Showing results by narrator "Julia Barrie" in All Categories

Laura's life has just been turned on its head, and with an empty nest and a crumbling marriage she launches a new business from her own kitchen, making artisan jams, chutneys and relishes from her grandmother's cookbook to sell at the local farmer's market. So can her flair for cooking, her most special family recipes and a better understanding of her grandmother's past help her find a happy future?

John Emmerson was a lonely man. He had a wife, a son, friends, but he was isolated from all the people and events around him by the tragedy of his past. Then he met Cissie, and for the first time his loneliness eased a little. Cissie was everything that his wife Ann was not. She was warm, compassionate and generous. And she was quick to sense the needs of a desolate unhappy man. But Cissie was also a young widow: poor, and with a young son to support. And John Emmerson was one of the town's leading solicitors - a man of importance whose every move was watched by the local dignitaries. . .

Budding landscape architect Luisa MacGregor is stuck in a rut - she hates her boss, she lives with her sister, and she is still morning the loss of her fiancé many years ago. So when she is given the opportunity to take on a parcel of land in a deprived area, she sees the chance to build a garden that can make the area bloom. Arriving in the rundown seaside town of Collaton on the north-west coast of Cumbria, she realises that her work is going to be cut out for her.

It is Spring 1871 when Lizzie Ross accompanies her formidable Aunt Parry on a restorative trip to the south coast. Lizzie's husband, Ben, is kept busy at Scotland Yard and urges his wife to stay out of harm's way. But when Lizzie and her aunt are invited to dine with other guests at the home of wealthy landowner Sir Henry Meager, and he is found shot dead in his bed the next morning, no one feels safe.

A novel of heart and courage inspired by the incredible story of a real life princess. Princess Haya, daughter of the King of Jordan, loves her family more than anything. So when tragedy strikes at its heart, she is devastated.The Princess becomes ever more withdrawn until, on her birthday, the King gives her a life-changing present.

You think you know him. Until he's dead.... When Cameron Swift is gunned down outside his family home, DC Beth Chamberlain is appointed Family Liaison Officer: a dual role that requires her to support the family and also investigate them. As the case unfolds and the body count climbs, Beth discovers that nothing is quite as it appears, and everyone, it seems, has secrets. Even the dead....

What if you found yourself divorced and penniless? With no skills and a teenage daughter to support? These are questions Cal has never really thought about before. She’s always been a bit of a dreamer. Until now. Her sister Zoe is her polar opposite. A detective inspector working out of Bath Central, no one would guess that she hides a crippling secret that dates back 20 years. Then Cal's daughter gets into difficulties, and Cal finds she needs cash fast. With no one to help her, she is forced into a criminal world of extreme pornography and illegal drugs. Two sisters intent on survival.

Karin Müller, sidelined from the murder squad in Berlin, jumps at the chance to be sent south to Halle-Neustadt, where a pair of infant twins have gone missing. But Müller soon finds her problems have followed her to Halle-Neustadt. She and her team are forbidden by the Stasi from publicising the disappearances, lest they tarnish the town's image. Meanwhile, in the eerily nameless streets and tower blocks, a child snatcher lurks, and the clock is ticking to rescue the twins alive....

Two weeks in a boathouse on the edge of peaceful Lake Orta, Italy is exactly what Ginny and Adam Trustlove need. But twenty-four hours later, the silence is broken when the Sale family arrives. It doesn't take long for Ginny and Adam to be drawn in, especially when the teenage Pippi introduces her beguiling new friend Zach. Not one of them suspects that his arrival in their lives might be anything other than accidental...

Annie has a secret. It's a heartbreaking secret she wishes she didn't have - yet Annie isn't broken. Kate has run away. It’s proving difficult to reinvent herself, however, with one person always on her mind. Nobody is really who they seem. Even Annie and Kate aren't entirely sure who they are anymore. Can they work it out before their pasts catch up with them for good?

Justine thought she knew who she was until an anonymous caller seemed to know better.... After escaping London and a career that nearly destroyed her, Justine plans to spend her days doing as little as possible in her beautiful home in Devon. But soon after the move, her daughter, Ellen, starts to withdraw when her new best friend, George, is unfairly expelled from school.

Rosie Strange doesn't believe in ghosts or witches or magic. It's no surprise therefore that when she inherits the ramshackle Essex Witch Museum, her first thought is to take the money and run. Still, the museum exerts a curious pull over Rosie. There's the eccentric academic who bustles in to demand she help in a hunt for the bones of the notorious Ursula Cadence, a witch long since put to death. And there's curator Sam Stone, a man about whom Rosie can't decide if he's tiresomely annoying or extremely captivating.

There are many reasons to bake: To feed; to create; to impress; to nourish; to define ourselves; and, sometimes, it has to be said, to perfect. But often we bake to fill a hunger that would be better filled by a simple gesture from a dear one. We bake to love and be loved. In 1966, Kathleen Eaden, cookery writer and wife of a supermarket magnate, published The Art of Baking, her guide to nurturing a family by creating the most exquisite pastries, biscuits and cakes.

When Megan meets Ben Saunders, she's very attracted and he seems the same, but she didn't expect him to propose immediately. It'd be like marrying a stranger. Only, how can she refuse when they get on so well and he goes to Australia in a week? Can they make this sudden marriage work?

It seemed the clouds that had darkened so much of Maisie’s early life had finally cleared away. Freed at last from a disastrous marriage, she had also become a best-selling author with her very first book - all about Hamilton, the remarkable horse her imagination conjured for solace through the long years of an unhappy marriage. Hamilton proved to be a real guide, philosopher and friend over many years. Now she was to be married again, and Hamilton marked the occasion by taking a wife himself - a mare called Begonia.

Dante D'Arezzo is the last person famous songwriter Justina Perry wants to see at her best friend's wedding. The wickedly sexy Italian is ruthless to the core. He broke her heart once; she won't surrender to his insatiable desire again. But when Justina's pregnancy hits the front page, Dante knows he's the father. This Italian will claim his heir and - if he wants her - a wife!

Queen of psychological crime Sophie Hannah returns with a chilling new Culver Valley crime novel. A killer that the police are calling "Billy Dead Mates" is murdering pairs of best friends one by one. Before they die, each victim is given a small white book.... For months detectives have failed to catch Billy or work out what the white books mean. And then a woman, scared by what she's seen on the news, comes forward. Stand-up comedian Kim Tribbeck has one of Billy's peculiar little books.

Chalfont Hall, Dorset, 1936, and as the dressmaker puts the last pins in her dress, 13-year-old Kit is wondering why she has to go through the charade of seeing her sister, Lily, presented at Court. With her waves of auburn hair and her piercing green eyes, Kit knows that her sister's place on the social scene is guaranteed regardless of her dress, and as the door to a life of parties and eligible young men opens for Lily, Kit must make do with tiptoeing around the gallery of Chalfont, eavesdropping on the conversations of the grown-ups.

There is something not quite right about the death of her aunt...and psychic investigator Fran Castle is sure of it. The will is missing, and long-lost relatives are obstructing the case, both of which are suspicious on their own, even before the bodies start piling up.... Luckily, nothing is likely to stop Fran's sleuthing partner, Libby, from getting involved to help hunt down the murderer. As the murders multiply and the police take over, can the amateur sleuths keep on the trail?

Troubles never come singly. Ellie’s old friend and housekeeper falls off a ladder and hurts herself after seeing a “ghost” in a neighbour’s house, while Ellie is trying to get rid of a desperate young man, who says he’s looking for his great aunt… who happens to own the house in question. Mrs Pryce had told everyone she was moving to a retirement home, but never arrived there.