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Irving Pardoen

    A Good Hanging And Other Stories
    Tooth & nail.
    A Desert in Bohemia
    Child 44
    Omnibus: De Paardenfluisteraar & De Wolvenlus
    First They Killed My Father
    • From a childhood survivor of the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot, this narrative reveals the harrowing realities of war crimes and the extraordinary resilience of a small girl and her family. Repackaged to coincide with a Netflix film produced and directed by Angelina Jolie, the story chronicles Loung Ung's life until the age of five in Phnom Penh, where she was one of seven children of a high-ranking official. A lively child, she cherished the vibrant city markets and her playful interactions with her parents. However, everything changed when the Khmer Rouge invaded in April 1975, forcing her family to flee and hide their identities. They moved from village to village, ultimately dispersing to survive. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, while her siblings faced their own struggles in labor camps. As the Vietnamese forces advanced and dismantled the Khmer Rouge, Loung and her surviving siblings began to reunite. Inspired by her brother's bravery and supported by her family's sacrifices and her sister's kindness, Loung persevered to build a courageous new life. This insightful and compelling story is both harrowing and hopeful, leaving a lasting impact.

      First They Killed My Father
      4.4
    • MGB officer Leo is a man who never questions the Party Line. He arrests whomever he is told to arrest. He dismisses the horrific death of a young boy because he is told to, because he believes the Party stance that there can be no murder in Communist Russia. Leo is the perfect soldier of the regime. But suddenly his confidence that everything he does serves a great good is shaken. He is forced to watch a man he knows to be innocent be brutally tortured. And then he is told to arrest his own wife. Leo understands how the State works: Trust and check, but check particularly on those we trust. He faces a stark choice: his wife or his life. And still the killings of children continue...

      Child 44
      4.1
    • It is 1945. As the German Army retreats and the tide of war sweeps back over Eastern Europe, the lives of the inhabitants are changed forever.

      A Desert in Bohemia
      3.9
    • Tooth & nail.

      • 304 pages
      • 11 hours of reading

      They call him the Wolfman - because he takes a bite out of his victims and because they found the first victim in the East End's lonely Wolf Street. Scotland Yard are anxious to find the killer and Inspector Rebus is drafted in to help, thanks to his supposed expertise in the modus operandi of serial killers. But his Scotland Yard opposite number, George Flight, isn't happy at yet more interference - it's bad enough having several Chief Inspectors on your back - and Rebus finds himself dealing with racial prejudice as well as the predations of a violent maniac. When Rebus is offered a serial killer profile of the Wolfman by an attractive female psychologist, it's too good an opportunity to miss. But in finding an ally, he may have given his enemies an easy means of attack.

      Tooth & nail.
      3.9
    • A Good Hanging And Other Stories

      • 288 pages
      • 11 hours of reading

      Edinburgh is a city steeped in history and tradition, a seat of learning, of elegant living, known as the 'Athens of the North'. But that isn't all. The city's flip-side is a city of grudges, blackmail, violence, greed and fear - where past and present clash and old wounds fester. In any year Detective Inspector John Rebus can expect gang warfare, murder, assault and battery at the very least. In this collection he investigates the hanging of a student actor during the Festival, an arson attack on a bird watcher and the witnessing of an apparent miracle...

      A Good Hanging And Other Stories
      3.9
    • The Sunday Times bestseller - an intensely moving and beautifully written new novel from the Booker-prize winning author of Last Orders and Waterland

      Mothering Sunday
      3.9
    • Thursday's Children

      • 432 pages
      • 16 hours of reading

      When psychotherapist Frieda Klein left the sleepy Suffolk coastal town in which she grew up, she never intended to return. Left behind were friends, family, lives and loves but alongside them, painful memories; a past she wouldn't allow to destroy her. Then, years later, an old classmate appears in London, asking Frieda to help her teenage daughter, and long-buried memories resurface. Death soon follows, leaving Frieda no choice but to return home to confront her past. And the monsters no one else believed were real . . . Through a fog of conflicting accounts, hidden agendas and questionable alibis, Frieda can trust no one as she tries to piece together the shocking truth, past and present. Before another innocent dies. When it comes to psychological suspense, there's none better than Nicci French. And Thursday's Children is Nicci French at her very best. Praise for Nicci French 'Brilliantly crafted.' Daily Mirror 'Magnificent.' Evening Standard

      Thursday's Children
      3.9
    • Eye of the Red Tsar

      • 352 pages
      • 13 hours of reading

      It is the time of the Great Terror. Inspector Pekkala - known as the Emerald Eye - was the most famous detective in all Russia. He was the favourite of the Tsar. Now he is the prisoner of the men he once hunted.

      Eye of the Red Tsar
      3.8
    • A junkie lies dead in an Edinburgh squat, spreadeagled, cross-like on the floor, between two burned-down candles, a five-pointed star daubed on the wall above. Just another dead addict - until John Rebus begins to chip away at the indifference, treachery, deceit and sleaze that lurks behind the facade of the Edinburgh familiar to tourists. Only Rebus seems to care about a death which looks more like a murder every day, about a seductive danger he can almost taste, appealing to the darkest corners of his mind . . .

      Hide & Seek
      3.9