Showing results by narrator "Julia Barrie" in All Categories

Geneva, 2012. When a Russian intelligence officer approaches MI5 with vital information about the imminent cyber-sabotage of an Anglo-American Defence programme, he refuses to talk to anyone but Liz Carlyle. But who is he, and what is his connection to the British agent? At a tracking station in Nevada, US Navy officers watch in horror as one of their unmanned drones plummets out of the sky. Is this a Russian plot to disable the West’s defences? Or is the threat coming from elsewhere?

The sixth Inspector Ben Ross mystery. On a cold November night in a Deptford yard, dock worker Harry Parker stumbles upon the body of a dead woman. Inspector Ben Ross is summoned from Scotland Yard to this insalubrious part of town, but no witness to the murder of this well-dressed middle-aged woman can be found. Even Jeb Fisher, the local rag-and-bone man, swears he's seen nothing.

Return to the worlds of The Craftsman and Lacey Flint in this first short-story collection from Sharon Bolton, International award-winning author of The Split. This collection is available exclusively in audio and features eight short stories, each with a new introduction written and read by the author.

At the end of Hawthorn Close, there is a charming park which boasts two magnificent magnolia trees, and an assortment of houses and apartments. As part of the local council's commitment to a more diverse tenancy in the area, several new occupants are moving into the neighbourhood. From the cottages and farms to the local shop, pub and old manor house, residents' lives are set to intertwine, relationships bloom and both romance and heartache lie ahead.

In a village in Wiltshire, just off a busy road, Larch Tree Lane winds slowly up a low hill. Among the residents is Maggie Hatherall, full of life despite her advancing years, who worries what she is going to do with her 200-year-old home. Lucia Grey has escaped a bad marriage but her ex is reluctant to let her start a new life free of him. And for architect Corin Drayton, an unexpected inheritance is the start of a complicated family wrangle. From the cottages and farms to the local shop, pub and old manor house, the residents' lives are set to intertwine and relationships bloom.

Susan has been trying for a baby for years, and when a one-night stand makes her dream come true, she’ll do anything to ensure her husband doesn’t find out - including the unthinkable. Her secret is safe. For now. But as governments embark on a genetic arms race and children around the globe start experiencing a host of distressing symptoms, something truly horrendous is unleashed. Because those children have only one thing in common and people are starting to ask questions.

Emma Appleby's arrival in the County Durham village of Tow Law is sudden and mysterious, provoking deep suspicion in the locals. And because she has a child with her, seemingly out of marriage, they want nothing to do with her - except for pub landlord Mick Castle. When Emma opens an academy and sets herself up in competition with the local school, she provokes a savage response from the community.

1920, Durham. Since she was a child, Lucy Charlton has dreamed of working with her father in the family solicitor's firm. But a scandal shatters her dreams and, when her father disowns her, she finds herself on the streets, fighting for survival. Joe Hardy has returned to London after the Great War to find his life in tatters - his father is dead and his pregnant fiancée has disappeared. Then Joe learns he's unexpectedly inherited an old river house in Durham from a stranger called Margaret Lee.

Catherine Cookson's well-loved novels Hamilton and Goodbye Hamilton tell the story of Maisie, who invented an imaginary horse to keep her company through the long years of an unhappy marriage and before she became a best-selling author. In this engaging sequel, Hamilton has vanished from Maisie’s life, and in the days after the death of her second husband she takes comfort from the company of a cheerful, bright-eyed little cockney boy named Harold. 

Superintendent Alan Markby and his wife, Meredith, have retired for the night when they are disturbed by a visitor. It's not the first time someone has called at the Old Vicarage in search of a priest, but in this case, having just found a dead body in the churchyard, Callum Henderson needs the police. Accompanying Callum to the graveyard, Alan declares that this has all the hallmarks of a murder scene.

A psychopath the police have dubbed “Billy Dead Mates” is targeting pairs of best friends and killing them one by one. Before they die, each victim is given a small, white book. For months, detectives have failed to catch Billy or figure out what the white books symbolize and why the killer leaves them behind. The police are on edge; the public is in a panic. Then a woman, scared by what she’s seen on the news, comes forward. What she reveals shocks the investigators and adds another troubling layer to an already complex case.

In April 1915 Dorothea Crewdson, a newly trained Red Cross nurse, and her best friend, Christie, received instructions to leave for Le Treport in Northern France. Filled with excitement at the prospect of her first paid job, Dorothea began writing a diary. 'Who knows how long we shall really be out here? Seems a good chance from all reports of the campaigns being ended before winter, but all is uncertain.'

In 2012, in a Middle Eastern souk, CIA agent Miles Brookhaven was attacked. He was infiltrating rebel groups in the area and no one was certain if his cover had been blown or if the act was just an arbitrary attack. Now, Liz Carlyle and her Counter Terrorism unit in MI5 have been charged with the task of watching the international under-the-counter arms trade and British Intelligence forces have become increasingly concerned that extremist Al-Qaeda jihadis are building their power base ready to launch another attack.

When Jake tells Lyssa it's not working, she knows he's not talking about the toaster. Her immediate reaction is to sob into her pillow and wait for Jake to come to his senses. But slowly Lyssa begins to understand that's not an option. In a bid to escape, she embarks on a trekking holiday in Nepal. Lyssa needs to get away - it never occurred to her that she might fall in love.... When it's time to go home - back to reality and a very sheepish Jake - Lyssa is faced with the hardest choice of her life.

Two girls divided by time, united by their love for some very special horses - an epic Caribbean adventure! On a remote tropical island, 12-year-old Beatriz is about to embark on an epic journey, through hurricanes and across the high seas and back to the time of Christopher Columbus.… When Beatriz stumbles across a wild mare with strange markings in the jungle she can't believe it is real. Yet from that moment on the strongest connection grows between them, and she begins to uncover an incredible history.

Just before dawn in the hills near the Scottish border, a man murders a young woman. At the same time, a hot-air balloon crashes out of the sky. There's just one survivor. She's seen the killer's face - but he's also seen hers. And he won't rest until he's eliminated the only witness to his crime. Alone, scared, trusting no one, she's running to where she feels safe - but it could be the most dangerous place of all....

Laura's life has just been turned on its head, and with an empty nest and a crumbling marriage she launches a new business from her own kitchen, making artisan jams, chutneys and relishes from her grandmother's cookbook to sell at the local farmer's market. So can her flair for cooking, her most special family recipes and a better understanding of her grandmother's past help her find a happy future?

Throughout her distinguished career, Ann Granger has penned an array of hugely entertaining and gripping short stories. From a nosy neighbour who trusts no one to a jealous nephew protecting his inheritance, and from a ghostly apparition on a cruise ship to an Oxford undergraduate who cannot escape his past, Ann's short stories transport listeners from the Highlands of Scotland to the rugged coast of Cornwall and from the Victorian era to the present day.

Hunter's Moon is the ultimate 'forever' house. Nestled by a river in the Peasebrook valley, it has been the Willoughbys' home for over 50 years, and now estate agent Belinda Baxter is determined to find the perfect family to live there. But the sale of the house unlocks decades of family secrets - and brings Belinda face to face with her own troubled past.

In 1975, when Oberleutnant Karin Muller is called to investigate a teenage girl's body at the foot of the Berlin Wall, she imagines she's seen it all before. But she soon realizes that this is a death like no other before it - the girl was evidently trying to escape from West Berlin.