Showing results by narrator "Charlotte Strevens" in All Categories

When Ashdyke Manor is attacked, Lady Christen is forced to witness her husband's murder and the pillaging of her lands at the hands of brutal Norman invaders. It seems the pain is finally over when Miles Le Gallois, Lord of Milnham-on-Wye, calls off the attack. But he has Christen's brother under armed guard and a deal to offer: her brother's freedom for her hand in marriage. Christen finds herself hastily married into the enemy side, with her brother swearing his vengeance on her new husband.

Mrs Laetitia Rodd is the impoverished widow of an Archdeacon: she is also a private detective of the utmost discretion. In winter 1850, she is asked by Sir James Calderstone to investigate the background of an 'unsuitable' woman his son intends to marry. In the guise of governess, she travels to the family seat, Wishtide, where she discovers that the Calderstones have more to hide than most. As their secrets unfold, the case takes an unpleasant turn when a man is found dead outside a tavern.

Having married once for love and been abandoned by her husband, Ellen is determined that her second marriage will be for money. And conveniently Duncan, her divorce lawyer, is not unattractive - and he’s enticingly single. But when she meets painter Matthew, Ellen has to remind herself very strongly indeed that Duncan is the man for her....

Driving home from a ceramics evening class, Clarice Beech reflects on the absence of one of her students, Colin Compton-Smythe. Later, Emily, Colin's daughter, telephones to say her father has died during routine surgery. Distraught, Emily opens up to Clarice about his wretched childhood and the day five-year-old Colin returned home to discover Avril, his mother, gone. Colin never believed she would have left without him and had been trying to find out more about Avril's disappearance all those years ago.

Over the centuries, army wives have followed their men to the front, helped keep order in far-flung parts of the empire or waited anxiously at home. Army Wives uses firsthand accounts, letters and diaries to tell their stories. We meet imperial army wives in Crimea and the Raj, explore the experiences of 20th-century wives in two world wars and a Cold War and hear from modern women supporting their men in the war on terror. From how army wives communicate with their husbands to the impact of life-changing injury and bereavement, Army Wives examines what it really means to be part of the 'army family'.

Clarice Beech has two passions in life: animal rescue and Detective Inspector Rick Beech. She is devoted to the first, but she and Rick have been separated for the past six months - life without him is hard. Clarice shares her other love, for contemporary ceramics, with the charming Lady Vita Fayrepoynt. When Vita's adopted three-legged ginger cat, Walter, disappears from Weatherby Hall, Clarice is called in to find him.

It is 1963, and in her mansion in the foothills of the Pyrenees, Joana idles her days away, banished by her husband and alienated from her family. Meanwhile, in Barcelona, her daughter, Carla, is in trouble. Hating all her parents stand for, Carla has embraced the student movement against the Franco regime, but her father has been watching her, and her beloved fiancé is arrested. Terrified and powerless, pregnant Carla runs to her grandmother Maria, but they know their movements are still being followed. Why did her daughter, Joana, marry into the Franco regime and abandon her family? Maria has never understood.

Alice Quentin returns to tackle a series of murders in the Square Mile in the thrilling sequel to Crossbones Yard. The first death looked like a suicide. But someone had tucked a picture of an angel and a handful of white feathers into the banker's pocket - before pushing him in front of a Tube. A killer is stalking the Square Mile, an avenging angel intent on punishment. But why these victims? What were their sins?

Your worst nightmare just went viral…After being involved in a severe car accident and a vicious roadside assault, Beth Jordan wakes briefly to discover a coach party of students recording the aftermath with their phones. Beth furiously attacks the crowd before being restrained and lapsing into a coma. When she wakes in hospital, Beth is horrified when she’s told the video clips have been shared online and that millions of people around the world have now seen the incident.

In 1939, a young girl sits alone in a station waiting room in Marseilles. Half-Jewish Ilse has been sent out of Nazi Germany to safety in Morocco by her mother. But her journey takes her back to France, where she cannot escape the Nazi occupation. Blown about by circumstances beyond her control, she must grow up alone in a demi-monde of refugees, whores and freedom fighters.

Miriam hasn't left her house in three years, and cannot raise her voice above a whisper. But today she has had enough, and is finally ready to rejoin the outside world. Meanwhile, Ralph has made the mistake of opening a closet door, only to discover with a shock that his wife Sadie doesn't love him, and never has. And so he decides to run away.

Time is running out ... A killer who won’t stop. An investigator who won’t give up. When a beautiful young woman is found murdered on Cape Town’s Seapoint promenade, police profiler Dr Clare Hart is drawn into the web of a brutal serial killer. As more bodies are discovered, Clare is forced to revisit memories of the horrific rape of her twin sister and the gang ties that bind the city’s crime rings. Are the murders really linked to human trafficking, or is the killer just playing sick games with her?

On the day that her youngest child leaves home, Alice Hatton discovers two disturbing truths in a matter of hours. The Empty Nest cliché is true. And she does not love her husband Peter at all. Now in her fifties, Alice is appalled to realise that she is no longer considered her own person, but is instead defined by her relationships – mother to her adult children, wife to her husband. Horrified by the thought of spending another thirty years with Peter in their North London suburb, Alice decides to take matters into her own hands.

Minty is the kind of girl who notices things. Pockets of cold air on a stairway. Cries on the wind. Ghosts. On night-time jaunts from the house where she's staying while her mother recovers from an accident, Minty stumbles upon a moondial that takes her back in time. She finds Tom, a sickly kitchen boy, and Sarah, a girl with a birthmark who is only allowed out at night because her family think she has the mark of the devil.

Captivating Regency-era romances are the trademark of author Ann Lethbridge. Here Charles Mountford, Marquis of Tonbridge, is adamant about bringing his estranged brother, Robert, home. So he strikes a deal with his parents - Robert may return if Charles agrees to marry a proper young lady. Charles is happy to fulfill his duty - until he meets Miss Merry Draycott. The unconventional beauty isn’t exactly who his parents had in mind, yet he finds her impossible to resist.

Four girls have disappeared in North London. Three are already dead. Britain's most prolific child killer, Louis Kinsella, has been locked up in Northwood high-security hospital for over a decade. Now more innocents are being slaughtered, and they all have a connection to his earlier crimes. Psychologist Alice Quentin is doing research at Northwood. She was hoping for a break from her hectic London life, but she'll do anything to help save a child - even if it means forming a relationship with a charismatic, ruthless murderer.

England, 1605. Twelve-year-old Tom must save his father from being hanged. He falls in with a mysterious stranger, the Falcon, who promises to help him in exchange for his service. But on the long journey to London, Tom discovers the Falcon's true mission - a plot to blow up king and Parliament with barrels of black powder! Now Tom faces a terrible decision: secure his father's release or stop the assassination of the king....

Hyderabad, India. 1798. Beatrice Sinclair, a grieving young widow facing financial destitution, has travelled from Hampshire to Hyderabad to visit her brother, an employee of the British East India Company. There, she is astonished to discover that he has married a beautiful Indian girl and lives with his wife's extended family in a dilapidated palace, the Jahanara Mahal - famed for the theft of a fabled diamond many years ago. As an outsider in an unfamiliar world, Bee faces many challenges - not least of all building a new and meaningful life after the heartbreak she has endured.

Abby Spencer knows she can come across as an airhead - she talks too much and is a bit of a klutz. Though she sacrificed her career to help raise her sisters, a job interview at biscuit company Crumbs could finally be her chance to shine. Managing director Douglas Faulkner isn’t sure what to make of Abby, with her Bambi eyes, tousled hair and ability to say more in the half-hour interview than he manages in a day. All he knows is she’s a breath of fresh air and could bring a new lease of life to the corporate world of Crumbs. To his life, too, if he’d let her....

London, 1929. Lady Alice Mayton-Walsh has always been a free independent spirit. With wealth and position, Alice defies convention and created, Sheer, a women's magazine. However, after years of hard work, she finds that her life isn't as complete as she expected it to be. Then her brother's best friend Vince reveals plans to marry an heiress to save his family's fortunes. The news shocks Alice as she realises she wants more than just friendship with him. Yet, before she has a chance to follow her heart, Vince turns his back on the extravagant life.