it too. As Laura gets closer to the truth about the manuscript and Holly’s secret, parallels arise between the novel’s narrative and the manuscript’s cryptic tale. The Lude Collection alternates between book trade and flesh trade as Laura is drawn deeper into the hard-core world of pay-for-play fetish.

FOUR instalments of the Varg Veum series from the international, bestselling father of Nordic Noir: Gunnar Staalesen, Translated by Don Bartlett PI Varg Veum returns to solve a series of dark, dangerous cases in his hometown of Bergen, Norway, in a series of chilling, perfectly plotted and thought-provoking thrillers... BOOK ONE – We Shall Inherit the Wind 1998. Varg Veum sits by the hospital bedside of his long-term girlfriend Karin, whose life-threatening injuries provide a deeply painful reminder of the mistakes he's made.. Investigating the seemingly innocent disappearance of a wind-farm inspector, Varg Veum is thrust into one of the most challenging cases of his career, riddled with conflicts, environmental terrorism, religious fanaticism, unsolved mysteries and dubious business ethics. Then, in one of the most heart-stopping scenes in crime fiction, the first body appears... BOOK TWO – Where Roses Never Die WINNER OF THE PETRONA AWARD September 1977.Mette Misvær, a three-year-old girl disappears without trace from the sandpit outside her home. Her tiny, close middle-class community in the tranquil suburb of Nordas is devastated, but their enquiries and the police produce nothing. Curtains twitch, suspicions are raised, but Mette is never found. Almost 25 years later, as the expiry date for the statute of limitations draws near, Mette's mother approaches PI Varg Veum, in a last, desperate attempt to find out what happened to her daughter. As Veum starts to dig, he uncovers an intricate web of secrets, lies and shocking events that have been methodically concealed. When another brutal incident takes place, a pattern begins to emerge... BOOK THREE – Wolves in the Dark Reeling from the death of his great love, Karin, Varg Veum's life has descended into a self-destructive spiral of alcohol, lust, grief and blackouts. When traces of child pornography are found on his computer, he's accused of being part of a paedophile ring and thrown into a prison cell. There, he struggles to sift through his past to work out who is responsible for planting the material ... and who is seeking the ultimate revenge. When a chance to escape presents itself, Varg finds himself on the run in his hometown of Bergen. With the clock ticking and the police on his tail, Varg takes on his hardest – and most personal – case yet. BOOK FOUR – Big Sister SHORTLISTED FOR THE PETRONA AWARD Varg Veum receives a surprise visit in his office. A woman introduces herself as his half-sister, and she has a job for him. Her god-daughter, a 19-year-old trainee nurse from Haugesund, moved from her bedsit in Bergen two weeks ago. Since then no one has heard anything from her. She didn't leave an address. She doesn't answer her phone. And the police refuse to take her case seriously. Veum's investigation uncovers a series of carefully covered-up crimes and pent-up hatreds, and the trail leads to a gang of extreme bikers on the hunt for a group of people whose dark deeds are hidden by the anonymity of the Internet. And then things get personal... ‘A Norwegian Chandler' Jo Nesbø ‘Staalesen is one of my very favourite Scandinavian authors and this is a series with very sharp teeth' Ian Rankin ‘Chilling and perilous results — all told in a pleasingly dry style' The Sunday Times ‘Masterful' Publishers Weekly

A comprehensive presentation of the ancient and diverse artifacts from the American Academy in Rome's collection.