Gregory Bannister is a successful businessman who has it all; fast cars, beautiful women, a luxury flat in Mayfair and an all-round champagne lifestyle.But then Gregory's world starts to unravel. Just after his forty-fifth birthday, his latest girlfriend ends their relationship and the fortune amassed by Gregory through merciless asset stripping and property dealing begins to slip through his fingers. Everyone is pursuing him for money; the bank, the Revenue—and there's nowhere to hide.Gregory is unwell; he's been playing too hard for too long. Gregory needs to turn over a new leaf...Just when he seems to have hit rock bottom, Gregory's fortunes start to improve with the arrival of steadfast Jane—but is Gregory ready to give up his independence for a secure life?Hugh Canham qualified as a solicitor but after a bout of ill-health due to overwork, took on a farm, gallery and antiques shop in East Sussex. Now living in central London, he has turned his attention to...

From being at the sharp end of an angry woman's cold, calculated revenge to suffering the miserable consequences of losing everything—including a priceless Picasso, from paying the ultimate price for having considered adultery to being fatally drawn to the pungent yet deadly smell of an exotic flower, the situations in which the main protagonists find themselves in this compelling collection of short stories all have an air of finality about them.Some are looking for a way in—to an inheritance, to a relationship with a mysterious stranger who turns up out of the blue, or to an understanding of the tantalising story recounted in a handwritten notebook—while others are permanently bowing out, disappearing off the face of the earth or finding that their existence has drawn to an end—gracefully or otherwise. Their world is one of uncertainty and surprise, where the mundane somehow always ends up being anything but...

When young librarian Lucasta Smith agrees to a temporary job sorting through the chaotic library of lawyer Hector Elroy's late father, she's expecting a quiet few weeks of dusting and cataloguing. But within minutes of her starting, Hector decides that Lucasta's degree in art history qualifies her to help him solve an art theft for an important client, and whisks her off to Norfolk.And so the two unlikely sleuths embark on a series of investigations, and stolen sculptures soon seem like small fry when one client is suspected of murder.Can Lucasta cope with life—in the highly sexist 1970s—as Hector's female sidekick? And can stuffy Hector break out of his old-school ways and let a woman into his life?Hugh Canham has had two fulfilling careers: his first was as a solicitor with a central London law firm, where he became Managing Partner and briefly Chairman, during a period of great expansion when the firm had offices in Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Singapore...