When Noel Bostock - aged ten, no family - is evacuated from London to escape the Blitz, he ends up living in St Albans with Vera Sedge - thirty-six and drowning in debts and dependants. Always desperate for money, she's unscrupulous about how she gets it. The war's thrown up new opportunities for this, but what Vee needs (and what she's never had) is a cool head and the ability to make a plan. On her own, she's a disaster. With Noel, she's a team. Together they cook up an idea. Criss-crossing the bombed suburbs of London, Vee starts to make a profit, and Noel begins to regain his interest in life. But there are plenty of other people making money out of the war, and some of them are dangerous...

Lydia was the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee. Her parents had been determined that she would fulfil the dreams they were unable to pursue themselves, though she had also been under pressures that had nothing to do with growing up. Her father is an American born of first-generation Chinese immigrants, which makes him and his children conspicuous in any setting, especially in 1970s small-town Ohio. When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, James is consumed by guilt, while Marilyn is determined to make someone accountable, no matter what the cost. Lydia's older brother, Nathan, is convinced that local bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But it's the youngest in the family, Hannah, who observes far more than anyone realises, and who may be the only one who knows what really happened...

Summer appeared from nowhere that year in Everdene; and for those lucky enough to own one of the beach huts, this was the summer of their dreams. For Elodie, returning to Everdene means reawakening the memories of one summer fifty years ago. A summer when everything changed... Vince and his brother are struggling to come to terms with the death of their father, but they have very different ways of coping... And for Jenna, determined to put the past behind her, the opportunity to become the 'Ice-Cream Girl' once again might just turn her life around. But this summer is not all sunshine and surf - as secrets unfold, and some lives are changed forever...

Faith works in a fabulous PR company, has loads of gorgeous, glamorous friends and, best of all, a handsome boyfriend. He never wants to watch the football, and thinks Faith is the most beautiful girl in the whole world. The only problem is, he doesn't exist. Faith has made him up, just like she's made up her perfect life. It's what she does. She's a single, lonely, low-paid make-up girl, and it's far too late to tell her family the depressing truth. Except that her sister has just got engaged, which means she's finally run out of reasons why her family can't meet her perfect, imaginary man. It's time to turn fantasy into reality...

Cristian Ferrar, a handsome Spanish lawyer in Paris, is a well-connected man. Ferrar is approached to help a clandestine agency supply weapons to beleaguered Republican forces and agrees, putting his life on the line. Joining Ferrar in his mission is an unlikely group of allies: idealists and gangsters, arms traders and aristocrats, including Max de Lyon, a man hunted by the Gestapo, and the Marquesa Maria Cristina, a refined beauty. From libertine nightclubs in the City of Light to volatile bars by the docks in Gdansk, Furst paints a spell-binding portrait of a continent marching into a nightmare - and the heroes and heroines who fought back.

Following heavy casualties, General Townsend withdraws his exhausted troops to the town of Kut Al Amara, Iraq. His orders - to engage as many Turkish troops as possible in a siege situation. A relief force is hastily assembled, among them Charles Reid, Tom Mason and Michael Downe, for each of whom the advance is personal. Charles returns to the country where he lost the love of his life. Tom's brother John, an army surgeon, awaits execution. Michael's brother Harry, an army intelligence officer, is missing having never returned from his last mission. All three men wonder if they will ever see home and their wives again.

The market town of Everham is full of rumours and counter-rumours. Dr Leigh McDowall, medical registrar, is taking a refresher course in obstetrics. He is immediately attracted to Dr Shelagh Hammond, obstetric surgeon, but she is deeply involved with another doctor, Paul Sykes and is caring for her terminally ill mother, who has a secret of her own. Meanwhile Reverend Derek Bolt is troubled by the unwanted attentions of a female parishioner and he confides in headmaster Jeremy North. Set against the back-drop of the Profumo affair that rocked Britain, Everham's own politics reach a dramatic scandalous crescendo.

Four years on from discovering their true heritage, Sally and Luke have overcome their animosity to forge a trusting brother-sister relationship. So when Luke returns home from the Hong Kong police force, he asks Sally for help to prove the innocence of his friend Irish. But Sally already has her hands full. As well as tending her flourishing business empire, she must also pick up the pieces when her family - from her feckless sister Josie to her self-centred daughter Margo - runs into trouble. Moreover, she must put her own dreams on hold because the man she loves is not free to be with her.

After the collapse of his marriage, D/S Jimmy Suttle is plunged into a series of killings that will test him to the limit. Michael Corrigan has been shot through the head at the wheel of his car on a lonely moorland road. The only witness: his infant son, strapped into the rear child seat. Within days, two more killings, equally professional, and equally motiveless. Teasing some kind of investigative sense from this carnage is a very big ask, but pressure for an early arrest is growing by the day... Meanwhile, in the world of journalism, Suttle's estranged wife Lizzie finds herself within touching distance of the story that will make her name - but that story will lead her to the heart of Suttle's enquiry, and into mortal danger...

It is the idyllic early summer of 1914, life is good for the de Witt family. Rudolf and Verena are planning the wedding of their daughter Emmeline, while their oldest son, Arthur, is studying in Paris and Michael is just back from his first term at Cambridge. Celia, the youngest of the deWitt children, is on the brink of adulthood, and secretly dreams of escaping her carefully mapped-out future and exploring the world. But the onslaught of war changes everything and soon the de Witts find themselves sidelined and in danger of losing everything.

When the body of a young woman is found in a suite at one of the most prestigious hotels in Manhattan, Assistant DA Alex Cooper and Detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace find themselves hunting for an elusive killer whose only signature is carving a carefully drawn symbol, which bears a striking resemblance to train tracks, into his victims' bodies. When a second body with the same bloody symbol is discovered in a deserted alleyway next to the Grand Central Terminal Building, Alex and Mike must contend with the station's expansive underground tunnels and century-old dark secrets to find a killer who appears to be cutting a deadly path straight to the heart of the city...

London, 1939: As WWII breaks out across Europe, teacher Louise Fairhurst and her class are evacuated from their school to the quiet farming village of Cottlesham. Uprooted and forced to start her life again, Louise finds herself acting as both mother and teacher to the group of anxious eight-year-olds. But just when they begin to settle into the country and their new surroundings, tragedy strikes... In Warsaw, Pilot Jan Grabowski must head to Romania to fight the enemy, leaving his wife Rulka behind. When Rulka sees Poland overcome by the Nazis, living in constant danger and amid cruel reprisals, she joins the Resistance. While back in England, Louise begins to wonder if perhaps she should have stayed in London - until a chance meeting with Jan alters her path, and their worlds collide forever.

1963. The year the Beatles first top the charts. The year Martin Luther King has a dream. The year Truman Bird moves his family from their home in Brighton to a dilapidated caravan in the Ashdown Forest - then disappears. Truman's a charmer, a chancer, a liar. He's always got away with it, too. But now he's gone a dangerous step too far and only has one day to put things right. For Truman's wife, Christie, life has not turned out the way she'd imagined. How has she, that young girl of not that many years ago, ended up like this? In a caravan. With three children. And an absent husband. Even though life has a habit of getting in the way of dreams, people find their own extraordinary ways of bouncing back.

Three sisters in 1920s Bermondsey struggle to make ends meet and protect their mother from the violence of their father. Milly, the eldest, works in Southwells jam factory. Elsie dreams of a career on the stage, while little Amy runs wild with her friends on the streets. As summer draws to a close, they join the hop pickers in Kent, for a short, blissful respite from a life of work and hardship. All three girls fear the terrible, unforgiving temper of their father, and their courageous attempts to protect their defenceless mother will have dramatic - sometimes disastrous - consequences for them all.

Natty and Sean Wainwright are happily married. Rock solid, in fact. So when Natty's oldest friend Eve Dalladay appears, just as their daughter collapses on a school trip in France, Natty has no qualms about leaving Eve with Sean to help out at home. Two weeks later, Natty finds that Eve has slotted into family life too well: Sean has fallen in love with her. He's sorry, he tells Natty, but their marriage is over. With no option but to put on a brave face for the sake of the children, Natty sets about building a new life for herself. And then she receives an anonymous note: EVE HAS DONE THIS BEFORE. DON'T LET HER TAKE WHAT'S YOURS...

Spain is corrupt and on the brink of collapse. The king is ill, banks are closing, hospitals are in chaos, homes are lost, demonstrators riot and right-wing thugs patrol the streets. The tunnels below are at once a refuge and a source of anger. And as the blood flows, Camara roars in on his motorbike. He is back in Valencia, with his partner Alicia and his anarchist, marijuana-growing grandfather Hilario. In the old police headquarters, the mood is tense as the chief hunts for cuts - who will go, Camara or his friend Torres? The two men are flung into action investigating the suicide of an ex-bank clerk and the brutal murder of a young American woman. And as the city erupts around them, their case takes them into the heart of the trouble...

'Dr Deborah Serach Gold died on the cross sometime during a night of freezing rain in late October of my last year at Three. It probably wasn't the worst thing that happened to her that day, but it had been over two decades in the making...' The day after a terrible storm, electricity still crackling in the air, a woman is found dead on the outskirts of a Texan town. She has been brutally attacked and nailed to a cross. The victim is Dr Deborah Gold, a psychologist who has taken a lot of people's secrets to her grave. Which means a lot of suspects for Detective Jim 'Biscuit' Bonham to investigate. And lately he could use some psychological help himself...

In the early hours of an April morning, Maya stumbles into the path of an oncoming bus. A tragic accident? Or suicide? Her grief-stricken husband, Adrian, is determined to find out. Maya had a job she enjoyed; she had friends. They'd been in love. She even got on with his two previous wives and their children. In fact, they'd all been one big happy family. But before long Adrian starts to identify the dark cracks in his perfect life. Because everyone has secrets. And secrets have consequences. Some of which can be devastating...

Kitty Callaghan has plenty on her plate. Since her mother died when she was just a child, she's cooked, cleaned and scraped to make ends meet for her drunken father and her headstrong brothers. Rita Kennedy, living with her husband under the roof of her spiteful mother-in-law, is desperate for their own home. Perhaps that will help them get their marriage back on track? For the two women, and others like them on Liverpool's dockside, the threatening clouds of war will bring heartache and tragedy. It will take courage, and ties of friendship and family to see them through the dark days of war.

Eighteen-year-old Debbie Hargreaves is heading to college in Leeds, where she'll be sharing digs with three girls. Debbie soon becomes firm friends with shy Lisa, outspoken Karen and self-assured Fran. Over the coming months, the four flatmates will share tears and laughter and the drama of a new romance. At the same time, Debbie's birth mother, Fiona Norwood, is struggling to cope with four young children and her duties as a rector's wife. The arrival of a new childminder should be an answer to her prayers, but Glenda's open flirting with Fiona's husband soon gets tongues wagging. Is Fiona's marriage really under threat?