Showing results by narrator "Lloyd Matthew Davies" in All Categories

Settled down in his beloved Mortlake once again, philosopher and astronomer John Dee is enjoying the quiet life when Her Majesty’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham darkens his door, instructing him to befriend a certain Polish count with an interest in alchemy and angelic communication. But when Dee and the count are caught breaking the law, trying to convene with angels, they are exiled, and must make their way to the court of Rudolf, Holy Roman Emperor, in far-off Prague.

The author of more than 25 plays, 10 nonfiction books, seven novels, five children's books, and four books of poetry, A. A. Milne was notable for more than just his creation of the Hundred Acre Wood. This collection illustrates just how Milne's mind worked and offers witty, creative, and entertaining insight into his everyday life.

The year is 1631. Charles d’Artagnan flees the ashes of his life in Gascony, seeking better opportunities in Paris. With his land seized by armed peasants and his family among the countless dead, he has nothing left to lose and little to gain beyond mere survival. Magic — once a useful tool for those rare individuals who still possess it — has become a weapon of incomparable power and destructiveness employed by France’s bitter rival, Spain.

Companies that are thriving, not just surviving, are much more than a set of ruthlessly efficient and mechanistic processes. They are a social system operated by people for people. The quality of relationships, both inside and outside the organization, is a far more important driver of sustainable success or failure than the quality of its control systems. The head is important, but it is the heart that matters most.

Life doesn't pick winners and losers. That's for the corporations to decide. And they picked Liam Argyle for a carefree life of fame and fortune as host of the world's most popular reality show competition. After two seasons of parading about the world's biggest victims on The Grass Is Greener, he's been forced to put a happy face on one tragedy too many - and he won't turn a blind eye to the horrors of the corporate dystopian world of the 2070s any longer. Now, Liam is out to destroy the very people who made him a star.

A bewildering feature of so much contemporary political violence is its stunning impersonality. Every major city center becomes a potential shooting gallery; and every metro system a potential bomb alley. Victims just happen, as the saying goes, to "be in the wrong place at the wrong time". We accept this contemporary reality - at least to some degree. But we rarely ask: where has it come from historically? Killing Strangers examines how such violence became "unchained" from interpersonal relationships.

Investigating a web of international conspiracy and destruction, it's up to H to untangle the threads. Under the direction of the head of the Japanese Secret Intelligence Service and with the help of an alluring French special agent, H is drawn into perilous situations and sensual affairs in exotic locations. He must discover the link between a respected German billionaire philanthropist and a shadowy international assassin to prevent them from changing world history before it’s too late.

Spain, 1639. When Len de Montemayor’s family is killed, she thinks her life is over until an aristocratic family rescues her. Len finds a soul mate in their son, Piers, and as they grow up together, their friendship becomes a love so intense that it comes with a promise: it will last forever. But with the outbreak of civil war, a dutiful Piers knows his fate is with the Royal Navy, leaving Len waving from the shore as he sails toward an uncertain future.

When Brody Taylor receives a "death letter" from a fellow elite hacker, sent a week after his murder, its contents present Brody with an offer even he can’t refuse. With the investigation being led by his girlfriend, DI Jenny Price, Brody faces an unexpected personal and professional conflict of interest. Meanwhile, unaware of the victim’s true occupation, Jenny is stumped. How and why would a disabled Afghan War veteran be poisoned in his own home by one of the world’s most deadly snakes?

The Host wants to know what the Academy was trying to hide and why the Fallen agreed to it. They want the Instrument of War, the one thing that can tip the Eternity War in their favor and put an end to the stalemate. Any impact on the Academy staff, students or buildings is just collateral damage. Mitch would like to forget that the last year ever happened, but that doesn't seem likely with Little Red Riding Hood now teaching Teratology. The vampire isn't quite as terrifying as he first thought, but she's not the only monster at the Academy.

A millionaire businessman and his loving family; two young conmen and an unspoken bond; and a pair of hardened hit men - these three groups are from different worlds, but one event will bring those worlds together and change their lives forever.

This is two fictional short stories, each originally written in serial form across many days on DavidMegill.com. The first story, "Batman was Here," is broken into days and covers one week of an unusual relationship. The second story, "Otis," is broken into "floors" of a building and is a bit of a mystery, filled with odd characters and strange intersections.

Five young, western women buy souvenirs of their delightful trek…and unknowingly smuggle heroin into Singapore. They are immediately detained and arrested by authorities upon their entrance into the country. There appears to be no escape for the tissue trail women until medical researcher and wild country photographer Edward Thurston takes video footage of a high altitude salt caravan near the tissue trail and is inexplicably detained and interrogated.

In Nazi-occupied Paris, most Frenchmen tread warily, but gay nightclub singer Yves Lacroix puts himself in the spotlight with every performance. As a veteran of France's doomed defense, a survivor of a prison camp, and a "degenerate", he knows he's a target. His comic stage persona disguises a shamed, angry heart and gut-wrenching fear for a sister embedded in the Resistance.

Winning the United Kingdom's favorite singing contest is a challenge for half-Afghani Pasha Trueman. He doesn't have the best voice, but success would be life-changing. His strategy is simple - he'll make the British public love him. Ed Britten is an ex-soldier with a different agenda. Winning means he'll keep a promise made after a deadly Afghan ambush. His voice is his weapon, but he leaves his heart unguarded. Ed and Pasha's discovery that the contest isn't a fair fight calls for creative tactics. Staging a fake love story could bring victory, only there's more at stake than the prestigious first prize.

Mo, the wealthy dictator of a volatile Middle Eastern country, enlists a ghostwriter to tell his story to the world and enshrine him in history as a glorious ruler. Inside Mo's besieged palace, the ghost forms an unlikely friendship with a wise and seemingly innocent Italian gardener who slowly reveals that the regime isn't all it appears to be. As a violent rebellion threatens all their lives, the ghost struggles to cope with a personal secret too painful to bear.

Two years from their first date, Owen and Nathan are living together and life is good - except they're not on the same page about marriage. A traditionalist at heart, Nathan wants it all: the wedding, the vows, and a pair of matching rings. Owen, on the other hand, believes marriage is old-fashioned and unnecessary. They don't need a wedding to prove their commitment to each other. Love should be enough on its own.

The elven city of Elvorium has become corrupted to the core by politics. With his father dead and The Royal Schism at his back, Prince Hairem becomes the king of the elven world on Sevrigel. Young and daring, Hairem is determined to undo the council's power, but quickly finds his loyal council members brutally murdered by an assassin loosed within the city.

Once a renowned tournament fighter known as the "Lion of Kent", William Raven joined the Templars in the Holy Land to escape his past and the political machinations of his enemies. Called to protect travelling pilgrims bound for Jerusalem, William comes face to face with Guy de Metz, his lover from the past. But Guy is no longer the foppish young noble William knew.

The Third Reich is on its knees as Allied forces bomb Berlin to break the last resistance. Yet on an airfield near Berlin, the battle is far from over for a young mechanic, Felix, who's attached to a squadron of fighter pilots. He's especially attached to fighter ace Baldur Vogt, a man he admires and secretly loves. But there's no room for love at the end of the world, never mind in Nazi Germany.