Showing results by narrator "Rachel Atkins" in All Categories

Housekeeper Phyllida Bright is quite in her element at Mallowan Hall, the charming English manor that she keeps in tip-top shape. By contrast, the bustling metropolis of London, where her famed employer Agatha Christie has temporarily relocated, leaves Phyllida a bit out of her depth. Not only must she grapple with a limited staff, but Phyllida also has to rein in a temperamental French cook who has the looks of Hercule Poirot, but none of the charm.

London, England, 1952. Meet the mercurial genius Professor Quanderhorn (James Fleet) - a maverick scientist with absolutely no moral compass. Join him and his rag-tag crew on their frontal-lobe-knotting escapades as they battle insane hybrid creatures: the Gorrirrel and the Squirrilla, to the death; become gods to a Stone-Age tribe; are engulfed in a Martian invasion of Earth; escape shipwreck on the Moon in a spacecraft powered by anger; and evade multiple fiendish traps in the Alien Ziggurat of Death. Will our crew of Brave Boffins survive?

Eighteen months after Natalie Gray loses her husband, Bernie, in a horrific hit and run accident, she finds love with his best friend, Ed Cooper, and moves into his home with her teenage daughter, Scarlett. But she begins to suspect Ed has a dark side - and even darker intentions. Natalie must get her troubled child to a safer place, but when Scarlett starts to hear voices coming from the empty apartment next door it seems she has unwittingly moved them into the heart of danger.

Gracie Burton is a grandmother living quietly in Devon. She has rarely left the village over the past 40 years. Her daughter, Carina, is immensely high-powered, with her own fast-paced business in London. She has very little time for her 17-year-old daughter, Anastasia, away at boarding school, and even less time for her ageing mother. In many ways, the three of them barely know each other.

1851, Angel Meadow Asylum. Dr. Rutherford, principal physician to the insane, is found dead, his head bashed in, his ears cut off, his lips and eyes stitched closed. The police direct their attention towards Angel Meadow's inmates, but to Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain the crime is an act of calculated retribution, rather than of madness. To discover the truth Jem and Will must pursue the story through the darkest corners of the city.

Internationally-bestselling, critically-acclaimed author Robin Hobb takes readers deep into the history behind the Farseer series in this exclusive, new novella. One of the darkest legends in the Realm of the Elderlings recounts the tale of the so-called Piebald Prince, a Witted pretender to the throne unseated by the actions of brave nobles so that the Farseer line could continue untainted. Now the truth behind the story is revealed through the account of Felicity, a low-born companion of the Princess Caution at Buckkeep.

The perfect comfort listen, brimming with humour and heart, from best seller Veronica Henry. The Liddiard family are well known in the Cotswold village of Honeycote - and now there's a wedding being prepared for. But will everything go according to plan? Lucy Liddiard knows her husband is no saint, but isn't prepared for his latest confession. Bride-to-be Mandy has no idea what joining the Liddiards really means. And local girl Mayday, wild child, rebel and free spirit, is thinking the unthinkable....

When a prostitute is found murdered in her bedsit, the Metropolitan police set to work finding the perpetrator of this brutal attack. DNA samples lead them straight to known-criminal George Marlow. The police think they've found their man, but things are not quite what they seem....

A new home, a new circle of friends, a new chance at happiness? Suzanna and Barney Blake are swapping city life for the countryside, determined to breathe new life into the Honeycote Arms and a marriage touched by tragedy. Recently separated Ginny Tait is also seeking solace in country living, desperate to rein in her rambunctious twin daughters. They all think that moving to a calm, quiet and beautiful village in the Cotswolds will solve their problems. But in Honeycote, things are never quite as they appear....

From the age of 14, Caitlin was completely controlled, repeatedly raped, provided with alcohol, given drugs, sold and passed on to new gangs over and over again. The majority of her abusers were Pakistani men, who were blatant in their attacks upon her, often collecting her from school or home, to be taken to flats they owned, family homes, or hotels booked for the day, to be horrifically and systematically abused.

When troubled teenager Immy disappears, she leaves her widowed mother Bea completely devastated. Bea pours her love into her six-year-old niece Phoebe, even taking her in when her single father Ewan takes a job abroad. Then Immy returns, in desperate need of her mother’s help and love. But Ewan is clear: he will never let Bea see Phoebe again if she welcomes her daughter back. As Bea grapples with this impossible choice between two girls who sorely need her, a long-buried secret comes out that changes everything.

When the remains of a missing teenager are uncovered, DC Ruth Hunter presumes the 40-year-old murder is linked to a knife fight between South London gangs in the 1950s. However, as the investigation widens, Ruth and her impetuous partner DC Lucy Henry, discover a disturbing connection to the dark criminal past of a prominent knight of the realm. Narrowing down their investigation to an infamous South London club, Ruth begins to uncover a complex web of historic police corruption, brutal protection rackets and celebrity gangsters.

Dreaded more than the Devil himself, cholera - the 'blue death' - spares no one. As fear grows across the city, Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain are called to the bedside of a dead man, murdered, and with his throat torn out, in the back room of a brothel. When an innocent man is taken to Newgate, Jem and Will have until execution day to save him. The search for the identity of the corpse, and the killer, takes them to the gates of Blackwater Hall, home to the secretive, and corrupt Mortmain family.

Things can't get much worse for Detective Jane Tennison. Unceremoniously kicked off the adrenaline-fuelled Flying Squad, she now plies her trade in Gerald Road, a small and sleepy police station in the heart of London's affluent Knightsbridge. With only petty crime to sink her teeth into, Tennison can feel her career slowly flatlining. That is until the discovery of the most brutal murder Jane has ever seen: Charlie Foxley has been found viciously beaten to death with a cricket bat - his body dismembered and disembowelled.

From his tiny room at Hampton Court, the royal chronicler records the comings and goings of the King of England, his six Queens—and his six mothers-in-law. Introducing us to these redoubtable ladies, he relates the surprising part they played in the destiny of Henry VIII and his unfortunate wives. We meet Catherine of Aragon's duenna, Dona Elvira; Lady Boleyn, whose gentleman admirer threatens danger for her daughter Anne; and Lady Margaret, whose attempt to overturn hundreds of years of tradition leads to a dramatic confrontation.

When ex-soldier Ashley Campbell is brutally murdered outside a Peckham nightclub, Ruth's first thought is that it is gang related. Yet, as the investigation progresses, it seems that the victim's time as a recruit at Cranleigh Barracks might hold the key to the true identity of the murderer. As Ruth and Lucy uncover a brutal culture of bullying, racism and sexual abuse at the barracks, it seems that several officers in the British Army will go to any lengths to protect their identity.

Mary has been nursing a secret. Forty years ago, she made a choice that would change her world for ever, and alter the path of someone she holds dear. Beth is searching for answers. She has never known the truth about her parentage, but finding out could be the lifeline her sick child so desperately needs. When Beth finds a faded newspaper cutting amongst her mother's things, she realises the key to her son's future lies in her own past. She must go back to where it all began to unlock...the Secret.

When an old television rival, Deirdre Shaw, is found dead at the Cotswolds manor house where she was catering for a prestigious shooting weekend, Prudence is asked to step into the breach. Prudence is only too happy to take up the position, and soon she is working in the kitchens of Farleigh Manor. But Farleigh Manor is the home to secrets, both old and new. The site of a famous unsolved murder from the 19th century, Farleigh Manor has never quite shaken off its sensationalist past. It's about to get a sensational present, too.

Working for a winemaker in France is the opportunity of a lifetime for Emmy. Even if she doesn't know a thing about wine beyond what's on offer at the local supermarket. There's plenty to get to grips with in the rustic town of Petit Frère. Emmy's new work friends need more than a little winning over. Then there's her infuriatingly brash tutor, Isaac, and the enigmatic Madame Beaumont tucked away in her vineyard of secrets. But Emmy will soon realise that in life - just as in winemaking - the best things happen when you let go and trust your instincts.

The students at Morton Academy are high-achievers, selected based on academic excellence. So when a series of murders target the school's brightest and best, the pressure is on. Someone is determined to stop at nothing to clear their path to the top. But who is it? And can they be stopped?