Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

The Pindar Diamond by Katie Hickman.  UK release June 7, 2010;  US release August 17, 2010.   It's Venice, 1604. When rumours of a spectacularly rare and priceless diamond begin to circulate amongst the gamblers and courtesans of the Venetian demi-monde, the Levant Company merchant, Paul Pindar, becomes convinced that the jewel is somehow linked to the fate of his former love, Celia Lamprey. As his obsession with the mysterious stone grows it becomes clear that there are other, more sinister forces at play. Is the diamond real, or is it just a trick to lure him to his ruin? "The Pindar Diamond" moves from the canals of Venice to the coasts of Dalmatia, from a famed physic garden in the Venentian lagoon to the secret corridors of a convent - a tale of lust, love, greed, wealth and danger set among the Levant traders in the early years of the seventeenth century. Written in the exquisitely evocative style that is Katie Hickman's trademark, this is a gripping and superbly told story that goes as deeply into history as into the human heart.

The DeLacy Inheritance by Elizabeth Ashworth.  UK release June 8, 2010;  US release September 1, 2010.   Young Richard Fitz-Eustace's return from Palestine is far from joyous. Damned by leprosy he must bid his mother, grandmother and sisters a final and sorrowful farewell and leave his estates at Halton Castle forever. Condemned to shun the company of others he must now find a place of solitude where he can seek forgiveness for sins committed in the Holy Land for which he is certain he has earned God's curse. Resolved to live out his life as a hermit, he journey's north into the newly named county of Lancashire. But this is no arbitrary journey; there is one last obligation undertaken for his grandmother: that he will seek out her kinsman, Sir Robert de Lacy, at Cliderhou Castle and there press his consideration of her claim to his estate. Meanwhile, at Halton, Richard's headstrong fourteen-year-old sister, Johanna is distraught. The fate of her beloved elder brother has done more than leave her bereft. Her other brother, ruthless and ambitious Roger has returned to take his place as head of the family. He and Johanna's mother have contrived a marriage for her to a wealthy old landowner, and without Richard's protection there seems little she can do about it- unless of course she can escape and find him.

The Queen's Daughter by Susan Coventry.  YA.  US and UK release June 8, 2010.   Joan’s mother is Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, the most beautiful woman in the world. Her father is Henry II, the king of England and a renowned military leader. She loves them both—so what is she to do when she’s forced to choose between them? As her parents’ arguments grow ever more vicious, Joan begins to feel like a political pawn.   When her parents marry her off to the king of Sicily, Joan finds herself stuck with a man ten years her senior. She doesn’t love her husband, and she can’t quite forget her childhood crush, the handsome Lord Raymond.  As Joan grows up, she begins to understand that her parents’ worldview is warped by their political ambitions, and hers, in turn, has been warped by theirs. Is it too late to figure out whom to trust? And, more importantly, whom to love?

Attilla:  The Gatherine Storm by William Napier.  US release June 8, 2010;  previously released in the UK.   Second in a trilogy.   AD 441: The Roman Empire, though bruised and battered, is far from defeated. Though her coffers are empty, the Visigoths and the Vandals are settling peacefully within her borders, no longer enemies. It is another tribe that will bring down this thousand-year-old colussus: a tribe from far to the East - united under one leader for the first time. For Attila has returned...  In exile, he has wandered for thirty years with his anger and ambition growing day by day. Now he has returned to seize the throne. He will bring together all the Hunnish clans across the vast wilderness of Scythia, and hammer them into a single mightly army. Only then will he finally turn to face the tottering Roman Empire.

Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn.  UK release June 10, 2010;  released earlier this year in the US.  Passion. Treachery. Murder... A heart-stopping epic about a Jewish slave girl and Rome's greatest gladiator, who become involved in a plot to assassinate an emperor.

Brothers at War by Alex Rutherford.  UK release June 10, 2010.  The second enthralling installment in Alex Rutherford's Empire of the Moghul series.  1530, Agra, Northern India. Humayun, the newly-crowned second Moghul Emperor, is a fortunate man. His father, Babur, has bequeathed him wealth, glory and an empire which stretches a thousand miles south from the Khyber pass; he must now build on his legacy, and make the Moghuls worthy of their forebear, Tamburlaine. But, unbeknown to him, Humayun is already in grave danger. His half-brothers are plotting against him; they doubt that he has the strength, the will, the brutality needed to command the Moghul armies and lead them to still-greater glories. Perhaps they are right. Soon Humayun will be locked in a terrible battle: not only for his crown, not only for his life, but for the existence of the very empire itself.

The Wasteland by Simon Acland.  UK release June 10, 2010.  This is the true story of the Holy Grail. "The Waste Land" chronicles the adventures of Hugh de Verdon, monk turned knight, during the extraordinary historical events of the First Crusade. He journeys from the great Benedictine monastery of Cluny to Constantinople, Antioch and Jerusalem. He encounters the Assassins, endures a personal epiphany and discovers the 'truth' behind the Holy Grail. Hugh de Verdon's tale is retold by a group of desperate Oxford professors, based on his autobiographical manuscript, discovered in their College Library. Their humorous - and murderous - story also provides a commentary on the eleventh century events and shows that they are perhaps not all they seem.

The Blood of Alexandria by Richard Blake.  UK release June 10, 2010.    The tears of Alexander shall flow, giving bread and freedom . 612 AD. Egypt, the jewel of the Roman Empire, seethes with unrest, as bread runs short and the Persians plot an invasion. In Alexandria, a city divided between Greeks and Egyptians by language, religion and far too few soldiers, the mummy of the Great Alexander, dead for nine hundred years, still has the power to calm the mob – or inflame it . . .