Showing results by narrator "Laurel Lefkow" in All Categories

In the snowy Highlands of Scotland, Suzanne McBride is dreaming of the perfect cozy Christmas. Her three adopted daughters are coming home for the holidays and she can't wait to see them. But tensions are running high...

The last time criminal psychology expert Dr Charlotte 'Charlie' Stone helped capture a serial killer, it was nearly the last thing she ever did. Now she's determined to stick to research - and leave risk-taking to the law. But when dangerous duty calls, she can't refuse. And there's no greater danger than the Cinderella Killer, a charming predator who lures beautiful single women to their deaths.

The Violence Project is about an examination of the phenomenon of mass shootings in America and an urgent call to implement evidence-based strategies to stop these tragedies. Using first-person accounts from the perpetrators themselves, along with data from the writers’ groundbreaking research on mass shooters, The Violence Project charts new pathways to prevention and innovative ways to stop the social contagion of violence.

Covering diversity and equality, globalization, human rights, modern urban living and the role of work and institutions, The Sociology Book looks at the big questions of how we cooperate: What is society? What makes it tick? Why do we interact in the way that we do with our friends, co-workers, and rivals?

High-flier Natalie Collins isn't the worrying type. Unlike her younger sister, Kit - who can't seem to settle on anything. But when Kit insists on joining Wisewood, a self-help retreat on a secluded Maine island, Natalie has concern. Why does it forbid contact with the outside world? Is it a cult? Then, after six months of silence, she receives a message: We know what you did. Would you like to come and tell your sister - or should we? Who is digging into the Collins' past? How did they discover Natalie's secret? She will have to go to Wisewood to find out.

A place of myths, rumours and secrets, The Hotel looms over the dark Fens, tall and grey in its Gothic splendour. Built on cursed land, a history of violent death suffuses its very foundations - yet it has a magnetism that is impossible to ignore. Here are the stories of The Hotel: stories of children, mothers, monsters, cult film-makers, thrill-seekers and workers on the night shift, all with their own tales of its strange power, of the horrors of Room 63, and of desperate but failed attempts to escape its seductive pull.

We live in an age of unprecedented prosperity, yet everywhere we see signs that our pursuit of happiness has proven fruitless. Dissatisfied, we seek change for the sake of change - even if it means undermining the foundations of our common life. In Why We Are Restless, Benjamin and Jenna Storey offer a profound and beautiful reflection on the roots of this malaise and examine how we might begin to cure ourselves.

In 1995, a scandal erupted when the New York Times revealed that the Smithsonian possessed a century’s worth of nude “posture” photos of college students. In this riveting history, Beth Linker tells why these photos were only a small part of the incredible story of twentieth-century America’s largely forgotten posture panic—a decades-long episode in which it was widely accepted as scientific fact that Americans were suffering from an epidemic of bad posture, with potentially catastrophic health consequences.

1941. She is a celebrated writer stranded in Paris. He is an enigmatic foreigner with a dangerous secret. Together they must find a way to outwit the Nazis in order to survive. Armed with a precious first edition of Finnegans Wake and an even more precious stash of cigarettes to barter with, Eleanor Gorton Clarke joins the sea of refugees escaping Paris for the Spanish frontier. But when a stranger kills two German soldiers to save her life, Eleanor is forced on the run with her rescuer, pursued by a detective from the Wehrmacht.

The day Jessica Hamel-Akré discovered the ideas of George Cheyne—an 18th century polymath and London society figure known as 'Dr Diet'—it sparked an intellectual obsession, a ten-year study of women's appetite and a personal unraveling. As Hamel-Akré follows Cheyne through the pages of medical studies, novels and historical scandals, she meets ash-eating mystics, wasting society girls, impoverished female fasters and early feminist philosophers. In doing so she uncovers a twisted three-hundred year history of harmful ideals and male domination that still influences today's diet culture.

It all hinges on one kiss. Whether Irina McGovern does or does not lean in to a specific pair of lips in London will determine whether she stays with her disciplined, intellectual partner Lawrence or runs off with Ramsey, a hard-living snooker player. Using a parallel universe structure, we follow Irina's life as it unfolds under the influence of two drastically different men.

The Italian folklore tradition is one of the most ancient unbroken chains of wisdom on Earth. Discover the previously unwritten secrets of an Italian American family’s magical tradition passed down from generation to generation. This spellbook provides easy, step-by-step introductions to the basics of authentic Italian American magical practice.

Poland, 1944. The train slowed and halted with a squeal of the brakes. It felt like we waited in the carriage for an eternity, but eventually, the heavy doors opened, directly into the chaos outside. Sara Leibovits, a 16-year-old Jewish girl, was a passenger on the train, together with her family. Within minutes, their horrific fate was sealed. The little family spent their final minutes together on the platform at Auschwitz before they were ordered in all directions and each left to their own fate.

Alex is a ruthless assassin - of angels. Forget everything you’ve heard about them before. Angels are not benign celestial creatures, but fierce stalkers whose irresistible force allows them to feed off humans, draining them of their vitality. As far as Alex is concerned, the only good angel is a dead angel... until he meets Willow. She looks like a normal teenager but Willow is no ordinary girl. Half-angel, half-human, Willow may hold the key to defeating the evil angels.

Bringing together Susan Sontag's most fearless and incisive writing, On Women examines the oppression of women and the tools necessary for liberation. First written in the 1970s during the height of second-wave feminism, Sontag's essays examine the 'biological division of labour', the double standard for ageing and the struggle for real power, topics which are strikingly relevant to our contemporary conversations. For any Sontag fan, this collection of lost essays is a revelation into her achievements as an essayist.

Some of the stormy weather of the past few seasons seems to have finally lifted for the Quinns. Kevin is about to tie the knot with Isabelle, and there's hopeful news about Bart, who has been captured by enemy forces in Afghanistan. That doesn't mean there aren't a few dark clouds on the horizon as the family juggle health scares and love triangles. But if there's one holiday that brings the Quinn family together, it's Christmas. And this year promises to be a celebration unlike any other.

Six people find a thick cream envelope on their doorstep. Inside is an invitation to spend 24 hours in a crumbling manor house and be in with the chance to win a portion of one million dollars. The catch: Beechwood Castle was the site of one of the most horrific murders in modern history. The smell of blood, decay and death still hangs heavy in the air. Six people walk into the house. One of them is an imposter, all of them are traitors, which of them will survive the night?

GET UP. KISS YOUR FAMILY GOODBYE. GOT TO WORK. DIE... They say bad luck comes in threes. But for Karen Friedman's family, bad luck is just the beginning. It starts with her husband Charlie's investments going wrong and the sudden death of a family pet. Then one morning Charlie takes the train to work - straight into a lethal terrorist blast. For his widow Karen and their children, all that remains of Charlie is a shared past.

In 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her family's summer house on a remote Minnesota lake. Her mother and two sisters spend the rest of their lives at the lake house, keeping a decades-long vigil for the lost child. Sixty years later, Lucy, the middle sister, lives in the lake house alone. Before her death, she leaves the house to her grandniece, Justine. For Justine, the lake house offers freedom and stability - a way to give her daughters the home she never had. But the long Minnesota winter is just beginning....

Prosecutor Justine Boucher has only asked for the death penalty once, in a brutal murder case. In doing so, she put her own life on the line. Because, if the convicted are later found innocent, the lawyer who requested the execution will be sentenced to death. Justine had no doubt that the man she sent to the chair was guilty. Until now. Presented with evidence that could prove his innocence, Justine must find out the truth before anyone else does. Her life depends on it.