Showing results by narrator "David Thorpe" in All Categories

The opening day of the Games in Rome is a time for celebration in honour of the new Emperor. But for Marcus Valerius Pavo, a young military tribune fallen from grace, only despair awaits. Along with former mentor Optio Macro, Pavo must fight for his life in a ferocious beast hunt. Battling against lions and bears, he'll have to use all his wits to survive as well as the help of a hated former rival. But when Pavo achieves a stunning victory, his reward is to be condemned to death in a chaotic free-for-all. Now the young gladiator faces a race against time to triumph over the odds....

A parent's worst fear is realised when seven-year-old Libby Hallforth goes missing at a funfair; no witnesses, no leads, and no trace. Months later, human remains are found, but they're too old to be Libby. It's the tip of a gruesome iceberg - bodies, buried in pairs, carefully laid to rest in a ritualistic manner. For DI Jake Porter and DS Nick Styles, the trail for Libby is cold, and everyone is a suspect.

Tough City brokers Dekker Ward created, and dominate, the turbulent market in Latin American bonds. Ricardo Ross is their most successful trader: they call him the Marketmaker. You're either with him or you've made an enemy for life. Disgruntled academic Nick Elliot is Dekker's greenest trader, content to ride his luck as the new boy on the stand. Until strange things start happening to Dekker's employees. One top trader is fired, another dies in a bungled robbery. Nick falls for his colleague Isabel. Then she is kidnapped.

Virtual reality is the technology of the future, and Mark Fairfax’s brother Richard runs the leading company in the field worldwide. He has also been murdered. Mark is a City trader: sharp, young, ambitious. He is left to pick up the pieces at his brother’s company in Scotland’s 'Silicon Glen'. Struggling to keep the business in the black, and with corporate predators closing in, Mark must learn fast and trust no one. With his brother’s killer on the loose, bankruptcy may prove to be the least of his problems.

In this addictive collection, master crime writer Peter Lovesey prescribes 15 fiendishly clever stories featuring the man in the street along with the ever-popular detectives Peter Diamond and the self-important Bertie, Prince of Wales. Here, the genteel mix easily with the sordid in a nasty but effective concoction of mayhem and suspense. It’s a mixture that will make your heart beat faster - and there are twists that will take your breath away....

1988: Thirteen-year-old Andy Miller and his friends - Carl, Brian, Johnny and Gavin - become witnesses to the vicious attack of their classmate, Poppy, and the brutal murder of her sister at a flooded railway line they call the frog ponds. They lead the police to a suspect, a vulnerable older boy whose differences single him out. But when he commits suicide, his guilt is never proven. And the crime goes unpunished, until . . .

144 AD. Alaric Hengistson, leader of the Ravensworn, revels in his many fear-fuelled names whispered in the hearth flames. Cunning in battle, a ruthless war lord. He sleeps sound in the knowledge that he has been chosen by the Gods for a higher purpose – to rise up against the tyranny of an Empire. For years he has thwarted Rome’s attempts to gain control over the land that has long resisted them. His land. Germania. However the rules are changing, and new deals are struck between the conquering Roman legions and the feuding Germanic tribes. Deals that could prove Alaric’s downfall.

Michael Tate has not had an easy life. With his father in prison, and his mother dead, Michael was sent to Woodside Children’s Home. Now an adult, Michael wakes up in hospital from a coma suffering from amnesia and paralysis. Confused and terrified, he is charged with the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend, Becky. He also learns he attempted to end his own life. Detective Inspector John Carver is determined that Michael is sent to prison. With no way of defending himself, Michael is left in his hospital bed awaiting transfer to remand. But then strange things begin to happen....

Gayle is a teacher and each year she brings her class to the island to see the local flora and fauna, from sea birds to playful seals. Martin, the island's caretaker and only human resident, lives in and maintains the lighthouse, which opens to the public for just this one day a year. Gayle is effervescent but feels trapped, while Martin is lonely and isolated. As their love slowly builds over time, they both yearn for the annual field trip where they can finally see each other. Until one year Gayle doesn't come back, and Martin has to leave his island hideaway to find her.

Prior to assuming his new role with a different constabulary, Danny Maik has taken a holiday in Singapore to reconcile with an old friend, Guy Trueman. When a street brawl turns deadly, Danny is facing a charge of manslaughter, but when evidence emerges that he may have planned the victim's murder, Maik is looking at the death penalty. Back in Norfolk, Maik's replacement is trying to resurrect his career after an earlier serious error. At first, the signs are promising. His astute observations turn the apparent suicide of a local pheasant farmer into murder.

Drawing on original research in Hungarian, German and English, and first-hand accounts, diaries, interviews and archives, The Last Days of Budapest is a vivid, dramatic and moving account of the slow death of a cosmopolitan and beautiful European city and its eventual liberation. Adam LeBor brings the skills of a thriller writer to this spellbinding work of narrative history.

Cambridge, 1860. Bill's head is full of questions, and it always seems to get him into trouble. Especially when one of his experiments causes his father to lose his job. Bill raises a little money for his family selling interesting fossils he has found. But it's not much. Then someone else needs his help - fast. Bill has discovered something something that could be the answer to his problems. But for the rest of the world, it is something that questions everything.

The World War II codebreaking station at Bletchley is well known and its activities documented in detail. Its decryption capabilities were vital to the war effort, significantly aiding the Allied victory. But where did the messages being deciphered come from in the first place? This is the extraordinary untold story of the Y service, a secret even more closely guarded than Bletchley Park. 'Y service' was the code for the chain of wireless intercept stations around Britain and all over the world.

Private detective Francis Quarles visits a man with a valuable collection of manuscripts written by murderers. During his stay, the man is killed after drinking cyanide-laced port. A cryptic literary clue in the front page of a book offers the only indication of who may be responsible.

Best-selling crime author Joseph Newton is on board a train when he meets a man fascinated by the idea of a murder so perfectly simple it would be impossible to solve. Critical of the elaborate plots in Newton’s novels, the man is keen to demonstrate to the author just how he would carry out the seemingly undetectable crime.

An Englishman in Bombay strikes up a friendship with postcard-seller Baburao Munshi, after allowing him credit to sell a selection of books from his office. As Baburao’s bookselling success grows, so does the two men’s friendship. Yet when Baburao’s son is old enough to be involved in the business, so begins a war of attrition between father and son.

Written in 1881, ‘Winthrop’s Adventure’ is Vernon Lee’s first ghost story. Set in Florence, the story regales the story of young painter Julian Winthrop who becomes transfixed by a piece of music. He traces this haunting back to one of his previous paintings.

Written in diary entries from a Polish scholar, this short story features a mysterious femme fatale, Medea, who is responsible for the deaths of five men, including her husbands. The scholar is soon cast under her spell from behind the grave.

Amateur violinist and collector Herman Yorke is overjoyed when he is chosen to play first violin in the Amateur Orchestral Society. In the audience, however, he is distracted by a beautiful woman that is watching him. After several concerts, he decides to approach the woman, but Herman soon discovers that he is the only person who can see her.

When a broken effigy of Christ washes up on a beach in Flanders, it is displayed in the local church. Strange miracles start drawing people to the town to worship, but then these unexplainable events start to turn sinister.