Showing results by narrator "Judith Boyd" in All Categories

Merham is a well-ordered 50s seaside town - the kind of town where everyone knows their place (and those who don't are promptly put in it). Lottie Swift is an evacuee who has grown up with the respectable Holden family and loves Merham. The Holden's daughter Celia, however, chafes against the constraints on the town and longs to escape....

The first collection of stories Stephen King has published since Nightmares & Dreamscapes nine years ago, Everything's Eventual includes one O. Henry Prize winner, two other award winners, four stories published by The New Yorker, and "Riding the Bullet", King's original e-book, which attracted over half a million online readers and became the most famous short story of the decade. Intense, eerie, and instantly compelling, they announce the stunningly fertile imagination of perhaps the greatest storyteller of our time.

The only place Suzanna Peacock finds comfort is her shop, which provides a haven for the misfits in town. But she is forced to confront events of the past and her family that have been haunting her for so long. And she discovers that the key to her happiness may have been in front of her all along....

In this remarkable book, Alison Weir recounts one of the greatest and most remarkable love stories of medieval England. It is the extraordinary tale of an exceptional woman, Katherine Swynford, who became first the mistress, and later the wife, of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. But Katherine Swynford was much more than that.

Meredith and Markby are almost ready to leave on a long planned canal barge trip, but Meredith is having reservations. Then the 12-year-old corpse of a missing teenage girl is dug up in the local graveyard. The vacation is off (to Meredith's relief), but the investigation is on.

When Meredith Mitchell bumps into her old school friend Rachel Hunter at the Chelsea Flower Show, she is shocked to discover that she was the first wife of her companion, Chief Inspector Alan Markby. But the meeting is not the only surprise; before the afternoon is out, Markby has a death on his hands.

In the heart of the Cotswolds, a body is found, that of a teenage girl, probably local - somebody's daughter who went out one evening and didn't come back. It's not long before she is identified: 15-year-old Lynne Wills, a habitual, underage drinker at The Silver Bells pub who, on the night of her death, was seen leaving with an unknown man.

When a hotelier announces that he will be converting Springwood Hall into a smart country hotel, his plan is greeted with a chorus of local disapproval, led by the fearsome Hope Mapple, head of the Society for the Preservation of Historical Bamford. So the grand opening, to which all are invited, promises to be a lively affair, particularly since Hope is planning a disruptive protest "streak". However, Hope is to be unwittingly upstaged by the discovery of a recently murdered body on the premises.

It doesn't take Meredith Mitchell long to regret giving up her lovely Cotswold cottage in favour of living in London. In addition, the fact that her job gives a whole new meaning to the word "tedious" does little to improve her mood. What she needs is a holiday. So, when Alan Markby's sister wants a house-sitter, Meredith jumps at the chance. Alan himself is overloaded with work following the discovery of two bodies, one of which, at least, is a murder victim.

When Meredith Mitchell agreed to stay with her actress cousin, Eve, in the run up to Eve's daughter's wedding, she anticipated a degree of drama. But she can hardly have expected it to include murder, blackmail, and unrequited love. Or to involve a certain Chief Inspector Markby, a middle aged divorcee.

In the cold light of dawn, a dead body is found in the smouldering remains of a burnt-out Cotswold manor. Key House has stood empty for years, but its owner, Gervase Crown, was seen nearby just before the blaze. Is he responsible, or was he the intended target? As Campbell and Carter begin their investigation it becomes clear that Gervase wasn't particularly popular and his return reawakens old memories, not all of them good.

The fourth Campbell and Carter mystery from one of the nation's best-loved crime writers. In the Cotswold village of Weston Saint Ambrose, Inspector Jess Campbell and Superintendent Ian Carter take on their fourth murder mystery. It is the wettest winter on record, and as Christmas approaches, the rivers burst their banks.

When old Monty Bickerstaffe finds a dead body in his drawing room it comes as a nasty surprise. Monty lives alone in a crumbling Cotswold manor house and the last thing he wants is the police sniffing around his property. But Inspector Jess Campbell is determined to solve the mystery, with the help of Superintendent Ian Carter, she must dig deep into Monty’s family history to reveal the shocking truth...

A Campbell and Cater mystery. Crime in the Cotswolds just got deadly. When Lucas Burton arrives at a deserted farm, hoping to conduct a business deal, he stumbles across the body of a girl. And that's just the start of his problems. Penny Gower, from the local stables, spots his car leaving the crime scene, and when her friend Andrew Ferris calls the police it's only a matter of time before Lucas gets a visit from someone he'd rather not see...

When Meredith Mitchell's old friend, Toby Smythe, turns up on leave, she is delighted to see him. But Toby has a problem - or rather his relative, Alison Jenner, has - and he wants to enlist the help of Meredith's fiancé, Detective Superintendent Alan Markby.

It sends a shiver down Detective Superintendent Alan Markby's spine when he hears that a rambler has stumbled across human bones in Stovey Woods in the heart of the Cotswolds. Twenty-two years earlier, as a fresh-faced young inspector, he had a rare failure, in the hunt for a brutal serial rapist preying on local women. After the third rape, the attacker went to ground, never to be heard of again.

Where Old Bones Lie is set on an isolated archaeological dig in the Cotswolds. When a body is found near the site, the suspects, witnesses, and clues all conflict, and the disappearance of a group of New Age travellers just seems to add to the mystery. Superintendent Markby and Meredith Mitchell must untangle the mess, and in doing so find themselves in a dangerous and uncompromising situation.

The two elderly sisters of the Oakley family live in poverty in an ancient mansion and have decided to sell up to live comfortably from the profits. However, things become more complicated when a young Polish man appears claiming rights to half the fortune. When he dies in circumstances familiar to the Oakley family, the sisters are haunted by the shadow of crime, and Superintendent Markby must look back at the events of a century ago to find the killer.

When war is declared, Frances and Ralph, both pacifists, turn their house into a sanctuary for friends more materially involved. Invasion seems imminent as one by one the countries of Europe fall to the Nazis. People are even told to immobilise their car engines at night in case the Germans parachute into Britain. Yet although war looms persistently over the Partridges, only a few power cuts affect them, leaving them feeling oddly isolated from it.

Specializing in medical romances, Caroline Anderson crafts moving tales that tug at listeners’ heartstrings. The Baby Swap Miracle is a triumphant tale of love finding a way through seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Recently widowed, Emelia Eastwood is carrying her late husband’s child, a child conceived through an IVF clinic. But something’s wrong: thanks to a mix-up at the clinic, the baby’s real father is a man named Sam Hunter. For his part, Sam didn’t ask for this new family, but he is now determined to preserve it.