Showing results by narrator "Moira Quirk" in All Categories

On behalf of queen, country...and the perfect pot of tea. When Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama (Rue to her friends) is given an unexpected dirigible, she does what any sensible female would under similar circumstances - names it the Spotted Crumpet and floats to India in pursuit of the perfect cup of tea. But India has more than just tea on offer. Rue stumbles upon a plot involving local dissidents, a kidnapped brigadier's wife, and some awfully familiar Scottish werewolves.

This collection of short stories displays Ed Gorman's talents as a masterful storyteller across a range of genres.

A mysterious and beautiful girl who teaches arrogant young men about true love, a lonely traveling salesman who learns that his passenger is Death, children who can absorb the psychic pain of their parents, a desperately pursued serial killer who hides his face under gauze in a hospital room, and a woman who loves the alien infant nobody else wants - these stories and 10 others make up this collection by award-winning author Ed Gorman. Here are stories that led him to be called "one of the best" by Dean Koontz and "one of the most original writers in crime fiction today" by Kirkus Reviews. Here, you'll find the extraordinary range of storytelling skill and powerful emotions that won Gorman the prized International Fiction Award.

Included in Different Kinds of Dead, and Other Tales are "Different Kinds of Dead", "Deathman", "A Girl Like You", "Loverboy", "Muse", "Riff", "The Brasher Girl", "Survival", "Masque", "Second Most Popular", and others.

This collection reveals the extraordinary range of storytelling skill and powerful emotions that won Gorman the prized International Fiction Award. His protagonists, gritty and gruff, are strangely likable, and his writing, according to Mystery News, is "powerful, disturbing, [and] often poetic".

Peyton King has always wanted to belong. She seizes the opportunity to start over at a new school and finally finds real connections with the friends she’s always dreamed of and even an actual boyfriend! But after flying high in her newfound happiness, Peyton comes crashing down when reality sets in and the ones she cares about let her down. Peyton’s friends can’t fix her, and she can’t help them if they won’t let her. If she wants to find real, lasting happiness, Peyton will have to search somewhere else.

Once upon a time, the kingdoms of Wales were rife with magic and conflict—and 18-year-old Mererid 'Mer' is well-acquainted with both. As the last living water diviner, she can manipulate water with magic—a unique elemental power many would kill to possess. For years, Mer has been running from the prince who bound her into his service—and forced her to kill thousands with her magic. Now, all Mer truly wants is a safe, quiet life, far from power and politics. But then Mer's old handler—the king's spymaster—returns with a proposition.

When Claudia gets pregnant, she has a very clear plan for how she wants to give birth. Her prenatal anxieties inspire her father to create a device for safer deliveries, and Claudia realizes that nothing ever goes quite as expected. Includes a conversation with playwright Chiara Atik and Dr. Judith Reichman, an OB/GYN and longtime medical contributor to The Today Show.

Late in the twenty-first century, drought and wildfires prompt an exodus from southern Europe. When twelve-year-old Caleb is separated from his mother during their trek north, he soon falls prey to traffickers. Enslaved in an enclave outside Manchester, the resourceful and determined Caleb never loses hope of bettering himself. After Caleb is befriended by a fellow victim of trafficking, another road opens. Hiding in the woodlands by day, guided by the stars at night, he begins a new journey - to escape to a better life, to meet someone he can trust, and to find his family.

London, 1881. Miranda Ellis is a woman tormented. Plagued since birth by a strange and powerful gift, she has spent her entire life struggling to control her exceptional abilities. Yet one innocent but irreversible mistake has left her family's fortune decimated and forced her to wed London's most nefarious nobleman.... Lord Benjamin Archer is no ordinary man. Doomed to hide his disfigured face behind masks, Archer knows it's selfish to take Miranda as his bride.

Science and maths have never been the preserve of lone geniuses: collaboration has always been at the heart of intellectual endeavour. But to this day, men like Einstein remain the pervasive archetype of genius and the intellectual contributions of women past and present have gone unacknowledged. x+y is one mathematician's manifesto for how we can fix that - and why that requires rethinking how we think about thinking itself.

Holly Evernight belongs to a very special family of inventors. They have nobly served the Society for the Suppression of Supernaturals for generations. And Holly may have the most special creative powers of them all. But her skills are about to be tested as she tries to save the life of a half-man-half machine whose clockwork heart is ticking down to the bitter end... William Thorne was a rebel, a hired assassin for the SOS's greatest rival, before he was taken, tortured, and transformed.

Anna made a mental list of things that would make her life perfect: her own prisoner; Mr. Wright and her father’s permission to be a matron and to sleep overnight in the jail; matron uniforms designed by Vionnet at the House of Doucet; and a joint assignment with Eve McBride to solve a murder. It’s 1907 Los Angeles. The best future Anna Blanc can hope for is to be married off to the highest bidder. What she really wants to do is use her formidable brain to trap criminals like Sherlock Holmes. So, Anna does what any girl would do in her situation.

For generations, every Frankenstein has found their true love and equal unlocking lifetimes of blissful wedded adventure. Clever, pretty (and odd) Angelika Frankenstein has run out of suitors and fears she may become the exception to this family rule. When assisting in her brother Victor's ground-breaking experiment to bring a reassembled man back to life, she realizes that having an agreeable gentleman convalescing in the guest suite might be a chance to let a man get to know the real her. For the first time, Angelika embarks upon a project that is all her own.

The acclaimed Scottish playwright Rona Munro has created a remarkable story about a man who wakes up from a car crash with brain damage. Now, he sees the world as the person he was three years ago, when his life and loves were in a very different place. This play is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series featuring science-themed plays.

Xandra Varden is the newly crowned Goblin Queen of England. But her complicated life is by no means over. There are the political factions vying for her favour, and the all-too-close scrutiny of Queen Victoria, who for some reason wants her head. Not to mention her werewolf boyfriend with demands of his own, and a mother hell-bent on destroying the monarchy. Now she's the suspect in a murder investigation - and Xandra barely knows which way is up. What she does know is that nothing lasts forever - and immortality isn't all it's cracked up to be.

The once-future Queen of Hearts, Princess Dinah, has been exiled from Wonderland. Her vicious father, whom she always feared, has framed her for a brutal murder and turned the kingdom against her. Now hiding in the mysterious Twisted Wood with only her war steed at her side, Dinah is faced with a choice - to leave Wonderland forever or stay and fight for the throne.

The game is afoot! London's geniuses are being picked off by a vicious killer, and Emma Bannon, a sorceress in the service of the Empire, must protect the next target, Archibald Clare. Unfortunately he's more interested in solving the mystery of the murders than staying alive . . . In a world where illogical magic has turned the Industrial Revolution on its head, Bannon and Clare will face dark sorcery, cannon fire, high treason and the vexing problem of reliably finding hansom cabs in the city.

There is something soul-soothingly simple and refreshing about being in nature, about making the most of the great outdoors, being mindful of Mother Nature's gifts and grabbing spring and summer - and those blue sky, brisk days of autumn and winter - with both hands. But sadly it is a skill we are losing. We are becoming creatures wrapped in walls and trapped by to-do lists, hibernating while the world sprouts, grows and changes.

Philip Thane–rogue, rake, and scoundrel extraordinaire–hadn’t wanted to show up in the little town of Whittlesey to give a speech. He also didn’t expect to somehow find himself stuck in time, waking up every morning to live exactly the same day over, and over, and over again. On the plus side, it’s giving him time to further his acquaintance with the delightful Miss Margaret Allen, in town to research the book she’s writing. And Philip has no doubt she’ll fall starry-eyed into his arms, just like so many other ladies of the ton have done before.

Dorothy Must Die meets Alice in Wonderland. This is not a story of happily ever after - it's the heart-stopping conclusion in the twisted YA origin story of the infamous villain the Queen of Hearts. Dinah has lost everyone she ever loved. Her brother was brutally murdered. The man she believed was her father betrayed her. Her loyal subjects have been devastated by war. And the boy she gave her heart to broke it completely. Now a dark queen has risen out of the ashes of her former life.

Finally free of her suffocating marriage, widow Daisy Ellis Craigmore is ready to embrace the pleasures of life that have long been denied her. Yet her newfound freedom is short lived. A string of unexplained murders has brought danger to Daisy's door, forcing her to turn to the most unlikely of saviors

Dinah is a princess, the future Queen of Hearts, who will one day reign over Wonderland. Unaware of the dark depths of her kingdom, she longs only for her father's approval and to reign with the boy she loves. But when a betrayal breaks her heart and threatens her throne, Dinah is launched into the dangers of Wonderland. She must stay one step ahead of her enemies, or she won't just lose the crown - it will be off with her head! Evil is brewing in Wonderland and maybe, most frighteningly, in Dinah herself.