Collection: Historical Fiction

In this exclusive authorized edition from the Queen of Mystery, Hercule Poirot is called on to investigate the murder of a brother and sister.

"He was murdered, wasn't he?"

When Cora Lansquenet is savagely murdered, the extraordinary remark she had made the previous day at her brother Richard's funeral suddenly takes on a chilling significance. At the reading of Richard's will, Cora was clearly heard to say, "It's been hushed up very nicely, hasn't it. But he was murdered, wasn't he?"

Did Cora's accusation a dark truth that sealed her own fate? Or are the siblings' deaths just tragic coincidences?

Desperate to know the truth, the Lansquenet's solicitor turns to Hercule Poirot to unravel the mystery. For even after the funeral, death isn't finished yet . . .

From FSG Classics, a special twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Oscar Hijuelos's beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love.

It's 1949 and two young Cuban musicians make their way from Havana to the grand stage of New York City. It is the era of mambo, and the Castillo brothers, workers by day, become stars of the dance halls by night, where their orchestra plays the lush, sensuous, pulsing music that earns them the title of the Mambo Kings. This is their moment of youth, exuberance, love, and freedom--a golden time that decades later is remembered with nostalgia and deep affection.

Hijuelos's marvelous portrait of the Castillo brothers, their families, their fellow musicians and lovers, their triumphs and tragedies, re-creates the sights and sounds of an era in music and an unsung moment in American life.

Exuberantly celebrated from the moment it was published in 1989, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1990 (making Hijuelos the first Hispanic recipient of the award). It was adapted for a major motion picture in 1992 (The Mambo Kings) and remains a perennial bestseller. The story's themes of cultural fusion and identity are as relevant today as they were twenty-five years ago, proving Hijuelos's novel to be a genuine and timeless classic.

In the rubble of a broken continent, a girl must solve a mystery whose answers could rebuild her family--or break her completely, in this New York Times bestselling, critically acclaimed tour de force historical novel from Monica Hesse, author of Girl in the Blue Coat. Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal, her mind feels broken. And her life is completely shattered: Three years ago, she and her younger brother, Abek, were the only members of their family to be sent to the right, away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Everyone else--her parents, her grandmother, radiant Aunt Maja--they went left. Zofia's last words to her brother were a promise: Abek to Zofia, A to Z. When I find you again, we will fill our alphabet. Now her journey to fulfill that vow takes her through Poland and Germany, into a displaced persons camp where everyone she meets is trying to piece together a future from a painful past: Miriam, desperately searching for the twin she was separated from after they survived medical experimentation. Breine, a former heiress, who now longs only for a simple wedding with her new fiancé. And Josef, who guards his past behind a wall of secrets, and is beautiful and strange and magnetic all at once.

But the deeper Zofia digs, the more impossible her search seems. How can she find one boy in a sea of the missing?

"The reason Verne is still read by millions today is simply that he was one of the best storytellers who ever lived." -- Arthur C. Clarke
An adventurous geology professor chances upon a manuscript in which a 16th-century explorer claims to have found a route to the earth's core. Professor Lidenbrock can't resist the opportunity to investigate, and with his nephew Axel, he sets off across Iceland in the company of Hans Bjelke, a native guide. The expedition descends into an extinct volcano toward a sunless sea, where they encounter a subterranean world of luminous rocks, antediluvian forests, and fantastic marine life -- a living past that holds the secrets to the origins of human existence.
Originally published in 1864, Jules Verne's classic remains critically acclaimed for its style and imaginative visions. Verne wrote many fantasy stories that later proved remarkably prescient, and his distinctive combination of realism and romanticism exercised a lasting influence on writers as diverse as Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Jean-Paul Sartre. In addition to the excitement of an action novel, Journey to the Center of the Earth has the added appeal of a psychological quest, in which the sojourn itself is as significant as the ultimate destination.

From New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane comes this epic, unflinching tale of the making and unmaking of a gangster in the Prohibition Era of the Roaring Twenties--now a Warner Bros. movie starring Ben Affleck, Elle Fanning, Zoe Saldana, and Sienna Miller.

Meticulously researched and artfully told, Live by Night is the riveting story of one man's rise from Boston petty thief to the Gulf Coast's most successful rum runner, and it proves again that the accolades New York Times bestseller Lehane consistently receives are well deserved. He is indeed, "a master" (Philadelphia Inquirer) whose "true literary forefathers include John Steinbeck as well as Raymond Chandler" (Baltimore Sun). And, "Boy, does he know how to write" (Elmore Leonard).

Over 150,000 copies sold in this completed trilogy!

Arrogant. Scornful. Full of pride. Darnuir, Prince of Dragons, cares nothing for the damage he's doing to the faltering alliance against the Shadow. He thinks himself invincible - until a mortal wound forces him to undergo a dangerous rebirthing spell, leaving him a helpless babe in human hands.

Twenty years pass and demonic forces are poised to sweep across the land. With the alliance between humanity, dragons, and fairies fracturing, Darnuir will have to uncover the secrets of his past, seek redemption for his sins, and rally the disparate races if they are to survive.

Only Darnuir can do this. For he's the last member of the royal bloodline and only he can wield the Dragon's Blade.

His second chance is the world's last hope.

Perfect for fans of Phillip C. Quaintrell, Ryan Cahill, Feist, Salvatore and Brandon Sanderson.

In the second installment of the New York Times bestselling series, detective of the supernatural R.F. Jackaby and his assistant Abigail Rook follow a case to a paleontological dig site in nearby Gad's Valley on the trail of a thief, a monster, and a murderer.

In 1892, New Fiddleham, New England, things are never quite what they seem, especially when Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, R. F. Jackaby, are called upon to investigate the supernatural. First vicious shape-shifters disguise themselves as a litter of kittens, and a day later, their owner is found murdered. Then in nearby Gad's Valley, bones from a recent dig mysteriously go missing, and an unidentifiable beast starts attacking animals and people, leaving mangled bodies behind. Charlie calls on Abigail for help, and soon Abigail and Jackaby are on the hunt--for a thief, a monster, and a murderer.

The #1 bestselling chapter book series of all time celebrates 25 years with new covers and a new, easy-to-use numbering system!

Who would burn books? Jack and Annie find out when the Magic Tree House whisks them back to ancient China. There, a powerful emperor called the Dragon King has ordered that all books be burned. Will Jack and Annie be able to save at least one book? Or will they be captured by the emperor's soldiers?

Did you know that there's a Magic Tree House book for every kid?

Magic Tree House: Adventures with Jack and Annie, perfect for readers who are just beginning chapter books
Merlin Missions: More challenging adventures for the experienced reader
Super Edition: A longer and more dangerous adventure
Fact Trackers: Nonfiction companions to your favorite Magic Tree House adventures

Lily is haunted by memories-of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness.

In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu ("women's writing"). Some girls were paired with laotongs, "old sames," in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become "old sames" at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship.

The Good Shepherd is a 1955 nautical and war novel by C. S. Forester. First published in the U.S., it illustrates the difficulties of the Battle of the Atlantic: the struggle against the sea, the enemy, and the exhaustion brought on by constant vigilance. It is a riveting classic of WWII and naval warfare from one of the 20th century's masters of sea stories.

"A high and glittering excitement...[Forester] has no master and few peers." -The New York Times

"Nothing more exciting has been launched since Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea." -The Guardian

"C. S. Forester is the best living writer about the sea." -Time

"Action, tension, tingling suspense...The greatest adventure story to come out of World War II." -Life Magazine

Now with a beautiful new series look, the indomitable Miss Marple turns ghost hunter and uncovers shocking evidence of a perfect crime.

Soon after Gwenda moved into her new home, odd things started to happen. Despite her best efforts to modernize the house, she only succeeded in dredging up its past. Worse, she felt an irrational sense of terror every time she climbed the stairs.

In fear, Gwenda turned to Miss Marple to exorcise her ghosts. Between them, they were to solve a "perfect" crime committed many years before.

Choose Your Own Adventure SPIES: Spy for Cleopatra by Katherine Factor takes YOU to ancient Greece where you're faced with a mission larger than any ancient pyramid! 9-12 year old readers travel back in time to try and change history and must choose what happens next in the story. Choose Your Own Adventure SPIES: Spy for Cleopatra is an interactive adventure book in which YOU decide what happens next. It is circa 400 A.D. and you are a young person living in ancient Greece. You are studying with the powerful philosopher and mathematician, Hypatia. Hypatia's formulas and inventions will change the course of history, but she can't let go of an event from the past. She needs you to travel back in time to the age of Cleopatra in order to change history so the Library of Alexandria can be saved from destruction by fire. Can you do what's needed to preserve the world's most important knowledge?

"Allende has created a masterpiece of historical fiction that is passionate, adventurous, and brilliantly insightful. . . . suspenseful and surprising."--Denver Post

From the revered New York Times bestselling author of The House of the Spirits and A Long Petal of the Sea comes a passionate tale of one young woman's quest to save her lover, set against the chaos, greed, and promise of the 1849 California Gold Rush.

Raised in the British colony of Valparaíso, Chile, English orphan Eliza Sommers meets and falls in love with the wildly inappropriate Joaquín Andieta, a lowly clerk with ambitious dreams. When gold is discovered in the hills of northern California. Chileans, including Joaquín, head north to seek their fortune. Eliza, pregnant with Joaquín's child, leaves behind everything she knows to follow her lover.

In the rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco, Eliza must navigate a society dominated by greedy men. But with the help of her natural spirit and a good friend, Chinese doctor Tao Chi'en, Eliza soon comes to discover that her search for love has become a quest of personal freedom.

Hercule Poirot shows off his brilliant deductive powers in this official edition of the classic Agatha Christie short-story collection, featuring exclusive content from the Queen of Mystery.

"Agatha Christie's indelibly etched characters have entertained millions across the years and a love of her work has brought together generations of readers--a singular achievement for any author and an inspiration to writers across the literary landscape."--Jacqueline Winspear, New York Times bestselling author of the Maisie Dobbs novels

First there was the mystery of the film star and the diamond... then came the "suicide" that was murder... the mystery of the absurdly cheap flat... a suspicious death in a locked gun room... a million dollar bond robbery... the curse of a pharaoh's tomb... a jewel robbery by the sea... the abduction of a prime minister... the disappearance of a banker... a phone call from a dying man... and, finally, the mystery of the missing will.

What links these fascinating cases? Only the brilliant deductive powers of Hercule Poirot!

This intriguing collection of short stories from the one-and-only Agatha Christie will delight both old and new fans alike.

Now with a beautiful new series look, the bizarre death of a financial tycoon has Miss Marple investigating a very odd case of crime by rhyme.

Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his "counting house" when he suffered an agonizing and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals.

Yet, it was the incident in the parlor which confirmed Miss Marple's suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhyme . . .