Showing results by narrator "Karen Cass" in All Categories

There are things no-one can prepare you for when your daughter goes missing - you are haunted by her memory. Even close friends can't understand what you are going through, and only in a group with mothers of other lost children can you find real comfort. But as the parents gather to support each other in the wake of another disappearance, a crack appears in the group that threatens to rock their lives all over again. Welcome to the club no one wants to join.

Each featured novelist, playwright or poet has biographical entries tracing the friendships, loves and rivalries that inspired each individual and influenced their work, revealing insights into the larger-than-life characters, plots and evocative settings that they created. This audiobook introduces the key ideas, themes and literary techniques of each writer, revealing the imaginations and personalities behind some of the world's greatest novels, short stories, poems and plays.

Primrose Hill, London. Criminal profiler Ziba MacKenzie arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder with a disturbing sense of déjà vu. Nine days earlier, another woman’s body was found: same location, same MO, same physical appearance. For the police, it’s clear a new serial killer is on the loose. But for Ziba, it’s even more sinister—because the victims look just like her. Ziba has been the focus of a killer’s interest before and knows that if she gets too close again this case could be her last.

When Anna Flores' adored older sister goes missing as a teenager, Anna copes by disappearing too and eventually building a life for herself abroad. Thirty years later, the death of her mother finally forces Anna to return home. Tasked with sorting through her mother's possessions, she begins to confront not just her mother's death but also the huge hole Gabriella's disappearance left in her life - and finds herself asking a question she's not allowed herself to ask for years: what really happened to her sister?

Mia Cosgrove is a high-flying psychotherapist with a thriving practice, but when she receives a desperate phone call from her oldest friend, Lysette, she puts her life on hold to rush to her side. A friend of Lysette's, Sarah, has plunged to her death from the top of a multistorey car park, an unsent text message on her phone, simply saying 'I'm sorry x.' At first the police are convinced it's a suicide, but as more deaths rock the rural community, the police aren't so certain....

As the youngest of four unmarried vicar's daughters, Frederica feared her destiny was to die of boredom in the sleepy village of Barton Sub Edge. Her looks were deemed unfortunate, and her wilful manner labelled her difficult. She never dreamt the arrival of a stranger would be a twist to her fate. But Frederica and the worldly gentleman from the city, Lord Granton, had something in common: boredom. So it was that the two formed a secret friendship.

If you’re struggling with the symptoms of menopause, simply want to take care of yourself well, or looking for support from a friend who knows exactly how you feel, Making Friends with the Menopause will be your guide. It will give you the understanding and confidence you need to navigate this profound change and fully embrace this new chapter of your life with open arms.

The Chalet des Anglais should be the ideal locale for recently widowed Oxford don Emily to begin cutting through the fog of her grief. With no electricity, running water, or access by car, the rustic chalet nestled at the foot of the verdant, snow-topped Alps should afford Emily both time and space to heal. Joining her will be a collection of friends from the university, as well as other fellows, graduates, and undergraduates. Something feels off, though—heightening Emily's existing grief-induced anxiety.

Self-made man Aidan Iverson has seen more closed doors in his 30 years than he’s ever cared to count. As a member of the elite Duke’s Den, he has all the money he could possibly need, but the one thing he can’t purchase is true power. If roguish Aidan can’t buy his way into society’s hallowed halls, he’ll resort to a more extreme measure: marriage.

The lie was just the beginning... Marion Anderton lives the perfect life. She has a beautiful home, a handsome and loving husband, and an intelligent and caring son. But as easily as perfect lives are built, they can also be demolished. When tragedy strikes at the heart of her family, Marion finds herself in the middle of a nightmare, with no sign of waking-up. The life she treasured is disintegrating before her very eyes, but it's just the beginning of something much worse and altogether more deadly…

Nik Christou has been a rent boy since he was 15. He knows the ins and outs of Piccadilly Circus, how to spot a pretty policeman and to interpret a fleeting glance. One summer night his life is turned upside down, first by violence and then by an accusation of murder. Anna Treadway, fleeing the ghosts of her past, works as a dresser in Soho’s Galaxy theatre. She has learned never to place too much trust in the long arm of the law and, convinced Nik is innocent, she determines to find him an alibi.

Stella Wiseman was a child TV star, but there’s nothing glamorous about her life now. Alone in her thirties, she’s lost her parents and her friends and she’s stuck in a dead-end job. But just as she hits rock bottom she meets Marco, a charismatic older man who offers to get her back on her feet. He seems too good to be true. Is he? She appreciates the money he lavishes on her. And the pills. But are the pills just helping her sleep, or helping her avoid her problems?

Survey after survey confirms how the success of businesses has become increasingly dependent on the ability and skills of their staff. And because talented workers are in short supply the hunt for people of unusual ability will continue in earnest. Hiring such people is the relatively easy part; keeping them engaged so that they don't move on and getting the best out of them while they are with you is what really matters.

Anna, Henrik and Milena's annual hiking trip is just around the corner. This year, however, Anna and Henrik have a hard time saying no when Milena asks if her boyfriend, Jacob, can tag along. The hike soon spirals into mayhem when the three friends come to realize that taking Jacob was a decision that could change their lives forever. From the austere mountaintops of northern Sweden, this highly anticipated thriller traverses through the unexplored wilderness—here, there's nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

Widow Gail Saunders is struggling to support her eight-year-old son, Nicky, by running a small riding school when the Earl of Savile arrives to tell her that Nicky has unexpectedly inherited money from Savile’s cousin. Gail and Nicky spend the summer at Savile Castle, where Gail falls in love with the charming Raoul, a man as far above her in social station as the sun is to the earth. To add to her troubles, someone seems to be trying to kill Nicky.

Susannah was a successful writer for Tomorrow magazine, but the new managing editor - the dynamic Hazard Maine - made it clear that he thought she was cheating her way to the top. It didn't help their working relationship, either, that Susannah found him devilishly attractive. So attractive that she allowed him to believe the worst of her, so that she wouldn’t be tempted to fall in love with him! Why, when he despised her, did he insist on singling her out?

Karen could be excused for crying on her birthday, especially as it’s the first one since her husband got on a plane to the States and never came back. Then there’s the fact that her workmates were practically bribed to attend her birthday meal. But when a restaurant double booking leads to her sharing a table with single dad Elliot and his daughter, things start looking up.

Hitler’s Girl is a groundbreaking history that reveals how, in the 1930s, authoritarianism nearly took hold in Great Britain as it did in Italy and Germany. Drawing on recently declassified intelligence files, Lauren Young details the pervasiveness of Nazi sympathies among the British aristocracy, as significant factions of the upper class methodically pursued an actively pro-German agenda.

Edgar Allan Poe arrives in London to meet his friend C. Auguste Dupin, in the hope that the great detective will help him solve a family mystery. For Poe has inherited a mahogany box containing sheathes of letters that implicate his grandparents in some of London’s most heinous crimes - those committed by the so-called London Monster who, for two years, terrorised the city’s streets.

When Anika Molnar flees her home country of Hungary not long before the break up of the Soviet Union, she carries only a small suitcase - and a beautiful and much-loved painting of an auburn-haired woman in a cobalt blue dress from her family's hidden collection. Arriving in Australia, Anika moves in with her aunt in Sydney, and the painting hangs in pride of place in her bedroom. But one day it is stolen in what seems to be a carefully planned theft, and Anika's carefree life takes a more ominous turn.