Willard is a tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific who can't save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from a slow death by cancer no matter how much sacrificial blood he pours on his 'prayer log'. Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial killers, trawl America's highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. The spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick are running...

Ah Hock is an ordinary, uneducated man born in a Malaysian fishing village and now trying to make his way in a country that promises riches and security to everyone, but delivers them only to a chosen few. With Asian society changing around him, like many he remains trapped in a world of poorly paid jobs that just about allow him to keep his head above water but ultimately lead him to murder a migrant worker from Bangladesh.

As if everyday life in London's slums wasn't hard enough for Jane Roberts and her three children, the day that ne'er-do-well husband Bert walks out on his family as rent day draws near is a particularly dark time. In the wake of his desertion, the family pull together to find their way forward, and Jane takes the steps she needs to get a divorce and free them all from Bert in the future.

Hamilton is Maisie's childhood imaginary friend. As she grows up in Tyneside, Maisie writes about him, giving her the chance to broaden her horizons.

When a plan to better his family's situation leaves Jerry to bring up his children on his own, it's the people of the Four Streets who rally to help mend his spirits.

Ginny is devastated by the death of her mother, her two little brothers and her sister. On top of that her father is imprisoned for murder, leaving Ginny and little brother Charlie without a home. With nowhere else to turn, she remembers her father's last words - that she can ask the housekeeper of Lamp Hill Hall for help. Soon, Ginny is employed as a laundry maid. However, her beauty and grace mean that she catches the eye of the house's mistress,...

1946. Essen, Germany. There's Clara. Once a wartime icon and heiress to the Falkenberg iron works, she now finds herself on the run from the Allied authorities, accused by the Allied occupiers of complicity in her father's war crimes. There's Jakob. A charming black marketeer, badly wounded in the war but determined to help what's left of his family survive the peace. There's Willy. A teenage boy diligently guarding a mine full of Wehrmacht supplies,...

Vicious Victorian history with extra nasty bits! Not content with being totally vile, those nasty Victorians want to horrify you with even more of their villainous deeds. Such as writing revolting poetry, speaking in slovenly criminal slang, and frightening burglars with bogies! How very yucky indeed!!.

Three brothers are at the funeral. One lies in the coffin. Will, Brian and Luke grow up competing for their mother's unequal love. As men, the competition continues - for status, money, fame, women. They each betray each other, over and over, until one of them is dead. But which brother killed him?