Maureen Lee
Mother of Pearl

Pretty Amy Curran was just eighteen years old when she met Barney Patterson, the love of her life, on Southport pier in 1939. Their romantic, passionate marriage was made in heaven, or so they both believed. But when Britain declared war on Germany, Barney volunteered to fight and the couple were eventually separated for five long years. When he returned to Liverpool after VE Day he wasn't the same person - and neither was Amy. But how could things have become so twisted that one day Amy would kill the husband she once so adored? And what happened to their little girl, Pearl, just five years old at the time?

Antoinette May
Claudia, Daughter of Rome

Claudia has a privileged life. She lives in luxury, tended by slaves and adored by her family. Gifted with second sight, her dreams reveal many secrets, from which gladiator will win the battle in the Coliseum to the secret enemies who plot against the Emperor. As wife to one of Rome's rising stars, a charismatic soldier known as Pilate, C1audia is admired and talked about, for her beauty, her parties and her gift of sight. But Rome is built on powerful, treacherous alliances, and as Pi late's star continues to rise, shame and tragedy stalk Claudia's family. She realises that her fate and future happiness is inextricably bound with a man who appears in her dreams, a man who wears a crown of thorns, a man she knows her husband must not condemn to death.

Max, Fang, Iggy, Gasman, Nudge and Angel are six extraordinary avian­human hybrids. They are the result of a cruel experiment which manipulated their genes and all their lives they have been faced with evil. Driven to the wastelands of Antarctica, each day brings a new threat for the flock. Danger is never far away - and they have a new mission.

• Maximum Ride is James Patterson's greatest character, a heroine who manages to be human and fearless at once. The Final Warning is an unrelenting new adventure from the writer Time magazine has called 'The man who can't miss'.