Showing results by narrator "David Thorpe" in All Categories

Madeline Kramer has finally got her life back on track at top city law firm Sullivan, Blake, Monroe. But when two armed, masked men burst into a conference room one lunchtime, kidnapping a trainee and a partner, Maddy’s life is plunged into disarray once more - particularly when charismatic DCI Jake Carver, who caught a heartless killer when they last met and with whom Maddy shared a mutual chemistry, is called to the scene.

Crimes are rare in Singapore, but when there's one that has the police baffled, it is Inspector Zhang that they turn to. From locked-room mysteries to murders disguised as suicide, Inspector Zhang is able to draw on his experience as a detective along with tricks he has learned from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. See if you can solve the crimes before the Inspector - the clues are there!

When unexpected disaster strikes Lord Westfield's Men during a packed performance, Nicholas Bracewell must save the day. Will a vagabond clown prophesy the end of the troupe - and perhaps the demise of Nick himself?

Spring, 1648. When Thomas Hill, a bookseller living in rural Hampshire, publishes a political pamphlet, he has little idea of the trouble that will follow. He is quickly arrested, forced on a boat to Barbados and condemned to life as a slave to two of the island’s most notoriously violent brothers. In England war has erupted again, with London under threat of attack.

The king's coronation brings hope. Until a murderer strikes. Spring 1661: After years of civil war followed by Oliver Cromwell's joyless rule as Lord Protector, England awaits the coronation of King Charles II. The mood in London is one of relief and hope for a better future. But when two respectable gentlemen are found in a foul lane with their throats cut, it becomes apparent that England's enemies are using the newly re-established post office for their own ends.

Justinian, the Byzantine emperor, is desperate to revive the empire's glory. Among his actions to this effect is the dispatch of his brave general, Belisaurius, to fight the Persians in the East. But Justinian fights paranoia and grows concerned that Belisaurius will become a threat to his power and person.

One morning before dawn at her regal country estate, Lady Lavinia Truelove is crushed to death by a horse. Classified as “death by misadventure”, this appears a gruesome accident, but Scotland Yard detective Joe Sandilands suspects foul play. His suspicions are aggravated by his personal grievances toward Sir James Truelove, Lady Lavinia's widower and the influential academic patron of Dorcas Joliffe, whom Joe one day hopes to marry.

Fifth century of the Byzantium Empire. Flavius Belisaurius is son of the governor of Dorostorum City, and his father has two goals: to keep out the barbarians and to expose the deep roots of secular and ecclesiastical corruption. Seeking to prevent a raid, the Governor enlists the help of the powerful magnate, Senuthius Vicinus. Vicinus's corruption is widespread but his support is crucial to win the battle.

Tobias Campion, rector of Moreton St Jude, is delighted to welcome the widowed Lady Chase as his parishioner. Although charming and generous-spirited, she harbours a secret sorrow: her son, Hugo, is missing, presumed dead. Her late husband's nephew, Sir Marcus Bramhall, making a prolonged, unwelcome visit to Moreton Hall, speaks darkly of bringing a court case to declare him the heir.

As Jude rescues the survivors of a ship wrecked on their Cornish rocks, he discovers his own magical power: he can sense the presence of gold wherever it is hidden. Suddenly he is flung into a dangerous world of child-snatchers, murderous pirates and invisible demons with a deadly hunger for treasure....

The English Army is besieging Carrickfergus in Ireland. Brilliant but unusual gunner Holcroft Blood of the Royal Train of Artillery is ready to unleash his cannons on the rebellious forces of deposed Catholic monarch James II. But this is more than war for Captain Blood; a lust for private vengeance burns within him. French intelligence agent Henri d'Erloncourt has come across the seas to foment rebellion against William of Orange, the newly installed Dutch ruler of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The year is 1999, and Internet companies are springing up everywhere. Anything seems possible for those who think big. So when David Lane - a quiet, cautious banker - is invited by his old friend Guy Jordan to help start up ninetyminutes.com, he decides that for once he will do something daring, something dangerous. If only he'd realised quite how dangerous. Because Guy falls out with Tony Jordan, his father and their biggest investor, bringing the company close to collapse. Then Tony is murdered - and David's roller coaster ride into danger and disaster begins.

A cure for Alzheimer’s would be worth billions. And well worth killing for. Simon Ayot is an Englishman working for Revere Partners, one of Boston’s top venture-capital firms. The firm’s star investment, worth millions of dollars for each of its partners, is BioOne, which is working on a cure for the disease. Frank, one of Simon’s bosses and his father-in-law, is found murdered at his summer house in the marshes, and Simon is in the frame. To stay alive, and to save his marriage, Simon must figure out who killed Frank. And who will be the next to die.

144 AD. Alaric Hengistson, leader of the Ravensworn, revels in his many fear-fuelled names whispered in the hearth flames. Cunning in battle, a ruthless war lord. He sleeps sound in the knowledge that he has been chosen by the Gods for a higher purpose – to rise up against the tyranny of an Empire. For years he has thwarted Rome’s attempts to gain control over the land that has long resisted them. His land. Germania. However the rules are changing, and new deals are struck between the conquering Roman legions and the feuding Germanic tribes. Deals that could prove Alaric’s downfall.

London, 1889: After Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat became a Victorian best seller, rowing on the Thames was the great craze of 1889. When an elementary school teacher in training takes a midnight swim in the Thames and witnesses a body being dumped, Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackerey are called to investigate. They uncover strange parallels with the enormously popular Victorian novel, but nobody will take them seriously. Following their instincts, they stick doggedly to the trail, which leads upstream to Oxford.

A sadistic practical joker is haunting the popular music halls of London, interfering with the actors and interrupting their acts by orchestrating humiliating disasters that take place in view of the audience. A trapeze artist misses her timing when the trapeze ropes are shortened. Mustard has been applied to a sword swallower's blade. A singer's costume has been rigged. The girl in a magician's box is trapped. Then the mischief escalates to murder. Or was murder intended all along?

Who can Flavius Belisarius call an enemy? The Goths he must fight to take Italy back for the Byzantium. Or is it the intrigues of the Empress Theodora, who fears his ambitions. There is his own wife, betraying him in more than one way and Justinian, the unreliable emperor he helped to the throne. Sixth-century Byzantium, a hotbed of intrigue; Italy and Persia where he must combat some of his fellow generals.

A Greek gangster arrives in Stockholm only to be murdered in a macabre fashion at Skansen zoo, his body consumed by animals. As the Intercrime Unit - a team dedicated to solving international violent crime - investigate what brought him to Sweden, eight Eastern European women vanish from a refugee centre outside the city while an elderly professor, the tattooed numbers on his arm hinting at his terrible past, is executed at the Jewish cemetery.

DI Liam McLusky, freshly transferred from Southampton and just recovered from having been injured in the line of duty, has no time to settle in before he is pushed in at the deep end in a new and unfamiliar city. Everyday objects, transformed into explosive devises by a man trying to revenge himself on the world for reasons unknown, are being left across Bristol, maiming or killing those who pick them up.

The imperial gladiator school in Capua: once the pride of the Roman Empire, lately driven to the brink of ruin by a greedy lanista. Now the school welcomes its newest recruit: Marcus Valerius Pavo, the high-born gladiator with a string of impressive victories to his name, sworn to seek revenge for the brutal murder of his father. Meanwhile, Lucius Cornelius Macro, the decorated optio of the Second Legion, has been appointed as the school's new lanista. Macro faces a race against time to turn the school around before the start of the games in Rome, held in honour of the new Emperor.