Showing results by author "Barnes" in All Categories

Nellie Murphy wants out of her family’s shadow–and an empire of her own. So when smooth-talking ex-con Radley Barratt offers her fast money and a chance to finally become someone, she takes it. But Radley isn’t what he seems. He’s married to Lisa, who runs a brothel and believes his promises of a fresh start. But he lied. . . He’s playing his own game–with Kenny Ruck and a ruthless crew of Russians. Then came the wildcard–a reckless woman with a score to settle.

Billy Murphy built his empire on loyalty, strategy, and power, while Jesse Murphy built his career by enforcing the law. Two brothers, two sides, one war, from which neither can escape. Kenny Ruck is out of prison and out for revenge. His target? Cas Ferrier, Billy’s closest ally. But the real threat isn’t Ruck. It’s the Shipley family. They need Jesse to bury evidence in a murder case, and yet they know he can’t be bought. There is one Shipley who Dottie could never forget–Candice. Now she’s back...and she’s the head of the hydra.

Behind the cold, damp walls of the cottage, 17-year-old Malakai River is left to fend for his younger sisters. In her selfish quest for freedom, his mother shacks up with a small-time gangster and recklessly leaves the children behind. When Jean River returns a year later, she makes two shocking discoveries - a decomposing body of a young woman in her cottage...and Kelly Raven.

An unassuming Dottie Ellis falls for bad boy Jimmy Carson, who sweeps her off her feet. But after discovering she is pregnant and learning that Jimmy has gone back to his ex-girlfriend Carrie Verne, her happiness falls apart. Heartbroken, Dottie runs home, only to unearth a disturbing family secret that rocks her to the core. She is now faced with an agonizing decision to protect her unborn child. What she does shocks the town. In a moment of solidarity, Carrie makes a promise to Dottie, cementing an unlikely bond between them.

When Jimmy Carson, twice the size and with twice the bravado, leaves prison, he's hellbent on getting his family back. Determined that nothing will stand in his way, he reignites the long-standing feud between the Carsons and the Murphys, which erupts into a raging inferno and threatens to consume everything in its path.

Following the death of her husband, Desiree is left with two clubs. However, while her family are desperate to get ownership signed over to them, Desiree has other plans that involve Harper Kane. It's only been a year since Harper had to endure horrific torture at the hands of the Russian traffickers, but it didn't break her; it only made her tougher. And now the one person she believed she could trust has shockingly become the enemy. When Harper meets Desiree Deacon, she discovers that there is so much more to her family than just nightclubs.

Carrie and Dottie raised Billy and Jesse Murphy to have each other's backs, no matter what. But on one fateful night, as Billy takes his girlfriend Willow on a date, his world takes a devastating turn. A few days later, after a shocking revelation, the bond between the two brothers is broken–maybe forever. At the same time, Cas Ferrier's life is set to nosedive for a completely different reason. A long-buried heist, thought forgotten, returns with a vengeance, unleashing a ruthless killer with a thirst for bloodshed.

For friends Stevie, Holly and Angela, the last few years haven't been kind. With marriage breakdowns and sacrifices, their only moments of peace come when they are outside in the wild waters of the Lake District. Now it's time for these three women to love themselves, just as they love the cold, and take charge of their own happiness in this uplifting and meditative novel of friendship and the healing power of nature.

Having spent her life watching her father run his East London firm, Zara Ezra has learnt a thing or two about being a gangster, and she’s ready to take over when the time comes. Mike Regan, a blast from Zara’s past, is the head of his own firm, but when his son is kidnapped in the middle of a gangland feud, Mike has no choice but to accept help from the Ezras to get his little boy back alive. With a rival firm playing increasingly dirty, murder moves to the top of the agenda and Zara has some big choices to make.

1964–London. Dolly Vincent is born to an East End gangster but is sent away for her own protection. Mad Mick is hell-bent on his revenge and will stop at nothing to kill her. Estranged from her family, she becomes a successful barrister, but after defending a young Italian man she finds herself caught up in a secret held by a high court judge. Tortured and left for dead, she flees London and heads to New York. Only the Vincents know where she is… but even they don't know the truth. Now, it’s 1990 and Francesca is back to face her demons… but this time she is not alone. One woman, three names.

Bermondsey , London. With an absent father and a penniless mother, Cyril Reardon is determined to be the man of the house. As young as eight, Cyril is a charmer, a planner, and a risk-taker. A rare trip to the country, shows Cyril a completely different world and it opens his eyes to how the other half lives. A young man wants Cyril shot dead but receives a nasty scar and a few injuries that set him on a path of revenge.

Holed up in prison, Mike Regan is offered a deal - his freedom in exchange for his firm taking down the gang that is supplying a new dangerous drug that has hit the streets. What starts as a game soon becomes a shocking revelation with devastating consequences. Meanwhile, Mike’s fiancé, Zara Ezra, has her own firm to run. But when the so-called Governor is out to take her down, she has her own decision to make - either fight, run, or write her own rule book....

Frustrated by a dead-end job, fed up with renting in London and the loathsome daily commute and, to cap it all, failing to make it as a stand-up comedian, Tommy Barnes was at breaking point. But he didn’t break - instead, he made himself redundant and took off to France with girlfriend Rose to pursue his dream of brewing beer.

A gripping thriller that will shock you to the core. Controlled all her life by her religious mother, 15-year-old Kelly Raven commits the ultimate sin. She soon discovers that running away to the cold, frightening streets of London is less harsh than her previous life. A drug dealer, two fraudsters, and a prostitute are her new family now, and she becomes the woman she was destined to be. Little does she know that Eddie Raven is coming for her, but she is no sweet four-year-old child, and he is certainly no doting father.

Before leaving prison, having served 12 years, Harper Kane makes a promise - to find out what happened to an inmate’s missing teenage daughter. But first, she must secure a well-paid job and a place of her own to take back custody of her son. What she falls into is a frightening discovery of human trafficking. Forced to make an inconceivable decision, Harper will use everything she has learned inside to protect her family, even if that means resorting to murder.

The Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), based at the Tavistock and Portman Trust in North London, was set up initially to provide - for the most part - talking therapies to young people who were questioning their gender identity. But in the last decade GIDS has referred more than a thousand children, some as young as nine years old, for medication to block their puberty. In the same period, the number of referrals has exploded, increasing thirty-fold, while the profile of the patients has changed, from largely pre-pubescent boys to mostly adolescent girls.

In a collection that is wise, funny, clever and moving, Julian Barnes has created characters whose passions and longings are made all the stronger by the knowledge that, for them, time is almost at an end.

Curtis Warren is an underworld legend, the Liverpool scally who took the methods of the street corner drug dealer and elevated them to an art form. He forged direct links with the cocaine cartels of Colombia, the heroin godfathers of Turkey, and the ecstasy labs of Holland to source his supply as cheaply as possible and maximize his profits. He then sold his narcotics around the world, from the clubs of London, Manchester and Glasgow to the beaches of Sydney. This biography uncovers his meteoric rise to become "the richest and most successful British criminal who has ever been caught".

Mike Regan and Zara Ezra believe the so-called Governor is safely locked away - in Zara’s hangar. But less than 24 hours later, the Governor is loose and out there, wreaking havoc.

Best-selling science fiction superstars Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle combine their talents with those of Steven Barnes in an extraordinary adventure of humankind’s first outpost in the farthest reaches of space. Light years from Earth, colonists land on a planet they name Avalon. It seems like a paradise—until native creatures savagely attack. It will take every bit of intelligence, courage, and military-style discipline to survive.