It is 1704 and Europe is at war. 'Take this sword as your own and wear it with more honour than the man from whom you took it'. With Lord Churchill's words ringing in his ears, the courageous young Captain Daniel Rawson embarks on a dangerous mission to lead his men into battle against the French enemy. He must succeed at all costs - the future of England is at stake.

The author of the bestselling 'Railway Detective' series triumphs with this stunning first book in the Captain Rawson series....

When the engines finally met, there was a deafening clash and the Brighton Express twisted and buckled, tipping its carriages on to the other line. It was a scene of utter devastation.

October 1854. As crowds of passengers rush to make the departure of the London to Brighton Express, a man watches from the shadows nearby.

Chaos, fatalities and unbelievable destruction are the scene soon after when the train derails just outside the Balcombe Tunnel. Could it simply be a case of driver error? Detective Inspector Colbeck thinks not. But digging deep to discover the intended target of the accident takes time, something Colbeck doesn't have as the killer prepares to strike again....

This is the Railway Detective's puzzling new case. An exquisitely designed silver coffee-pot in the shape of a locomotive is on its way to Cardiff in the care of the young, talented silversmith, Hugh Kellow. It has been commissioned by wealthy ironmaster Clifford Tomkins for his acquisitive wife, who wants it to be the envy of all her friends - and enemies. But the coffee-pot is stolen. When a gruesome murder is committed at the Railway Hotel, Winifred Tomkins is distraught. Caring little for the dead silversmith, all she can think about is her missing treasure. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming of the Detective Department are summoned to Wales from London by telegraph and they are soon confronted by some additional crimes. The situation is complicated by the arrival of a famous theatre company and by revelations of illicit liaisons among members of the local high society. There is no shortage of suspects and Colbeck has to sift through layers of deceit to find the killer - before it is too late....

Dame Fortune has abandoned Lord Westfield's men to calamity...

One member of the popular London acting troupe has died. Their present production is a failure. Then an anonymous playwright hands company mainstay Nicholas Bracewell a chance for salvation: a new script that exposes a tragic miscarriage of justice in a murder case.

News of the impending production of The Roaring Boy swiftly reaches high places. Long before rehearsals begin, the company is menaced by enemies who target both script and players for destruction. For The Roaring Boy establishes the innocence of the two people executed for the crime and points a bold finger at the real murderer. Not even Lord Westfield, the company's powerful patron, can save the troupe from the mortal danger that now encompasses them......

This compelling history of our most feared institution charts the growth of prisons across the country; castle dungeons and decaying hulks, the dreadful Fleet and Marshalsea of Dickens' novels and the soulless structures of Dartmoor and Reading Gaol. Drawing on rarely seen material from The National Archives, it vividly portrays aspects of prison life that stayed constant for centuries: loss of liberty, privacy and comfort; hard labor; restricted rations; solitary confinement; corporal punishment and execution - as well as tracing key developments such as Jeremy Bentham's panopticon, the Victorian spate of prison-building, and successive reform Acts. The book also relates the curiosities, abuses and scandals that occurred within prison walls, from the racking of Henry VIII's enemies to the force-feeding of suffragettes centuries later.

At the heart of the book are dramatic stories of the men, women and children who lived - and died - behind bars. Their extraordinary tales range from those of political prisoners incarcerated in the Tower of London to celebrities such as Oscar Wilde who wrote so movingly of his imprisonment at Reading Gaol. Prison tells the stories of wartime convicts, suffragettes and highwaymen, cult criminals such as the Krays and 'ordinary' prisoners like armed robber James Edward Spiers - who in 1930 committed suicide at Wandsworth Gaol in front of a group of JPs gathered to see him receive 15 lashes. There are also fascinating accounts of officers, governors and executioners as well as reformers like John Howard and Elizabeth Fry, who spent their lives seeking to improve the lot of prisoners within....