Love and Louis XIV Antonia Fraser (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £25) This is a glorious book, worthy of the court of Versailles. Familiar enough with the 17th century, Fraser has turned her artistic pen towards the women who revolved around the Sun King. He married two of them and others he took as mistresses, siring at least 12 children. The title of this book might have been "lust" rather than "love", for France's longest-reigning monarch was an arch-philanderer, sensuous in the extreme. He ruled with an iron hand, yet pursued religion with devotion, fearing the day of judgement. Fraser brings Louis to life with both pomp and romp but always with colourful strokes depicting the innocent and ambitious women surrounding the king - "heaven's masterpiece, the gift of God to France".

The Hidden Assassins Robert Wilson (HarperCollins, £6.99) From 17th-century France to contemporary Spain, where Wilson's detective, Javier Falcon, is investigating a faceless corpse found on a municipal dump. The story is page-turning and highly topical, with an explosion in an apartment which houses a basement mosque, and the CIA involved in investigating terrorist cells. But everything is not as it seems, as we journey into the history of Andalucia - before the 17th century, a peaceful, multicultural Moorish kingdom reigned for 900 years until it was destroyed by the Christians.

A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil Christopher Brookmyre (Abacus, £7.99) oThere's an even more gruesome body count in this thriller, but the story is told with a light touch. It features a group of characters who - to an untrained English eye - could have walked out of Trainspotting, except that they come from Glasgow, not Edinburgh. The murder investigation involves a range of people, from the suspects to the defence lawyer, police inspector and local bar owner, who were all once at school together. The story is told with flashbacks to their schooldays, and there's a glossary at the back for Sassenachs.