Winner of the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award It's Manchester, July 1996, the month after the IRA bomb, and the Evening News is carrying reports of two murders. On the front page is a glamorous Egyptian woman, a socialite and heiress to an oil fortune, whose partially clothed body has been found in a basement. In the back pages there is a fifty-word piece on the murder of a young prostitute found dumped on a roadside. For Henry Bane, fixer, loanshark and legman for one of Manchester's established ganglords, it's the second piece of news that hits hardest. Determined to find out what happened to his childhood sweetheart he searches his bombed city for answers, finding that these two stories belong on the same page, and that Bane's world belongs to others - those willing to profit from guns, human trafficking and a Manchester in decay.

..".imparts evanescent visions of oceans crossed and lands traversed from the late 1800s and grounds the reader to the present time. Beginning in Norway and culminating in Canada, a lovingly crafted outline of the author's rich family history..." ..".more than the record of an heirloom or a family tree;...the reconstruction of the story of a family, rooted and established in love, sharing an unshakeable faith, and reaping the blessing of a clan that has spanned centuries. ...a compelling work- because of the universal appeal of seeking out one's family history, and the sense of timeless belonging revealed throughout... a haunting, yet comforting story that shares the same interesting elements of famous stories...that explore the details of pioneer living..." ..".I...compliment you on your thorough, thoughtful research and your writing style. This book is a real treasure! It will appeal to a variety of readers: ...young and old...anyone interested in Norwegian immigrant stories or who want to know something about researching family history and learn...what drew relatives to Canada a century ago...and about the adventure of doing research about things of value to us...".

Three cousin detectives appreciate the Beatitude, "Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted, " when they figure out the meaning of a sick man's cryptic words about a pelican.

Three cousins pursue a thief at a flea market and learn about the commandment You shall not steal.

Return to the Magical Land of Birthdays in Book #2 of this sugary-sweet series! It’s been almost six months since Amirah visited the Magical Land of Birthdays, which means it’s almost time for her half birthday! As that special day approaches, Amirah realizes something is not right in the birthday universe. Party invitations are going missing, people don’t feel like celebrating, and stores are sold out of birthday cake ingredients. When Amirah notices that the pages of The Power of Sprinkles are fading away before her eyes, she knows something is terribly wrong. That’s when she and her B-Buds, new and old, travel back to the Magical Land of Birthdays, where they discover that someone is determined to rid the world of birthday magic—by destroying the Magical Land of Birthdays! Can Amirah and her B-Buds restore the magic before it’s too late?

With the help of a teacher, three cousins investigate strange happenings at a school and learn the meaning of "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."

Fairy Tales, Natural History and Victorian Culture examines how literary fairy tales were informed by natural historical knowledge in the Victorian period, as well as how popular science books used fairies to explain natural history at a time when 'nature' became a much debated word.