Showing results by narrator "David Thorpe" in All Categories

In 2050 there will be 9.3 billion people alive - compared with 7 billion today - and the number will still be rising. The population aged over 65 will have more than doubled, to more than 16 percent; China's GDP will be 80 percent more than America's; and the number of cars on India's roads will have increased by 3,880 percent. And, in 2050 it should be clear whether we are alone in the universe.What other megachanges can we expect - and what will their impact be? This comprehensive and compelling book will cover the most significant trends that are shaping the coming decades.

A thrilling World War One spy story from the author of the acclaimed Jack Haldean series .“There’s a spy in England. Frankie’s letter. Read Frankie’s letter... ” The last words said by a dying man to Anthony Brooke in Kiel in Germany during the height of World War One. But who is Frankie? With his cover blown and the German army at his heels, English secret agent Anthony Brooke’s search to discover the truth leads him to an innocent-seeming country house.

Fresh from the success of their first mission, the Spy Toys - Dan the Snugaliffic Cuddlestar bear, Arabella the Loadsasmiles Sunshine Doll and Flax the custom-made police robot rabbit - are ready for their next task. This time, the secret code that controls every Snaztacular Ultrafun toy has been stolen, and all over the world toys are revolting and turning against the children who own them. Can the Spy Toys save the day?

Strange things happen in the picture-postcard English village of Lindsay Carfax. When a young man falls into a quarry, it takes nine days to find the body. When rowdy hippies descend on the village, they're given nine days to leave. When an outspoken schoolmaster is kidnapped for nine days, he stays eerily quiet after his release. Now Albert Campion has come to town - and he means to investigate all this strangeness. But whoever is behind the unusual goings - on quickly makes it very clear that his nosing around is not welcome. 

It is deep midwinter. Six ambitious vice presidents of Labouchere Associates are gathered together at an isolated mountain lodge in New Hampshire’s White Mountains for a weekend of corporate mind games. By Monday, one of them will become a partner and earn at least a million a year. And one of them will be dead.

A cure for Alzheimer’s would be worth billions. And well worth killing for. Simon Ayot is an Englishman working for Revere Partners, one of Boston’s top venture-capital firms. The firm’s star investment, worth millions of dollars for each of its partners, is BioOne, which is working on a cure for the disease. Frank, one of Simon’s bosses and his father-in-law, is found murdered at his summer house in the marshes, and Simon is in the frame. To stay alive, and to save his marriage, Simon must figure out who killed Frank. And who will be the next to die.

It was a deal to die for. And somebody will. Paul Murray is an ex-Olympic runner, so his training is perfect for the rigours of multimillion-dollar bond trading in the City of London. The pace is breakneck, the smell of success intoxicating. Then the body of his colleague Debbie is fished out of the Thames, and Paul’s world is turned upside down. He begins a dangerous, chaotic tumble into the darker side of trading.

Margaret Woodruff is slowly dying in a care home. When her son is presented with the chance of exceptional care in her final months, he finds the offer hard to resist. Winifred is assigned to Margaret’s care. She’s a Helper: a new kind of carer that’s capable, committed and completely tireless - because she’s a synthetic human being. Under Winifred’s care Margaret’s health improves beyond everyone’s expectations, and Winifred begins to learn from Margaret what it means to be alive. But how will Winifred use what she learns from Margaret - and what does she truly want from her?

Daniel had a hard time when his parents split up and his dad started working abroad. He had to move and start at a new school, but things changed for the better when he started playing football for the Haybrook Rockets. This season the team are in with a chance of winning the Championship, but just as things are looking up for Daniel his dad comes back and the only time he can meet up is a Saturday morning – when Daniel plays football. He doesn’t want to let his dad or his team down, so what is Daniel going to do?

When out-of-work actor Ryan Calder attends a wedding as the plus-one of successful businesswoman, Nadine Wells, he doesn’t expect to get in a scuffle with the groom. But Ryan recognises the groom from another wedding where the same man made a quick getaway, taking the wedding money and leaving the bride heartbroken. It seems he's struck again and Nadine's poor friend is the target. With a group of friends, Ryan and Nadine hatch a plan that will take them to the French Riviera, hot on the heels of the crooked groom. But could their scheme also bring them closer together?

For Pyke and his crew it should have been just another heist. Travel to a backwater desert planet, break into a museum, steal a tracking device then use it to find a ship buried in the planet's vast and trackless sandy wastes. Except that the museum vault is a bioengineered chamber, and the tracking device is sought after by another gang of treasure hunters led by an old adversary of Pyke's, the devious Raven Kaligara. Also, the ship is a quarter of a million years old and about two kilometres long, and somewhere aboard it is the Essavyr Key....

Leo Selver, a middle-aged antiques dealer, is stunned when the beautiful and desirable Judy Latimer shows an interest in him. Soon they are lying in each other's arms, unaware that this embrace will be their last. Popular opinion suggests that Leo murdered the girl, a theory Leo's wife - well aware of her husband's infidelities - refuses to accept.

Maurice, a small-town librarian, dies one Monday morning in a fiery car crash. Finding himself in a very unexpected afterlife, he befriends Kit, who knows more than he should about Heaven - and about Maurice's life on Earth. Meanwhile, Maurice's daughter Andy struggles to come to terms with the death of her ineffectual father. Tasked with preparing his eulogy, she starts writing letters to him, trying to make sense of her family's history.

During her lifetime Violet Paget, who wrote as Vernon Lee, was referred to as 'the greatest of modern exponents of the supernatural in fiction', and yet today she remains on the periphery of the genre. This collection of her uniquely weird short stories and dark fantasies proves why she was once considered among the best of the genre, and why she deserves to return to those ranks today.

Private detective Francis Quarles visits a man with a valuable collection of manuscripts written by murderers. During his stay, the man is killed after drinking cyanide-laced port. A cryptic literary clue in the front page of a book offers the only indication of who may be responsible. 

Inspired by a newspaper competition, a group of people discuss enigmatic remarks they have overheard but do not know the meaning of. The phrase ‘Grey’s ghost was black’ sparks much intrigue and speculation, as series detective John Appleby recounts the mysterious tale of an author, his ghost writer and his ghost writer’s ghost.

Best-selling crime author Joseph Newton is on board a train when he meets a man fascinated by the idea of a murder so perfectly simple it would be impossible to solve. Critical of the elaborate plots in Newton’s novels, the man is keen to demonstrate to the author just how he would carry out the seemingly undetectable crime.

Henry Beaumont keeps a renowned pack of foxhounds, quick, brave and ruthless at the kill. One December hunt, the dogs uncover more than a fox in the woodlands - brushing aside dead leaves, Beaumont finds the crushed body of Martin Reynard, a former member of his household. Enraged, Henry, though he has no experience in such matters, swears to find the killer, but his impetuosity and rudimentary investigative skills lead him to arrest a man of questionable guilt. Fortunately, Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret, in the area to settle a land dispute, are available to lend their expertise.

When fire destroys their London theatre, Lord Westfield’s players must seek out humbler venues in the countryside. But company manager Nicholas Bracewell is distracted by a shocking tragedy: a mysterious messenger from his native Devon is murdered by poison. Though the messenger is silenced, Nicholas understands what he must do: return to his birthplace and reconcile some unfinished business of the past.

When Nicholas Bracewell finds himself once again in the parlour of his lost love, Anne Hendrik, he was not expecting her entreaties to embroil him in the murder of a beloved choir master. Between tales of cruelty, forgotten maps of London and a butcher determined to rescue his son, it is yet another mystery for the book keeper to untangle. But will his quest endanger Lord Westfield’s Men?