Simon Vance

This beautiful tale follows a raindrop's journey on Earth, from the time of the dinosaurs to the creation of the earliest cities and beyond. It explains how Earth has depended on the same water supply throughout its existence by flowing and falling all around us, fueling and forming much of what we have seen and used for millions of years.Featuring beautiful narration and educational back matter including an explanation of the water cycle, the importance...

The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1908) is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. Originally serialized in L'Illustration from September to November 1907, The Mystery of the Yellow Room marked the first appearance of popular character Joseph Rouletabille, a reporter and part-time sleuth who features in several of Leroux's novels. Originally a journalist, Leroux turned to fiction after reading the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe. Often...

The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903) is a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. Written during a period of increased interest in Egyptology across Europe, The Jewel of Seven Stars helped to establish the Irish master of Gothic horror's reputation as a leading writer of the early twentieth-century. In the middle of the night, a young lawyer is roused from sleep by Margaret Trelawny. At her urgent request, he accompanies her to the house of her father, Abel...

"Scotland Yard's Ian Rutledge is faced with his most perplexing case yet: a murder with no body, and a killer who can only be a ghost"--

For an ambitious, keenly intelligent woman, lying proves to be the easiest way to get through life, in this Victorian-era classic. Lizzie Greystock is a woman of rare cunning and determination-both of which she uses to better her lot in life. This is especially true when she manages to convince the ailing Sir Florian Eustace to marry her shortly before his demise, leaving Lizzie both a wealthy widow and the mother to Florian's young son. A born...

The patron saint of animals, birds, and the environment, Francis of Assisi led the rediscovery of nature in the Christian West. This magnificent spiritual biography by the phenomenally popular G. K. Chesterton-a convert to Catholicism-chronicles the beloved saint's calling, his extraordinary life, and his influence in the Church. Its charm and wit will appeal to even the most secular-minded readers. How fitting that Francesco Bernardone was born just...

The classic tale of romance and betrayal from a distinguished master of English satire. The fifth novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire epitomizes the wit, attention to detail, and thoughtful analysis of class and gender issues that made Anthony Trollope one of Victorian England's most beloved novelists. The Small House at Allington moves away from the earlier books' overt ecclesiastical concerns to focus on a small dower house on the edge of Christopher...

"A man staggers out of his cottage into the streets of Oxfordshire, shattering an otherwise peaceful evening with the terrible sight of his body shaking and heaving, eyes wild with horror. Many of the villagers believe the Devil himself has entered Joseph Makepeace, the latest victim of a "great fog" that darkens the skies over England like a Biblical plague. When Joseph's son and daughter are found murdered - heads bashed in by a shovel - the town's...

It is not just the living who are prey to 1780s London's criminals and cutpurses. Corpses, too, are fair game - dug up from fresh graves and sold to men of science for dissection. Dr. Thomas Silkstone's unscrupulous rival, Dr. John Hunter, has learned of the imminent death of eight-foot-tall Charles Byrne, known as the "Irish Giant," and is obsessed with obtaining the body for his research. When Dr. Hunter is implicated in the horrific murder of a...

1775. Newly released from the notorious asylum known as Bedlam, Lady Lydia Farrell finds herself in an equally terrifying position--as a murder suspect--when she stumbles upon the mutilated body of Sir Montagu Malthus in his study at Boughton Hall. Meanwhile Dr. Thomas Silkstone has been injured in a duel with a man who may or may not have committed the grisly deed of which Lydia is accused. Despite his injury, Thomas hopes to clear his beloved's...