Showing results by narrator "Charlie Sanderson" in All Categories

When a young woman is attacked walking home from her local supermarket, Bea Jordan, a smart but unfulfilled checkout girl, is determined to investigate. Colleagues and customers become suspects; secrets are uncovered. While fear stalks the town, Bea finds an unlikely ally in Ant, the seemingly gormless new trainee, but risks losing the people she loves most as death comes close to home.

At Treetops Foundling Home in Victorian Nuneaton, one special little girl brings sunshine and joy wherever she goes. A favourite of her foster mother, Kitty grows into a beguiling young woman but soon attracts the attention of more than one suitor with questionable intentions. She quickly discovers that her beauty is no protection against the peril she finds herself in, as this innocent young girl makes her way in the music halls and theatres of the big city....

Ginny's drunken father, devastated by the death of her mother and three siblings, ends up imprisoned for murder. Charlie, Ginny's eight-year-old sickly brother, is taken to the workhouse. Ginny is forced to flee her job and the unwanted advances of a baker. Close to breaking point, her beauty leads her to become Lady's Maid to the difficult Miss Diana at Lamp Hill Hall. However, all Ginny wants is to find her brother.

He keeps each one floating in formaldehyde to prevent rotting. Each finger denotes a victim, their heart ripped out and replaced by symbols of their treachery. He admires his trophies weekly; to him each one of them is guilty. DC 'Charlie' Stafford is already investigating a series of escalating racist attacks, and it now seems she has a vicious serial killer on her patch. All the while he's watching, waiting...and counting.

Ogden is a gnarly, man-eating ogre...with the dream of becoming a dancer. But no one will dance with him - not when they think they're going to be his next meal! Then Ogden meets Willow, a gutsy girl who lives in a tree house. She makes a deal with him: if he'll stop eating humans, she'll teach him to dance.

Along with her sisters and one very tired mum who's struggling to keep it all together, Ella's small home is crammed with almost-finished homework, nearly clean jumpers and a vampire bunny called Buttercup. With so much going on, life can sometimes feel totally crazy, but the Strawberry sisters have a secret weapon against the craziness of the world they live in: each other.

'My name is Ruby. I live with Barbara and Mick. They're not my real parents, but they tell me what to do and what to say. I'm supposed to say that my bruises and black eye came from falling down the stairs. But there are things I won't say. I won't tell them I'm going to hunt for my real parents. I'm going to be with my real family. And I'm not going to let Mick stop me.'

Instead of snoring in their space pod like the rest of her family, Astra is wide awake. With her robot friend, Pilbeam, she goes exploring and soon finds out the ship is in deep trouble. It's been knocked off course and invaded by a gang of Poglites, an alien salvage crew searching for spoonage (they just love collecting spoons)! But even the Poglites need Astra's help when they discover something far more sinister lurking in the canteen!

A missing son. A kidnapper who's dead. Nobody believes her. Nothing will stop her. When Doctor Jemma Sands' five-year-old son goes missing, only she believes that a vengeful patient has stolen her child. How do you convince police to search for a dead woman? As her world falls apart, Jemma realises she is the only one who can save her son. If somebody took your only child, how far would you go to get him back?

I have a gardener's inherent belief in the natural order of things. Soft-petalled flowers that go to seed. The resolute passage of the seasons. Swallows that fly thousands of miles to follow the eternal summer. Children who don't die before their parents. A community in shock. When eighteen-year-old Rosie Anderson disappears, the idyllic village where she lived will never be the same again.

London's most glamorous glossy magazine is in trouble. Advertising revenues are nonexistent, and if editor Laura Lake can't pick them up, she's out of a job. According to those in the know, Scotland is having a fashion moment. Haggis tempura is on Michelin-starred menus, smart spas are offering porridge facials and a chain of eco-hotels is offering celebrity bagpipe lessons.

From the Waterstones Book Prize shortlisted author of A Boy Called Hope and The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair. Mabel has a suitcase full of worries - it turned up just after her dad disappeared and before her mum started dating Gavin. She worries about big things and little things and shoves them into her suitcase until it’s so full it might explode....  

From minor matters (tidiness, homework, sleep) to big and important ones (relationships, mental ill health, drugs and alcohol), teenagers and their parents often struggle to talk to each other—and talking is key if your young person is facing new challenges as they leave childhood behind. A well-timed conversation, a listening ear, a non-judgmental and receptive attitude—all these can make an enormous and lasting impact on how safely and happily a teenager navigates this crucial stage of their development. Oh, if only it were that easy.

Penny is hell-bent on revenge on the man who caused her to flee France as a fourteen-year-old with little more than the clothes on her back. She lost everything, her friends, her home and her family. Stifled by the restrictions of her father's family, she aches to contribute more to the war effort. A brush with death puts her face all over the newspapers and almost breaks her heart in the process.

As I stare at the girl, I feel my heart pound inside my chest. There she is, my daughter, right in front of me after all this time. I have to reach her, to hold her, before I lose her all over again. I have experienced what no mother should: I have lost my child. Many years ago, after my divorce, my daughter moved in with her father, and then went missing. For years, I searched everywhere for my darling girl, but she had vanished without a trace. But even on my darkest days, when my heart felt truly broken, I kept a hope alive inside—a hope that my little girl would find her way back to me.

Kate Hardy really doesn't like change. She's lived in the gorgeous coastal town of Seabury all her life—well, apart from that three-month blip in London—but she doesn't like to think about that. Now she's back where she belongs—running her tiny seafront cafe, The Sardine, with her rescue dog Stanley at her side, and the occasional romantic visit from a certain gorgeous French fisherman. But when the local gossip-vine starts buzzing with the news that New York Froth is coming to town, it's not just the super-snazzy coffee chain that's got Kate on the hop....

When Edie's dad, head of London Underground's Lost Property Office, is invited to Paris's Bureau of Found Things, Edie and her friends jump at the chance to join him. But to her horror, Edie discovers that the Flits who live in Paris are in danger. A collector is capturing them to create decorative scenes and putting them up for sale! Can Edie and her friends rescue the glasshouse flits before it's too late?

If Stan Pollux had known he would be spending his summer holidays in the outer reaches of our solar system, he would have put on different underpants. But when he gets kidnapped by the Planet Dragon Mercury, most things suddenly seem small and insignificant. Stan finds himself in a universe of dragons who had once ruled the skies as gods. 

Kate Hardy's back from London after reaching a stalemate in the battle to save her little seafront café, The Sardine. Her ex is busy playing the pantomime villain—and he's holding her whole future hostage while he's at it. The perfect distraction arrives when a disaster befalls the not-so-happy couple about to celebrate their wedding at The Pebble Street Hotel.

These are the chronicles of the Old and New Testament - from Genesis to the Crucifixion - recounted exclusively through the eyes of a teen in a way that is fresh and highly original.