Showing results by narrator "Julia Barrie" in All Categories

When former high-powered lawyer turned PI Selma Falck is shot and her oldest friend, a junior MP, is killed in a sniper attack, everyone - including the police - assume that Selma was the prime target. But when two other people with connections to the MP are also found murdered, it becomes clear that there is a wider conspiracy at play. As Selma sets out to avenge her friend's death and discover the truth behind the conspiracy, her own life is threatened once again. Only this time, the danger may be closer to home than she could possibly have realised.

Christie Chapman is a single mum who spends her days commuting to her secretarial job in London and looking after her teenage son, Finn. It's not an easy life but Christie finds comfort in her love of crafting, and spends her spare time working on her beautiful creations. From intricately designed cards to personalised gifts, Christie's flair for the handmade knows no bounds and it's not long before opportunity comes knocking.

Katy and Ben and their four closest friends are going to Spain for a week with their kids. Sun, sex and sangria? Almost certainly not. The couples think they are prepared for all the joys and trials a family holiday has to offer but they have a shock coming, and not only from the kids. Into their first day by the pool crashes Ollie, who has just been dumped by his girlfriend, and Cassie, on her hen party holiday but having serious doubts about her impending marriage. A recipe for a relaxing week abroad? Let’s wait and see....

When 17-year-old, Eva Olsen, awakes after a horrific accident that has left her bed-bound, her parents are right by her side. Devoted, they watch over her, night and day, in the attic room of their family home in the forests of Norway. But the accident has left Eva without her most recent memories, and not everything is as it seems. As secrets from the night of the accident begin to surface, Eva realises she has to escape her parents' house and discover the truth. But what if someone doesn't want her to find it?

Susan has been trying for a baby for years, and when a one-night stand makes her dream come true, she’ll do anything to ensure her husband doesn’t find out - including the unthinkable. Her secret is safe. For now. But as governments embark on a genetic arms race and children around the globe start experiencing a host of distressing symptoms, something truly horrendous is unleashed. Because those children have only one thing in common and people are starting to ask questions.

The last place Anna Terry expects to fall in love is in the waiting room of her divorce lawyer's office, but that's where she meets Nick Diamond.... Anna's first marriage ended before her pregnancy was over, and her second husband has disappeared, leaving her penniless and with two children. Nick's luck hasn't been any better: his wife has run off with another man, and his business is in chaos. When Anna gets a job as Nick's secretary, what starts as a mild flirtation soon accelerates into overdrive - and then their ex-partners show up....

A blaze at an abandoned chapel in impoverished Manorclough turns out to be more than just arson when the body of a man who has been shot twice is discovered in the ashes. For the Manchester Metropolitan police team it’s the start of a gruelling and complex case that exposes the fractures and fault lines of a community living on the edge. DC Rachel Bailey, recently married, is trying to come to terms with her new status and deal with the fallout from her chaotic family.

Halloween in Essex, and things are going well for the writers on the Mystery and Suspense course at Ratchette Hall. Things, however, take a turn when early on All Saints' Day the course administrator is discovered murdered. The Essex Witch Museum investigators are quickly drafted in. As Rosie Strange and Sam Stone's investigation progresses they find more questions than answers: who is making the howling noises late into the night? What is the strange glimmering glimpsed in the woods?

When her childhood best friend shows Ella that you can't always believe what you see, Ella finds herself thrown into the world of the German Resistance. On a dark night in 1941, Claudia is taken by the Gestapo, likely never to be seen again, unless Ella can save her. With the help of the man she loves, Ella must undertake her most dangerous mission yet and infiltrate the Nazi Party.

When Cora Stubbs and her siblings, are whisked away from home to the English countryside, a supposed haven from Hitler's terror, they soon realize their sanctuary harbours dangers far more profound than the looming threat of war. Ignited by sheer will and love for her family, Cora strives to carve a new existence amidst grief and the lingering shadows of a lost love. Womanhood beckons and with it, the critical question: can she ever truly escape her troubled past?

Return to the worlds of The Craftsman and Lacey Flint in this first short-story collection from Sharon Bolton, International award-winning author of The Split. This collection is available exclusively in audio and features eight short stories, each with a new introduction written and read by the author.

A perfect family...but shocking revelations and heartache lie just beneath the surface of their charmed lives. Luke Crighton was adored by women, envied by men…and pursued by one very determined individual: Bobbie Miller. The Crighton family had been the cause of scandal and heartache for Bobbie, and she wanted revenge. All she had to do was seduce Luke, and the Crighton family secrets would be hers to expose. But the perfect seduction somehow backfired. Once Bobbie had Luke’s attention, she didn’t want to let go!

Ellie has always disliked the local big estate agent - aka Great White Shark - and is distressed when her daughter Diana announces that she is carrying his child and about to become his fourth wife. But Ellie is soon drawn into the family circle when one of the Hooper children dies in their private gym and another succumbs to a peanut allergy. The police want to write off the deaths as accident and misadventure, but Ellie believes someone is targeting members of the Hooper family. Surely Diana wouldn't… or would she?

Ellie opens the door to a man who is a stranger but instantly recognisable as the father of her housekeeper's young son. Mikey had been conceived at a party during which his mother, Vera, a schoolgirl, had been drugged and raped. Abdi hadn't wanted anything to do with her, but now he is a consultant whose wife cannot have children, and he aims to pay off Vera and adopt Mikey. Ellie discovers that Vera still thinks fondly of her then boyfriend, even though he had also rejected her.

On the cobbled streets of Bradford in 1931, Lily Briggs does all she can to keep trouble at bay for her and her family. She works hard at Calvert Mill to make ends meet and take care of her parents and younger siblings. Saturday nights at the dance hall and dressmaking with her two best friends keep Lily upbeat, and now there’s a blossoming romance with childhood friend Harry Bainbridge to put an extra spring in her step, too.

Ellie's friend on the police force asks her to enquire about some deaths which might or might not be suicide. Unbeknown to the police, an elderly lady with dementia has come across some drugs and is using them to ease people in pain out of their misery. At the same time, the project to turn the quirky, turreted Pryce House into a hotel is dogged by problems and suspicion falls on the difficult twelve-year-old boy Mikey who Ellie has taken in.

A heart-wrenching family saga for fans of Dilly Court and Val Wood. Kath walked for so long that she wanted to lie down in the snow and sleep, but she thought of her sister and knew she must go on. Soon the snow was so deep that she couldn't move. She could feel her shoes disintegrating, and her feet were numb. The sky cleared, and a great big moon came out, and there were so many stars. She remembered what her mother had said before she died, that each star was one of her people.

Throughout her distinguished career, Ann Granger has penned an array of hugely entertaining and gripping short stories. From a nosy neighbour who trusts no one to a jealous nephew protecting his inheritance, and from a ghostly apparition on a cruise ship to an Oxford undergraduate who cannot escape his past, Ann's short stories transport listeners from the Highlands of Scotland to the rugged coast of Cornwall and from the Victorian era to the present day.

It's the summer of 1933, and Alice Eveleigh has arrived at Fiercombe Manor in disgrace. Hiding her shame in this isolated house concealed within a Gloucestershire valley in the care of housekeeper Mrs Jelphs, Alice soon begins to sense that something isn't quite right within this beautiful manor. For one thing she is being watched.... There are secrets at Fiercombe that those who remain there are determined to keep. Tragedy haunts the empty rooms, and foreboding hangs heavy in the stifling heat.

Eighteen years ago Martha said good-bye to best friend Juliet on a moonlit London towpath. The next morning Juliet's bike was found abandoned. She was never seen again. Nearly two decades later Martha is a TV celebrity, preparing to host a new crime show...and the first case will be that of missing student Juliet Sherman. After all these years Martha must reach out to old friends and try to piece together the final moments of Juliet's life. But what happens when your perfect friends turn out to be perfect strangers?