oxford (england)

"Gretel, a lexicographer by trade, grew up on a houseboat with her mother. Her mother disappeared when Gretel was a teen, abandoning her to foster care, and Gretel has tried to move on. When her mother phones, Gretel will have to recover buried memories of her final, fateful winter on the canals. A runaway boy had found community and shelter with them, and all three were haunted by their past and stalked by an ominous creature lurking in the canal that she called the bonak. And now that she's searching for her mother, she'll have to face it"--OCLC.

Archie Greene has lived with his grandmother since he was a baby, but when a mysterious package arrives on his twelfth birthday with instructions to take it to a strange bookshop in Oxford, he finds himself involved with a secret society of people who protect the world's magical books, and discovers that he has family he never knew about.

Portrays the childhood of Alice Liddell, who was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland." Includes instructions for throwing a mad tea party and other games.

Chief Inspector Morse, investigating the murder of a young woman in her North Oxford home, follows a winding trail that eventually leads him to the peaceful campus of Lonsdale College where two senior dons, aided by their ambitious wives, are vying for the Mastership of the school.