Showing results by narrator "Gordon Griffin" in All Categories

Spring, 1947. Having survived the horrors of the camps, Felix Breit, one of pre-war Europe’s foremost sculptors, arrives in London, hoping to rebuild his life and career. The opportunity arises when two English architects invite him to join a community they are hoping to create at the Dower House, a Georgian country house. He is under the spell of Angela Wirth, a fellow concentration camp survivor. Will they ever dare admit their love?

There was a time when Simon Knapp wouldn't have dared go near Edgfield House. As a teenager, he'd only had the nerve to snoop around the grounds. But now, returning 50 years later, he marches straight up to the derelict 18th-century stately home and pushes open the front door. But curiosity killed the cat. When the police arrive, it is with a similar carefree spirit that they carry out a routine search of the house. And they, too, come across something they were not looking for.

When a skeleton is discovered in a deep grave at the edge of an area of woodland, the police discover that it is one of their own officers who disappeared whilst on duty some 30 years earlier. DS Harry Vicary and DI Archibald Dez have little evidence to go on, but as the investigation unfolds they meet ex-police men and women who left the force at the time of the DC’s disappearance, and did so in fear of their own safety, and who, even after all this time, are reluctant to talk.

When the snow thaws on London’s Hampstead Heath after a harsh winter, a ghoulish discovery is made that marks the start of a very dangerous case for Detective Inspector Harry Vicary. The body of a man is found on top of a shallow grave containing the battered remains of a young woman. There are no suspicious marks on his corpse and he appears to have frozen to death in a case of misadventure. But what is his connection to the remains below?

Ten holidaymakers are bound for Katastrophos, a tiny Greek island steeped in superstition and myth. Ten people whose lives are about to change forever, because one of them is planning a ruthless murder. Detective Inspector Jack Dawes of the Murder Squad is working undercover to prevent it, and takes his wife, Corrie, to the island, ostensibly on a belated honeymoon. Mayhem ensues when a storm destroys the island’s communications, cutting it off from civilisation.

When a deep grave containing five skeletons is discovered in the corner of a field, DCI Hennessey and his team of officers from the Vale of York Police are called in to investigate. The burial site had lain undiscovered for over 20 years and was only found after a chance conversation between two old friends revealed the possibly sinister reason for the area of disturbed soil that they had both noticed during their last summer of innocence. The resulting police inquiry soon uncovers a multiple murder that seems to have its roots in a legal dispute between two families which can be traced back to the aftermath of the English Civil War.

When the body of retired Bolivian diplomat Guido Zavala is found floating in his pool, Inspector Alvarez finds that the evidence might point to foul play. As he slowly uncovers Zavala's past, he learns there are those who have good cause to have disliked him: Jerome Robertson, whose wife has been having an affair with him; Santiago Pons, whose heavy gambling losses have placed him at the other's mercy; Bailey, who suffered in the past because of him.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the end of National Service, Historian Dr. Colin Shindler has interviewed a wide range of ex-conscripts, from all backgrounds, across all ranks, and spanning the entire fourteen years that peacetime conscription lasted, and captured their memories in this engrossing book. From them, we experience the tension of a postwar Berlin surrounded by Russians, the exotic heat and colour of Tripoli in 1948, the brief but intense flashpoint of the Suez Crisis, and the fear of the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya.

It's a steamy, sultry day in a Mediterranean summer. Wealthy lawyer Terrence, his wife Cathy, their daughter Lucy, and a doctor are relaxing on the yacht that is Terence's pride and joy. Suddenly, a storm whips up from nowhere.

British organised crime has changed beyond all recognition over the last five years. Youth violence, the drug trade and rising levels of gun crime are rarely out of the news. Beginning on the troubled streets of the inner cities, Gang Land takes its readers on a journey up through the underworld hierarchy until it finally reaches the very highest levels, occupied by shadowy ‘Mr Big’ characters.

For merchant bankers, success means secrecy; passwords and code names ensure conversations stay private. However, they reckoned without London cabbies Terry, Len, and 'Einstein', who know the rewards of keeping their ears pricked and their noses in The FT. Making money fast is their object, as Len's daughter Poppy is losing her struggle with Cystic Fibrosis. While scheming to give Poppy a chance of survival, they become embroiled in a murder and the politics of their target bank, Skidder Barton.

Detective Inspector Michael Angel and his team of regulars are searching for a serial killer on the loose in the Yorkshire town of Bromersley. The available clues are as sparse as they are puzzling: A character in early Roman attire is observed at every murder and a laurel leaf is left on every corpse. DNA evidence links a woman of oriental origin to the murders but this profile doesn’t fit any of the suspects. The investigations become more mystifying as Inspector Angel races against the clock to find the killer.

Tom Walsh had a lot to learn about life. He liked travelling, and he was in no hurry. He liked meeting people, anyone and everyone. He liked the two American girls on the train. They were nice and very friendly. They knew a lot of places. Tom thought they were fun. Tom certainly had a lot to learn about life.This is a collection of short stories about adventures on trains. Strange, wonderful, and frightening things can happen on trains - and all of them happen here.

Surprises are guaranteed, as elephants appear in a London side street; a gang of geriatrics goes on a hearing aid heist and an underworld boss searches for a harp. Join the author in a brush with Adolf Hitler and take a walk on Beachy Head, the UK's favourite suicide spot.

For Dick and Tammy, life was a struggle. Although Dick’s family were wealthy, Dick wanted to prove to himself that he was capable of supporting his wife and two children himself. With both finances and marriage failing, Tammy turns to a family friend, Adam, for support when she realises that baby Richard is not responding as he should. After visiting the doctor, all three are devastated to learn that baby Richard is severely deaf. Will this be the final straw?

“Matrimony. An Officer of the Honourable East India Company is greatly desirous of finding a soul-mate to share his life and fortune". Lonely spinster Phoebe Creswell responds to an advertisement in the Worcester Herald, but are the outwardly charming Major Christophe de Langlois and his companion, the Reverend Geraint Winward, really who and what they seem?

On a damp autumn day, two girls playing truant from school find a body in a remote cottage not far from Hungerford. The dead woman, Gillian Lestrange, was a ghostwriter, engaged in writing the memoirs of a widely disliked retired spy, Lavinia (Vinnie) Latham. The mystery thickens when Superintendent Gregory Summers discovers that Gillian was a ghost in more ways than one – she has been presumed dead for the past fifteen years. Somebody paid the price for Gillian’s first death, and a heavy price it was.

Having coffee with a famous footballer would be the highlight of the year for many people. Not so for private eye Billy Rucker. Just hours after meeting Jack Draper - 'Super Jack' to his adoring fans - Billy is standing over the brutalised body of a girl. A girl who was Jack Draper's mistress. Jack had wanted Billy to catch the person who had been stalking him. But now all the evidence points to Super Jack being a cold-blooded killer.

It is 1827, and in the town of Redditch life is harsh for the poor. When a young serving woman is found drowned in the canal, her widowed mother believes her daughter has been murdered and appeals to the Parish Constable, Thomas Potts, for help. Physically weak and bookish by nature, Tom Potts is to many people an object of derision. But concealed behind his timid façade is intelligence, experience and a fierce passion for justice.

There is someone on the streets of London who will stop at nothing to make a point... As she walks home from work one night, Josephine Thomas is brutally attacked and left to bleed to death. Billy Rucker had known her, briefly, and he soon hears about the tragedy. At the request of Jo's distraught colleague, he agrees to look into the murder.