Showing results by narrator "Kristin Atherton" in All Categories

This collection of short stories is about women and their experiences in society, about bodies and the bodily, mapping the skin and bones of its characters through their experiences of isolation, obsession and love. Throughout the collection, women become insects, men turn to stone, a city becomes insomniac and bodies are picked apart to make up better ones. The mundane worlds of schools and seaside towns are invaded and transformed, creating a landscape which is constantly shifting to hold on to the bodies of its inhabitants.

Alex Devlin’s life changed forever 15 years ago when her sister's two small children were snatched in broad daylight. Little Harry’s body was found a few days later, but Millie’s remains were never discovered. Now Jackie Wood, jailed as an accessory to the twins’ murder, has been released, her conviction quashed by the Appeal Court. Convinced Jackie can reveal where Millie is buried, Alex goes to meet her. But the unexpected information Wood reveals shocks Alex to the core and threatens to uncover the dark secret she has managed to keep under wraps for the past 15 years.

Thora and Santi have met before. Under the clocktower in Central Cologne, with nothing but the stars above and their futures ahead. They don’t know it yet, but they’ll meet again: in numerous lives they will become friends, colleagues, lovers, enemies - meeting over and over for the first time, every time; each coming to know every version of the other. Only they can make sure it’s not for the last time. But as they’re endlessly drawn together and the lines between their different lives begin to blur, they are faced with one question: why?

After ten years, Sarah and her husband Roshan are looking forward to catching up with their closest school friends. So when one of them invites the group to spend a week in a beautiful converted church, they eagerly accept. Very quickly though, Sarah becomes unsettled. She is frightened by the church’s creepy surroundings, and she thinks she might be seeing ghosts. Even more disturbing, a masked woman is committing armed robberies in the area – and the police can’t catch her.

A priceless gem, a diamond from India imbued with religious significance, is stolen on the very night it is given as an eighteenth birthday present to a captivating heiress; and so the mystery begins. The rules for the golden age of crime novels are formed in The Moonstone – an English country house, a complex cast of characters, the bungling local constabulary, a celebrated sleuth and the reconstruction of the crime.

For Ellie Saunders, the accident could destroy everything she has, because she, too, was out that night. But if she reveals where she was and why, her family will be torn apart. She is living on a knife-edge, knowing that her every move is being observed. Ellie’s new neighbour, former Detective Chief Inspector Tom Douglas, has moved to the village for some well-deserved peace and quiet, but as he is drawn into the web of deceit, his every instinct tells him that what happened that night was more than a tragic accident.

We are going to Germany on holiday! Imagine all the things we will see, the people we will meet and the new words we can learn. Get your passport and suitcase ready, because we are going on an adventure! This interactive adventure is written to help young children confidently learn new language skills, while having some fun along the way. During the course of this action-packed hour children will learn simple greetings, directions and range of helpful German phrases. They will have help from our expert guide and they will be learning some brilliant facts about Germany too!

Heiress Ariana Theodosis wanted everything that Hollywood had to offer, took it all, and is now paying the price. When she inherits a hotel on the beautiful French Riviera, she hopes it’s a chance to start again. Elizabeth and Robert Chappell were Hollywood’s fiery English golden couple. Their legendary breakups and passionate make-ups were tabloid gold, but now they are headed for divorce. Will they say their last goodbyes by the sparkling waters of the Mediterranean?

On a balmy June night, Kirsten, a young university student, strolls home through a silent, moonlit park. Suddenly her tranquil mood is shattered as she is viciously attacked. When she awakes in hospital, she has no recollection of that brutal night. But then, slowly and painfully, details reveal themselves - dreams of two figures, one white and one black, hovering over her; wisps of a strange and haunting song; the unfamiliar texture of a rough and deadly hand....

All Shelley wanted on her hen weekend was to enjoy three days of sun, sea and sangria. But instead of being surrounded by the A-team of her closest friends, she somehow ends up with a Golden Girls-meets-the-Spice Girls B-list that includes her mother, a rebellious teenager and a best mate ‘on the verge’. The squabbling starts at the airport, and on arrival in Spain, Shelley barely has time to unpack her suitcase before getting an unwanted text—one that throws her wedding into doubt.

In the shadow of Mount Hood in the US Pacific Northwest, 16-year-old Tennant is checking rabbit traps with her eight-year-old sister, Sophie. The girls are suddenly overcome by a strange vibration rising out of the forest, building in intensity until it sounds like a deafening crescendo of screams. From out of nowhere, their father sweeps them up and drops them through a trapdoor into a storm cellar. But the noise only gets worse....

Brazilian-born doctor André Cabral is living in London when one day he receives a letter from his home country, which he left nearly 30 years ago. A letter he keeps in his pocket for weeks but tells no one about. The letter prompts André to remember the days of his youth - torrid afternoons on Ipanema beach with his listless teenage friends, parties in elegant Rio apartments, his after-school job at his father's plastic surgery practice and, above all, his secret infatuation with the daughter of his family's maid.

In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Mary is the middle of the five Bennet girls and the plainest of them all, so what hope does she have? The Other Bennet Sister shows another side to Mary. Mary, it seems, is destined to remain single and live out her life at Longbourn, at least until her father dies and the house is bequeathed to the reviled Mr Collins. But when that fateful day finally comes, she slowly discovers that perhaps there is hope for her after all.

Oath-bound to the arrogant Erith in exchange for her life, Arrow just wants her freedom. Then the Erith set her one last task, perhaps the most difficult she has ever faced; investigate the sudden death of a high-ranking shape-changer, the Erith's ancient enemies. The shape-changers believe the Erith are guilty of murder. And Arrow is in the middle of potential new war between the old enemies. Not only is her freedom at risk, but so is her life. It will take all of her training and skill with magic to live long enough to uncover the truth in time to avert a bloodbath.

When Jane Douglas returns to the Shetland Islands, she thinks she has escaped the dark shadows of her childhood. She carves out a simple life on the bleak, windswept island, working at the salmon fishery and spending quiet evenings at home. And for the first time in her life, she’s happy. Then the body of Jane’s long-missing mother is found in a flooded quarry. Her mother disappeared when Jane was a teenager, following the death of Jane’s baby brother.

You’re looking over your shoulder, thinking someone’s watching. You’re checking the doors are locked, spooked by a noise. You’re running through the woods, convinced you’re being followed. You’re being stalked. And they won’t stop until you’re theirs.

As Irene tries to manage a fraught truce between the warring Fae and dragon factions – not to mention her overbearing parents – she’s given a new mission. The world where she grew up is in danger, and only one book can save it. A book owned by a secretive Fae antiques dealer named Mr Nemo. In 21st century Vienna, a painting holds an extraordinary secret from the past – and Mr Nemo wants it. To acquire the book and save the library, Irene and her assistant Kai must team up with an unlikely band of scheming dragons, Fae gamblers and outright thieves.

From leading mental health expert Dr Olivia Remes, this essential companion for navigating life's challenges offers everyday techniques and exercises to overcome setbacks and even achieve positive change. Whether you're dealing with job uncertainty, ill health, relationship problems, financial or mental health struggles, or the loss of a loved one, this highly practical and compassionate book will help you find meaning amidst the chaos and reset your life.

Isolated from society, Emily Brontë along with her brother and four sisters spend their days inventing elaborate fictional realms or roaming the wild moors above their family home in Yorkshire. When the time comes for them to venture out into the world to earn a living, each of them struggles to adapt, but for Emily the change is catastrophic. Torn from the landscape to which she has become so passionately bound, she is simply unable to function.

For 15 years, Lexi and Jake have played the same six numbers with their friends, the Pearsons and the Heathcotes. Over dinner parties, fish & chip suppers and summer barbecues, they’ve discussed the important stuff – the kids, marriages, jobs and houses – and they’ve laughed off their disappointment when they failed to win anything more than a tenner. But then, one Saturday night, the unthinkable happens. There’s a rift in the group. Someone doesn’t tell the truth. And soon after, six numbers come up which change everything forever.