Showing results by publisher "Penguin Audio" in Dark Humour

Doctor Fischer despises the human race. When the notorious toothpaste millionaire decides to hold the last of his famous parties - his own deadly version of the book of Revelation - Greene opens up a powerful vision of the limitless greed of the rich. Black comedy and painful satire combine in a totally compelling novel.

Meet Cherry, a bandit queen on the run, driving a pink soft-top convertible through the Badlands of Southeast England. She's never felt more Thelma and Louise in her life - except there are three of them in the car and one of them is dead. How did a head nurse and mother of two end up driving a handcuffed policeman and the corpse of a murdered refugee on a journey to find justice? Pursued by a racist, roid-raged, shaven-headed officer of the law - not to mention by her husband and daughter - what else can a woman with a conscience do in modern Britain?

Nina does not have a drinking problem. She likes a drink, sure. But what 17-year-old doesn't? Nina's mum isn't so sure. But she's busy with her new husband and five-year-old Katie. Nina's almost an adult, after all. And if Nina sometimes wakes up with little memory of what happened the night before, then her friends are all too happy to fill in the blanks. Nina's drunken exploits are the stuff of college legend. But then one dark Sunday morning, even her friends can't help piece together Saturday night.

Once, serial killer Alvie Knightly was living the dream. Unlimited cash. An Italian getaway. A hot new boyfriend.... How the mighty fall. One year - and one very unfortunate incident - later, Alvie is homeless, surviving on meal deals and counting her dwindling pennies. It's time for one last hit, and if anyone can pull it off - in six inch heels - it's Alvie. But if she's to succeed in her mission to avenge her ex, win back her money and secure her future, she'll have to face her most terrifying enemy yet.

Alvie Knightly may be waking up in the Ritz, but her life is no bed of roses. Firstly, she has the mother of all hangovers. Secondly, her beautiful, spoiled twin sister, Beth, has just been found dead in Sicily - and the police want Alvie for questioning. And thirdly, Alvie's hot new boyfriend has vanished with every penny of the millions they stole from Beth. But he picked the wrong girl to mess with.

Helen Clapp is a physics professor. She doesn't believe in pseudoscience or time travel and especially not in ghosts. So when she gets a missed call from Charlie, her closest friend from university with whom she hasn't spoken in over a year, Helen thinks there must be some mistake. Because Charlie died two days ago. Then when her young son, Jack, claims to have seen Charlie in their house just the other day, Helen begins to have doubts.

Republican congressman Alexander Paine Wilson is determined that nothing will stop him in his campaign for re-election. Not the fact that he is a bachelor, not the fact that his main adversary Nancy Beavers - married, with children - is rising in the polls. Nothing. That is, until one hot day in August, he receives a large parcel via FedEx. Inside is a gigantic taxidermied aardvark.

It's 2011 and Esther is living her best life, according to her Facebook posts. Sure her marriage is falling apart and her job is going nowhere, but at least everyone thinks she's happy. The truth is, the only thing keeping her going is Canadian actor, Ted Levy, and the fan site where her and the 'Tedettes' stalk his every move. When Ted gets a new celebrity girlfriend, Esther decides that things have gone far enough. She walks out on her life and buys a one-way ticket to Canada. After all, Ted might not know it yet, but they are meant to be together – he just needs a little bit of persuading.

Ellen is tired of being overshadowed at work. Tired of watching less competent, entitled suits take the promotions she’s earned. But when one of them pushes her too far, things take a murderous turn. And it turns out the darker Ellen goes, the shinier her future starts to look. Business can be murder, but it turns out murder can also be good business for Ellen.

It’s been disastrous since Bud and Catherine opened up their marriage, and none of the Flynns can remember the last time a meal was cooked, a load of laundry was done, or a social code was abided by. Not that Catherine and Bud aren’t trying – and trying new things. Bud still drives to his job at the Harbor(TM) in the family minivan, which, yes, is also now his home, and Catherine still refuses to conform to domestic pressures – she’s an artist, a woman, and no one understands her! And the girls? Surely they’re fine, whatever it is they’re up to.

The year is 1973, and Alan Eastman, a public intellectual, accidental cultural critic, washed-up war journalist, husband, and philanderer finds himself alone on the floor of his study in an existential crisis. His wife has taken their kids and left him to live with her mother in New Jersey, and his best work feels as though it is years behind him. In the depths of despair, he receives an unexpected and unwelcome phone call from his old rival, offering him the chance to go to Vietnam to write the definitive account of the end of America's longest war.

Music, murder...and Madeleine. William has a lot on his mind. Firstly there's The Alaska Factory, the band he plays in. They're no good, and they make his songs sound about as groovy as an unpressed record. In fact they're so bad he's seriously thinking of leaving to join a group called The Unfortunates. Secondly, there's Madeleine, his high-maintenance girlfriend, whose idea of a night of passion is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical followed by a doorstep peck on the cheek. Maybe they're not soul mates after all? Lastly, there's the bizarre murder he's just witnessed.

At Tuppenny-Hapenny Cottage in the English countryside, five elderly people live together in rancorous disharmony. Adela Bastable bosses the house, as her brother Bernard passes his days thinking up malicious schemes against the baby-talking Marigold and secret drinker Shorty, while kindly George lies bedridden upstairs. The mismatched quintet keep their spirits alive by bickering and waiting for grandchildren to visit at Christmas. But the festive season does not herald goodwill to all at Tuppenny-Hapenny Cottage. Disaster and chaos, it seems, are just around the corner.

No one in Lily Lennox’s life can understand why each of the past five summers, she has shut her successful business and chosen instead to be paid minimum wage life-guarding at the exclusive Riovan Wellness Resort in a sun-soaked Caribbean island. Fortunately for her, they also aren’t aware of the mysterious deaths that have occurred on the island every time she’s there. Lily always tries to avoid bringing attention to herself. But this year (ridiculously gorgeous) guest Daniel Black is asking a few too many inconvenient questions.

Former policeman Ray ‘Sugar’ Leonard is no stranger to bad breaks. But even Walter White never had to open up and share his feelings with a bunch of misfits like Ray’s chemotherapy group: a giant God-bothering Welsh bouncer, a sharp-suited wannabe Wolf of Wall Street, and a misanthropic, potty-mouthed little old lady. Compared to that lot, getting mugged on his way home from the clinic was almost a relief.