Showing results by publisher "Oakhill Publishing" in Literature & Fiction

When Alicia Bryson returns to her estranged father’s home in a tiny Yorkshire village, she feels burdened by his illness. Her hometown brings back memories of a miserable and violent childhood, and Alicia worries that her young daughter Jenny’s summer will be filled with a similar sense of unhappiness. The town is exactly as she remembered it - the people, the buildings, even the woods. But her arrival has not gone unnoticed. There is someone watching her every move.

The summer of 1939 broke the Maudsley family. Cecily was only 13 years old and desperate to grow up, desperate to be as desired and reckless as her older sister, Rose. Now in her 40s, the family resemblance is uncanny, but Cecily is a shadow of her former self. A part of her died that fateful summer. Returning to the deserted family farm, Cecily recalls the light before the storm, before the war came and before the terrible family tragedy. She remembers how everyone was guarding a secret.

Commissario Alec Blume, on health leave, has retreated from Rome to central Italy. At the Villa Romanelli, he enrols in a natural remedies course conducted by a young woman named Silvana. But far from recuperating, a feverish Blume becomes isolated and sluggish with sickness. Increasingly ill at ease in the stifling environment, the dark history of the crumbling villa and its once-magnificent gardens draw him in.

Gordon Kingdom struggles with the fate of his seriously ill wife while patiently observing and methodically recording the lives of those around him: his neighbours. He has files on them all, including Don Donald (best friend and petty thief), Annie Carnaffan (lives next door, throws footballs over the fence), and Benny (the boy who paints with his eyes closed). Then there’s Angelica, the new girl (42) on the street, with her multicoloured toenails and her filthy temper.

In July 1945, MI6 agent Paul Dark took part in a top-secret mission to hunt down and execute Nazi war criminals. Now it’s 1969, and a KGB colonel called Slavin has walked into the High Commission with information indicating there is a double agent within the service. Dark has been largely above suspicion during MI6’s years of self-recrimination, but this time he’s in the frame. His options are fight or flight - whatever the consequences.

Anna hasn’t been back to Oxford since her last summer at university. She tries not to think about her time there or the tightly knit group of friends she once thought would be hers forever. She has almost forgotten the sting of betrayal, the secret she carries around, the last night she spent with them all. Then a chance meeting on a rainy day in London brings her past tumbling back into her present.... Can Anna finally face up to the memories of that summer and the people she left behind?

Twelve-year-old Bobby Nusku catalogues traces of his mother’s life and waits for her to return home. Bobby thinks that he’s been left to face the world alone until he meets lonely single mother Val and her daughter, Rosa. They spend a magical summer together, discovering the books in the mobile library where Val works as a cleaner. But as the summer draws to a close, Bobby finds himself in trouble, and Val is in danger of losing her job. There’s only one thing to do - and so they take to the road in the mobile library.

It is 1914, and while battles rage across Europe, three empires fight for dominance in the Middle East. In the midst of the chaos is Kingdom Lock. Working for the British Intelligence Service, Lock is sent to Persia by the Australian Infantry Force. His mission: to prevent a German spy from inciting rebellion among the Muslim tribes and from seizing control of the oilfields. But before then, having recently rescued Amy Townshend, the daughter of a British officer, he now finds that he must save her from the clutches of death once more.

Norah Thornby can no longer afford to live in her grand family home - unless she can find a respectable lodger. But Nurse Lettie Quick is not nearly as respectable as she seems. Meanwhile the beautiful Rae Grainger is staying in an isolated house miles away from the town. It’s certainly rather creepy, but Rae knows that all she has to do is stay out of sight until paid-professional others take her little problem away.

Two young boys stumble on a dead prostitute. She's on Sean Denton's patch. As Doncaster's youngest community support officer, he's already way out of his depth, but soon he's uncovering more than he's supposed to know. Meanwhile Karen Friedman, professional mother of two, learns her brother has disappeared. She desperately needs to know he's safe, but once she starts looking, she discovers unexpected things about her own needs and desires.

After holidaying in France with a group of old university friends, Isobel and Eric discover that Ben and Maggie’s daughter, Iris, has been critically ill and is now permanently deaf. Isobel knows her decision not to have her own children vaccinated is to blame for Iris’ deafness. And Ben knows this too. To make matters worse, Isobel is the woman he fell in love with in his twenties--the woman who married his best friend.

Surviving motherhood? It's all about having the right support network. Lawyer and new mum Cassie has a husband who converses through jokes, a best friend on the other side of the world, and a taskforce of Babycraft mothers who make her feel she has the maternal aptitude of a jellyfish. Husband Jonathan dismisses Cassie's maternal anxieties, but is he really paying attention? Then sexy ex-boyfriend Malkie saunters into Cassie's life again. He'd like to get her into bed again, too...

Who wanted him? What for? Why was Roger Farrar (if that was his name) on the run in Dublin? Was he a traitor and deserted? The innocent target of a kidnap plot? Or a lonely persecuted paranoiac? One thing is certain: he is likely to suffer a fate worse than death if he is caught by the gross villain who specialises in brain-washing.

Summer 1914: Europe is on the brink. As Britain’s enemies grow stronger, the Comptroller- General must confront the man with whom he has struggled for a generation - a man he knows only as the Spider. In a desperate gamble, he sends four agents out across the continent, on a mission they do not understand ... The future of British intelligence - of the British Empire.

Lily McCain is cursed. With just one touch she can see a person’s future, whether it’s a good fortune or a terrible fate. Afraid of the potent visions she foresees, she distances herself from the world, succumbing to a life of solitude. But at the touch of a mysterious stranger – who has powers of his own – Lily sees a new, chilling future for herself: one where she is fated to make a terrible choice.

Tat, is the first of his family to leave the Upper Eden Valley in Cumbria. He is clever, excels at rugby and has a fine singing voice. From Appleby Grammar School he gains a place at University College London. Tat mixes with art students from The Slade School, and an exciting relationship develops with Jane Cranshaw, a beautiful upper class painting student. They fall in love but he is unaware that Jane conceals a dark secret which fatally flaws their relationship.

Eamonn Lynch stares at the letter announcing the imminent arrival of his father, Dermot. His first thought is: I’ll make an excuse, I’ll put him off. But it is too late. Dermot is already here, in southern Spain, and soon he’ll discover that Eamonn lives in an unfinished building site; that Laura’s left him; and that it’ll be just the pair of them for two long, hot weeks. Eamonn doesn’t seem to know what to make of his father’s arrival.

As the three Henderson brothers - Jack, Douglas and Angus - head toward their childhood home in East Fortune for their annual summer gathering, they steel themselves against sibling rivalry, parental expectation and the vulnerability that comes with being with those who know you best. A subtle look at lives at the crossroads; about life and love, chance and hope - and how families survive.

Vienna, 1939. Professor Speckstein's dog has been brutally killed and he wants to know why. When an unexpected house call leads Doctor Beer to Speckstein's apartment, he finds himself in the bedroom of Zuzka, the professor's niece. Wide-eyed, flirtatious, and not detectably ill, Zuzka leads the young doctor to her window and opens up a view of their apartment block that Beer has never known. Does one of these enigmatic neighbours have blood on their hands?

Yesterday was Alice’s wedding day. She is thousands of miles away from home when she wakes to see a wave on the horizon,taller than her guest house on Kanyakumari beach. Her husband is nowhere to be seen. On the other side of the world is Alice’s mother, Violet. Forced to leave the idyllic Wiltshire village, Imber, after it was requisitioned by the army, Violet is haunted by the shadow of the man she loved and the home that lies in ruins.