Bøker av Michael Russell

1940. A woman lands on the Scottish coast from a German flying boat and goes to ground, hunted by British Intelligence.Suspended from the Irish police for reasons he won't explain, Detective Inspector Stefan Gillespie is working on his father's farm in Wicklow. One day he vanishes, leaving no sign of where he is heading - or why. Even in rural Ireland, rumours of assassination and Nazi spies fill the air, leaving Stefan's father to wonder whether he is in terrible danger.Meanwhile in London, Stefan is undercover, working in a pub: The Bedford Arms in Camden. Run by an alcoholic, bankrupt landlord, it's a wartime refuge for the Irish in London. And while the city shakes under the Blitz, Stefan falls into a romance with Vera Kennedy, an Irishwoman who has her own dark secrets to hide.But behind closed doors, a different war is being fought, and Stefan has more work than pulling pints on his hands. The Bedford Arms hides some unexpected dangers. The drunken landlord is not as witless as he seems, and Stefan's mission is under perilous threat.When Vera disappears, he discovers that the Nazis were far closer to home than he thought. As he embarks on a journey to trace Vera from London to Ireland, Stefan will have to decide where his true loyalties lie.Praise for Michael Russell'Complex but compelling . . . utterly vivid and convincing' Independent on Sunday'A superb, atmospheric thriller' Irish Independent'A thriller to keep you guessing and gasping' Daily Mail 'Atmospheric' Sunday Times

Reprint of the fourth edition of 'Palestine' published 1837, the author in his preface says he 'has made it his study to leave no source of information unexplored' in recounting the events that shaped this land from its earliest known history. Similarly topographical description is drawn from the works of numerous travellers and pilgrims.

Clarifies for parents, the public, and policy makers what high stakes tests are and how their use affects our schools, children, and society. This book explores the various uses, limitations, and paradoxical consequences of high stakes testing.

An evocative, literary crime thriller set in Dublin and Spain just before the outbreak of WWII.Christmas 1939. In Europe the Phoney War hides carnage to come. In Ireland Detective Inspector Stefan Gillespie keeps tabs on Irishmen joining the British Forces. It's unpleasant work, but when an IRA raid on a military arsenal sends Garda Special Branch in search of guns and explosives, Stefan is soon convinced his boss, Superintendent Terry Gregory, is working for the IRA. At home for Christmas, Stefan is abruptly called to Laragh, an isolated mountain town. A postman has disappeared, believed killed, and Laragh's Guards are hiding something. Stefan is the nearest Special Branch detective, yet is he only there because Gregory wants him out of the way? Laragh is close to the lake where Stefan's wife Maeve drowned years earlier, and when events expose a connection between the missing postman and her death, Stefan realises it wasn't an accident, but murder. And it will be a difficult, dangerous journey where Stefan has to finally confront the ghosts of the past not only in the mountains of Wicklow, but in Spain in the aftermath of its bloody Civil War, before he can return to Dublin to find the truth.

The SUNDAY TIMES top 20 bestseller!Shortlisted for the CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger AwardNew York, 1939: A city of hope. A city of opportunity. A city hiding dark secrets ...A brutal murder in an affluent suburb of Dublin and the unexplained death of an Irish diplomat in Manhattan...Garda Sergeant Stefan Gillespie is sent to America to bring a killer to justice, but his mission soon becomes part of an increasingly personal struggle. A chance encounter with an old friend draws him deep into a chilling network of conspiracy, espionage and terror with disturbing connections to home.He becomes more involved than he should in an Irish woman's bid for freedom from the clutches of the Manhattan underworld, and discovers that the war that is looming in Europe is already being played out here on the streets, with deadly consequences.In this time when people must make a stand for what they believe in, the stakes for Stefan Gillespie, and everything he holds dear, couldn't be higher.Elegant and atmospheric, The City of Strangers is a perfect thriller for fans of C.J. Sansom and Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

In the style of Benjamin Black, an evocative, literary crime thriller