Résultats lu par "Charlie Norfolk" dans Toutes les catégories

The young man with the shock of white-blond hair lay spread-eagled on the floor, surrounded by fallen books. His hand reached out to the scattered pages, as though he was trying to tell her something. But who is he? How did he come to be killed in Flora’s ordinary little bookshop? Flora finds out he was staying at the Priory Hotel, and when the gardener suddenly dies in its beautiful grounds only a few days later, she is certain that something untoward is happening in her quiet village by the sea.

It’s a sunny morning in Abbeymead as Flora cycles through the village and knocks on the door of the local library, planning to deliver a gift to librarian Maud Frobisher to mark her retirement. But Flora is shocked when she finds Maud slumped in the corner, and even more startled when she recognizes the man holding the murder weapon–an enormous hardback book. Flora’s known Lowell Gracey since her college days, but what is he doing working for Maud and now the main suspect in her murder?

My husband Olly and I share a perfect life, our evenings spent curled in our candlelit flat talking about all the places we’ll travel. But my world is shattered with the news that my sister has died in a tragic accident, leaving her two girls, Hayley and Mia, behind. The secret I’ve buried deep in my heart means I was never meant to be a mother–but I made a promise to my sister. I’m all the girls have now.

Jack is stunned to receive a call from his estranged mother, Sybil, asking him to drop everything and come to France. Together with Flora, his fellow sleuth, they pack their suitcases, dreaming of fragrant lavender fields and freshly baked pain au chocolat. It’s only when they arrive that they discover the shocking truth—Sybil’s friend was killed on a street in Paris, and she is desperate for their help.

When the Berlin Wall goes up, Karin is on the wrong side of the city. Overnight, she’s trapped under Soviet rule in unforgiving East Berlin and separated from her twin sister, Jutta. Karin and Jutta lead parallel lives for years, cut off by the Wall. But Karin finds one reason to keep going: Otto, the man who gives her hope, even amidst the brutal East German regime.

Sussex, 1955: When bookshop owner Flora Steele goes for a walk along the pier she isn’t expecting to spot a young woman’s body in the stormy waters below. And she’s shocked to discover the victim is someone she knows.... Convinced the death was not an accident, Flora persuades attractive local crime writer Jack Carrington to help her find out what really happened to poor Polly Dakers, a popular young woman with a complicated love life, who’d been at the heart of village life in Abbeymead.

Sussex, 1957: When Flora Steele and handsome crime writer Jack Carrington attend the grand re-opening of the Priory Hotel in the beautiful little village of Abbeymead, their day out is cut short when the flame-haired female singer in the band suddenly drops dead before their eyes. Flora is stunned by the unexpected turn of events and immediately deduces foul play. Beverly Russo was a spirited young woman with a big voice, and Flora is determined to get to the bottom of her untimely demise—especially as the detective sergeant leading the investigation is so hopeless. 

Once you find our perfect little town nestled between the gorgeous hills, you never want to leave. My husband and I both grew up here and we knew there was nowhere better to raise our two sweet girls… But when the moving van pulls up, and a mother and daughter jump out, my blood runs cold. I met the mother once on our summer holiday and I let slip a terrible secret, something no one here must ever know… Fear rushes through me as I remember that night, but I’m sure I never told her where we live.

When Flora Steele sets off for a peaceful vacation with crime writer Jack Carrington, the last thing she expects to find is a body at their pretty rental cottage! More baffling, they discover Roger Gifford was a man with plenty of friends, and the villagers seem devastated by his sudden death.... So why was he murdered? Who has blood on their hands? His estranged wife, Beatrice, his wayward younger brother, Lionel, or the suspicious newcomer, Mercy Dearlove? Inquisitive, Flora joins forces with handsome Jack to find out how the poor man came to such an untimely end.   

Sussex, 1957: When Flora and Jack hear that Percy Milburn–a newcomer to the area who has ruffled more than a few feathers with his grand plans for modernizing Abbeymead–is missing, they’re determined to find him. But after scouring the village, Flora is shocked to discover the body of the poor man in the cellar of a crumbling farmhouse.

Sussex, 1956: When Flora and her partner in crime solving, Jack, arrive at the charming church of St Saviour’s the last thing they’re expecting to find is the curate, Lyle Beaumont, lifeless on the flagstone floor beneath the bell tower, with a mysterious note in his hand.

Everyone in the village admires Anna because she’s a wonderful mother. Juggling family life with a small sewing business, she’s the one they turn to for a warm hug after a hard day. Her kind, polite daughters are a credit to her - even Bay, her stepdaughter, whom Anna loves as much as her own two girls. But normal family life changes overnight when Anna’s middle daughter’s beauty catches the eye of a stranger in a café. As jealousy erupts between the siblings, Anna’s perfect blended family begins to unravel around her.

Nazi-occupied Vienna, 1940. As bombs fall over Europe, Hannah Stern is a 27-year-old nurse who is just trying to survive. When she takes a position at Vienna’s esteemed psychiatric hospital, Am Steinhof, she thinks it will take her away from the danger. Her estranged half-brother has arranged the job for her on the condition that she must take his son, Willi, there too. He insists it’s a place where Willi will be safe. And Hannah soon forms a close bond with the sweet, fragile child in her care.

Sophie has always believed her mother abandoned her, and tries not to dwell on memories of laughter and bedtime stories. Arriving at the renowned Ayredale Library deep in the English countryside, Sophie feels strangely at home among her fellow bookbinders and the endless shelves of antique books. But everything changes when a beautiful door – engraved with a leaf matching her mother’s old necklace – swings open at her touch. Sophie gasps at the impossible sight inside: a silver tree growing higher than the library itself.

Cumbria, 1967. Grieving the loss of her son, Cordelia Hemlock is in a village graveyard when lightning strikes a tumbledown tomb - and gives her a glimpse of a new corpse that doesn't belong among the crumbling bones. But when the body vanishes, the authorities refuse to believe some hysterical outsider. Cordelia persuades Felicity Goose, the only other person to have seen the corpse, to join her investigation. But the villagers don't take kindly to their interference. There are those who believe the village's secrets should remain buried...whatever the cost.

Paris, 1944. “Traitor!” yells the crowd as they push me down onto a stool. “Nazi collaborator.” Tears blur my vision as the razor grazes my scalp, waves of blonde hair falling to the ground. As men paint a swastika across my face, I hold onto one small glimmer of hope. They have no idea who I am.

When her mum is taken into hospital, Pearl goes to live with a foster family. But all Pearl really wants is to be back with her mum on their narrow boat. And when her mum runs away from the hospital, Pearl knows she must go back to the boat to find her.

My precious daughter. You have no idea how dangerous the world is. No idea of the horrors I’ve shielded you from. The things I’ve endured...our past. We’ve been happy. We’ve been hidden. We’ve been safe. But our perfect life is about to come crashing down. Because they’ve found me. And they’re about to reveal my darkest secret...to you. I’ll do anything to protect you, darling, because if you knew—I’d lose you forever. You can never discover what I’ve done...or what I’m willing to do to keep you safe.

"Do you have a name for her?" she asked. He shook his head. "You've decided it's a girl?" She looked at the skull and thought of it washing backwards and forwards in the dirty water of the Thames until coming to rest in sight of tip of the Isle of Dogs under the gaze of the grandiose buildings of Greenwich. "We'll call her Flotsam," she said. Home truths are always the hardest. Beatrice Palmenter is 36, a successful filmmaker. And discontent. She is about to make two journeys, one back a thousand years to the world of the Anglo Saxons, the other to wartime France.