Amistad

In 1839, fifty-three African slaves staged a bloody mutiny on board the Amistad, a Spanish slave ship from Cuba. Their success was short-lived as the slaver was intercepted by the American Navy and towed to Connecticut where the slaves were held for deportation. But instead of sending them back to Cuba, the fledgling Abolitionist movement forced a series of trials, culminating in their defence in the Supreme Court by former President John Quincy Adams. This powerful dramatisation of one of America's first battles for civil rights brings flesh, bone and emotion to what has been little more than a footnote in history. Torn from their homes, sold into slavery and faced with a terrible future, this moving novel evokes the fight, courage and hope of a people determined to be free.France, 1964. At the exclusive Clos du Lac sanitarium, a man is discovered standing in the therapy pool: someone has chained him to the bottom, and left him there to slowly die. Inspector Lucas Rocco believes it to be an elaborate method of execution, but finds that the inhabitants of the Clos du Lac are unwilling to talk. Meanwhile, ministry officials sent from Paris to 'assist' in the investigation attempt to impede Rocco's efforts to find answers. It soon becomes clear that the Clos du Lac holds secrets the authorities feel are better left hidden. And with a high-level kidnapping mounted in an attempt to derail France's new trade agreements with China, Rocco faces threats from more than one quarter ...one of them a rogue government assassin.