Showing results by narrator "Karen Bartke" in All Categories

Jack loves his childhood toy Dur Pig. DP has always been there for him, through good and bad. Until one Christmas Eve something terrible happens - DP is lost. But Christmas Eve is a night for miracles and lost causes, a night when all things can come to life...even toys. And Jack’s newest toy - the Christmas Pig (DP’s annoying replacement) - has a daring plan: Together they’ll embark on a magical journey to seek something lost and to save the best friend Jack has ever known....

Detective Lola Harris returns from a miserable solo holiday – an effort to get over her useless ex – only to find herself in charge of a high-stakes investigation. She rushes to a crime scene in the historic Gallowgate neighbourhood. The smell in the basement is thick and sweet, even through Lola’s forensic mask. The old wooden chair and the rope hanging from its arms are stained red. The earth below is saturated with blood. Six candleholders, their lights burned out, lend the scene an air of a completed ritual. And yet there is no sign of a body.

Detective Lola Harris is called to a local park where the body of a woman has been pulled out of the river. On the victim’s wrist is a tattoo. A dolphin and a heart. Lola knows who she is instantly – the woman half the Glasgow force have been searching for: missing juror, Kathryn Main. Kathryn was on the jury that convicted reality TV star Carter Craig of a double murder. Just weeks later, the verdict was overturned. Carter walked free. Three jurors were arrested for misconduct. A fourth, Kathryn Main, disappeared. Then, a witness comes forward with shocking new information.

When newly promoted DI Anna Vaughan is called to a case in remote Knapdale, on the Argyll coast, she welcomes the chance to escape her life in Glasgow - more specifically the mother-in-law from hell… Ellen McIver, Baldrishaig’s local busybody, has been found dead. Run over — repeatedly — by a tractor belonging to local farmer Glen Cameron. The most likely culprit is Old Wullie, Cameron’s elderly father, who, despite his dementia, still likes to drive the tractor about the lanes. But once at the crime scene Anna can tell something sinister is afoot…

Detective Lola Harris is called to a murder scene on a cold October morning. The victim was seen just hours earlier, running through the darkness clutching a newborn. At 1am, a woman broke into Lawrence Dixon's home and kidnapped his ten-week-old son at gunpoint. Now Lola's chasing shadows through a maze of lies, secrets and stolen lives. And the truth is more twisted than Lola ever imagined.

Detective Lola Harris is persuaded to take a much-needed break in the remote Scottish Highlands. She’s expecting peace and quiet. But Ardaig Castle, an exclusive wellness retreat for the rich and famous, has its own dark secrets. Lola soon discovers that someone is sending poison pen letters to the staff. They’re growing more malicious each week. The latest reads: Why have you employed a killer among your staff?

Four full-cast dramatisations of classic Gothic novels, plus documentaries exploring the genre’s rise and enduring appeal Dark deeds, dastardly villains, innocent victims and supernatural happenings – these are the terrifying tropes that make up Gothic fiction, a genre that has captured our...

Detective Lola is heading back over the river from a rare night out when she spots a crowd of people looking over the parapet. Someone’s gone in. A young man called Cammy witnessed everything. He swears it’s the work of the Clyde Pusher, but is terrified of the police. The Clyde Pusher is the stuff of urban legend. A hooded figure who throws men into the river to drown. Eight victims in five years. But according to the police, the Pusher doesn’t exist. There are no reliable witnesses, nothing to link the victims.

Detective Lola Harris is turning over a new leaf. She’s determined to get into shape. Her new personal trainer is merciless when it comes to fitness. Thankfully, he’s also charming and exceptionally good-looking, which helps on a cold early morning run. But as they puff round a corner in peaceful Pollok Park, Lola glimpses something that shouldn’t be there: a high-end BMW. Doors gaping. And a man and a woman, roped together. Lola’s early morning run is now a crime scene.

A collection of radio readings of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fiction – plus two bonus programmes Over the years the BBC has broadcast readings of many of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels, novellas and short stories. This collection includes some of his most famous works alongside various...

Jane, Carly and Rose Savage are savage by name, savage by nature. Having lost their mum too young, and with a bedridden father too ill to work, the sisters learnt early to stand on their own two feet. The family's flat in the rough streets of Glasgow's Haghill is their fortress, but when Carly's ex-boyfriend Cole Alexander is released from prison, trouble soon comes knocking at their door. The Alexanders have beef with the Savages, so the girls call for back up in the shape of their uncle Eddie and his two gorgeous but dangerous sons, Harry and Dean.

Firmly ensconced in the criminal underworld, Carly and Jane Savage, along with girl gang the Unbeatable Bitches, their uncle Eddie and their cousins Dean and Harry, are finally making good money, running dubious errands for the notorious Tallan brothers. Rod and Neil Tallan wield almighty power over their patch, and their reputation for ruthless revenge on traitors is legendary. The Savage sisters feel invincible until trouble arrives in the form of Jack Alexander. Recently released from notorious hellhole prison, nicknamed Monster Mansion, he’s dangerous, ambitious, and broodingly handsome.

Carly Savage has lost the two people she loved the most – first her father and then Jack, local gangland boss and love of her life, was brutally attacked and died in Carly’s arms. Grief has changed her. Carly’s sisters Jane and Rose are worried she may never recover. But the need for revenge drives Carly now and she will stop at nothing to destroy her enemies, Cole Alexander and her cousin Dean. When the Savages’ boss, Queen of Glasgow Toni McVay’s reign comes under attack from Cole, Carly realises this is her chance.

This year's London Marathon is my last chance to win the final place on the Olympic team. The months of rehabilitation after my injury will feel worth it to cross that line. But I wasn't expecting the man who's been making my life a living hell to be there. Last I knew, my stalker was behind bars, but he says he's going to be at the race watching. I have 26 miles to figure out whether it's him, and what he wants, or I could lose more than just the race.

Control of Glasgow’s infamous Haghill estate has been fought over for decades. But thanks to an uneasy truce between notorious local families - the Alexanders, the Tallans, and the ruthless Savages - for now the streets are peaceful. For Carly Savage this means she can think the unthinkable, and contemplate a future with her family’s sworn enemy, Jack Alexander, ignoring warnings that he can’t be trusted. But when crime boss, Rod Tallan, takes a romantic interest in her too, Carly feels like a pawn in some very dangerous men’s game.

Hiding from the world in her little white cottage on the shores of a loch, Annie Jackson is fighting to come to terms with the world of the murmurs, a curse that has haunted female members of her family for centuries. While she is within the ancient, heavy stone of the old dwelling, the voices merely buzz, but the moment she steps outside the door they clamour to torment her all over again, bringing with them shocking visions of imminent deaths. Into this oasis comes her adoptive mother, Mandy McEvoy, begging for Annie's help. Mandy's nephew Damien has gone missing.

Like half of all the young women living in the Scottish town Clydebankin early 1911, Ellen works at the sewing machine factory. So does her big sister, Bridget, Bridget's fiancé Malcolm, and her new friend Sadie, who has come to work at the factory after the death of her father. For Sadie, the factory is a way to make ends meet, but Ellen has sewing in her veins. She is even making Bridget's wedding dress on her beloved sewing machine. But after the excitement of the wedding dies down, everything changes.

After a string of failed relationships - romantic and platonic - Lea's had enough of watching life happen without her. When she bumps into Shep, a comedian at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in need of accommodation, it feels like destiny. And voila - Lea now has a lodger and some company. The two get on like a flat on fire, and Lea can't resist falling for outgoing Shep. But she knows it's a mistake that will cost her heart - he's just another guy passing through, after all. And with Shep's stand-up routine edging him closer to his big break, there's no way he'll stick around.

On the first morning of her new job at Heartfield House, a care home for the elderly, Annie Jackson wakens from a terrifying dream. And when she arrives at the home, she knows that the first old man she meets is going to die. How she knows this is a terrifying mystery, but it is the start of horrifying premonitions...a rekindling of the curse that has trickled through generations of women in her family - a wicked gift known only as 'the murmurs'... With its reappearance comes an old, forgotten fear that is about to grip Annie Jackson.

When the patriarch of the Savage family dies suddenly, his three daughters, Carly, Jane and Rose are heartbroken. But you can’t keep a Savage sister down for long, and Jane and her gang The Unbeatable Bitches, along with their uncle Eddie, and cousins Dean and Harry are determined to fight to keep the Savage family on top. But Carly isn’t so sure. Perhaps her father’s death is the opportunity she’s been waiting for – to finally get away from the life of crime and violence in Glasgow’s Haghill. Exhausted by the jockeying for power, she pictures a quiet place where no one knows who she is.