Nicola Barber

Barbados, 1854: Emily Dawson has always been the poor cousin in a prosperous English merchant clan -- merely a vicar's daughter, and a reform-minded vicar's daughter, at that. Everyone knows that the family's lucrative shipping business will go to her cousin, Adam, one day. But when her grandfather dies, Emily receives an unexpected inheritance: Peverills, a sugar plantation in Barbados, a plantation her grandfather never told anyone he owned. When...

In December 1926, Agatha Christie goes missing. Investigators find her empty car on the edge of a deep, gloomy lake, the only clues some tire tracks nearby and a fur coat left in the car - strange for a frigid night. Her husband and daughter have no knowledge of her whereabouts, and England unleashes an unprecedented manhunt to find the up-and-coming mystery author. Eleven days later, she reappears, just as mysteriously as she disappeared, claiming...

To save her sister, who, along with her American diplomat husband and children, is trapped behind the Iron Curtain, Ruth Macallister embarks on a dangerous mission, and as the sisters race toward safety, a dogged Soviet agent forces them to make a heartbreaking choice.

"Deep in the desert there sits a beautiful oasis, ruled by a monarch unlike any other in Erdas. His name is Cabaro, the Great Lion, and he reigns over a kingdom of animals, jealously guarding his golden talisman. No human has ever set foot on the Great Beast's territory. The journey to his oasis is impossible. As a team, Conor, Abeke, Meilin, and Rollan have achieved the impossible before. But now that team is broken--the friends scattered by a devastating...

As a dark force engulfs the land, the fate of Erdas has fallen on the shoulders of four young strangers who each have forged a rare bond with their spirit beasts -- a bond that gives great powers to all of them.

"Newly arrived in New Fiddleham, New England, 1892, and in need of a job, Abigail Rook meets R. F. Jackaby, an investigator of the unexplained with a keen eye for the extraordinary-including the ability to see supernatural beings. Abigail has a gift for noticing ordinary but important details, which makes her perfect for the position of Jackaby's assistant. On her first day, Abigail finds herself in the midst of a thrilling case: A serial killer is...

A father and his son leave Atlanta for Australia and find themselves taken as slaves by a savage, unknown jungle tribe. "The story of how I, Julian Carter, and my precious two-year old son, Stephen, left Atlanta, Georgia and found ourselves on a white sailboat, tossed about like a cork on a raging sea off of Australia's northern tip in 1963, is harrowing. But it pales in comparison to what happened deep in the jungle where I was taken as a slave...

As the Conquerors try to destroy Erdas, Meilin -- fed up with waiting and ready to fight -- sets off into enemy territory with her spirit animal, a panda named Jhi. Her friends Conor and Abeke aren't far behind ... but they're not the only ones.

"Why would Quentin Herms flee into the Quag? There was nothing in the Quag except certain death. Vega Jane has never left the village of Wormwood. But this isn't unusual--nobody has ever left the village of Wormwood. At least not until Quentin Herms vanishes into the unknown. Vega knows Quentin didn't just leave--he was chased. And he's left behind a very dangerous trail of clues that only she can decode. The Quag is a dark forest filled with terrifying...

"The sun is shining in the Hundred Isles, and yet the path forward seems crowded with shadows. Conor, Abeke, Meilin, and Rollan have traveled across the world, seeking a set of powerful talismans in order to keep them from enemy hands. Throughout their journey the young heroes have been hounded by pursuers, who always seem to know just where to find them. Now they know why. One of them is a traitor"--Page 4 of cover.