Dan Brown
The Lost Symbol

Washington DC: Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to deliver an evening lecture in the Capitol Building. Within moments of his arrival, however, a disturbing object - gruesomely encoded with five symbols - is discovered. It is, he recognises, an ancient invitation, meant to beckon its recipient towards a long-lost world of hidden esoteric wisdom. When Langdon's mentor, Peter Solomon ­philanthropist and prominent mason - is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes that his only hope of saving his friend's life is to accept this mysterious summons and follow wherever it leads him....

Dick Francis and Felix Francis
Even Money

Ned Talbot has worked all his life as a bookmaker, taking over the family business from his grandfather. As the big gambling conglomerates muscle in, Ned wonders if it's worth it any more. When a grey-haired man steps forward from the crowd claiming to be his father, Ned's life is thrown into far deeper turmoil. He'd been told since he was a baby that his parents had died in a car crash. Barely an hour later, his newly found father is stabbed by an unknown assailant in the Ascot parking lot. Blood oozing from his abdomen, his father warns Ned to 'be very careful' - and Ned finds himself in a dangerous race to solve his father's riddle....

When jenner Redwine wins a lottery jackpot, her father rips her off and disappears; her fortune-hunting boyfriend becomes her ex; and friends-turned-freeloaders give her the cold shoulder. Seven years later, a friend invites her on a charity cruise aboard a luxury liner. jenner reluctantly agrees, not realising that danger lies ahead. Then she is taken hostage by a menacing stranger and must cooperate in a mysterious c1oak-and­dagger scheme. But as her panic gives way to exhilaration, and fear of her captor turns to fascination, jenner realises she's found a life worth living. If she survives.