Showing results by narrator "Jenny Hoops" in All Categories

French journalist Marc Taragon is at the apex of his career in 2007. A tenacious idealist, Taragon has spent the last 30 years attempting to bring to readers the truths about the wars and political intrigues of the region. He is unsparing in his criticism of extremists and has earned many enemies. He agrees to be interviewed in Cyprus by a young Canadian journalist, Marie Boivin, not knowing that Marie has a hidden agenda: to discover through Taragon the truth about her childhood. Before Marie finds the answers she seeks, she's enmeshed in Taragon’s plan to broker peace negotiations.

Swept up in a whirlwind courtship, Katja and Wasyl begin life anew in a Ukrainian settlement of Western Canada. The dusty Canadian prairies promise hope and independence, but when war breaks out between the old world and the new, their newfound stability is shattered. Rumors of the internment of Ukrainian-Canadians haunt the new settlers. Would the country they love betray them like this? An incident throws the couple and their young children into turmoil, and Katja faces the prospect of enduring a Canadian winter without Wasyl by her side.

February, 1944. Washington DC. With the war entering its most dangerous phase, Louise Pearlie is thrilled to be reassigned to the London office of the OSS. But in order to take up her new post, she must make a perilous crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in the SS Amelia Earhart. Accompanying her on the voyage to Liverpool are an eclectic group of passengers, including the aloof Blanche Bryant, whose husband Eddie died in mysterious circumstances on the ship’s voyage out to New York, three months before.

1940s, Washington DC. Government girl Louise Pearlie is asked to review the file usage of a missing analyst from the Office of Strategic Services - the US’s wartime intelligence agency - only to learn he’d drowned in the Tidal Basin days before. OSS confirm it was an accident, and Louise is sent back to her regular job in the file rooms. 

In the dirty '30s jobs were hard to come by. Having lost her father and her home in southern Alberta, Tilly McCormack is thrilled when her application for a position as a chambermaid at the prestigious Banff Springs Hotel, one of Canada’s great railway hotels, is accepted. Tilly loves her new life in the Rocky Mountain town and the people she meets there. Local trail guide Ryan Blake is taken with Tilly’s sparkling blue eyes and mischievous sense of humor, and thinks she is just the girl for him.

On a bitterly cold night in December 1943, government girl Louise Pearlie and her friend Joe Prager are enjoying a quiet drink in the Baron Steuben Inn, when a bloodstained body is discovered behind the bar. Although the victim had been a regular customer, no one seems to know anything about him. When it turns out there is a link to Louise’s top-secret work at the OSS, she is ordered to find out as much as possible about the murder while keeping the connection secret from those involved, including the investigating police detective.

Canadian Shorts II is a specially selected collection of short stories by established and emerging Canadian authors. Showcasing Canada's diverse writing talent, there is a story for every listener, from literary fiction to scifi fantasy to prairie gothic to romance-thriller. 

English hairdresser, Ethel, is alone after the deaths of her family and her wartime fiancé. Widow and single mother, Alice, bringing up two daughters, receives an unexpected inheritance that will transform her life. War bride, Joan, is mother to three small children with a fourth on the way and money in short supply. All are brought together in a rural Canadian town where they each try to build a future - often in spite of the men in their lives. 

A blind deejay (Shepard Krausse) and an invisible librarian (Miranda Ogilvy) from a tiny, rural Florida town try to solve a double disappearance connected to a recent canoe trip. It ain't exactly "Deliverance," but there's a heap of trouble brewing for these folks - some of it human, some of it animal, and all of it deadly. Shep and Miranda rely on their sense of humor as they face dangerous fossil poachers - but even that is difficult when their engagement is broken amidst a river of troubles. 

Elizabeth Clarke gave her brother a silver locket to remind him of home as he left for war in June of 1917. But as the Great War ends for America, it continues on for Elizabeth. While carrying out duties for the US State Department, her father went missing in the chaos of the Russia Revolution. When word arrives that he is alive and needs assistance moving a valuable and mysterious “package” out of Russia, it is up to his children to organize the rescue. 

1940s Washington, DC, government girl Louise Pearlie has a new job inside the OSS -the Office of Strategic Services: recruiting German prisoners of war for a secret mission inside Nazi Germany. It’s a big chance for her, and Louise hopes she can finally escape her filing and typing duties. With the job comes two new colleagues: Alice Osborne, a propaganda expert, and Merle Ellison, a forger from Texas who just happens to speak fluent German. But when the three arrive at Fort Meade camp to interview the first German POWs to arrive there, their mission is beset by complications.

Lloyd Schifflebein wants to adopt children, but he must convince authorities he is not crazy. He isn't. His teapot really is talking to him. When the social worker from hell agrees to give him a chance, things are looking up. Soon, Lloyd is the happy father of six, count ‘em, six special-needs children and their six pet bunny rabbits. The Schifflebein household is a regular day at the circus. And they’ll be a forever family, provided they can get through a probationary period with surprise inspections at any time. 

Young widow Louise Pearlie seizes a chance to escape the typewriters and files of the Office of Strategic Services, the US' World War II spy agency, when she’s asked to investigate a puzzling postcard referred to OSS by the US Censor. She and a colleague named Collins head off to St. Leonard, Maryland, to talk to the postcard’s recipient, one Leroy Martin. But what seemed like a straightforward mission to Louise soon becomes complicated.

It is the dawn of the French Revolution when masses of hungry peasants burn the chateaux of aristocrats throughout France. After the death of his estranged family, an 18-year-old nobleman, the Marquis Marcel de la Croix, is forced to raise the royalist banner. The wreck of his family fortress becomes a bastion for newly disenfranchised aristocrats, and Marcel and his fiery associate, Pierre Lafont, lead a rebel group called the League of the Star. After a bitter falling out with Lafont, Marcel escapes to England incognito, hoping to put the past behind him.

When her student disappeared from a field trip, Elaine lost her job, her reputation, her identity, and her confidence. Twelve years later, the girl's distinctive pendant necklace turns up in a current newspaper photo of another young girl.  

John Doe remembers nothing of his life before waking up in the hospital. He doesn't know he was a dangerous man, and he somehow has survived assassination by even more dangerous men. He doesn't even know how to speak English, or read, or count. Even after his body heals, he will need long-term supervision and care to re-learn how to live. Dr. Mitchell Oberon has been married to her surgical work for too long. So, she resists being attracted to a brain-damaged patient with the body of Adonis and the mind of a child.

Young widow Louise Pearlie becomes embroiled in a perilous game of mafia bosses, Nazi spies and banished royalty in this wartime novel of suspense. It's 1942 in Washington DC. Louise Pearlie is now a chief file clerk at the legendary OSS, the precursor to the CIA, and enjoying being an independent, working woman despite wartime privations. But a casual friendship struck up with Alessa di Luca, a secretive war refugee, sucks Louise into a dangerous game of mafia bosses, Nazi spies, banished royalty and Sicilian aristocracy--placing not only her job, but her life, in jeopardy.

It's 1942. Louise Pearlie, a young widow, has come to Washington DC to work as a clerk for the legendary OSS, the precursor to the CIA. When, while filing, she discovers a document concerning the husband of a college friend, Rachel Bloch - a young French Jewish woman she is desperately worried about - Louise realizes she may be able to help get Rachel out of Vichy France. But then a colleague whose help Louise has enlisted is murdered, and she realizes she is on her own, unable to trust anyone.

Every girl's favorite book about horses, this beloved autobiography of a carriage horse in 19th-century England is filled with humor, drama, intrigue, and hope. Follow Black Beauty as he leaves his happy colt-hood home to follow his destiny as a carriage horse, and to the destructive life of a cab horse in London. You'll meet the whole series of Black Beauty's people, from devious, nasty Seedy Sam to the most wonderful of grooms, James Howard, and his cab-driver Jerry Barker and his cheerful family, and finally Black Beauty's saviour, Joe Green.

With Kansas City, Missouri as a backdrop, you will enjoy a humorous behind-the-scenes peek at a four part harmony that can only be sung by women. This year in the life of a barbershop baritone tells why these women will wear identical dresses as their riser mates, slather makeup on their faces, endure hours wearing all-in-ones and high heels, and love every minute of it. The names have been changed to protect the guilty, but you know who you are!