Showing results by narrator "Matthew Lloyd" in All Categories

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.

The residents of households across the country carry on their day-to-day lives oblivious to thousands of internet voyeurs constantly watching them within the privacy of their own homes. Talented Met Police detective, Jenny Price, frustrated by her over-promoted boss's inexperience, takes charge of a murder investigation following the brutal killing of a beautiful young cellist, lured to a bogus audition. Baffled by how the killer knew his victim’s innermost desires, Jenny is contacted by expert security consultant Brody Taylor, who suspects the answer lies in a highly secure website that broadcasts live feeds from hacked webcams.

A collection of strange, wonderful, sad, romantic, and weird tales about what happens when the underdog bites back. The latest book from the "master of wit and satire" - a collection of surreal, subversive, and satirical tales.

A vicar is disbelieving when two teenagers in his parish claim to have been given a message by the archangel Gabriel, but gradually changes his mind and decides he must do something about it.

A man who married young, and so never had the chance to sow his wild oats, suddenly breaks out when in his mid-30s - and becomes convinced he has stumbled on the secret of happiness.

Ten short stories by author Christopher J F Gibson. The author has here put together a kaleidoscope that often takes a wry look at ourselves.... Of course there are some stories that feature cats.

One quiet snow-covered Sunday morning in Bruges, a prominent business executive is found dead in the streets, apparently due to an alcoholic hemorrhage, but for Inspector Van In, there is something about the autopsy that does not add up. When he questions the businessman's friend, a Dutchman, he too is found dead the next morning, burned to death in a house fire.

Grace Flynn has found the sword she has been longing for, the fabled blade of "Tristam". She has just one problem - it is locked away in the Tower of London. With the aid of the scoundrel Nereus Neptune she must enter a most heavily guarded place to reach her goal. Hopefully she fares better than the infamous Colonel Blood, who failed to rob the tower in 1671.

The last thing he expected to find in Ireland that summer was the inspiration to go on with his life, and certainly not in the form of an adolescent heiress. New York socialite Peg Shannon has everything - wealth, position, beauty, and limitless prospects for happiness. Or so the world believes. Aspiring London violinist Kendall Gregg is talented, handsome, and charming. While hardly well-to-do, he has connections and ambition which should take him far. Or so it appears.

London, 1666. Orphaned by the Great Plague, Sam is soon starving on the streets - and desperate enough to steal. He's quickly recruited as one of sinister Uncle Jack's children, and taught to steal. If he gets caught by the law, the punishment will be death - and if he crosses Uncle Jack, it could be just as bad. Still, it's a living for Sam and his fellow thief Catherine - until the long, hot London summer means a blaze at the Pudding Lane bakery runs out of control.

Twelve little oddities - an assortment of the bizarre, unexpected, charming, unsettling, and downright peculiar. Into darkness or light, there are many ways to escape.

In his new collection, Bitter Waters, Brenchley has assembled stories queer and weird: a man with morbidly sensitive hearing sets sail to chart dangerous rocks called the Silences; a ship's chandler from among his shadowed stock gives an old friend a compass that guides through Hell rather than point north; a eunuch and his dwarf lover leave the Sultan's harem to visit the baths of a city poisoned by magic; a youth who climbed the echelons of power thanks to his looks and guile finds being on the losing side of war has forced his to return to his sordid, early life.

London 1888, Jack the Ripper is on the loose terrorizing the citizens of Whitechapel. The Queen of England sends a mysterious agent to uncover the truth of the vile monster hunting England's streets. The trail of blood leads to an even bigger mystery and to a darker enemy of the Crown itself. While on Mont Orgueil, Grace Flynn, a prisoner of both England and France, awaits her execution for a very long list of crimes.

Molière wrote some of the most durable and penetrating comedies of all time. The Imaginary Cuckold and The School for Husbands are two of his grand farces of marriage and misunderstanding, one set in Paris and the other in the provinces. In The School for Husbands, a tyrannical husband-to-be seeks to isolate his ward, while unwittingly carrying her messages of devotion to her lover. In The Imaginary Cuckold, an enraged husband imagines his wife is unfaithful, but is reluctant to defend his honor.

Romantic havoc ensues in the town of Bath when Sir Anthony arrives to arrange the marriage of his son Captain Jack Absolute to the wealthy Lydia Languish. Jack and Lydia are already in love, but because of Lydia’s obsession with romantic novels, Jack has disguised himself as a poor officer named Ensign Beverly – and he is only one of Lydia’s many suitors. i>The Rivals was Sheridan’s first play, and this charming comedy of manners continues to be widely performed today. Includes an interview with Linda Kelly, author of Richard Brinsley Sheridan: A Life.

When Alice’s Uncle Sam brings home a mysterious calendar that’s short on chocolate but big on surprises, she is thrown into an advent she never dreamed of. Codes arrive by text message and open the doors in the calendar, drawing Alice and Sam into fantastical new worlds that are wondrous, frightening and beautiful - and strangely familiar.