Showing results by narrator "Callum Hale" in All Categories

For Frank Harte, impoverished schoolteacher, January in London means a yearly fight to survive. A former soldier, his injuries have barred him from all but the lowest paid posts, and the cold incapacitates him still more. The chance to work as tutor to Viscount Gracewater, son of the famous big-game hunting Earl, comes as a lifeline to Frank. The Earl’s Knightsbridge mansion is huge, elegant - and, most temptingly, kept warm from basement to attics. Viscount “Scapegrace” Gracie, used to foreign climes, is delicate. But the Earl’s house is a dark one beneath its bright veneer.

Bluegrass band Moorland Grass is on the verge of turning pro and hitting the music world like a cymbal crash. But the death of their fiddler, Dylan Ingram, has thrown a sour note into the band's future as well as thrown the lads' working relationships off-key. Now, one year after the murder, former police detective Michael McLaren is asked to investigate. As McLaren pokes into the case, he hears about sharp words and flat expectations, and gets an earful of anger—some coming from the band members, some from Dylan's family.

Lucien Saxby is a journalist, writing for the society pages. The Honourable Aubrey Fanshawe, second son of an earl, is Society. They have nothing in common, until a casual encounter leads to a crisis. Aubrey isn’t looking for love. He already has it, in his long-term clandestine relationship with Lord and Lady Hernedale.

Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin, and all their friends have been delighting children, and grown-up children, for a long, long time, since about last Friday! He may be a Bear of Very Little Brain, but he certainly has A Lot of Pluck and a Big Heart.

When Sir Reginald Sinclair, one of Britain's greatest actors, is found dead at his country estate along with his housekeeper and the local vicar, the pressure is on Detective Inspector Malcolm Goode and his team to solve the case quickly. But with very few clues and no obvious suspects, the investigation just seems to uncover the many secrets hidden away by the Sinclair family. With every new line of inquiry leading to another dead end and no motive to be found, finding a solution seems impossible.

A spate of three murders in as many months has Derbyshire’s local police and populace in near panic. And there will most likely be a fourth killing in two weeks unless something happens to stop the cycle. Former police detective Michael McLaren is that “something” that his best mate, Jamie Kydd, is counting on to end the alarming deaths.

Thrill of the chase is on! Join Captain Lanna Ruik with her fearless crew aboard the majestic tall ship, Eagle's Claw, embarking on a daring, nail-biting endeavour across treacherous seas to reclaim stolen treasure from violent thieves.

Former police detective Michael McLaren arrives in Scotland, ready to immerse himself in the fun of the Highland Games and to enjoy a holiday with Melanie. But the old saying of plans oft going awry rears its ugly head: Simon Shaw, a member of McLaren's folk group, dies. Murdered a year to the day following his uncle's death.

Ebenezer Scrooge is infamous throughout London as a cruel miser, but one Christmas evening; he is visited by the spectre of an old acquaintance, an acquaintance who urges Scrooge to repent his penny pinching ways, and seek redemption....

Playing a mystery game seems the perfect way to celebrate Jamie Kydd’s promotion to detective sergeant rank. But the game turns real when a body turns up in the pretend crime scene. Perhaps worse than spoiling the party, the corpse is someone Jamie knows. Even though the police take on the case, Jamie asks his friend, former police detective Michael McLaren, to also investigate—concerned that the victim’s criminal past may dampen the Constabulary’s usual fervor to nab his killer. If the victim’s burglary partner, ex-wife, or childhood friend didn’t kill Dan, who did?

Each April, the members of a mystery writing group gather on Stanton Moon for camaraderie and to fuel their plots. The moody area seems the perfect setting for hatching a whodunit. Unfortunately, an unscripted mystery materializes like an unsolicited manuscript on a publisher’s slush pile—the leader of their group is found on the moor, very dead. Lesley Keeton’s murder takes on the aspects of a novel’s first draft, the suspects shadowy and the killer unnamed. Now, a year later, ex-police detective Michael McLaren is asked to tidy up the plot and expose the killer.

Ex-police detective Michael McLaren is determined to have a peaceful holiday after the fiasco of his first attempt at Windermere, so he stops at a bed-and-breakfast in Moorton, a village in Cumbria. But mystery and murder seek him out, and he soon succumbs to the B&B owner’s plea to investigate the year-old death of her daughter’s fiancé, a young musician.

McLaren’s fiancée tragically died one month ago. Trying to heal emotionally from her death, McLaren settles into a rented farmhouse in the woods near picturesque Lake Windermere in Cumbria. But he’s barely had a chance to rest when Helen, the woman in the neighboring cottage, is killed…and is discovered near his front door.

Since infancy, Michael McLaren has been the target of his paternal grandfather’s anger. So, when the patriarch sends an invitation to heal the rift, McLaren travels to Scotland, eager to meet and finally end the feud. But the welcome never happens. If grandfather hadn’t invited him, who had? And why? In Edinburgh, a man standing beside McLaren in a bus queue is killed in a hit-and-run accident.

Luke Barber went missing from his village, leaving no clue to his whereabouts or why he left. Now, three years later, Luke’s father hopes ex-cop Michael McLaren can find a trace of Luke, alive or dead. As McLaren pokes through the case details, he wonders if the pressure of succeeding in tennis or music, or his upcoming marriage, was too much for the lad and he simply ran away. And McLaren’s suspicion may be correct, for he soon is assaulted and left for dead - a hint that he’s upset someone connected with this case.

When a wizened old witch called Endora turns Dr Bird into a toad, Gabriella should be horrified, but instead she thinks it's hilarious! Dr Bird is a nasty piece of work - mean, pompous and a bully. He has three days to mend his ways but if he keeps escaping, Endora can't turn him back into a human. Gabriella is busy enough, as a young carer trying to help her mum, who has been left in a wheelchair after a road traffic accident. Now she has a toad to catch as well?In the raucous chase that follows, instead of finding a smelly old toad, she keeps uncovering more mysteries...

Forbidden from pursuing her calling, Shadow Holmes, the great-granddaughter of Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s older—and smarter—brother, works for her father selling real estate in Miami. To compound matters, Shadow has no idea her father is the director of The Bee, a clandestine British spy agency, until she and her parents are poisoned by the bewitching—and decidedly evil— Professor Jane Moriarty.

Grayson Fletcher has spent his entire life working as a blacksmith's apprentice in his family's forge. He knows his way around an anvil, but he suspects there's more to life than hot iron and sweaty aprons. So when he's given the chance to join the prestigious royal academy and train to become a fabled realm knight, he jumps at the opportunity.

Former police detective Michael McLaren is looking forward to spending Christmas at his grandfather's ancient Hall. Not only because it will be his first holiday with his grandfather and uncle, but also with his lady love, Melanie. Everything seems perfect for the Scottish Highland getaway.

Former police detective Michael McLaren is at the home of his lady friend, Melanie. The house is sold, the removal van is booked. All that is left is to help her pack her belongings for her move to his village. But the laborious task is interrupted when one of Melanie’s neighbors asks McLaren to investigate the circumstances of her parents’ murders. McLaren’s reluctance to take it on and abandon Melanie appears to be solved when his best mate, Jamie, steps in to help with the packing. It’s not the easy investigation McLaren was hoping for, however.