Ghosts of Warwickshire (Ghosts)

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Lloyd Shepherd

LONDON 1812: For forty years Britain has dreamed of the Pacific island of Tahiti, a dark paradise of bloody cults and beautiful natives. Now, decades after the first voyage of Captain Cook, a new ship returns to London, crammed with botanical specimens and, it seems, the mysteries of Tahiti. When, days after the Solander's arrival, some of its crew are found dead and their sea-chests ransacked - their throats slashed, faces frozen into terrible smiles - John Harriott, magistrate of the Thames river police, puts constable Charles Horton in charge of the investigation. But what connects the crewmen's dying dreams with the ambitions of the ship's principal backer, Sir Joseph Banks of the Royal Society?

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Sarah A. Hoyt

(Shakespearean Fantasies #3) William Shakespeare has become the preeminent playwright of Elizabethan England, but his success comes with a price--his son Hamnet has disappeared in the realm of the Elven King, and Will must face the powers of darkness to rescue him.

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Pamela Hartshorne

Jane believes in keeping her promises, but a deathbed vow sets her on a twisting path of deceit and joy that takes her from the dark secrets of Holmwood House in York to the sign of the golden lily in London's Mincing Lane. Getting what you want, Jane discovers, comes at a price. For the child that she longed for, the child she promised to love and to keep safe, turns out to be a darker spirit than she could ever have imagined. Over four centuries later, Roz Acclam remembers nothing of the fire that killed her family - or of the brother who set it. Trying on a beautiful Elizabethan necklace found in the newly restored Holmwood House triggers disturbing memories of the past at last - but the past Roz remembers is not her own.

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Elizabeth Goudge

Christ Church, Oxford is the location of this tale of the Leigh family, set in the days of Queen Elizabeth I. Faithful Crocker, an impoverished young Londoner, heads for Oxford. He's bright, cheeky and good-looking, has a tremendous love of learning and hopes to be an Oxford scholar. When he is taken in by Canon Leigh and his eccentric family, Faithful obtained a home. As Faithful begins to fulfil his academic dream, the Leigh family navigate the tricky waters of first love, uncover shocking secrets and experience devastating loss. The poor young scholar finds the gold at the end of the rainbow... a faithful gatekeeper prevents a lovers' misunderstanding... a young man, with grief and remorse in his heart, finds a child at the inn and brings hint to his rightful home... and a lovely young Queen visits her adoring subjects. A charming tale of hope and love, set amid the dreaming spires of Elizabethan Oxford. Radiant with life and lighted by love's enchantment. The towers of Oxford shine through the mist, blessing an ancient city, as the magic of Midsummer Eve brings two lovers under its moonlit spell. In this coming-of-age tale, the excitement, squalor and beauty of the English Renaissance unfolds through the lives of two girls growing up, Oxford students approaching the threshold of distinguished careers, and their elders navigating the complicated waters of sixteenth-century England.