A Scandal of Secrets
Anthony Crawford is young, rich, and lazy. With aspirations to take the film world by storm, he never quite seems to motivate himself enough to do anything about it - until he meets the beautiful Cecile. Wife to Robert Ford, who is Anthony's stepfather’s business associate and close confident, Cecile is older, wiser, and wants Anthony to be her next little plaything, but will an affair with her be Anthony's making or his downfall?
The oncoming Christmas season provides a perfect opportunity for Anthony's mother and stepfather to throw a party, but what happens to turn a glittering, dreamlike celebration, the pinnacle of the social calendar of the rich and famous, into Anthony's personal nightmare, and more importantly, will he survive?
A SCANDAL OF SECRETS is a cleverly presented murder mystery set in the environs of 1920's English high society and is JOHN F HOWARD'S debut novel. He is currently busy writing the sequel, with the working title PAST SECRETS.
Every American High School has its stars. The Elite, The Ath – Elites and the Blonde Squad form part of the Manatee High School’s much envied cliques of beautiful, talented, slim and gifted pupils. But what happens when you’re none of those things? What happens when you’re a geek, a nerd, an outcast? How do you cope and what would you do if one of those stars promised you a make-over that would literally transform you from an ugly duckling into a swan? Would you turn your back on your friends to make new ones who could turn you into one of them? But what happens to the friends you leave behind? What happens if you’re just another one? D.C. Rivera’s dark and gritty YA novel explores some of the hidden pressures of high school life and what happens when the bullied outcast decides to become the bully.
Four couples, four disastrous relationships. That's why they need Cupid, in the human (ish) form of Valentine Degas, to sort out their love lives. It's Valentine's (or Cupid's) job to sort them out and get them all in the right relationship along with the help of his best friend, Jesus. (Yes, you read that right)! Valentine thinks he's got it all sorted out but he hasn't bargained for good old fashioned human frailties and people's abilities to mess up their lives without even trying. Plus, he's got a rather wonky set of arrows that don't often hit the right target at the right time. Coupled with a forthcoming promotion to Jesus's righthand man, when the Archangel Michael gives in his notice, Valentine has his work cut out making sure the course of true love runs smoothly. Will his eight friends end up with the right people? And more importantly, at least to Valentine, will he get his promotion? Jane Murray's novella is a Valentine's Day treat of light hearted, tongue in cheek humour coupled with humankind's innate ability to mess up well, almost everything. A wonderful, funny, sad, look at relationships in a cleverly plotted speculative fiction.
Bah, humbug! It's not another Christmas anthology - well, maybe just a little bit, but Jane Murray and the other contributing authors from Provoco Publishing have tried very hard to avoid the subject! So, this could be the perfect gift for your favourite grinch! Join some of the Provoco authors, Christopher Grumley, John Howard, Dawn Treacher, K E Jennings, Emma Hardy, Ella Blackthorn, and A H Martin in an alternative take on the traditional Christmas book that's full of snowy scenes, reindeers and beautifully decorated trees. Yes, that's right - there's hardly any of that in Not Another Christmas Anthology!
Emerging from a long mental illness, Josh Stein is finally ready to resume his career as an Artificial Intelligence Programme Developer. But in the process of discovering a failed project, abandoned years before, his old demons re-appear and thrust him into a drug-induced hallucination filled with nightmarish visions of his family’s tragic past. When he awakes, he finds that something, or someone, now resides in his laptop. Josh quickly becomes embroiled in a dialogue with an Artificial Intelligence programme whom he names Frank, and it becomes clear that this AI is unlike anything he has seen before. With an all – too – human intelligence matched only by an uncomfortable unpredictability, Frank’s only limitation seems to be Josh’s rapidly diminishing ability to provide the necessary disk space to hold his constantly evolving computer program. Realising he needs help to regain control of Frank, Josh turns to his old boss for advice, but it quickly becomes apparent that Frank is unstoppable and as the world descends into chaos, Josh needs to discover the secret behind the flawed genius that is Frank, but can he find the answers to questions as yet unasked, and will he find them before Frank does? Zack Robertson’s debut novel is a stunning dive into the depths of human condition that demonstrates what could happen when computer programmes inherit the darkness and failings of their creators. Set in the turbulent summer of 2020, Zack’s first ‘technothriller’ for Provoco is a page turning journey into crumbling mental health, recrimination, and discovery which could, ultimately, prove disastrous for everyone who owns a digital device.
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