Books published by publisher Little, Brown Book Group

The new stand-alone Spy High novel. Packed with action, excitement, gadgets, and hormonal frenzies and featuring an explosive storyline that may spell the end of Spy High for ever. When Rebecca (Agent Orange) Deveraux's father—the lord and master of Spy High—sends her friend for mind-wiping, Bex realizes her dad may be becoming just what his institution was created to counter: a raging megalomaniac! He's sending more and more spies on suspect missions and he's increased the armaments at Spy High threefold. Worse, Bex has discovered plans that suggest her dear old dad is building a vast mechanoid army—and she's fairly sure he won't be employing them to tend the grounds at Spy High …

There seems to be some odd things going on in the city of London lately. Take the murders, for instance; quite peculiar. And those missing statues. What's going on there? And shouldn't St. Paul’s Church have a roof? Odd. Horatio Lyle, of course, is no stranger to . . . well, strangeness. In fact, he finds the lure of the unknown quite invigorating. But having just survived the most frightening episode in his life, the last thing he wants is that pompous Lord Lincoln sticking his nose in again and demanding that he take on another case the police are too thick to solve. Of course, His Lordship can be painfully persuasive at times, so it should come as no surprise that Lyle, along with his young protégés Tess (the thief) and Thomas (the rich kid), and his faithful hound Tate (the smart one), is soon up to his neck in events of a singularly unscientific nature.

For Alex James, music had always been a door to a more exciting life—a way to travel, meet new people, and, hopefully, pick up girls. But as bass player of Blur—one of the most successful British bands of all time—his journey was more exciting and extreme than he could ever have predicted. Success catapulted him from a slug-infested squat in Camberwell to a world of private jets and world-class restaurants. As "the second drunkest member of the world’s drunkest band" Alex James's life was always chaotic, but he retained a boundless enthusiasm and curiosity at odds with his hedonistic lifestyle. From nights in the Groucho with Damien Hirst, to dancing to Sister Sledge with Björk, to being bitten on the nose by the lead singer of Iron Maiden, he offers a fascinating and hilarious insight into the world of celebrity. At its heart, however, this is the picaresque tale of one man’s search to find meaning and happiness in an increasingly surreal world. Pleasingly unrepentant but nonetheless a reformed man, Alex James is the perfect chronicler of his generation—witty, frank and brimming with joie de vivre. A Bit of a Blur is as charming, funny, and deliciously disreputable as its author.