The Courage Consort, possibly the seventh best-known a cappella vocal ensemble in Britain, are given two weeks in a Belgian chateau to rehearse their latest commission, the complicated Partitum Mutante. But can the piece be performed?

With the death of a mother and the abduction of a young girl, Susan Fletcher has written a novel about the innocence and terror of childhood.

Malachy Dudgeon has escaped the misery and madness of his childhood home and landed a job in the most famous school in Dublin. The headmaster, Raphael Bell, has overcome his own tragedies to forge a model career, but when Malachy Dudgeon and Raphael Bell meet, they become inextricably engaged in a macabre relationship which proves fatal.

In Aberystwyth, town of broken dreams, Dean Morgan check into the notorious bed-and-breakfast ghetto and mistakenly receives a suitcase intended for a ruthless Druid assassin. Soon he is running for his life, his heart hopelessly in thrall to a porn star known as Judy Juice.

Many years ago, Mr Golightly wrote a work of dramatic fiction which grew to be an international best-seller. But now, his reputation is on the decline. He decides to take a holiday and comes to an ancient village. Here, he soon finds that the themes he has written on are being strangely replicated in the lives of the villagers he is staying among.

A man of devilish charm and enterprising spirit, Dougal Douglas is employed to revitalize the ailing firm of Meadows, Meade & Grindley. Strange things begin to happen as Dougal exerts an uncanny influence on the inhabitants of Peckham Rye and brings lies, tears, blackmail and even murder into the lives of all he meets.