Every morning retired naval officer Hakan von Enke takes a walk in the forest near his apartment in Stockholm. Then, one day he fails to come home. A few months earlier, at Hakan's 75th birthday party, he was eager to talk to detective Kurt Wallander about a controversial incident from his past. Could this be connected to his disappearance?

While the economy of his small South American country collapses, President Veracruz joins his improbable populace of ex-soldiers, with whores, in a bizarre search for sexual fulfilment. But for Cardinal Guzman, a man tormented by his own private daemons, their hedonistic fiestas represent the epicentre of all heresies that must be challenged.

Keith Stewart is an ordinary man. However, one day he is called upon to undertake an extraordinary task. When his sister's boat is wrecked in the Pacific, he becomes trustee for his little niece. In order to save her from destitution he has to embark on a 2,000 mile voyage in a small yacht in inhospitable waters.

The Tudors are a national obsession; they are our most notorious family in history. But beyond the well-worn headlines is a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew. The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation.

Sophia's husband Cornelis is one of the lucky ones who grew rich dealing with the Tulip flower. To celebrate, he commissions a young artist to paint him with his beautiful young bride. But as the portrait grows, so does the passion between Sophia and the painter; and ambitions, desires and dreams breed an intricate deception and a reckless gamble.

Crossrail, the `Elizabeth' line, is simply the latest way of traversing a very old east-west route through what was once countryside to the city and out again. Visiting Stepney, Liverpool Street, Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street, Gillian Tindall traces the course of many of these historical journeys across time as well as space.

Drawing on a wide range of material - ranging from the spiritual character of the world religions to the findings of contemporary neuroscience - this title argues that compassion is hardwired into our brains, yet is constantly pushed back by our more primitive instincts for selfishness and survival.