Collection: Historical Fiction

Over 700 pages of samurai swordplay and grudge matches in one killer, value-priced collection, featuring Hiroaki Samura's fast-paced "Mirror of the Soul," "Last Blood," and "Trickster" story arcs!

Kidnapped and bound by three Itto-ryu warriors, Rin is unable to warn her bodyguard, Manji--the seemingly immortal swordsman, that he's heading into a trap. The Itto-ryu thugs also possess a large dose of the only known poison to damage Manji's blood and severely cripple his regenerative abilities. And is the Mugai-ryu assassin Giichi following Manji in order to help rescue Rin . . . or will he just stick around long enough to finish off any survivors?

Collects Blade of the Immortal volumes 13 to 15 in the original 7x10 serialized format, in a faux-leather hardcover treatment, and with a bookmark ribbon.

Stan Sakai's epic series continues in the third volume of the definitive Usagi Yojimbo compilations featuring brand new original cover art by Stan Sakai!

Usagi faces a terrifying new foe who wears a demon mask, the Eisner-winning "Grasscutter" storyline receives a sequel, pickpocket Kitsune's history is revealed, fan-favorite character Sasuké the Demon Queller makes his debut, and a beloved ally long thought dead returns!

Collects Usagi Yojimbo Volume Three #31-#52, along with stories from Dark Horse Presents and more!

In Amanda Skenandore's provocative and profoundly moving debut, set in the tragic intersection between white and Native American culture, a young girl learns about friendship, betrayal, and the sacrifices made in the name of belonging.

On a quiet Philadelphia morning in 1906, a newspaper headline catapults Alma Mitchell back to her past. A federal agent is dead, and the murder suspect is Alma's childhood friend, Harry Muskrat. Harry--or Asku, as Alma knew him--was the most promising student at the "savage-taming" boarding school run by her father, where Alma was the only white pupil. Created in the wake of the Indian Wars, the Stover School was intended to assimilate the children of neighboring reservations. Instead, it robbed them of everything they'd known--language, customs, even their names--and left a heartbreaking legacy in its wake.

The bright, courageous boy Alma knew could never have murdered anyone. But she barely recognizes the man Asku has become, cold and embittered at being an outcast in the white world and a ghost in his own. Her lawyer husband, Stewart, reluctantly agrees to help defend Asku for Alma's sake. To do so, Alma must revisit the painful secrets she has kept hidden from everyone--especially Stewart.

Told in compelling narratives that alternate between Alma's childhood and her present life, Between Earth and Sky is a haunting and complex story of love and loss, as a quest for justice becomes a journey toward understanding and, ultimately, atonement.

From the author of The Plot to Kill Hitler trilogy and Escape from Chernobyl comes another fast-paced, high-interest historical thriller, chronicling two daring attempts to cross the Berlin Wall, set decades apart.

December, 1961 - Marta is a young girl who saw thirty miles of barbed wire appear across her city overnight, separating Berlin into West and East -- with Marta's home on the Communist Bloc-controlled eastern side.

--

January, 1989 - Now a spray-painted concrete monolith, the Berlin Wall bisects the city. Kurt, a young East Berliner, often wonders what those living on the other side must think of their unseen neighbors. Do they hate the people of East Germany as completely as Kurt has been instructed to hate them?

--

Inspired by real events, Escape from East Berlin tells two stories of daring bids for freedom from the Eastern Bloc, set decades apart and relayed in alternating perspectives. Triumph and tragedy intertwine in this examination of both the earliest and final days of the Berlin Wall.

"No one mixes romance, mystery, and that faint, spine-tingling sense of the supernatural, that curtain lifting in a breeze that isn't there, the hair prickling on the back of your neck, like Simone St. James. Her novels are the perfect combination of classic ghost story, historical fiction, and romantic suspense."--Lauren Willig

London, 1925. Glamorous medium Gloria Sutter made her fortune helping the bereaved contact loved ones killed during the Great War. Now she's been murdered at one of her own séances, after leaving a message requesting the help of her former friend and sole rival, Ellie Winter.

Ellie doesn't contact the dead--at least, not anymore. She specializes in miraculously finding lost items. Still, she can't refuse the final request of the only other true psychic she has known. Now Ellie must delve into Gloria's secrets and plunge back into the world of hucksters, lowlifes, and fakes. Worse, she cannot shake the attentions of handsome James Hawley, a damaged war veteran who has dedicated himself to debunking psychics.

As Ellie and James uncover the sinister mysteries of Gloria's life and death, Ellie is tormented by nightmarish visions that herald the grisly murders of those in Gloria's circle. And as Ellie's uneasy partnership with James turns dangerously intimate, an insidious evil force begins to undermine their quest for clues, a force determined to bury the truth, and whoever seeks to expose it...

From "the queen of royal fiction" (USA TODAY) comes this New York Times bestseller featuring three very different women whose fates are each bound by a bloody curse: the legacy of the Boleyn family.

After the death of his third wife, Jane Seymour, King Henry VIII of England decides to take a new wife, but this time, not for love. The Boleyn Inheritance follows three women whose lives are forever changed because of the king's decision, as they must balance precariously in an already shaky Tudor Court.

Anne of Cleves is to be married to Henry to form a political alliance, though the rocky relationship she has to the king does not bode well for her or for England.

Katherine Howard is the young, beautiful woman who captures Henry's eye, even though he is set to marry Anne. Her spirit runs free and her passions run hot--though her affections may not be returned upon the King.

Jane Rochford was married to George Boleyn, and it was her testimony that sent her husband and infamous sister-in-law Anne to their deaths. Throughout the country, her name is known for malice, jealousy, and twisted lust.

The Boleyn Inheritance is a novel drawn tight as a lute string about three women whose positions brought them wealth, admirations, and power, as well as deceit, betrayal, and terror.

In 1776, the rebellion of the American colonies against British rule was crushed. Now, in 1777-the year of the hangman-George Washington is awaiting execution, Benjamin Franklin's banned rebel newspaper, Liberty Tree, has gone underground, and young ne'er-do-well Creighton Brown, a fifteen-year-old Brit, has just arrived in the colonies. Having been shipped off against his will, with nothing but a distance for English authorities, Creighton befriends Franklin, and lands a job with his print shop. But the English general expects the spoiled yet loyal Creighton to spy on Franklin. As battles unfold and falsehoods are exposed, Creighton must decide where his loyalties lie...a choice that could determine the fate of a nation.

The New York Times bestselling author of the Maisie Dobbs series turns her prodigious talents to this World War I standalone novel, a lyrical drama of love struggling to survive in a damaged, fractured world.

By July 1914, the ties between Kezia Marchant and Thea Brissenden, friends since girlhood, have become strained--by Thea's passionate embrace of women's suffrage, and by the imminent marriage of Kezia to Thea's brother, Tom, who runs the family farm. When Kezia and Tom wed just a month before war is declared between Britain and Germany, Thea's gift to Kezia is a book on household management--a veiled criticism of the bride's prosaic life to come. Yet when Tom enlists to fight for his country and Thea is drawn reluctantly onto the battlefield, the farm becomes Kezia's responsibility. Each must find a way to endure the ensuing cataclysm and turmoil.

As Tom marches to the front lines, and Kezia battles to keep her ordered life from unraveling, they hide their despair in letters and cards filled with stories woven to bring comfort. Even Tom's fellow soldiers in the trenches enter and find solace in the dream world of Kezia's mouth-watering, albeit imaginary meals. But will well-intended lies and self-deception be of use when they come face to face with the enemy?

Published to coincide with the centennial of the Great War, The Care and Management of Lies paints a poignant picture of love and friendship strained by the pain of separation and the brutal chaos of battle. Ultimately, it raises profound questions about conflict, belief, and love that echo in our own time.

Sailing toward dawn, and I was perched atop the crow's nest, being the ship's eyes. We were two nights out of Sydney, and there'd been no weather to speak of so far. I was keeping watch on a dark stack of nimbus clouds off to the northwest, but we were leaving it far behind, and it looked to be smooth going all the way back to Lionsgate City. Like riding a cloud. . . .

Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city. It is the life Matt's always wanted; convinced he's lighter than air, he imagines himself as buoyant as the hydrium gas that powers his ship. One night he meets a dying balloonist who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies. It is only after Matt meets the balloonist's granddaughter that he realizes that the man's ravings may, in fact, have been true, and that the creatures are completely real and utterly mysterious.

In a swashbuckling adventure reminiscent of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, Kenneth Oppel, author of the best-selling Silverwing trilogy, creates an imagined world in which the air is populated by transcontinental voyagers, pirates, and beings never before dreamed of by the humans who sail the skies.

American Writing Awards - Historical Fiction Finalist

Laramie and Goethe Awards Shortlist

"Compelling and thought provoking" - Books and Coffee MX

". . . the creation of something sweeping yet intimate, historically accurate yet reflective of current issues, and, through it all, written with precision, grace and lyrical elegance. This is a splendid, splendid work." -Greg Fields - Author of Through the Waters and the Wild

"Haunting and eminently readable, moving and infuriating, Red Clay, Running Waters is an epic tale of love, justice, and betrayal, and is a vivid portrayal of an episode of American history too many would prefer to be forgotten." -Susan Higgenbotham - Author of John Brown's Women

"The true-life saga of the Ridge family--the most dramatic, tragic, as yet untold story of America's conflict with first nation's people--is the stuff of legend. The author has devoted a lifetime to telling it like it demands to be told. I don't know a more powerful American story that reveals more of who we are, and how far we must travel to heal from our troubled past." -David Marion Wilkerson - Author of Oblivions Altar

"Red Clay, Running Waters is a beautifully written historical fiction novel, meticulously researched and carefully crafted. With language reminiscent of the time pulling the reader into a little-known story of Native American forced removal, this story of love, commitment, and sacrifice in Antebellum America is the best historical fiction I've read in a decade! " -Josie Olsvig - Author of Gullah Tears

In 1824 John Ridge, promising son of a Cherokee leader, returns from his New England education with his White bride, Sarah Northrop, burning to defend his people's humanity and rights, and realize the dream of an independent Cherokee Nation.

Peace at home evades when tensions rise between the Southern states and the federal government, pulling the Ridges into the crossfire of a divided country on the brink of civil war. Faced with expulsion from their homeland during the 1830s Indian Removal crisis, and with options eroding, and Andrew Jackson in office, John and Sarah must forge a path to save the Cherokee Nation in the midst of tyranny and deceit.

A timely saga of one family's search for justice, this true story of profound love, sacrifice, and the meaning of home weaves the complex strands of politics, race, religion, and love into the tapestry of the turbulent times before the Trail of Tears.

"An extraordinary achievement. Red Clay, Running Waters is an old-fashioned novel in the best sense: rich in its portraiture and heartbreakingly true to history." Jodi Daynard - Author of The Midwife's Revolt

The untold story of Sherlock Holmes' greatest rival, Moriarty!

Before he was Sherlock's rival, Moriarty fought against the unfair class caste system in London by making sure corrupt nobility got their comeuppance. But even the most well-intentioned plans can spin out of control--will Moriarty's dream of a more just and equal world turn him into a hero...or a monster?

In order to negotiate with Irene Adler in secret, Count Albert Moriarty arranges a masquerade ball at Buckingham Palace. What is the secret contained in the documents Miss Adler stole? And what is she really after? The Lord of Crime, the Great Detective, and the Beautiful Thief battle it out in the shadows while the fate of London rests in their hands.

*Named one of TIME's Top 100 Fantasy Books Of All Time

A nobleman's daughter with magic in her blood. An empire built on the dreams of enslaved gods. Empire of Sand is Tasha Suri's lush, dazzling, Mughal India-inspired debut fantasy.

The Amrithi are outcasts; nomads descended of desert spirits, they are coveted and persecuted throughout the Ambhan Empire for the power in their blood.

Mehr is the illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor and an exiled Amrithi mother she can barely remember, but whose face and magic she has inherited. When Mehr's power comes to the attention of the Emperor's most feared mystics, she must use every ounce of will, subtlety, and power she possesses to resist their cruel agenda.

And should she fail, the gods themselves may awaken seeking vengeance. . .

"An ode to the quiet, fierce strength of women. . .pure wonder." --Samantha Shannon, New York Times bestselling author of The Priory of the Orange Tree

"Stunning and enthralling." --S. A. Chakraborty, USA Today bestselling author of The City of Brass

"A darkly intricate, devastating, and utterly original story." --R. F. Kuang, award-winning author of the The Poppy War

By Tasha Suri:
The Books of Ambha duology
Empire of Sand
Realm of Ash

The Burning Kingdoms trilogy
The Jasmine Throne

The story spans 1954 to 1966. During this time, Linda lives in a neighborhood of 100 houses in University City, known as the Gates of Opportunity. She knows the names of all the homeowners. Just about everyone is Jewish. It is easy to feel a connection to her neighbors. They share a common culture and history.

Notorious for being the first vegetarian in her neighborhood at age five, Linda becomes a known individualist, quirky. She turns ideas into reality. Her religion taught her to question everything. She admires Louisa May Alcott and plans to be a writer herself despite her mother's plans for her to be a secretary and marry a lawyer. Her home life is topsy-turvy at times and Linda goes exploring to get away.

She is intrigued by a century year old stone mansion she sees from her front lawn and ventures there to explore a different place and culture. With the help of a librarian, she discovers several cultures and prominent people lived in that mansion over the last 100 years. She wants to understand the history and what happens when a culture replaces another. Why do current residents move when a new culture starts to occupy the land?

A royal palace. A closed book. A betrayal that will echo through generations...

Windsor, 1940: Secretly tasked with foiling a suspected plot, Sophie Klein is placed in the Royal Library at Windsor castle, where the princesses reside. But when she learns that Windsor is compromised, Sophie must sacrifice everything she knows to save the future queen of England...

Philadelphia, Present day: Looking through her grandmother's papers, Lacey Jones comes across a mysterious letter stamped with the Windsor Castle crest. But how did it come to be in her family's possession?

And so begins a journey that will take Lacey deep into the heart of the oldest inhabited castle in the world, and change her life forever. . .

The story behind the legend...

Long before Betsy Ross became a national icon for making the first US flag, she was a quiet Quaker girl swept up against her will by events leading to the American Revolution.

Philadelphia, 1770. Eighteen-year-old Betsy Griscom falls in love with a man her parents can't accept-non-Quaker John Ross, whose family has strong ties to powerful colonial government offices. Despite Betsy's best intentions to stay within the safety of her Quaker world, Betsy marries John and dreams of an untroubled life with him and their future children.

Betsy's hopes are dashed when the colonies begin to openly and violently rebel against the British crown. Taught to be peace-loving and non-violent, Betsy watches helplessly as her husband becomes a militiaman and joins the resistance movement, taking them closer and closer towards chaos and revolutionary war.

When shots ring out at Lexington and Concord, Betsy realizes she can no longer be neutral. She finds herself fully entrenched in the turmoil of America's first civil war, inching closer to treason.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

Men whose minds are aflame with idealism gather at the Corinthe, in the center of Paris, to stage a rebellion! Marius and Valjean have an unexpected reunion at the barricades, and then part ways equally unexpectedly. The long night of revolution dawns into a morning of celebration. Paris is in a festive mood as Cosette and Marius are blissfully married. While the couple bask in their joy, Valjean withdraws into lonely darkness. But when crafty innkeeper Thénardier exposes the whole truth to Marius, what fate will befall the unfortunate Jean Valjean? Victor Hugo's immortal hymn to the spirit of humanity reaches its climax here, in the powerful conclusion of Les Misérables!

The final volume!