Showing results by narrator "Julia Barrie" in All Categories

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.

It is 1965 and young Alexandra Crewe obediently marries the man her father has selected for her. But, very soon, both she and her husband Laurence realize that their marriage is a disaster. When real love finds Alexandra, plucking her out of her unhappy existence, she is powerless to resist. Her home becomes Fort Stirling, a beautiful Dorset castle, but Alexandra fears that there will be a price to pay for this wonderful new life. When tragedy strikes, it seems that her punishment has come – and there is only one way she can atone for her sins.

MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle has received alarming intelligence from a source in Syria. A Middle East peace conference is planned to take place at Gleneagles in Scotland, and the Syrians have learned that two individuals are mounting an operation to disrupt the conference in a spectacular way, laying the blame at Syria's door. As the conference deadline draws ever closer, Liz discovers that the threat is far greater than she or anyone else could have imagined. But so many questions are still to be answered.

In Katy’s opinion, weddings should follow some basic rules: 1) No-one should ever have sex. Of course. The married couple has the rest of their lives for that, and the guests should be too busy partying. 2) If you are heavily pregnant (as Katy is) you should obviously not be invited to three weddings in the space of one summer. Your husband’s accident-prone best friend, your attention-seeking colleague, your 73-year-old mother’s marriage to her Spanish toy boy - all without even an alcoholic drink to make them bearable.

Shirley Steadman, a 70-year-old living in a small town in the North East of England, loves her volunteer work at the local hospital radio. She likes giving back to the community, and even more so, she likes getting out of the house. Haunted by the presence of her son, a reluctant Royal Navy officer who was lost at sea, and still in the shadow of her long-dead abusive husband, she doesn't like being alone much. One day, at the radio station, she is playing around with the equipment and finds a frequency that was never there before.

It’s summer in Adders Fork. The sun is out, the sky is blue and things are going swimmingly for Rosie Strange. The Essex Witch Museum has been relaunched with a new Ursula Cadence wing and picnic grounds. Then developers roll into the sleepy village to widen the road. When the centuries-old Blackly Be boulder, said to mark the grave of a notorious witch, is moved, all hell breaks out. Within hours a slew of peculiar phenomena descends, and when a severed head is discovered atop the boulder, the locals storm the museum to demand someone take action.

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....

Maisie doesn't understand why her mother can’t love her, but she knows that her life is hard and deeply unhappy. When her stepfather George, the only person she trusts, leaves, Maisie has no protector until she begins to escape. She could never be quite sure when she first met up with Hamilton; most likely it was when she started talking to herself. But she didn’t call him that then; that came much later when she was 14 and Doctor Kane had to pay her a professional visit....

Karin Müller of the German Democratic Republic's People's Police is called to a factory in the east of the country. A man has been murdered - bound and trapped as a fire burned nearby, slowly suffocating him. Could his murderer simply be someone with a grudge against the factory's nationalisation, as Müller's Stasi colleagues insist? Why too is her deputy Werner Tilsner behaving so strangely? As more victims surface, it becomes clear that there is a cold-blooded killer out there taking their revenge.

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.

Teri has dated more men than she's had low-calorie, low-fat dinners, and she still hasn't found Mr Right. She's found other men, though: Mr Lazy, Mr Greedy, Mr Completely Selfish, Mr Looking-for-Mother-Substitute and Mr Pervert. But no Mr Right. That is until she's literally knocked off her feet by Jamie Duncan as they rush to catch the same train from Euston station: the 18.07 from platform eight. It's not long before love blossoms and commuting takes on a whole new meaning.

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.

Christmas is coming, and life is busy for vet Maz Harwood. She has a beautiful baby boy, George, and she will soon be marrying fellow vet Alex Fox-Gifford. But between arranging the wedding, performing life-saving animal surgery, and taking care of George, Maz doesn’t have much time left for Alex, and even if she did, he’s working even harder than her. And as Alex won’t do anything to make life easier, Maz has decided that she will have to take matters into her own hands.

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.

In the early hours of the morning, the naked body of a young man is discovered in a ditch next to Göta Kanal. The cause of death is mysterious; the body bears no visible traces of violence. The man is soon identified as Peder Akerlund, a former Swedish politician, excluded from his party for racism but since reformed. Then 16-year-old Nadja Lundin is reported missing, possibly abducted, the same evening, and there are signs that suggest the two cases might be connected.

After years of training, horse-mad Flick has finally achieved her dream of becoming one of the few female blacksmiths in the country. Her first job is in Talyton St George. The little cottage where she is staying is idyllic, but she soon finds that she has to work twice as hard to prove herself. Stunt rider Robbie Salterton is a bit of a local celebrity. He's gorgeous, a devoted single father and gives free riding lessons to disadvantaged children in his spare time. In addition, he's one of the few men in the village who doesn't doubt her skill.

Successful city accountant Stevie receives two surprises in one week. A proposal of marriage from her boyfriend and a phone call begging her to return to the family farm in Talyton St George. But what she thought would be a weekend visit turns into much longer as she struggles to bring order to the farm. Finally, she decides to give up her job – and her boyfriend – and stay permanently. Even though the locals are up in arms about her plans for the farm, Stevie loves being back in the country – and having to work so closely with local vet Leo is an added bonus.

Becca seems to have it all - a stable marriage, a lovely home and a 14-year-old daughter, Lily, who's growing up beautifully. But when her mother drops a bombshell about her relationship with Becca's father, Becca's world is turned upside down - everything she thought was certain slips away. She turns to her husband, Martin, for support, only to find that he's too preoccupied to listen to her concerns.

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....

1945. War has ended, but for sisters Isobel and Flora, the struggles still continue. They've lost their father, had their home destroyed in a bombing raid and now they must go to live with their aunt and her awful husband, Mr Godfrey, in their ancestral home of Splint Hall. From the moment of their arrival, it seems that this is a place shrouded in mysteries and secrets. Who are the strange men who arrive with packages at night? What is the source of the strange blue sparks coming from the ground? And why do the locals seem to hate their family so much?