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Straight from the bowels of back street police stations, locked psychiatric wards and the criminal courts, these are the brazen tales of a bare-knuckle barrister.

Charlie Wolfe jumps at the chance to help his uncle renovate a tumbledown cottage overlooking Nomansland Common. Number One Constable’s Cottages was once the home of the man charged with ridding the common of the highwaymen who terrorised travellers. But it’s the story of The Wicked Lady, the notorious female highway robber, that captures Charlie’s imagination, and some long winters’ nights he’s sure he can the hoofbeats of her horse echoing across time.

There is something sinister about a British seaside town. On the surface they’re all funfairs and breezy promenades. Yet dig a little deeper in the sand and you soon uncover an underworld of murder, madness and mayhem. Murder by the Sea Vol 1 is a companion book to the long-running true-crime documentary series on CBS Reality. Since 2018 the programme has examined some of the most extraordinary murder cases in Britain’s seaside towns.

Over more than twenty years working as a plumber, Nick has shared thousands of mugs of tea with hundreds of fascinating people. Here he gives his plumber’s-eye view of society in a series of entertaining, amusing and outrageous beneath-the-kitchen-sink dramas. While fixing pipes, Nick was also looking for characters to write about. In his toolbox, in addition to spanners, he had a notebook, which wasn’t just for jotting down measurements. And ‘the secret plumber’ has some great stories to tell, about people who might just be your friends, family or neighbours.

When Mick is almost killed by Oxford's influential chief planner Conrad, the near-miss and ensuing violence awaken his sense of justice. Conrad colludes with venerable St Mark's College in their sale of a 650-acre farm for development. Strategically located in the OxCam Growth Arc, the development will involve bulldozing a nature reserve and its dormice. Mick joins in the protest. Meanwhile Conrad's wife Kimberly demands a divorce and extends a helping hand to Mick. But tragedy strikes when two people, believed to be Conrad and Kimberly, die in a suspected arson attack on their home.

When Bee loses her job, home and boyfriend – all on the same day that a man accidentally spills coffee all over her; she decides life can’t get any worse. So when her mother finally tells Bee the name of the father she’s never met – a musician named Luke Friday – she decides to take a risk and go in search of him.

While the youth uprising sweeps across Europe, a debate about Franz Kafka appears in student magazines, arguing that publishing the texts Kafka left behind against his will is unfaithful to his legacy. When Kafka's best friend, Brod, is injured in an attempted assassination, assailant Ferdy Kaplan is captured and questioned by Commissioner Muller at the West Berlin police station.

When a heart attack forces Marcus fford Croft to retire from his chambers, his daughter Miriam and son-in-law Daniel are relieved that he is stepping down and handing over to Toby Kitteridge. But Daniel and Toby are concerned that their new recruit, who is a brilliant barrister with a penchant for taking risks, could jeopardise their hard-won reputation. Daniel's old friend Inspector Ian Frobisher then alerts him to the fact that one of England's most influential newspaper tycoons, Malcolm Vayne, is about to be arrested for fraud.

As the plane surges up into the clouds, Stevie finds herself clutching the hand of the stranger sitting in the seat next to her. It is a moment that will change everything. But Ned is heading to see his dying mother, and Stevie is returning to France to escape a terrible loss in her past. Neither of them can think about that tiny flame that just flickered between them. But then their paths keep crossing, leading them both to the same beautiful community garden in a small French village; run by a mysterious old man named Zach – a man with many of his own secrets.

When Teddy Colne arrives in the small town of Rye, he believes he will be able to leave his past behind him. Little does he know that fear blisters through the streets like a fever. The locals tell him to stay away from an establishment known only as Berry & Vincent, that those who rub too closely to its proprietor risk a bad end. Despite their warnings, Teddy is desperate to see what really hides behind the doors of his shop. Ada moved to Rye with her young son to escape a damaged childhood but she’s lonely and ostracised by the community.

Ruth, a young schoolteacher, volunteers as an escort helping to evacuate children from war-torn Britain to Australia and New Zealand. On the voyage, she forms an unexpected bond with nine-year-old Fergus - and with Bobby, a fellow volunteer who initially infuriates Ruth with his laidback air, yet somehow gets under her skin and throws her ordered life into chaos.

Alex is not happy that his family are moving to the village of Noggings. He’s even less happy when he discovers that Noggings is under siege from a vicious jackdaw called Graham who has been dive-bombing kids in the school playground and terrorising locals. Surely, it’s only a matter of time before Alex himself is targeted. But can he defend himself against the flapping fiend and learn what’s really behind these angry avian attacks?