Showing results by narrator "Paula Masterton" in All Categories

We find the doll shattered on the floor, its broken pieces scattered like a warning. That's when everything starts to fall apart. Now the power is out. A storm has trapped us here. And someone is dead. Things haven't been normal since the first day, when someone moved the dolls. I told them not to — never move the dolls before the tenth day of Navaratri, the Hindu Festival of Dolls. They're not toys. They're part of a sacred tradition.

This audio edition includes an exclusive conversation between narrator Paula Masterton and author Kate Foster. 'A masterpiece. A thrilling historical murder tale but so much more. Vivid, evocative and full of humanity' – Janice Hallett, bestselling author of The Appeal and The Twyford Code...

The King’s Witches by Kate Foster is a compelling and beautiful historical novel that gives voices to the women at the heart of the real-life witch trials in sixteenth-century Scotland. Women whisper secrets to each other; it is how we survive. 1589. Princess Anna of Denmark is betrothed to...

1724. In a village tavern on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Maggie Dickson’s family drown their sorrows, mourning her death yet relieved she is gone. Shame haunts them. Passersby avert their eyes from the cheap-looking coffin on the rickety cart.

Marion Miller needs a fresh start. Her childhood in Northern Ireland wasn’t easy, with a father who passed away when she was young and a mother who got lost in grief. Now grown-up and with family relations as tense as ever, Marion heads to England, to find out the truth about her father’s mysterious past – and hopefully an extended family who will love her as much as he did.

In the midst of the woods stands a house called Lichen Hall. This place is shrouded in folklore—old stories of ghosts, of witches, of a child who is not quite a child. Now the woods are creeping closer, and something has been unleashed. Pearl Gorham arrives in 1965, one of a string of young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth. And she soon suspects the proprietors are hiding something. Then she meets the mysterious mother and young boy who live in the grounds—and together they begin to unpick the secrets of this place.

Orkney 2024: a terrible discovery on an idyllic beach in Fynhallow Bay: a teenage boy has been burned to death, a girl is missing, and another girl, Erin, is in hospital and remembers just one thing – she is Nyx. Her mother, Clem, waits by her bed, desperate to bring her daughter back to reality. Orkney 1594: accused of witchcraft, Alison Balfour awaits trial. The punishment? Death by burning. Separated by four hundred years but united by the ancient clan of magic-wielders, the Triskele, two women stand imperiled.

Twelve-year-old Phoebe's world is falling apart. It's the summer of 1985 and she has just buried her parents, a fire at their family home claiming both in a freak accident. Her life is uprooted in an instant, and she takes little solace in the fact that her uncle Louis and aunt Maude have generously offered to take her in at their home in the Welsh woods. Under the summer sun, though, Phoebe falls into the rhythm of life with her eccentric guardians in their curious idyllic home, the hum of her aunt Maude's beehives filling the air.

You lose your virginity to a boy from your gender theory seminar, and the first person you tell is Ella. Ella's with you at the party when you first kiss a girl. And Ella takes you to the hospital the first time you're diagnosed. Over the next few years you have a string of relationships and jobs, but you can always count on Ella to be there for you - until the drinking and the parties, the hospital visits and late-night calls, blur the lines of your friendship into something unbalanced and fragile, at risk of breaking altogether.

Thirty-year-old Paige Dougall’s life is a mess. Only a year ago she was smashing all of her life goals - handsome husband, high-flying job, cute kid. But in just under 12 months, everything has gone wrong. Nursing a broken heart, single-mother Paige returns to Kindness Cottage, her childhood home nestled in a picture-perfect Scottish village. Despite the backdrop of rolling hills and lavender-scented air, Paige struggles to settle into her summer at Kindness Cottage. She’s too wrapped up in her own worries to embrace her surroundings...until Johnny Becker steps onto the scene.

Evie Stuart is playing it safe. She lives on her family’s remote farm in the Scottish Highlands and never ventures beyond the local village of Lockton. She’s learned that bad things happen when she’s impulsive, and she’s determined not to get burned again. Callum Ryder is the opposite of what Evie wants in her ordered world. Six foot two of reckless energy with twinkling eyes and a dangerously charming smile, he’s a thrill-seeking American firefighter with no idea how to slow down. Callum enters Lockton like a whirlwind, fleeing his problems in New York City in search of the truth about his Scottish family.

Ava’s daughter, Carly, is everything a 10-year-old should be: energetic, creative, and the light of her parent’s lives. But when she starts stumbling down stairs and walking into doors, Ava wants to rush to the doctor. Her husband, Rick, is sure she’s fretting over nothing - kids can be a little clumsy sometimes. But Ava’s instinct is telling her something is seriously wrong. Ava takes Carly to see a specialist and is given a devastating diagnosis: a rare genetic condition that will change her future forever.

Right person, wrong time? Or better off as friends? Holly Anderson needs to decide. Cheerful and confident veterinarian Holly doesn't do flings. Falling in love is not in her five-year plan. Moving her entire life out of London to a fishing village in the Scottish Highlands is definitely not part of her plan. But then Holly's life is turned upside down.

Rusty Fizzbang, vet to magical beasts, needs an apprentice. Ember Spark, looking for adventure, is his newest recruit - and together with an unlikely friend, Arno, she is sent to help a baby dragon whose parents have gone missing. But keeping magical beasts a secret isn’t an easy task, especially with arch-villain, Jasper Hornswoggle, hot on their heels and keen to derail them.

Miss Cassidy is no ordinary governess. She can tutor the most wayward child, tell stories in several languages and fix any household crisis. But she also has the power to deal with problems of a far more dark and dangerous kind. Arriving in 1890s Singapore, this formidable Scotswoman soon finds herself (among other duties) ridding a house of a bloodthirsty demon and raising a spirit from the dead.

'A wonderfully satisfying read: love, passion, drama, violence, menace and peril, and characters you fall in love with' – Santa Montefiore An Island full of secrets . . . Summer, 1929. Mhairi MacKinnon is in need of a husband. As the eldest girl among nine children, her father has made it...

Ember Spark, apprentice vet to magical creatures, is off on her next adventure. When a unicorn comes out of hiding to ask for her for help, Ember soon realises that it's not just one but ALL of the magical creatures that are in danger. And with a new arch-villain, Tabitha Bone, hot on Ember’s heels, there's a whole lot at stake . . .

Robbie and Jenn are meant to be. They've finally reconciled after eight months spent apart and both know that, this time, it's forever. But forever might not be as long as they think. As a truck hurtles towards their car on their way home, Robbie is thrown back into Jenn's past and he finds himself spectator in the most important moments of her life – golden moments from her childhood and heartbreaking ones from her teenage years; her exhausting time at med school and just where she's been for the last eight months. But he may find more than he bargained for ...

Dot is a lonely pensioner. Max is a young offender. But a chance meeting in their local park changes everything for this unlikely duo. They soon find they share a wicked sense of humor and a penchant for petty crime. When Dot wins the lottery, Max helps her make a bucket list of all the things she's always wanted to do but never had the chance. The pair gradually realize that it's not just expensive gadgets, fast cars and fun fairs that make them happy. And that the secret to living a rich life isn't money.

Letty Ingram, a half-Malayan lady raised in the UK, has suffered under a strange curse her whole life. Her beautiful and fearsome mother, from an unknown island in the Malay Archipelago, is the key to the mystery. Letty arrives in Singapore in 1906 to seek the help of the Chinese medium, Madam...