Paul Torday Books in Order

An impulsive detour brings isolated software entrepreneur Wilberforce into a country-house circle offering friendship, love, and fine wine. His growing attachment to its generous host and cellar conceals the beginnings of an obsession with a bitter cost.

Unadventurous fisheries scientist Alfred Jones is recruited to bring salmon fishing to Yemen. A wealthy sheikh's improbable vision draws him into political maneuvering and personal upheaval, challenging his assumptions about faith, love, and what is possible.

Former soldier Eck joins a flourishing investment firm, using his privileged connections to entertain wealthy clients. Meeting the unreliable entrepreneur Charlie Summers coincides with growing doubts about whether his own lucrative employer is any more trustworthy.

Iraq veteran Richard Gaunt accepts a drunken challenge to walk to Oxford and is abducted along the way. Offered money to marry a captive woman, he agrees, then joins her attempt to escape an increasingly mysterious situation.

Returning from exile to his ancestral home, Ed Hartlepool inherits overwhelming debts, an elderly butler, and an unexplained resident. A developer's plan may rescue the estate financially, but threatens the very inheritance Ed hopes to preserve.

New vicar John Elliott struggles to revive a failing parish when a child at his wife's school develops unexplained marks. Questions about possible abuse and the previous vicar's breakdown draw him toward a disturbing mystery.

Newly appointed Children's Czar Norman Stokoe receives an office but no clear purpose when his government program is suspended. Two missing children and a determined journalist force the passive bureaucrat into an investigation he would rather avoid.

Journalist Charles Fryerne watches former Oxford acquaintances rise through politics and public life. When a future national leader accidentally kills an owl, the response exposes the moral compromises, ambition, and manipulation underlying their careers.