Showing results by narrator "Derek Perkins" in All Categories

In the dramatic years between 1870 and the end of World War II, a number of prominent French Jews-pillars of an embattled community-invested their fortunes in France's cultural artifacts, sacrificed their sons to the country's army, and were ultimately rewarded by seeing their collections plundered and their families deported to Nazi concentration camps. In this rich, evocative account, James McAuley explores the central role that art and material culture played in the assimilation and identity of French Jews in the fin-de-siecle.

From the acclaimed authors of Capitalism Without Capital, radical ideas for restoring prosperity in today’s intangible economy.

Soothe your soul at bedtime as you listen to some of the world's most beautifully written classic stories, exquisitely read by Alison Larkin and Virginia McKenna. Alison's AudioFile Earphones award-winning reading of Peter Pan is followed by Through the Looking Glass and The Snow Queen. How the Elephant Got Its Trunk is read by Virginia McKenna, OBE, the iconic English actress best known for the films Born Free, A Town Like Alice, and Ring of Bright Water.

Émile Zola was the leader of the literary movement known as "naturalism" and is one of the great figures of the novel. In his monumental Les Rougon-Macquart (1871-93), he explored the social and cultural landscape of the late 19th century in ways that scandalized bourgeois society. Zola opened the novel up to a new realm of subjects, including the realities of working-class life, class relations, and questions of gender and sexuality, and his writing embodied a new freedom of expression, with his bold, outspoken voice often inviting controversy.

Separated again, further than they ever have before, Barl and Shryke must fight against the fell powers which have stripped them of their access to the Quantum Aether. Having lost all the faculties given to them in their training with the Assassin’s Guild, they are both faced with an impossible situation - how to survive in a world where they are vulnerable to attack, in a way they have never thought possible, when all their most basic defenses are gone.

When a London businessman retires early and buys a Tudor mansion, he’s quite surprised - and perhaps even a little pleased (retirement being pretty boring) - to find a skeleton hidden in a secret room in the house. The skeleton appears to be more than 150 years old, so the local police leave it to the homeowner to solve the mystery. The police are much more interested in solving a local, modern murder. Somehow the two deaths are connected. First published in 1967, this is Aird’s only non-Inspector Sloan mystery, and a complete triumph.

His heart was made of ice...Born a nameless bastard into the Berserker horde, Finn is the measure of strength, ferocity, and brutality at the Temple of Freya. Sent to the Highlands bent on revenge and murder, he stumbles on an infant deserted in the snow. What he chooses next may seal his fate. On a snowy Solstice night during the magical Yuletide season, their need for each other may alter their destines forever.

He needs her powers...Bael Bloodborn will go down in history as the lone Viking berserker who held Stamford Bridge against the Saxons, killing hundreds with his own ax. Mortally wounded, he’s carried downriver to a witch who has the power to heal not just his body, but awaken wicked desires he’d thought long dead. First, he’ll have to forgive her for binding her to him against his will with a kiss that would not only change the course of their destiny, but that of the entire world.

She thought she was safe...Charged with keeping a Druid relic secret, Kenna de Moray is cloistered in a convent far from home. When an invading Viking Berserker saves her from the lash of a whip, he doesn’t realize that he’s about to unleash the full force of her passionate fire on the world, or that he’s drawn her enemies to their doorstep. With the Druid King far away, they’ll have to fight a powerful evil on their own.

The fate of the world depends on his power... Malcolm de Moray is King of the Picts, a druid, and the Earth's last hope to stop the Apocalypse. To find his missing Grimoire and hunt down the evil threatening his family, he must venture into the Calledonian woods. The woman waiting for him will influence the future of humanity, but for which side? Join the de Moray Druids as they each find a love that will be worth defying the forces of evil and risking their souls to save our world.

He would be her first kill...Kamdyn MacKay is a Banshee assassin who has never killed a man. When her first mark becomes the Berserker warlord terrorizing the Highlands, she knows she must slay him or face unthinkable consequences. Once she's face to face with the notorious Laird of Shadows, Kamdyn realizes she's also never been taken by a man, and his carnal proposition may prove too seductive to resist.

Daroch McLeod is a ruthless and brilliant Druid driven by a single purpose: Retribution. Abused and tormented, he's promised not to stop until he's retaliated against his immortal captors. And he's never been closer to his goal. Daroch refuses to let the beautiful, inquisitive Banshee, who haunts his every step, uncover his deadly secrets. Can two souls searching for vengeance find redemption instead?

She’s become a Banshee, screaming for vengeance...The last thing Katriona remembers about her life is her violent death. Now, in order to rest, she must avenge her family, which means eliminating the last of the corrupt MacKay Lairds. But her Banshee scream doesn't kill him, and the more she tries, the harder it becomes to resist the wicked temptation he poses. Join the MacKay Banshees as they each find a love that will be worth defying the forces of evil and risking their souls to save our world.

Laird Connor MacLauchlan doesn't want a wife, but he finds his Berserker mate in the heat of battle. Though he fears for her safety from the darkness that lurks inside him, fate dictates he must take her and make her his.... Born to a Ross mother and a Stewart father, Lindsay has been sold to the highest bidder. On her way to meet her vile betrothed, a savage and mythic warrior slaughters her entire vanguard.

In the early 1920s amidst the upheaval of Weimar Germany, a small group of peaceable idealists began to meet, practicing a quiet, communal life focused on self-improvement. For the most part, they had come to know each other while attending adult education classes in the city of Essen. But "the Bund", as they called their group, had lofty aspirations - under the direction of their leader Artur Jacobs, its members hoped to forge an ideal community that would serve as a model for society at large. What became of this group?

Shryke is running for his life. But how do you escape an enemy who can follow you everywhere and everywhen? Shryke knows you can't, yet still he runs. There are horrors buried deep in his memory that have been locked away from him by some secret magic. All he knows is that he is the Quantum Assassin, and he stands alone against the end of everything - the lone warrior in a war he can’t hope to win.

The British-based Anglo-Lassertan Mineral Company finds itself in hot water its engineer, Alan Ottershaw, hits and kills a pedestrian while driving in a foreign country - a nation with thick veins of the strategically important mineral querremitte. This country has draconian laws about killings, so Ottershaw is relieved when he's whisked back to Calleshire. Bur the Lassertan government threatens to strip the company of its most valuable contract, and poor Mr. Ottershaw dies suddenly, a very convenient solution. A little too convenient, if you ask Calleshire detective C. D. Sloan.

Lucy Durmast waits patiently in front of the judge at her own murder trial, refusing to utter a single word. Kenneth Carline, an employee of her father's, was found poisoned to death after eating a meal that Lucy herself had prepared. Kenneth was set to marry another, and Lucy, it seems, was jealous. But what should have been an open-and-shut case of envy-driven murder becomes complicated when primary detective Trevor Porritt suffers permanent brain damage. C. D. Sloan inherits the file - and immediately begins poking holes in what looked like an airtight case.

When local fisherman Horace Boller decided to row his boat out on the tidal backwash of the river one morning, he couldn't have meant to land a catch like this. What he ended up with was a body floating on the river's surface. And judging by the state of the corpse, the death was not a recent one. The strange thing is, the coroner report indicates that drowning was not the cause of death. It's up to the intrepid C. D. Sloan - and his markedly less intrepid assistant, Constable Crosby - to investigate.

We are in the 4th industrial revolution; companies need to figure out how to survive. In this exciting revolution, machine intelligence has had a more unprecedented impact on business than the internet, and it's the only path to corporate survival in the future... Leaders don't have to be scientists to unlock the power of AI technology that is already radically altering the industrial landscape. If you're ready to meet the challenges of this new revolution, this essential guide will help you take your business to the next level.