Cleopatra VII of Egypt was barely more than a girl when she inherited the richest empire in the world - one that stretched from the scorching deserts of lower Egypt to the shining Mediterranean metropolis of Alexandria with its famed library and lighthouse. Imperilled at every turn by court conspiracies and Roman treachery, the young Queen was forced to flee Alexandria and live in exile while a foreign army overran her city and her own family plotted her downfall. With nothing to lose, Cleopatra sought a partnership with the only man who could secure Egypt's safety: Julius Caesar, a wily politician and battle-hardened general with a weakness for women. The result was a passionate love affair that scandalized Rome and thrust Cleopatra into a world of deadly intrigue played for the very highest stakes - a world she would continue to mesmerize and manipulate even after Caesar was gone. At the height of her power and fame, Cleopatra fell in love with Caesar's successor, Marc Antony, a general known as much for his drunken hedonism as his victories in battle. Brash, irresistible and fatally unreliable Antony's once-strong hold on the Roman empire soon slips away, and with it Cleopatra's fortunes. When the tide finally turns against her she plots a last, spectacular manoeuvre to save her children, her empire, and her place among the gods.

There was no God, no justice. But there was such a thing as hell, and he was living in it. You should have taken the money. He couldn't breathe. He slid down the wall and started to sob. Why didn't you take the money? Hong Kong, 1992. Ruby Wen is in big trouble. She has stolen a heroin shipment thinking she can sell it to a Mafia connection in California. Now someone's cheated her out of it. She owes money all over town to the worst kind of people. Now there's blood on the street. Inspector Madeleine Lacey barely has time to count the bodies. But when a British backpacker gets caught in the crossfire, she draws a line in the sand. She just wished the DEA liaison officer would get out of her face and let her do her job. And what was it he was trying to hide? As Hong Kong races towards an uncertain future and a Chinese takeover, its underbelly is brutally exposed in a novel of romance and violence where nothing is what it seems and everyone has a secret to hide. This is the fourth book in The Opium series, described by one critic as 'James Clavell meets The Godfather.' It charts the story of the drug trade in Indochina, from sacks thrown in the back of tiny planes in the nineteen sixties to the multimillion dollar international industry that soon became the plague of the western world.

'Another man would have made it an affair and nothing else. Another man would have been more ruthless, more cynical. The naked husband falls in love.' Mark d'Arbanville has the 'perfect life': a successful writer, he is happily married with a teenage son. But when he falls in love with another woman, Mark's life unravels, exposing regret, estrangement and heartache. Yet as his marriage falls apart Mark still can't let go. Nor can his lover, Anna, who won't leave her husband. When Mark finally does make the break, the effect is catastrophic - his wife commits suicide. The circuit breaker comes when Mark finds his dead wife's journals, and in their pages discovers a man - himself - he can barely recognize. He is forced to take stock of who he is and how men and women live their lives. THE NAKED HUSBAND takes a candid look at the way men think, act and feel inside a relationship. Shocking, disturbing but impossible to put down, it's a novel for every woman who ever found the reality of sex and marriage so different to the fairytale, and wondered why.

'Falconer's grasp of period and places is almost flawless ... He's my kind of writer.' - Peter Corris, The Australian 'Some men don't fall in love, they get lost. I was lost from the moment I saw Anastasia Romanov in the taxi club that first night ...' When Michael Sheridan jumped into the Whangpoa River to save a woman he had met in one of Shanghai's taxi clubs, his life changed irrevocably. A Russian refugee, Anastasia Romanov bears an uncanny resemblance to the princess of the same name, who was rumoured to have survived the brutal murder of her family at the hands of Bolshevik revolutionaries. The fate of the last Czar's youngest daughter has become one of the most talked about mysteries of the time, but Michael's Anastasia is suffering from traumatic amnesia and remembers nothing of her life before Shanghai. So who is she? Unraveling the mystery of Anastasia's identity and past takes them both from the streets of Shanghai to the decadence of pre-war Berlin, from the London of flappers and Charlestons, behind the grim curtain of Bolshevik Russia and finally to New York just before the Wall Street crash. 'Falconer weaves a pacy story of obsession, love, greed and corruption ... Really well done.' - Sydney Morning Herald

SHE’S CRIPPLED. HE’S MAD. THEY’RE MILES FROM ANYWHERE. Two writers set out to walk the camino across Spain with the intention of writing a nice, easy-reading travel book. So what went wrong? Well for a start they barely know each other. She should have died years ago. And they have secrets ... The trail they are about to hike is around a thousand kilometres long, taking in mountains and deserts. She neglects to tell him that she has certain physical problems that to this point have prevented her walking further than two laps round a football park. He has also made light of certain events that have gone seriously wrong in his private life. Two weeks after they arrive in Spain she is shocked to find herself with a ringside seat while he comes undone in the middle of nowhere. By turns poignant and hilarious and always excruciatingly candid, this is an extraordinary account of life, love and the whole damned thing. As a travel book it was a monumental fail. Instead it won a huge cult following in Australia, an inspirational book about friendship and healing at the very end of the earth. “ … a gripping tale of endurance laced with heartache and wry humour …” Sun Herald “ …their courage and honesty in facing their demons makes this book a compelling read …” Woman’s Day “ …by any measure this is a remarkable, painful, illuminating and inspiring book …” The Sydney Morning Herald

What is the most terrible secret a father could hide from his daughter? Buenos Aires, 1976. The generals take control and for rich Jewish financiers like Reuben Altman the world is coming to an end, just as it should be beginning. He has a beautiful wife and two twin baby daughters, Diana and Simone. But the night the death squads come to his apartment, he is not there, he is with his mistress. It is a sin he will pay for, over and over again. The man who tortures and murders his wife also takes one of his baby daughters as his own. But what happened to Diana? Many years later, after the junta are overthrown, Reuben Altman returns to Argentine to try and unravel the secrets. A deeply religious country with a dark and violent past, Argentine has always treated its generals with as much reverence as its priests. So it does not surprise him when his search leads him to Rome and the headquarters of the Cathholic Church. In uncovering the truth he threatens men with powerful links to the international arms business and the Vatican bank itself. But Reuben is a man looking for redemption and will stop at nothing to bring his daughters back together and uncover the most terrible secret any father can ever keep. Colin Falconer is the international best selling author of ANASTASIA and the OPIUM series and fifteen other best selling novels. His books have been translated into eighteen languages.

He had everything a man might dream of; wealth, power and the choice of hundreds of the most beautiful women in his Empire. He gave them all up for just one. This is the astonishing true story of Suleiman, the one they called the Magnificent, and the woman he loved. For a woman living in the Harem the only way out was to somehow find her way into the Sultan's bed and bear him a son. But one young Russian concubine inside his seraglio was not content to allow fate decide the course of her life. She was clever and she was ruthless. And she had a plan. From medieval Venice to the slave markets of Algiers, from the mountains of Persia to the forbidden seraglio of the Ottoman's greatest sultan, this is a tale of passion and intrigue in a world where nothing is really as it seems. “If you haven’t read one of Colin Falconer’s novels, then I promise you are in for a real roller-coaster ride of never ending intrigue ...' Mirella Patzer, HISTORYAND WOMEN