Showing results by narrator "David Thorpe" in All Categories

Maya has to escape. She's on the run in a country she doesn't know and has no idea who to trust. Raul is escaping too - travelling back to his home where a terrible tragedy happened, ready to stir up trouble. When their paths collide in the middle of the jungle, the sparks begin to fly. As modern world corruption meets the magic and legends of ancient times, can Maya draw on her hidden light to find the way through to the truth?

Casper Candlewacks is the only boy with any sense in a village full of idiots…the fourth and final instalment in the hilarious Casper Candlewacks series. Most villages have an idiot but Casper's village is full of them. So being bright makes Casper something of an outsider. Luckily Casper has Lamp to him company - his less-than-bright best mate who is also a strangely ingenious inventor. Lamp’s latest invention is a time-travelling toaster - or so he says. But can a toaster really transport them through space and time? Or will they both just end up as toast?

Evil comes from the past… A secret with the power to change the world…. Alex Devereux, former cavalry Major and hardened mercenary, takes on a lucrative mission that leads him into deepest Africa. Working for a diamond cartel and operating outside of international law, Alex comes face-to-face with the Dark Heart Prophecy. Past and present collide - but can Alex redeem himself and prevent the prophecy from coming true?

In this game it’s kill or be killed. A stranger has you cornered. They call themselves The Host. You are forced to play their game. In it one person can live and the other must die. You are the next player. You have a choice to make. This is a game where nobody wins....

As a secret agent for the British government, Anthony Brooke wants to expose a gang responsible for blackmailing innocent people and gruesome murders. But when they plot a kidnap, Anthony must race to reach the little girl before they do. Milly will not be easy to retrieve, for she is in a Belgian convent, in German-occupied territory. To rescue her, Anthony must go behind enemy lines, crawl under the wire, face ruthless guards and break into the convent.

1950s Staffordshire. Within the clay tanks at the pottery company Shentall's, a body has been found. Amid cries of industrial espionage and sabotage of this leader of the pottery industry, there is a case of bitter murder to solve for Inspector Hedley Nicholson. Kelly's mystery won the CWA Gold Dagger Award in 1961 for its impeccable sense of place and detail, and for the emotional weight of its central crime. The novel is part of a shift from the cosiness of crime novels before to mysteries characterised by their psychological interest and affecting realism. An influential classic.

Nicholas Bracewell befriends a young beggar who is trying to eke out a living as a counterfeit crank, pretending to have spectacular epileptic fits in order to get money from gullible bystanders. When the beggar is murdered inside Bridewell, Nicholas has to pose as a beggar himself in order to get inside the notorious institution so that he can solve the crime. Counterfeiting of all kinds is exposed.

It is deep midwinter. Six ambitious vice presidents of Labouchere Associates are gathered together at an isolated mountain lodge in New Hampshire’s White Mountains for a weekend of corporate mind games. By Monday, one of them will become a partner and earn at least a million a year. And one of them will be dead.

Virtual reality is the technology of the future, and Mark Fairfax’s brother Richard runs the leading company in the field worldwide. He has also been murdered. Mark is a City trader: sharp, young, ambitious. He is left to pick up the pieces at his brother’s company in Scotland’s 'Silicon Glen'. Struggling to keep the business in the black, and with corporate predators closing in, Mark must learn fast and trust no one. With his brother’s killer on the loose, bankruptcy may prove to be the least of his problems.

Eight days before the summer solstice, a man is butchered in a blood-freezing sacrifice on the ancient site of Stonehenge before a congregation of robed worshippers. Within hours, one of the world's foremost treasure hunters has shot himself in his country mansion. And to his estranged son, young archaeologist Gideon Chase, he leaves a cryptic letter...

The first in a series of action-packed novellas set in ancient Rome introducing Pavo, a novice gladiator, and featuring Simon Scarrow's ongoing soldier character Optio Macro. It is AD 41. The savage Gaul Britomaris has defeated the best of the Roman gladiators in the arena. Now a young volunteer, Marcus Valerius Pavo, the son of a murdered general, has been given a month to prepare to face Britomaris in a fight which only one man can survive. He is to be trained by veteran soldier Macro, who fears for his young trainee's chances.

When an epidemic outbreak occurs, the most physical and financial harm historically falls upon the people who can least afford it: the economically and socially marginalized. Where people live and work, how they commute and socialize, and more have a huge impact on the risks we bear during an outbreak. In The Rich Flee and the Poor Take the Bus, economist Troy Tassier examines examples ranging from the 430 BCE plague of Athens to the COVID-19 pandemic to demonstrate why marginalized groups bear the largest burden of epidemic costs—and how to avoid these systemic failures in the future.

A Dead Man in Deptford re-imagines the riotous life and suspicious death of Christopher Marlowe. Poet, lover, and spy, Marlowe must negotiate the pressures placed upon him by theatre, Queen, and country. Burgess brings this dazzling figure to life and pungently evokes Elizabethan England.

It is the summer of 2001 and in Cairo’s crowded streets the heat is rising ...The unsolved murders of young homeless boys are fanning the embers of religious hatred. As tensions mount, Makana is hired to investigate threats made to a hapless travel agent. But Makana’s troubled past is trying to lay claim to him and when Makana witnesses a brutal killing he attracts the attention of both the security services and a dangerous gangster family....

The 1939 Arsenal side is firing on all cylinders and celebrating a string of victories. They appear unstoppable, but the Trojans - a side of amateurs who are on a winning streak of their own - may be about to silence the Gunners. Moments into the second half the whistle blows, but not for a goal or penalty. One of the Trojans has collapsed on the pitch.

Experience Twelfth Night as a powerful full-cast drama with entertaining and enlightening commentary that explains what's what and who's who as the plot unfolds. To help you get the most out of Shakespeare, the narrator offers historical insights and background information, so you can enjoy the jokes, appreciate the references, and get a real sense of Shakespeare's world.

In the year of her 100th birthday, Dame Vera Lynn's fascinating and life-affirming wartime memoir from the forces' sweetheart of her adventures entertaining the troops in far-flung Burma. "I was just 27 years old when I went to Burma. It was an experience that changed my life for ever. Up until that time I had not really travelled anywhere at all, apart from one touring visit to Holland with a band I was singing with before the war, and I had certainly never been in an aeroplane. But I wanted to make a difference, to do my bit." And she did.

Seven Bengal tigers are the star attraction of Carey's Circus. Their trainer is the fearless Anton, whose work demands absolute fitness and the steadiest of nerves. When Anton is found lying dead in the tigers' cage, it seems that he has lost control and been mauled by the tigers - but Detective Inspector Minto of Scotland Yard is not convinced. Minto's investigations lead him deep into the circus world of tents and caravans, clowns and acrobats, human and animal performers. No one is above suspicion.

Callan wants out - out of the Section, out of the whole dirty business - but his reputation as a ruthless, ice-cold professional killer precedes him. He seems the ideal man to rescue the daughter of a radical Greek politician from her kidnappers, or so say both his former employers in the Section and his long-time enemies in the KGB. With his only trustworthy ally, the timid and often pungent Lonely, Callan sets off for Crete knowing that failure or refusing to do the job could result in his own name on one of the Section's deadly Red Files.

It’s summer, and the annual tennis tournament between Cavendish and Charnley is underway, but a sudden spate of jewel thefts prompts James to put his sleuthing hat on. His investigation suggests that the criminals are using an ancient smuggling network. Can he convince his good friend, DCI George Lane, of his suspicions? Has the smuggling network reopened? Are the two cyclists really tourists? Is the murder of the tennis umpire connected? Could a long-term resident really be a criminal mastermind?